Summary

Activist and author. Lowenstein Lane in Canberra is named after her and the description entered by the ACT Planning and Land Authority is as follows:

"Historian and author Wendy Lowenstein was born Katherin Wendy Robertson, the fourth child of Douglas and Rita Robertson. In 1939 she won a scholarship to study at Box Hill Grammar School and in that same year went to her first political meeting At 15 she joined her sister Shirley and brother John in Melbourne's New Theatre and the Eureka Youth League where she discovered radical writing, theatre, art and class politics. Wendy's first job was as a journalist with the Radio Times. Although she found life in the Communist Party satisfying, the party ordered her to work in a battery factory.She met Werner Lowenstein, a child refugee from Germany who came to Australia on the Dunera, through the New Theatre and they married in 1947. The revelation of the Stalinist atrocities and the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956 saw them leave the party, but she became more politically active than ever. Lowenstein was a teacher until a Literature Board grant allowed her to become a full-time writer. Weevils in the Flour, a record of the Depression of the 1930s in Australia, was published in 1978. When teaching in the 1970s, Wendy caught a group of schoolgirls fighting over the selling of their favours to passing businessmen - one was charging 50 cents to do what others were getting $2 for. She lectured them on the values of unionism, agreeing on a base rate and never undercutting their fellow worker.While raising a family, she was involved with the New Theatre, the Eureka Youth League, the Victorian Folk Music Society, the Australian Folklore Expedition, the Boree Log Folk Club, the Colonial Bush Dance Society, Melbourne's Pram Factory Flea Market, alternative and community schools and centres, Friends of the Earth, Arts Action For Peace, the Palm Sunday Committee, the Victorian Secondary Teachers Association and the Oral History Association of Australia.She was a writer-in-residence at Victorian and interstate universities, conducted workshops and spoke at numerous conferences and events until 2002. Her motto was to become, 'Nix Illigitamus Carborundum' or 'Never let the bastards grind you down'. She was tireless in her fight against social injustice and gave a voice to the ordinary people who lived history.Lowenstein's other books include The Immigrants (with Morag Loh), Cinderella Dressed in Yella (with June Factor and Professor Ian Turner), Shocking, Shocking, Shocking, Under the Hook (with Tom Hills) and Weevils at Work. Her screenplays include Weevils in the Flour and Strikebound. Her vast collection of oral history is in the National Library in Canberra."

Resources

Sound recordings

• Hills, Tom and Hills, Dot, Port Melbourne: Interview with Wendy Lowenstein II, Interviewed and recorded by Wendy Lowenstein, [This recording courtesy of Martie Lowenstein]. MP3 Details
• Hills, Tom and Hills, Dot, Port Melbourne: Interview with Wendy Lowenstein, Interviewed and recorded by Wendy Lowenstein at Port Melbourne, [This recording courtesy of Martie Lowenstein], July 1978. MP3 Details
• King, Bert; and Hills, Tom, King, Bert (and Tom Hills) interview with Wendy Lowenstein III, [This recording courtesy of Martie Lowenstein]. MP3 Details
• King, Bert; and Hills, Tom, King, Bert (and Tom Hills) interview with Wendy Lowenstein II, [This recording courtesy of Martie Lowenstein]. MP3 Details
• King, Bert; and Hills, Tom, King, Bert (and Tom Hills) interview with Wendy Lowenstein. MP3 Details
• Lowenstein, Wendy, Interview with AC part two: side b, RR49 AC pt 2 side b. Digitised from cassette by Reason in Revolt, [Cassette recording courtesy of Martie Lowenstein]. MP3 Details
• Lowenstein, Wendy, Interview with AC part two: side a, RR49 AC 2-1 side a. Digitised from cassette by Reason in Revolt, [Cassette recording courtesy of Martie Lowenstein]. MP3 Details
• Lowenstein, Wendy, Interview with AC part one: side b, RR49 AC 20-6-87 1-1 side b. Recorded on 20 June, 1987. Digitised from cassette by Reason in Revolt, [Cassette recording courtesy of Martie Lowenstein]. MP3 Details
• Lowenstein, Wendy, Interview with AC part one: side a, RR49 AC 20-6-87 1-1 side a.Recorded on 20 June, 1987. Digitised from cassette by Reason in Revolt, [Cassette recording courtesy of Martie Lowenstein]. MP3 Details
• Lowenstein, Wendy, Interview with TC and CC side b, RR48 T and C C 1 of 2 side b. Digitised from cassette by Reason in Revolt, [Cassette recording courtesy of Martie Lowenstein]. MP3 Details
• Lowenstein, Wendy, Interview with TC and CC side a, RR48 T and C C 1-1 side a. Digitised from cassette by Reason in Revolt, [Cassette recording courtesy of Martie Lowenstein]. MP3 Details
• Lowenstein, Wendy, Interview with MB and HE side b, RR45 MB and HE 3 side b. Digitised from cassette by Reason in Revolt, [Cassette recording courtesy of Martie Lowenstein]. MP3 Details
• Lowenstein, Wendy, Interview with MB and HE side a, RR45 MB and HE 3 side a. Digitised from cassette by Reason in Revolt, [Cassette recording courtesy of Martie Lowenstein]. MP3 Details