History Lab

• 33. [Caribbean Echoes] Nellie Small: Queer Black Caribbean-Australian Icon

  Who was the Caribbean-Australian cabaret star who could bring down the house — and come back at racism with a joke? "Come sit by me, we don’t eat people anymore."Nellie Small was born in Sydney in 1900, just before the White Australia policy was introduced. She became one of the country’s most beloved performers, famous for wearing men’s suits on stage and off, and for her sharp comebacks. In show business circles around Sydney in the 1940 and 50s, the phrase was: “When a show’s not strong enough — send for Nellie!” "I’m proud of my Australian birth. But I’d be much happier if more of my fellow countrymen would forget my skin colour is different from them."Negotiating Australia’s vexed racial politics, Nellie carved out a public space for Black music and queer performance in 1950s Australia. We explore her career and uncover the previously unknown stories of her Caribbean forebears. Nellie Small is played by Jamaican-Australian actor Zahra Newman. VoicesAlana Valentine is a librettist, playwright, and director who is an expert at working with real life subjects and stories, dramatizing them with respect. She has three plays on the NSW HSC Syllabus: Parramatta Girls, Shafana and Aunt Sarrinah, and Cyberbile. Her play, Letters to Lindy, has seen hundreds of amateur and school productions. Valentine is particularly distinguished in her skills as a co-collaborator, notably with Barbara and the Camp Dogs, which won the 2019 Helpmann Award for Best Musical and Best Original Score. She has chronicled her practice in Bowerbird and published the memoir Wed By The Wayside. Professor Cassandra Pybus FAHA specializes historical narratives about people who have been marginalized, forgotten or written out of history. An award-winning author she has published 13 books including Black Founders: The Unknown Story of Australia's First Black Settlers and the bestselling biography, Truganini. She has held research professorships at the University of Sydney, Georgetown University in Washington DC, the University of Texas and King's College London. She is descended from a colonist who received the largest free land grant on Truganini's traditional country of Bruny Island. Vanessa Cassin is Education Manager at Society of Australian Genealogists with extensive experience in providing training and assessment in the trustee industry, both as an in-house trainer for the NSW Trustee & Guardian and as an assessor for Western Sydney University the College’s Registered Training Organisation. Vanessa holds a Diploma in Family Historical Studies from the Society of Australian Genealogists and has been researching her own family history for over 20 years. Zahra Newman was born in Port Antonio, Jamaica, and moved to Australia at age 14. A graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts, Newman has an extensive list of credits in theatre, television, and film. Her notable works include her performance as Nabalungi in the original Australian cast of The Book of Mormon, and her lead role in the play The Hate Race and in the film Long Story Short. She has received a Green Room Award, a Sydney Theatre Award, and multiple...

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• 32. [Caribbean Echoes] From slavery to anticolonialism: John Maynard and Tony Birch on Black and Indigenous boxing

