Summary

Digital photograph of Gregory Agaton (left) and Geoffrey Santos, children of Plutarco and Nance Agaton, and Conrad and Olive (formerly Bennett) Santos location unknown, probably Melbourne, 12 September 1948. It was taken on Geoffrey's birthday. The Agatons and Santos' were friends of Agapito Castillo and part of a community of men from the Philippines who married local Australian women during World War II.

Philippines-born Agapito Castillo had married Aileen McColl in Melbourne while he was working for the British Phosphate Company and was detained there during World War II.

This item is part of a collection of material relating to the migration and settlement experiences of seamen from the Philippines during the post World War II era in Australia; and the experiences of the local Anglo-Australian women they married.

Physical Description

Monochrome digital photograph copied from a photographic print.

Significance

This collection and story represents an important narrative in Australia's migration history, regarding the challenges faced by seamen from the Philippines caught in Melbourne during the outbreak of World War II and unable to return home, trying to settle in Melbourne and marry locally-born women of Anglo-Australian background. It also shows the prejudice these women themselves faced. The collection reveals a community of these men and women and their families, connected through family relationships; and it demonstrates the vagaries of bureaucracy, and the influence of the White Australia policy, still officially in force at that time.

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