First Roundtable on Library and Archives Collections and Services of Relevance to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People
State Library of South Australia, Adelaide, 4 May 1995
State
Library of South Australia, Towards Federation 2001: a Report
Many of the developments being made at the State Library of South Australia are a direct result of recommendations made by Aboriginal community members at the State Library's annual consultative seminar of 1994 and 1995.
- Collections
- Culturally Inappropriate Terminology
- Oral History Collection
- Aboriginal Services Advisory Sub-committee
- Aboriginal Trained Staff in 14 Libraries
- Inter-Agency Co-operation
- Services
Collections
The State Library Strategic Plan commits the State Library to ensuring that heritage collections [will] affirm the culturally diverse nature of our community. Moreover, a special focus on the culture of Aboriginal people will be reflected across the collections. The document also states that the State Library will ensure that the collection development policy encompasses topics relevant to the Aboriginal community.
Aboriginal Resource Collection
The collections of the State Library contain a large amount of published [and other] materials, with some of them duplicated in a small, separate resource collection for use by Aboriginal people. The Aboriginal Resource Collection has some several hundred books, annual reports, subscriptions to Koorie Mail and Land Rights News, language kits, music cassettes, language cassettes, educational videos, community pamphlets, posters, photo albums of State Library Aboriginal functions and exhibitions and information kits distributed by Aboriginal organisations such as, Australians for Reconciliation etc.
Cataloguing resources were allocated to ensure the Aboriginal Resource Collection be catalogued using culturally appropriate subject headings, as recommended by the Aboriginal Review Committee of the Aboriginal Education Curriculum Unit (responsible for the development and implementation of the Aboriginal Studies R-12 curriculum in South Australian public schools). The Aboriginal Resource Collection catalogue has been added to the Library's OPAC system to provide another level of access.
The collection is unique in that it is the only collection within the State Library that allows materials to be borrowed. Borrowing is restricted however, to Aboriginal users, as another means to increase the use of the State Library and its collections for Aboriginal people. Extensive research has shown that historically many Aboriginal people feel uncomfortable in a library atmosphere, therefore, such people tend not to use the collections and services.
Since the development of the collection, many Aboriginal people have become users of the library, firstly introduced through using the Aboriginal Resource Collection. Currently, most of the Aboriginal users can be divided into the following user categories:
- Aboriginal tertiary students - studying in a mainstream institution such as the University of South Australia
- Aboriginal Adult re-entry students - completing their high school requirements and certificate courses at TAFE schools
- Aboriginal high school students
- Aboriginal community members
- Aboriginal people undertaking their family history research
- Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal staff of Aboriginal agencies, organisations and departments
The current location of the Aboriginal Resource Collection is on the lower ground floor, which limits access to the collection. The State Library has contracted a firm of consultants to review all of its collections and suitability to their location. The Aboriginal Resource Collection will be included in this review. It is anticipated that the collection will be moved to a more visible and accessible location on the ground floor.
Pictorial and Archival Collections: Sacred/ Secret Materials and Access
Inevitably, some materials in the collections are regarded by many Aboriginal people as sensitive and others as secret or sacred. Yet they remain accessible in inappropriate ways from an Aboriginal perspective. The Mortlock Library's pictorial collections, and the holdings of the Archival Collection and Rare Book and Named Collections Library are believed to contain significant items in this category.
The challenges of collections such as this relate to the way in which they are described in library catalogues, indexes and other finding aids and to the question of proper or appropriate use. If particular Aboriginal persons are proscribed, according to their customs, from viewing specific materials (usually pictorial images related to the dead, to initiation rites and ceremonies or to sacred objects), then the Library's duty of care must recognise such restrictions. In all such instances the Library must be able to draw on a set of guidelines for use and access which are drawn up in association with Aboriginal people. As a first step, the presence of specific items and collections within the State Library should be identified and made known to the Aboriginal community.
The presence in the State Library of the Mountford Sheard Collection presents both a challenge and an opportunity. It contains documents, tape recordings, paintings and drawings pertaining to the life of Aboriginal people, specifically of the Pitjantjatjara and the Nunku communities as observed and studies by the ethnologist C. P. Mountford from the 1920's to 1960's. The duty of care and preservation roles exercised by the State Library have meant this collection is safely cared for, and is accessible to scholars and researchers. It also means that the State Library must make Aboriginal people aware of such materials. Items are often used for exhibition purposes, both within the State Library, to galleries such as that at Tandanya, and for the International year for the World's Indigenous People.
Current negotiations with the Pitjantjatjara and Nunku council on access and use provide a strong basis for methods to be used throughout the library. It is consultation and follow-up action that again presents itself as the best means of ensuring Aboriginal support for and appropriate use of the Library.
