Revolution, Race and Citizenship in Press Representations of Indonesians of the Dutch Colonial Army (KNIL) Interned in Australia, 1945–47

Abstract

This article examines Australian press attention to the violence that erupted when Indonesian soldiers from the Dutch colonial army (KNIL) were interned in Australia during the Indonesian National Revolution (1945–49). Dutch authorities used their extra-territorial rights in Australia to confine mutinous soldiers in camps as colonial subjects. Australian authorities sought to expel these men as ‘aliens’ while also supporting their citizenship of a nascent Republic. Our research refines historical understanding of the impetus behind the 1947 repatriation of these soldiers. Regional press reports and photographs from the mid-1940s accommodated two emerging, complementary notions of citizenship in their mediation of this situation. One was growing support for Australia’s recognition of the citizenship claims of Indonesians wanting an independent Republic, particularly where those claims were violently denied by Dutch authorities in Australia. The other was a steadfast commitment to national sovereignty and citizenship premised on upholding a ‘white Australia’.