Browse Items · Medievalism in Australian Cultural Memory

Eight Hour Day Parade in Brisbane, 1912

Photograph portraying a 1912 parade celebrating the Eight Hour Day. Trade unionists are in the parade showing their support by bearing a medieval inspired banner. Some historians consider trade unions to be the successors of medieval guilds.

Tags: Labor, labour, Labour Day, parade, procession, Trade Union, trade unionism, union, unionism, work, working class

Labor Day Procession in Argent Street, Broken Hill

A photograph from c. 1911 of a large crowd lining Argent Street in Broken Hill to watch a Labor Day procession of men carrying union banners. Union banners have a medieval predecessor in the banners used by guilds (an association of craftsmen in the…

Tags: banner, banners, Broken Hill, float, floats, Labor, Labor Day, labour, labourer, New South Wales, NSW, parade, parades, procession, processions, street parade, trade, Trade Union, trade unionism, union, unionism, unions, work, worker, working class

'St Francis beaten by his Father', by Arthur Boyd

This work by Arthur Boyd was acquired by the Art Gallery of South Australia in 1969 with funds from the Morgan Thomas Bequest. It depicts St Francis of Assisi being beaten by his father, who is known to have objected to Francisâ€™ religious…

SA Register 1888 Thurs 26 April Carnival of King Labour

Report on the Eight Hours Day procession in Melbourne in 1888. The article describes the vivid and essentially working-class flavour of the skilled trades procession and after-picnic in Melbourne. The tinsmithsâ€™ knightly armour invokes…

Tags: battle-axes, carnival, carnivalesque, class, Don Quixote, Eight Hours Day celebration Melbourne, Friendly Societiesâ€™ Gardens, King Labour, labour, labourer, medieval guilds, references to Ivanhoe, Richard Coeur de Lion, streets celebrations, tinsmithsâ€™ armour, trade processions, work, worker

Eight Hours Song

Barrier Miner (Broken Hill, NSW) 1898 Wed. 5 Oct Eight Hours Day Song.jpg

Working or labour songs were a feature of nineteenth century (and later) union gatherings and processions. The songs and communal singing evoke peasant or folk traditions. The song gives the workers the high-ground because they resort to moral rather…

Tags: Eight Hour Day, eight hours, Felix McLaren, Knights of Labor, Labor songs, labour, labourer, sabre, Trade Union, trade unionism, union, unionism, unions, work, worker, working class

â€˜St Francis and the Birdsâ€™, by Michael Galovic

This artwork by Yugoslavian-Australian artist Michael Galovic depicts St Francis of Assisi, the thirteenth-century religious reformer, preaching to birds in his characteristic brown habit. It is an example of the artist’s modern religious…

Eight Hour Procession 1901, Sydney

SMH 1901 Mon 7 May Eight Hour Day[1].pdf

The writer credits the craft guilds of medieval England for the eight-hour system, including the Saturday half-holiday. The latter was supposed to be devoted to archery practice, which eventually ensured English mastery of the bow and arrow and their…

Female Servantâ€™s Revolt

This illustration is an early reference to the beginnings of the eight-hour movement. One of the first marches took place in Melbourne in 1856, when the Stonemasons working on the build of the University of Melbourne, marched to Parliament protesting…

Tags: Eight Hour Day, Eight-hour day movement, freedom of labour, labour, labourer, Melbourne, Melbourne 888, Peasants Revolt, revolution, women servants, work, worker, working class

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