Inglis, Amirah (1926 - )

Amirah Inglis was a devoted and active member of the Communist Party in Australia during the politically turbulent Menzies era. Her autobiographical works describe the difficulties and confusion of growing up a migrant in Australia, born of Polish-Jewish parents. She has also written essays, reviews and books on Papua New Guinea, and on the Spanish Civil War.

The hammer & sickle and the washing up: memories of an Australian woman Communist includes descriptions of Amirah’s life in Canberra in the 1960s, and her marriage to academic Ken Inglis.

Two of her books tell the story of her life.
Amirah, an Un-Australian Childhood, published by William Heinemann Australia in 1983 and reprinted 1984, 1985 and in paperback 1989, a 'loving and sensuous account…paints a perfect sociological portrait' (Weekend Australian) of Melbourne in the 1930s and 1940s. It portrays her loving, Polish Jewish Communist parents and the joys and difficulties of living as migrants.
The Hammer and Sickle and the Washing Up, Hyland House, Melbourne, 1995, tells of her involvement with the Communist Party of Australia during the 1950's and 60's, including the Menzies government's attempts to outlaw the Communist Party and the Petrov Affair. It is Amirah's story: her struggle to balance political activism and family responsibilities.

Amirah Inglis' other books reflect a desire to understand the complexities of her world within the framework of the humanitarian, internationalist, European-based communist ideology of her migrant parents and the completely new world of Papua New Guinea where she lived and worked between 1967-1974.

In 1998 in an interview with Sarah Dowse (4 digital audio tapes, held at the National Library of Australia) Inglis speaks of her current project, editing her Polish-born father's memoirs; her family and her own childhood in Melbourne; her political activism as a member of the Communist Party of Australia; her marriage to Ian Turner and events surrounding their move to Canberra in the 1960s; her involvement with the Australian National University and her teaching position at Lyneham High School; her second marriage to Ken Inglis and how their move to New Guinea in the 1970s was the inspiration for her first book which launched her writing career.[1]

[1] Summary from National Library of Australia

Related Exhibitions

• Women in the making of Canberra

Books

• Inglis, Amirah, Not a White Woman Safe: Sexual Anxiety and Politics in Port Moresby 1920-1934, ANU Press, Canberra, 1974. [ Details... ]
• Inglis, Amirah, Amirah, an un-Australian childhood, William Heinemann Australia, Richmond, Victoria, 1983, 163 pp. [ Details... ]
• Inglis, Amirah, The hammer & sickle and the washing up : memories of an Australian woman communist, Hyland House, South Melbourne, 1995, 195 pp. [ Details... ]

Journal Articles

• Inglis, Amirah, 'Memoirs of a dutiful (Red) daughter', Australian Left Review, vol. 102, Nov/Dec, 1987, pp. 38-42. [ Details... ]
• Shrubb, Lee, 'Coming of Age in Australia', Quadrant, vol. 28, no. 6, 1984, pp. 76-78. [ Details... ]