The story of the 'Dunera Boys' is an intrinsic part of the history
of Australia in the Second World War and in its aftermath. The injustice these
2000 men suffered through British internment in camps at Hay, Tatura and Orange
is well known. Less familiar is the tale of what happened to them afterwards. Following
on from volume one Dunera Lives: A Visual
History (2018), Dunera Lives:
Profiles continues the saga in life stories.
This second volume of Dunera Lives presents the voices, faces, and lives of
20 people, who, together with nearly 3000 other internees from Britain and
Singapore, landed in Australia in 1940. All over the world there were Dunera lives,
those of men and women who passed through the upheavals of the
Second World War and survived to tell the tale. Here are some of their stories.
A contribution to the history of Australia, to the history of
migrants and migration, and to the history of human rights, these two volumes
put in the public domain a story whose full dimensions and complexity have
never been described.
'In the way it traces the lives of ‘Dunera boys’
before, during and after internment, Dunera Lives: Profiles is narrative
history in one of its most engaging and moving forms.' — Raimond Gaita
