The BBC’s exploration of Algeria’s ‘Pieds Noirs’ and their exodus from Africa

A family arrives from Oran to Marseilles, 1962. AFP via Le Point.

Submission by Dr Amy L. Hubbell

“The Mass Exodus of Algeria’s ‘Pieds Noirs'”. The History Hour by BBC Sounds. August 2019. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3csypyx.

Recently Dr. Amy Hubbell, Senior Lecturer in French at the University of Queensland was interviewed by Max Pearson for the BBC’s History Hour radio show and podcast. This episode of History Hour explores the “mass exodus” of Algeria’s “pieds noirs”, a term that refers to French and other Europeans who were born in Algeria, in the North of Africa, whilst the country was under French rule from 1830-1962.

Exploring Australia’s infamous ‘Cowra Breakout’ through fiction

Cowra, NSW. August 1944. The burial of Japanese Prisoners of War who lost their lives in the mass outbreak from B camp – Australian War Memorial 073487

Submission by Rebecca Hausler PhD (Cand.).

Hausler, Rebecca. “The Cowra Breakout: Remembering and Reflecting on Australia’s Biggest Prison Escape 75 Years On”. The Conversation. 5 Aug. 2019.
https://theconversation.com/the-cowra-breakout-remembering-and-reflecting-on-australias-biggest-prison-escape-75-years-on-120410

In this piece for the academic news analysis website The Conversation, Rebecca writes about the way that the infamous “Cowra Breakout” has been remembered and reflected upon in the 75 years since the event. Writing on the anniversary of the breakout, Rebecca’s piece coincides with events held in the town of Cowra, with these commemoration events running from August 2nd-5th.

Public film screening of “Star Sand”

Photo by Pietro Jeng on Pexels.com

Roger Pulvers has had a various and illustrious career an acclaimed author, academic, playwright, theatre and film director, translator and journalist. He has also worked extensively in film and television.

Over the past fifty years, he has translated prose, drama, and poetry from Japanese, Russian and Polish. He has published more than fifty books in Japanese and English, including novels such as The Death of Urashima Taro, General Yamashita’s Treasure, Star Sand, Liv and The Dream of Lafcadio Hearn. Roger Pulvers also holds a position as an Honorary Professor at the University of Queensland.

His 2017 film ‘Star Sand’ is set in Okinawa in 1945, and centers on two wartime deserters, one from Japan and one from the US. They are joined by a 16-year-old bilingual girl who spent her early childhood years in Los Angeles. All goes well until the Japanese soldier’s brother appears… Some days later there is a violent scene, and three of the four are dead … but we do not know which one has survived.