As though his face had been white: Child rescuers, whiteness and the empire

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Swain, Hillel, Margot, Sweeney, Belinda and Professor, Shurlee Lesley Swain. (2007). As though his face had been white: Child rescuers, whiteness and the empire. In Leigh Boucher, Jane Carey and Katherine Ellinghaus (Ed.). Historicizing Whiteness: Transnational Perspectives on the Construction of an Identity. Melbourne, Australia: RMIT E-press. pp. 384 - 391
AuthorsSwain, Hillel, Margot, Sweeney, Belinda and Professor, Shurlee Lesley Swain
Abstract

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the increasing facility of travel collapsed the physical and imagined space between metropole and colony. The child rescue movement took advantage of this new mobility, blending travelling with fund-raising as a way of spreading their message throughout the Empire. Central to this mission was the contrast between the privileged and the deprived, the white and the non-white, the self and the other. This paper will explore how child rescue propagandists constructed and consolidated whiteness through these encounters. The cultural practices of the other constituted by child rescuers—such characteristics as their starved, emaciated bodies, their speech and physicality—operated to affirm the Empire, and the privilege implicit in whiteness.

KeywordsAustralian History (excl. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander History);--British History;--North American History
Year2007
PublisherRMIT E-press
Web address (URL)https://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=863525826737525;res=IELHSS
Page range384 - 391
Research GroupSchool of Arts
Place of publicationMelbourne, Australia
EditorsLeigh Boucher, Jane Carey and Katherine Ellinghaus
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