Description:
Analyses the memory practices associated with the commemoration of an important national event, the Eureka Stockade and examines how public commemoration exercises become an opportunity for contest and controversy, for the expression of nationalism, and an opportunity for cultural tourism and tourist promotion.
Description:
Analyses the memory practices associated with the commemoration of an important national event, the Eureka Stockade and examines how public commemoration exercises become an opportunity for contest and controversy, for the expression of nationalism, and an opportunity for cultural tourism and tourist promotion.
Description:
The significance of the Eureka Stockade has been a lively topic of discussion since the event occurred in 1854. This paper focuses on its public interpretation in Ballarat, as a case study of the politics of memory. Its central question is how to interpret a contested political event so that people with ownership of conflicting versions of the story can all be accommodated? The paper analyses the development of the Eureka Stockade Centre in Ballarat, and compares this public interpretation to other attempts to present the story, notably at Sovereign Hill. It concludes that only by embracing the contests can the interpretation be successful.