Chat Salon: Researching Hidden Colonial History with Roanna Gonsalves

Colonial history is being placed under a completely new lens with hidden pockets of history adding new stories of diaspora to Australia’s shores. How do you find hidden gems through research? And which sources can you use to find facts about settlers and convicts with other than Anglo-Celtic ancestry? Roanna Gonsalves’ own experience researching Governor Lachlan Macquarie’s Indian servant will give you a starting point for discussion.

About Roanna Gonsalves

Roanna Gonsalves is the award-winning author of the acclaimed collection of short fiction The Permanent Resident (UWAP) published in India as Sunita De Souza Goes To Sydney (Speaking Tiger). Her writing has been compared to the work of Alice Munro and Jhumpa Lahiri. Her four-part radio series On the Tip of a Billion Tongues, commissioned and broadcast by ABC RN’s Earshot program, is an acerbic portrayal of contemporary India through its multilingual writers. She works as a lecturer in Creative Writing at UNSW, Sydney. For further information:

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