The issue of no-censorship policy as advocated by the Libraries Board is a policy shared throughout the library world, a world which is a non-Aboriginal, highly institutionalised one. Provided reasonable precautions are taken to advise on the possible sensitivity of materials (something akin to the warnings on commercial film screenings) to Aboriginal people, access ought not to be denied to others seeking it. Issues of Aboriginal cultural ownership and management, and access to sacred and secret information or images, is still being discussed. Difficulties in the past have resulted from the absence of guidelines and the lack of consultation.
At the State Library public Seminar of 1994, we asked for recommendations and guidelines from Aboriginal people for the identification and management of pictorial images within the Pictorial Collection, most of which had been added to the Videodisc. The recommendations are as follows:
"That the State Library invite an Aboriginal person or persons and an expert from the South Australian Museum to view and assess all videodisc images of Aboriginal people as soon as practicable. That following assessment of the videodisc images, any secret/sacred or sensitive materials be clearly identified with an appropriate notice on the screen prior to the actual presentation of the image/s concerned, and that a notice be affixed to or near the actual videodisc machine, alerting users to the possible sensitivity of some materials."
Andrew Wilson (Aboriginal Project Officer at State Records) and Philip Jones (Head of the Division of Anthropology at the South Australian Museum) were identified as appropriate people to undertake the identification process of the pictorial images. Andrew and Philip viewed and assessed all of the images of Aboriginal people on the videodisc including those still in albums. All those images assessed as appropriate, are now available for viewing by the public, on the videodisc. A message advising the public of the possible sensitivity of some images, appears on the videodisc screen.
Permission to reproduce images, such as graphic prints, must be sought from the communities from which the image was procured. The Department for State Aboriginal Affairs is assisting in this process by providing a comprehensive listing of all Aboriginal community and land councils within the state. Further negotiations are taking place to have a listing of Aboriginal community and land councils in the states and territory.
"The issue of censorship versus the management of the collections is at the heart of the challenge."
If terminology presents difficulties, how much more might many of the documents the terminology describes? Throughout the Sub-Committee's period of deliberation, the primary topic in relation to the Collections, and in keeping with the third term of reference, has been photographs contained on the Library's public access videodisc.
Prior to release of the videodisc containing about 54,000 historic photographs, the State Library, on advice from one of its Aboriginal Project Officers on behalf of many Aboriginal people in South Australia, placed a viewing restriction on any photograph indexed as pertaining to Aborigine or Aboriginal. The restriction remained in place until identification of any secret, sacred or sensitive images which ought to be restricted according to some Aboriginal viewpoints.
The recommendations made by Aboriginal community members at the State Library public seminar of 1994, made clear that Aboriginal people must be involved in the identification process. It also confirmed that the South Australian Museum had relevant experience and expertise that is willing to contribute to the identification of secret / sacred / sensitive materials.
Culturally Inappropriate Terminology
Discussion of library catalogues and indexes inevitably raises issues of terminology. For Aboriginal people, many of the terms used to describe documents are insensitive, offensive, misleading or incorrect. (e.g. half caste, part-Aboriginal, lubra, nigger) This may lead in turn to a re-inforcement of prejudice by unaware non-Aboriginal people. It also tends to inhibit use of library collections by Aboriginal people.
Furthermore, the terminology often distorts or hides the truth, either because it is value-laden or simply non-specific. For example, the subject heading or term Australian Aborigines -Government Relations often masks previous official policy and practice of removing children from their parents and families. It is only by pursuing the actual works listed under terms like this that the true picture is revealed.
Whilst it is a limitation of traditional subject cataloguing, such practice can more easily be eradicated by the use of specific indexing terms in a computerised environment. The point is, that regardless of what terms are used, documents must be described in accurate and objective ways.
The practice of theAustralian Archive, as documented in its publication Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People: a guide to records in the Australian Archives ACT Regional Office (Canberra, AGPS, 1993) is to retain such terminology where it is already exists in item titles "in accordance with usual archival practice and because in themselves they give information about the attitudes of the time and the context in which records arose".
It is noted that the State Library, as part of the international library community, can have little or very indirect influence on the document descriptors used in international bibliographic networks, yet it can influence that Australian library community through its contribution to informed debate on network standards and terminology. it has begun this process through participation in the recently established Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Library Resource Network (ATSILRN) and with the Aboriginal and Islander Library Network (AILN) in South Australia as well as through its participation in and contribution to the Australian Bibliographic Network (ABN). It will also actively work with those institutions attempting to devise an Aboriginal thesaurus since terminology continues to present a challenge for documentalists both inside and outside libraries.
To this end the following recommendations were made to the Libraries Board:
"That the State Library commit itself to using culturally appropriate terms in its inhouse indexes and catalogues. That the State Library staff collaborate with institutions developing a thesaurus of Aboriginal words and phrases. That State Library staff collaborate with other institutions, organisations and networks responsible for educational programs and library services designed for Aboriginal people. That State Library staff be appropriately trained and made aware of such developments."
