By Antje Dun
Introduction
A list of mainly electronic archives in Australia that have documented social change. This is a live list. If you know of archive to add please let us know by filling in our contact form.
“It is essential to seize the power of archives and use it to hold institutional and government leaders accountable. All aspects of society should be documented, not simply those where power has traditionally resided.”
– Randall Jimerson
Professor Gary Foley with content for the Aboriginal History Archive © Victoria University
Aboriginal History Archive – Victoria University
Website: http://vuir.vu.edu.au/view/subjects/foley.html
About: The Aboriginal History Archive is held at Victoria University and is based around content collected for over 50 years from Professor Gary Foley. Victoria University is “committed to an indigenous research agenda of pursuing social justice outcomes through research within a framework of decolonisation. Digitisation of the collection started in 2017.
Article: Aboriginal History Archive goes digital
Platform: Research Repository – Victoria University
Tags: Movements_Campaigns – Racism – Racial justice, Aboriginal Australians
The AHA offers the material upon which the dominant version of post-invasion Australian history can be challenged, reappraised and rewritten. It contains the documentation not only of exploitation, repression and suffering, but also, more importantly, of Aboriginal struggle, confidence, pride and innovation.
Dr Edwina Howell, Chief Investigator of the Australian History Archive.
Australian Gay and Lesbian Archives
Website: https://alga.org.au/
About: The Australian Lesbian and Gay Archives is the biggest repository of historical materials about LGBTIQ experience in Australia. The Archives was established in 1978. It is a volunteer, community-based organisation.
Platform: Website
Tags: Movements_Campaigns – Gay rights_LGBTQIA
Australian Living Peace Museum
Website: http://www.livingpeacemuseum.org.au/omeka/
About: The Museum aims to foster a culture of peace reflecting the multidisciplinary nature of peace efforts made personally by individuals and by organisations past and present. It does so in accord with a range of local, national and international contexts relating to disarmament, human rights, ecology, reconciliation (including Indigenous responses to colonisation), education and the growth of international humanitarian law. The Australian Living Peace Museum is an online museum presenting Australian narratives of peace-making, non-violent social change and alternative forms of resistance to war and violence. The ALPM is committed to sound scholarship, a participatory framework and community-oriented perspectives.
Platform: Omeka
Australian Museum of Squatting
Website: http://www.australianmuseumofsquatting.org/
About: This website is all about documenting and celebrating the lives, cultures and places squatters have transformed.
Platform: WordPress
Tags: Squatters
Australian Trade Union Archives
Website: http://www.atua.org.au/atua.htm
About: Australian Trade Union Archives (ATUA) is a gateway for researchers and scholars of labour history, linking together historical detail, archival resources, published material and information about Australian industrial organisations, mainly including trade unions and also employer bodies.
Platform: Website
Tags: Movements_Campaigns, Activism, Movements_Campaigns – Labor_Worker’s rights, Unions
Lesbian and Gay Solidarity and Gay Solidarity Group Newsletter Archive
Website: http://www.josken.net/archive.htm
About: The newsletter of the Lesbian and Gay Solidarity and Gay Solidarity Group from 1978 until 2010.
Platform: Website
Tags: Movements_Campaigns – Gay rights_LGBTQIA, Activism
Radical Times Archive – Documentaries
Website: http://radicaltimes.info/
About: An audio-visual archival resource focusing on radical activism around Australia, particularly during the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s (although resources are not restricted exclusively to this time period).
The archive recovers “lost” and rare independent Australian documentaries (also vérité footage of historical significance) in order to preserve these films, videos and audio for posterity before they reach end of life and disappear permanently.
The archive is presented in twelve (12) sections as follows:
- Brisbane (1964-1975), Queensland, Australia
- Vietnam War Protests
- Brisbane (1976 to present), Queensland, Australia
- Brisbane Music Scene, Radical Theatre
- 1971 Anti-Apartheid (Springbok) Protests, Queensland, Australia
- Indigenous Australia
- 50 Years of Direct Action 1967 – 2017, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
- Victoria and New South Wales, Australia
- International
- Rock Against Racism
- Radio Station 4ZZZ-FM, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
- Nimbin Aquarius Festival, May 12 to 21, 1973
Platform: Website
Tags: Movements_Campaigns, Activism
Reason in Revolt
Website: http://www.reasoninrevolt.net.au/index.html
About: Reason in Revolt brings together primary source documents of Australian radicalism as a readily accessible digitised resource. By ‘radical’ we refer to those who aimed to make society more equal and to emancipate the exploited or oppressed.
The Reason in Revolt website is an expanding record of the movements, institutions, venues and publications through which radicals sought to influence Australian society. Reason in Revolt is sustained through a partnership with the Australian Society for the Study of Labour History, Melbourne Branch.
Platform: Online Heritage Resource Manager.
Tags: Movements_Campaigns, Activism
Wendy Lowenstein Oral Histories
Website: https://www.wendylowenstein.com/category/audio-interviews/working-life/
About: Wendy Lowenstein recorded interviews with over 800 everyday people from all around Australia, who talked about their struggles to obtain better working and living conditions over a period of 40 years from 1965. The Lowenstein Family Collection of over 900 hours of interviews is available for research purposes. These interviews are listed by the interview subject and names of interviewees can be searched on subject, place and industry.
- 1930s Depression collection: 108hours of interviews by Wendy Lowenstein
- Outback Australia 1969 Working People: 126.5 hours
- Melbourne Waterside Workers: Lowenstein & Hills Interviews; 60 hours
- “The Left” in the Arts and Community: 125 hours interviews by Wendy Lowenstein
- Wonthaggi Miners Collection: 50 hours of interviews by Wendy Lowenstein
- Robe River Industrial Dispute W.A. 1986: Wendy Lowenstein Interviews; 80 interviews
- Work Changes 1990’s over 80 hours of interviews by Wendy Lowenstein
Platform: Website
Tags: Movements_Campaigns, Activism, Movements_Campaigns – Labor_Worker’s rights
Women’s Web – Women’s stories, Women’s actions
Website: http://www.womensweb.com.au/
About: A secular feminist website established to give women a medium to promote the women’s movement, and to document the lives and actions of social justice and environmental activists from Victoria, Australia. It includes interviews and stories regarding activism as well as books which bring together quotes, articles and other primary source materials chronicling the long history of women’s leadership and involvement in campaigns for equality, social justice and peace.
Platform: Website
Tags: Movements_Campaigns – Women’s rights, Movenments_Campaigns – Women’s rights – Victoria, Melbourne
This is a live list. If you know of archive to add please let us know by filling in our contact form.
Topics: Collection:
- Author: Antje Dun
- Organisation: The Commons Library
- Location: Australia
- Release Date: 2019
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike CC BY-NC-SA
Contact a Commons librarian if you would like to connect with the author