2024 NLA Fellow Dr Burcu Cevik-Compiegne’s Fellowship project, Turkish-Australian transnational life writing explores Turkish-language sources in the National Library’s collections to uncover different forms of life writing produced in Australia following the Labour Migration Scheme between Turkey and Australia in 1967. Writing was an impulse to process and record lived experience for many people, but beyond this function at an individual level, writing was a community-building strategy that connected Turkish-speaking people within Australia and across the borders. While people were writing about their struggles, they were also building their strengths. Dr Cevik-Compiegne’s research gives us key insights into outward and inward-looking reflections and aspirations of communities that shaped contemporary Australia and that were shaped by Australian politics and everyday multiculturalism. This presentation will give us a thematic overview of the material and its potential to inspire future research. 

Image credits:
Kaynak : the Australian Turkish source : independent Turkish newspaper, 15 February 1984, page 1, nla.cat-vn1031341
Kimligimiz icin dusunce, August 1989, page 1, nla.cat-vn2206702