ABSTRACT
Michael Piggott applies an ‘archival silences’ lens to an Australian setting, a society that, with Canada, South Africa and New Zealand, shares colonial links with Great Britain, but also much older indigenous histories. The examples of silence discussed include silence as self-censoring and lack of access (explorer James Cook’s journal), exclusion via definition (indigenous ‘story-telling’ archives), privacy motivated destruction (Patrick White’s letters and drafts), lack of interest and overwhelming smothering interest (records of business and of war) and the silencing of asylum-seeking detainees through the denial of communications technology. The chapter ends by readily acknowledging there are many further instances of gaps, distortions, omissions and erasures to be explored.
