Tuesday 23 November 2021 from 12:30pm to 1:30pm
The French have been integral to the Australian story since European colonisation.
Escaped convicts from New Caledonia, wool buyers from Lille, Roubaix and Tourcoing, gold-diggers, artisans, teachers and café owners, they were not always the crème de la crème.
French Connection provides a fascinating insight into how the culture of Frenchness influenced a new nation anxious to prove itself to the world. What did Australian colonists see when they looked to France? How much did the French presence in the Pacific loom over such ideas? And what did the French in Australia themselves make of it all?
Alexis Bergantz joins SMSA via Zoom to uncover the little known and often surprising history of the French in nineteenth-century Australia and their role in creating a more connected and cosmopolitan nation.
Alexis will share the research that informed his book and the paradox at its heart – the disconnect between low French migrant numbers and the importance of Francophilia in turn-of-the-century Australia.
Free online event – everyone welcome!
Registration essential to receive Zoom link: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEtf-CppjstGtZacPgGwF3idgLytk\_blu9a