Archives of the Australian Second Wave: History and Feminism after the Archival Turn by Petra Mosmann Thesis Submitted to Flinders University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy College of the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences 18th October 2018 Contents: Abstract ................................................................................................................................... iv Thesis Declaration .................................................................................................................... v Acknowledgments ................................................................................................................... vi List of Abbreviations: .............................................................................................................. viii List of Illustrations: .................................................................................................................. ix Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 2 Vertigo and the Writing of Feminist History ......................................................................... 3 To the Archives! .................................................................................................................... 8 Argument ............................................................................................................................ 12 Selection ............................................................................................................................. 13 Structure ............................................................................................................................. 15 Chapter One: What is an Archive? History and the Archival Turn .......................................... 19 What is an ‘Archive’ after the ‘Archival Turn’? ................................................................... 20 The Archival Turn in History ............................................................................................... 23 ‘Archive’ and ‘Thesis’: An Archive Story ............................................................................. 35 Chapter Two: Encountering Second Wave Things .................................................................. 39 ‘Re-membering’ the Second Wave ..................................................................................... 42 Searching the Feminist Archive in Adelaide ....................................................................... 47 Encounters with Second Wave Things ................................................................................ 52 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 63 Chapter Three: Bon Hull’s Papers ........................................................................................... 64 Reading Bon Hull’s Papers, Act I ......................................................................................... 66 Reading Bon Hull’s Papers, Act II ........................................................................................ 77 Reading Bon Hull’s Papers, Act III ....................................................................................... 81 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 88 Chapter Four: Germaine Greer’s Coat .................................................................................... 90 Chapter Five: Faith Bandler’s Gloves .................................................................................... 117 Reading Bandler’s Gloves ................................................................................................. 119 Collecting Bandler’s Gloves .............................................................................................. 122 Remembering Bandler as a Feminist ................................................................................ 128 Corporeal Feminist Things: Reading Gloves as ‘Feminist Objects’ ................................... 134 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 140 Chapter Six: Double Our Numbers Banner ........................................................................... 142 Academic Scholarship on the Pine Gap Women’s Peace Camp ....................................... 145 The Double Our Numbers banner as peace camp repertoire ........................................... 150 ‘Remembrance Day Ceremony’ ........................................................................................ 154 ‘In the Days that Followed...’ ............................................................................................ 159 The Pine Gap Women’s Peace Camp Archive: Fragments of a Banner ............................ 162 1. ‘No Nuclear Bombs’ .................................................................................................. 164 2. ‘Women Work for Life’ ............................................................................................. 165 3. ‘Untitled’ ................................................................................................................... 167 4. ‘For a Nuclear Free Future’ ....................................................................................... 168 5. ‘My Irish Great Grandmother’ .................................................................................. 172 6. ‘Ultimate Anarchy’ .................................................................................................... 172 The Relationship between Repertoire and Archive .......................................................... 174 ii Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 176 Chapter Seven: Sylvia Kinder’s Button Badges ..................................................................... 178 Paper-work ....................................................................................................................... 180 Paper-work I ..................................................................................................................... 182 Paper-work II .................................................................................................................... 185 A. Common Mass Produced Badges ............................................................................. 187 B. Shocking or Rule Breaking Badges ............................................................................ 188 Sound-work ...................................................................................................................... 192 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 199 Chapter Eight: Exhibiting Feminist Posters, 2014-2015 ........................................................ 201 Feminist Posters, c.1970-1990 ......................................................................................... 203 An Archive Story: Reading and Misreading the Poster Archive ........................................ 206 Four Poster Exhibitions, 2014-2015 .................................................................................. 210 Girls at the Tin Sheds Gallery Opening, Verge Gallery, Sydney, 7 March 2015 ................ 218 WHIP Conference, Flinders University, Adelaide, 2016 .................................................... 220 Owning, Inheriting and Borrowing the Feminist Archive ................................................. 221 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 223 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 225 Bibliography .......................................................................................................................... 229 iii Abstract This thesis writes a history of the second wave by reading objects in public Australian feminist archives; rather than searching for evidence and writing a history of a particular event, group, identity, text, idea or issue, I read selected pieces of second wave material culture in relation to their collection and location within a feminist archive. The thesis makes two contributions. First, I argue that there is much to be gained by further engaging with the archival turn within historical studies. Second, my reading of feminist objects in archives disrupts descriptions of feminist history that emerge in feminist studies. The objects and their archives disrupt, as they fail to neatly illustrate familiar feminist narratives of the past and offer a set of complex concerns and relationships that defy the conventional linear periodisation of feminist thought. I therefore demonstrate a methodology for writing feminist history that further addresses the archive after the archival turn. iv Thesis Declaration I certify that this thesis: 1. does not incorporate without acknowledgment any material previously submitted for a degree or diploma in any university; and 2. to the best of my knowledge and belief, does not contain any material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made in