This research project was spurred by the 2018 discovery of a significant, though largely ‘hidden’ multicultural literature collection at Deakin University, a small part of which is housed at the Alfred Deakin Institute of Citizenship and Globalisation. The archive, known as the Australian Multicultural Collection, was set-up by Emerita Professor Sneja Gunew in the 1990s, via a Multicultural Australia Foundation fund, and was added to until about 2008.

The collection has over 2000 titles, including memoir, fiction, and poetry collections; however, most of it has not been used in research and the material is difficult for the public to access. 

One aim of this research is to increase the awareness of (and access to) this archive, hopefully through digitisation.

We also hope to bring the archive back to life using new digital storytelling practices and in dialogue with contemporary diasporic narratives.

We hope this project will reveal and reimagine cultural connections between generations, places, and temporalities situated in the Transpacific.