30 years of Hungappa: Student media on campus in Wagga

Student newspapers have a demonstrated engagement with radical thinking, dissent and political activism and are an important published record of historical discourses, contributing to a critically informed understanding of the society they were produced in, and also act to document life in a time and place often not captured in mainstreanm media.

In Volume 1, Issue 1 of Hungappa in 1989, Wendy Bacon wrote

In the never ending debate about media ownership and control in Australia, there has been surprisingly little mention of the students press. And yet the student press now represents one of the few large and relatively well resourced independent newspaper outlets left in Australia. (p.14)

The end of the eighties were an interesting period in Australia's history, and one where starting a 'new' student newspaper could be seen as a challenge. But the editors in 1989 - Chris Kinght, Rachel Crease, David Hearne and Jo-Anne Stratford - were wiling to take on the challenge of publishing Hungappa semi-weekly on-campus in Wagga Wagga.

This exhibition looks at a series of key themes that have emerged over the 30+ years that Hungappa has been in press - themes that emerge time after time, and that universities, students and society are still grappling with.