  What does boxing have to do with anticolonial politics? How did the sport become a space where Black and Indigenous fighters in Australia pushed back against racism and empire?From Peter Jackson to Jack Johnson, Marcus Garvey to Les “Ranji” Moody, this episode explores how Black and Indigenous fighters turned the ring into a stage for resistance and anticolonialism.Worimi historian Professor John Maynard talks about the links between Jackson and the first official Black heavyweight world champion Jack Johnson, whose world-title fight took place in Sydney in 1908. Maynard’s grandfather spent time with Johnson, and he talks about how Johnson’s time here links to the later emergence of anticolonial politics among Indigenous people inspired by the Jamaican Marcus Garvey.We then talk to Aboriginal author Tony Birch about his Barbadian ancestor Prince Moody, who was transported to Australia as a convict for ‘disobedience’, and his great uncle Les ‘Ranji’ Moody, who Birch knew growing up in Fitzroy. Les was a pathbreaking boxer and journalist who was the Australian bantamweight champion during the First World War. Birch discusses how oral history and creative engagements with the colonial archive can recover marginalized stories.Voices Professor John Maynard is recognized as one of Australia's foremost Indigenous historians, whose work reveals previously missing chapters in Aboriginal history. His groundbreaking research on Aboriginal political activism in the 1920s uncovered the influence of Caribbean and African American figures, particularly Marcus Garvey. Maynard has written acclaimed books, including Fight for Liberty and Freedom and The Aboriginal Soccer Tribe, a Walkley Award finalist. He has held prominent positions, such as Director of the Wollotuka Institute and Deputy Chairperson of AIATSIS, and is a recipient of numerous fellowships and awards. Professor Tony Birch is a writer, activist, historian and essayist, and is currently the Boisbouvier Chair in Australian Literature at the University of Melbourne. He has published four novels, most recently Women & Children, which won the 2024 The Age Fiction Book of the Year. Each of his novels has won major prizes and he’s twice been shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary award. He has also published two poetry books and four short story collections, the most recent of which, Dark as Last Night, won both the 2022 NSW Premier’s Literary Award and the Queensland Literary Award for Fiction. Credits This series was produced on the lands of the Gadigal people of the Eeora Nation and Burramatagal people of the Dharug nation. Narrator, writer, and producer: Sienna Brown Sound recordist, writer, and producer: Ben Etherington Supervising producer: Jane Curtis, UTS Impact StudiosExecutive producer: Sarah Gilbert, UTS Impact StudiosSound designer and engineer: John Jacobs/jollyvolume SupportThe research for this series was funded by the

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• 31. [Caribbean Echoes] Peter Jackson: Boxing Champion and Innovator in Black Self-Representation

  Did you know that the most famous Australian in the world in 1890 was from the Caribbean?Peter Jackson was born in St Croix in the Caribbean in the years after slavery was abolished. He arrived in Sydney as a teenager and got noticed when he single-handedly fought off seven in a brawl at Wynyard Square.He soon stepped into Sydney’s boxing rings and, by 1890, he was Australia’s heavyweight champion and chasing the world title in the United States.But he was no ordinary boxer. He moonlit as an actor, quoted Shakespeare, and was a media pioneer, carefully shaping his own public image long before Instagram.In this episode, award-winning sports journalist Grantlee Kieza charts Jackson’s rise through the boxing world, while cultural historian Professor Jordana Moore Saggese explains how he mastered self-presentation through photography and mass media. Historian Myron Jackson brings us back to St Croix, where Peter’s colonial schooling met the lessons of the street.Peter Jackson’s story is about much more than boxing — it’s about race, representation, and the adaptability and durability of Caribbean culture.Peter Jackson is played by British-Sierra Leonean actor Alpha Kargbo.VoicesGrantlee Kieza OAM is an award-winning journalist who specialises in historical Australian stories. He has published more than twenty biographies, many of them bestsellers, and held senior editorial positions at The Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Telegraph and The Courier-Mail. He is a Walkley Award finalist, a 2025 ABIA shortlisted author for Biography of the Year, a 2025 Indie Award shortlisted author for Non-fiction, the No. 1 history author in Australia in 2024. Jordana Moore Saggese is Professor of Modern and Contemporary American Art at the University of Maryland, College Park whose research focuses on modern and contemporary American art and photography, with an emphasis on expressions of Blackness. She is the author of The Jean-Michel Basquiat Reader: Writings, Interviews, and Critical Responses, and her most recent book Heavyweight: Black Boxers and the Fight for Representation (Duke University Press, 2024) engages extensively with Peter Jackson. Myron Jackson is a historian and retired Senator who has dedicated his life to Virgin Islands history and culture, guided by the African proverb, “Go Back And Fetch It”. A graduate of Parsons School of Design, he held significant positions including Director of the Virgin Islands State Historic Preservation Office and executive director of the Virgin Islands Cultural Heritage Institute. As a Senator, Jackson served as the Chair of the Committee on Culture, Historic Preservation, Youth and Recreation. He has researched and published widely in preservation. Alpha Kargbo is a British-Sierra Leonean actor trained at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama. His theatre work spans the UK, Europe, and Australia, including The Da Vinci Code (UK Tour), Malthouse Theatre, and Melbourne Theatre Company. On screen he has appeared in Bloods (Sky UK) and The Undeclared War (Channel 4),...

