13th Congress of the International Society for Folk Narrative Research

Presentation Abstracts

DARIAN-SMITH, Kate and WILLS, Sara

Beauty Contest for British Bulldogs: recreating ‘Britishness’ in Frankston

This paper, which is based upon broader research into British migration since the Second World War, explores recent cultural expressions of British ethnicity in Australia - and in particular, the public exhibition of ethnicity at community festivals and public events. We argue that these expressions of ethnicity (textual, aural, visual and performative) constitute a series of collective and individual narratives about post-war British migrants' sense of identity and place in modern Australia, and we are interested in the transitional form of such narratives.

Of course, it is problematic to speak of a 'British identity' as somehow cohesive. Over the past two centuries, British imperialism provided an impetus for definitions of 'Britishness' to be both flexible and expansive while at the same time tightly circumscribed. In an Australian context, the ethnic identities of British-Australians - with their various regional and national loyalties - has been a strong feature of family and community self-definition. In recent articulations of British identity in Australia, it appears that it is those of English heritage (as opposed to those who define themselves as being of Scottish, Welsh or Irish origin) who are attempting to find a public voice. At the same time, there has been a continuing preponderance of Scottish culture in the ways that British culture is publicly performed and celebrated in contemporary Australia.

Through examining the local 'Britfest' festival at Melbourne's seaside suburb of Frankston (an area where a heavy concentration of post-war British migrants settled), we will describe emergent modes of ‘self-ethnicisation’ of British, and particularly English, migrant identities. The importance of the performance and self-inscription modes of migrant community identity, as these are made evident at the Frankston 'Britfest', will be highlighted. Indeed, this festival, which seeks to (re)create and narrate a diasporic tradition of ‘Britishness’ to both itself and a non-British audience, raises questions about the visibility (or invisibility) of British migrants in today's Australia, and the tensions between a public and private sense of ethnic identities. How do community groups, like the 'Britfest ' organizing committee, serve as the 'keepers' of a British folk tradition - and how do visitors to 'Britfest' respond to the various narratives underpinning public performances of tradition and change?