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Historicising a 'national disgrace': towards a feminist history of domestic violence in Australia since 1788
By the time this paper is delivered, myself and two other feminist historians will be over a year into our shared project: researching a history of domestic violence in Australia since 1788, the beginning of settler colonialism, to the present. We embarked on this history in the context of increased visibility and understanding of domestic violence as a common phenomenon not exclusive to any class or race, though overwhelmingly directed at women. In 2015, one state launched a Royal Commission and the Prime Minister labeled domestic violence a ‘national disgrace’. His comments follow statements issued in the wake of the 2013 World Health Organisation’s international study of the prevalence of violence against women, in which domestic violence was described as ‘the greatest social epidemic of our time’. While feminist historians have long been alert to this theme, the need for further research is obvious and feminist histories on domestic violence have increased in recent years.
In this paper, I will reflect on the process of developing a national history of domestic violence as an explicitly feminist project that hopes to contribute to transnational scholarship and activism. In particular, I shall focus on three aspects that should resonate with other scholars working in this area: the difficulties of creating an archive of an often hidden phenomenon; the imperative for intersectional analysis; and the potential for collaboration between scholars and those working in the field.