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• 30. History Lab is changing

  History Lab is back—refreshed and reimagined. From now on, you’ll hear us in regular seasonal runs, dropping new episodes once or twice a fortnight over six to eight weeks. Each run will showcase a mix of formats:History Lab Originals – our signature investigative storytelling that digs into the gaps between us and the past.History Lab Studio – interviews and discussions with historians.History Lab Live – recordings of public history talks from libraries, bookshops, and university halls, where history meets its audiences.This new approach means more variety, more regularity, and more ways to connect with the history that shapes our world.What’s in this run?ORIGINALS Caribbean Echoes: A powerful four-part History Lab Original by Sienna Brown and Ben Etherington that uncovers the lives and legacies of Caribbean people in Australia, including boxer Peter Jackson and cabaret star Nellie Small.LIVE David Scott Mitchell Oration: ABC Chair Kim Williams reflects on the role of libraries and archives in preserving truth and democracy.LIVE The Last Outlaws: Professor Katherine Biber discusses her gripping new book on crime, justice, and truth telling.Why this mattersSince 2018, History Lab has produced 29 episodes across six seasons, exploring not only what happened in the past, but how we can know about it. Now, in a crowded world of podcasts, we’re focusing on what makes us different: investigative history, bold conversations, and live public storytelling.By listening and sharing, you’re helping build a platform for public history in Australia, something we need now more than ever. Thank you.Host: Tamson Pietsch, Director of the Australian Centre for Public HistoryExecutive Producer: Sarah GilbertProduced on Gadigal land at UTS, Sydney by Impact Studios.

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• 29. Truth-telling: From Country to Classroom

  What is the work of truth-telling? How is evidence collected? What happens next?What role should schools play in teaching Australia’s full history? Australia has completed its first, formal truth-telling process — the Yoorrook Justice Commission of Victoria. We joined Commissioner Travis Lovett on his 500-kilometre Walk for Truth from Portland on Gunditjmara Country, to Parliament House on Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Country in Melbourne, to hear firsthand of the Commission's work.Along the way, you'll hear testimonies from Elders and Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan, reflections from researcher Dr Matthew Keynes, and insights into how truth-telling can transform education, policy, and our shared future.GuestsTravis Lovett is a proud Kerrupmara/Gunditjmara man and Traditional Owner and the Deputy Chair and Commissioner of the Yoorrook Justice Commission.Dr Matthew Keynes is a non-Indigenous scholar working on unceded and sovereign Wurundjeri land. His research investigates the ways that education contributes to justice, peace, and social transformation by repairing historical injustices and legacies of violence.LinksYoorrook Justice Commission Truth ArchiveYoorrook Justice Commission Reports and RecommendationsWe have always been here by Dr Matthew KeynesNational Indigenous Youth Education CoalitionTruth-telling in early education by Gowrie VictoriaDay Break by Amy McQuireHow do you prepare your child for truth-telling? by Shelly WareTeaching truth-telling: Children's Ground panel on YouTubeCreditsProduced on Gadigal and Gunditjmara Country by Jane Curtis.Sound engineering by Jollyvolume.Production assistance from Alexandra Morris.Hosted by Tamson Pietsch.History Lab is produced by the Australian Centre for Public History at UTS and UTS Impact Studios. Impact Studios' executive producer is Sarah Gilbert. Thank youThis episode was made possible by Dusseldorp Forum, a family foundation committed to a just and equitable Australia, one that is caring, ethical and honours our First Peoples. Special thanks to Rachel Fyfe and the Yoorrook team.

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