Recent research has revealed the myriad connections – encompassing people, capital, labour practices and ideologies – between Australia’s colonisation and chattel slavery in the Atlantic World. People who had benefitted from owning enslaved people or investing in the slave economy, or who had themselves been enslaved, became equally entangled in colonisation in the Australian colonies.

This history is intriguing and important, but also challenges received understandings of Australia’s past – which rightly focus on the impact of colonisation on the Indigenous peoples of Australia, but do not always recognise the role of slavery, whether in the Atlantic world or on this continent. In this seminar, Professors Lydon and Laidlaw discuss how they have opened up important historical themes by tracing individuals and cohorts between the Atlantic World and Australia’s colonies and reflect on the challenges of communicating their findings to the public and applying them to contemporary conversations about heritage, identity and citizenship.

Professor Zoë Laidlaw (University of Melbourne)

Zoë Laidlaw is Professor of History in the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies at the University of Melbourne, who specialises in the history of nineteenth-century colonialism and imperialism

She grew up on Gunditjmara Country and was educated at the Universities of Melbourne and Oxford, returning to Australia in 2018 after spending twenty years in UK academia. She has published widely on settler colonialism, Indigenous dispossession, imperial humanitarianism and colonial networks. Her co-edited (with Jane Lydon) volume, Legacies of British Slavery in Australia and New Zealand will be published in March 2026.

Professor Jane Lydon (University of Western Australia)

Jane Lydon is the Wesfarmers Chair of Australian History at the University of Western Australia. Her research centres upon Australia’s colonial past and its legacies in the present. In particular, she is concerned with the history of Australia’s engagement with anti-slavery, humanitarianism, and ultimately human rights.

She is a white settler scholar who aims to carry out politically located research that respects Indigenous sovereignty. Her work has contributed to decolonizing heritage and academic practice, and particularly debates regarding colonialism and Australian legacies of imperialism and slavery. Her co-edited (with Zoë Laidlaw) volume, Legacies of British Slavery in Australia and New Zealand will be published in March 2026.

Kate Rivington (Monash University)
Convenor

Kate Rivington is a lecturer at Monash University. She received her PhD from Monash University in 2023. Her dissertation was entitled “I have done a good deal in private, as well as in public, to advance the great object”: Antislavery Networks in the Atlantic World, 1830-1865. In 2018 she completed her Master of Arts (Research) at the University of Melbourne. 

Making Public Histories is a webinar series offered jointly by the Monash University History Program, the History Council of Victoria and the Old Treasury Building. Each event aims to explore issues and approaches in making public histories. The webinars are open to anyone interested in the creation and impact of history in contemporary society.

This webinar is run via Zoom and is completely free.

Keep an eye on our social media channels or sign up to our newsletter to be the first to register for the next webinar: https://www.historycouncilvic.org.au/subscribe

Past events: You can view past Making Public Histories events below, or view all past seminars on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDRieh-2B4EEEiFTSZSbcOV_ntSx_12Dw