Summary

Cartoon by WEG (William Ellis Green), published in the Herald Sun, dated 22 June 1957. The cartoon shows a man with just arrived woman with bag over her head and her hands tied. The woman is being leered at by group of stereotypical Southern European migrant men. This cartoon is part of a collection of migration material collected by Margaret Wood an officer in the Department of Immigration from 1951-1960.

Margaret first worked in the Department of Alien Assimilation which focused on migrants post arrival, before moving to the Assisted Division which handled the reception of assisted European migrants arriving in Melbourne. Her final position was working for the General Assisted Passage Scheme, assisting migrants from the US, Scandinavia and Switzerland who came individually on general ships as opposed to migrant ships. She recalls her time with the Department with great pleasure. She was a young single woman and had just finished an Arts degree at Melbourne University. When she applied to the Public Service, she was placed with the Department of Immigration, as she spoke German. She left when she married in 1961 as per the policy at that time.

Description of Content

Black and White cartoon showing a man in a suit and bow tie leading a woman in a tight fitting black dress from a ship on Station Pier, Port Melbourne. The woman has her hand tied and a bag over her head. There are a group of four men, all with large noses and/or frizzy black hair and dressed in suits, leering at the woman as she walks by. This type of depiction of Southern European men with frizzy black hair, big noses and showing overt and slightly sleazy interest in women was quite common during this period, as many Australians struggled to come to terms with the influx of non-British migrants, their customs and values. Arranged marriages were quite common among Southern European migrants (Greeks and Italians) living in Australia during the 1950s and 1960s. With young women being sent to Australia to marry men known to their families through friends or relatives. The depiction of the prospective bride as young, attractive and being held captive by her older husband was a common stereotype at this time, and was explored in David Martin's 1962 novel 'The Young Wife'.

Physical Description

Black and white cartoon clipped from a newspaper.

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