Dr Sue Taffe

Research Fellow, Monash Indigenous Centre (MIC)

View contact details in Monash Staff Directory

Qualifications

Bachelor of Arts, Monash University 1967
Trained Secondary Teachers’ Certificate, University of Melbourne 1969
Master of Arts, Monash University, 1995
PhD (History), Monash University, 2001

Professional Profile

Dr Sue Taffe is a graduate of Monash University. She completed her doctoral thesis ‘The Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders: the politics of inter-racial coalition in Australia, 1958- 1973 ‘in 2001’. Black and White Together, FCAATSI: the Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders, 1958-1973 was published by University of Queensland Press in March 2005. She has contributed to a number of journals and edited collections.

She is the author of the Collaborating for Indigenous Rights website which is hosted by the National Museum of Australia.

She is currently an Adjunct Research Associate with the Monash Indigenous Centre where she is working on biographical studies of activists for Aboriginal rights in mid twentieth century Australia. Other current research interests include a study of the role of the Communist Party of Australia and the left-wing maritime unions to the Aboriginal rights activism of the 1950s and 1960s.

Recent Positions

2001–2002 Lecturer, School of Historical Studies, Monash University
2003 Curriculum Development, Historical Studies, Monash University
2004–2006 Post-doctoral Fellow, School of Historical Studies, Monash University
2007–2008 Consultant Historian, Reconciliation Australia, Research Fellow, Centre for Australian Indigenous Studies, Monash University.
2008 Harold White Fellow, National Library of Australia
2007–2009 Consultant Historian, National Museum of Australia
2009 Adjunct Research Associate, Centre for Australian Indigenous Studies, Monash University
2010 Consultant oral historian to the Forgotten Australians and Child Migrant Project, National Library of Australia

Publications

Book

Black and White Together, FCAATSI: The Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders 1958-1973, UQP, St Lucia, 2005 (runner-up for the 2006 Hancock award for a first book in history)

Chapters in Books

'Aboriginal Rights and Justice Campaigns: a people’s history’. In Shirlee Robinson’s Australia in the 1960s, (forthcoming)
'Wharfies and Communists: the Genesis of the Cairns Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Advancement League', in B. Oliver (ed), Labour History in the New Century, Black Swan Press, Curtin University of Technology, 2009.
'The 1967 Referendum' in D. Gare and D. Ritter (eds), A Land Without Limits, Thomson, 2008.
'Campaigns, Petitions, Vigils and Marches: Aboriginal Rights' in Seamus O'Hanlon and Tanja Luckins (eds) Go! Melbourne in the Sixties, Circa, Melbourne, 2005
'FCAATSI and the 1967 Referendum: challenging assimilation' in Tim Rowse (ed), Contesting Assimilation: histories of colonial and Indigenous initiatives, API Network, Perth, 2005.
'Language, Culture and Viewpoint' in Koorie Studies in SOSE, years 7-10, Catholic Education Commission of Victoria, 1998. This was also published in Guiding Tracks: Literacy and the Indigenous Learner, Catholic Education Commission of Victoria, 2002
'Widening Understandings: Seven Different Approaches to the Task' in Strategies for Inclusion: Aboriginal Perspectives in Catholic Secondary Schools in Victoria, Catholic Education Office, Melbourne, 1995.

Journal Articles (refereed)

‘Shirley Andrews: an architect of the national Aboriginal civil rights movement, 1952-1968’, in History Australia (forthcoming)
'Fighting for Lake Tyers', in Lynette Russell and John Arnold (eds), Indigenous Victorians: repressed, resourceful and respected, LaTrobe Journal, No. 85, May 2010.
The Cairns Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Advancement League and the Community of the Left Labour History, No. 97, November 2009.
Witnesses from the Conference Floor: Oral History and the Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders Journal of Australian Studies, No. 97, 2001.
Making A Difference: a 1960s partnership opposing racial discrimination, vol 61, Overland, summer 2000.
Health, the Law and Racism: the campaign to amend the discriminatory clauses in the Tuberculosis Act, Labour History, no 76, May 1999.
Australian Diplomacy in a Policy Vacuum: Government and Aboriginal Affairs, 1961-1962, Aboriginal History, volume 19, part two, 1995.

Encyclopaedia Entry

‘Council for Aboriginal Rights’ entry in Encyclopaedia of Melbourne, 2005

Reviews

Jennifer Clark, Aborigines and Activism: Race, Aborigines and the Coming of the Sixties to Australia, UWA Press, Crawley WA, 2008 in Australian Historical Studies, vol 40, issue 2, 2009
Quentin Beresford, Rob Riley: an Aboriginal Leader's Quest for Justice, Aboriginal Studies Press, 2006, in History Australia, vol 6, no. 1, 2009
R. Broome and C. Manning, Alick Jackomos: Man of all Tribes, History Australia, 2007
C. Landon, Jackson's Track Revisited in History Australia, vol 3, no 2, 2006
Tim Rowse, Obliged to be Difficult in Arena, October, 2000.

Writing for the Web

‘Collaborating for Indigenous Rights', 2008, www.nma.gov.au/indigenousrights
‘Gladys O'Shane and Pauline Pickford' in ‘Perspectives on the Referendum', Reconciliation Australia at www.reconciliation.org.au

Exhibition

Principal researcher for ‘From Little Things Big Things Grow, 1920-1970’, National Museum of Australia, now a travelling exhibition.

Research Grants

2008 Harold White Fellowship
2007 AIATSIS Research Fellowship
2004 ARC Linkage Grant
2002 Monash University Arts Faculty Small Grants Award
2001 Monash University Arts Faculty Publications Award
1997 ARC PhD scholarship
1996 Australian Foundation for Culture and the Humanities for Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islander (FCAATSI) Oral History Project
1996 Reichstein Foundation for FCAATSI Oral History Project
1996 Myer Foundation for FCAATSI Oral History Project
1996 AIATSIS for FCAATSI Oral History Project
1995 Monash University Writing Up Award