Becoming a Mother: an Australian History is a powerful new history of Australian motherhood. Through more than 60 interviews with a diverse group of Australian women, Dr Carla Pascoe Leahy has charted the ways in which mothering has shifted along with wider Australian society – and the ways it has stayed the same.
We are hosting the Launch event for this book with special guests: oral historians Professor Alistair Thomson and Dr Deb Anderson.
Ivanhoe Library& Cultural Hub
Saturday 13 May, 2.00pm–3.30pm
Mother’s Day is an annual celebration honouring and celebrating mothers and mother figures.
This Mother's Day weekend, we invite you to come and celebrate the release of a powerful new history of Australian motherhood!
When she first become a mother in 2013, historian Dr Carla Pascoe Leahy looked around her for stories of how mothering had changed over time. She was shocked to find that no one had written a history of Australian motherhood. So, she wrote one!
Hazel (became a mother in 1989):
I think it changes you profoundly. It opens up areas of vulnerability, and of course joy, but with that comes a real vulnerability with your children. I was very surprised by things I’ve not felt before like the extremely protective feeling when the child’s born or even when they’re in their twenties as mine are … This very basic feeling of wanting to protect, look after, look out for your child … For me, it’s been without question the very best thing I’ve done with my life and the source of both sometimes intense worry, but also great joy.
Sophia (became a mother in 1997):
I don’t think you can help but be different … It’s deepened my own understanding of me, and in some ways, learning to be a better person, because you have to – they come first … I don’t know whether I’m a different person, but, I think, it’s an experience that can’t help but change you, and it’s just given me so much joy and insight, that I would never have experienced had I not had children, I think.