The Aboriginal Resource Collection is now catalogued and on-line to the OPACs. The catalogue is separate to that of the Bray Reference collection and uses culturally appropriate subject headings.
The Aboriginal and Islander Library Network has reviewed papers forwarded to the National Library, ABN Standards Committee, to assess and review the recommendations made to the Committee. Several recommendations made to the Committee, and these have been forwarded through the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Library Resource Network for comment, support and endorsement. It is anticipated that further comment will be added to the paper and then forwarded to the National Library for national support and endorsement.
The AILN has on several occasions, over the past five years, submitted papers to the ABN Standards Committee recommending necessary changes to the current Library of Congress Subject Headings, and we are currently awaiting a response from that committee. All recommendations made follow the Guidelines as determined by the Aboriginal Studies Review Committee. Of which is the only one in existence in the country.
State Library staff, particularly those working at the Bray Reference desk and Research Teams, have attended information sessions with the Aboriginal Project Officer to familiarise themselves with the Aboriginal Resource Collection, Subject Headings, reference tools and other general information that may assist them in providing culturally appropriate information to both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal users.
Oral History Collection
The State Library has an important Oral History Collection in the Mortlock Library of South Australiana. At present, we are investigating the feasibility of establishing an Aboriginal Oral History program in association with the existing program and collection. The proposed Aboriginal Oral History program would focus on two areas
- the collection of Aboriginal Oral Histories of South Australian Aboriginal people and
- include gathering more information about existing interviews with South Australia Aboriginal people.
This would help make a vast amount of material more widely known to Aboriginal people by contributing immediately to the Towards Federation 2001 Directory of Oral History Collections, to be collated in the next twelve months.
The Aboriginal Project Officer and Director have approached Department of Employment Education and Training and the Aboriginal Employment Development Branch to seek support and financial assistance to train an Aboriginal person to undertake the duties of an Aboriginal Oral History Project Officer. A job and person specification is being developed and financial assistance for training is being negotiated.
The Aboriginal Oral History program would not duplicate the work of the South Australian Museum with its Family History Project. Rather, it would uniquely ensure that oral histories of South Australian Aboriginal Elders be recorded and transcribed so as to preserve that history for future generations. The program could then be extended to fill other important gaps in recorded knowledge.
The State Library's oral history expertise is well known. Its Oral History Officer frequently provides training programs for interviewers and practitioners and for community groups. It is possible that this service could include specific training for Aboriginal people, with the Aboriginal Oral History Project Officer perhaps being trained accordingly.
Aboriginal Services Advisory Sub-committee
On 26th August 1993, the Libraries Board of South Australia, established an Aboriginal Services Advisory Sub-Committee, with Aboriginal Libraries Board member Eleanor Bourke as its chairperson. The Sub-Committee was established on recommendation from the Director of the State Library of South Australia in keeping with emerging national support within the library and Aboriginal community for improved and more relevant library and information services to Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
Significantly, there recently had been a heightened awareness by many Aboriginal people of the role of libraries in contributing to:
- improved educational opportunity for Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders
- a better informed general community
- improved cultural understanding
- the need for better knowledge of existing library services and collections on the part of Aboriginal people.
This awareness is accompanied by growing recognition that a major inhibitor to Aboriginal use of existing library services and collections has been due to several factors, not the least of which is that here has been very little or no participation in the development of libraries by Aboriginal people.
At its meeting on 26th August 1993, the Libraries Board of South Australia established the following terms of reference for the Sub-Committee:
- To consider and advise the Libraries Board on appropriate community consultation mechanisms
- Analysis of existing programs and plans in the context of the Libraries Board's Strategic Plan for the State Library of South Australia 1993-2020
- Development of policy advice on secret and / or sacred materials
- The Sub-Committee is to make its report to the Libraries Board of South Australia six months from the date of its first meeting ( being due before May 1994).
Ministerial approval for establishment of the Sub-Committee was subsequently sought in accord with the provisions of the libraries Act and received shortly afterwards. Note: Due to the initial difficulties in appointing people to the Committee because of their busy work schedules, the first meeting took place in November 1993, a month later than originally scheduled.
The Committee met on seven occasions from November 1993 to June 1994, with meetings being held in December 1993 and in February, March, April, May and June 1994, with the deliberations of the Sub-Committee, therefore being completed in June.
Community consultation was undertaken in a number of ways:
- by correspondence, inviting submissions from Aboriginal organisations and communities to the Sub-Committee
- by a public seminar to which representatives of key Aboriginal community groups were invited. Key State Library staff attended as observers. (The role of the staff was to inform the participants of any pertinent facts related to services and collections and to hear the views of the Aboriginal participants.)
- by a number of informal discussions with Aboriginal people and with staff from the State Library and the South Australian Museum
- receiving submissions
Aboriginal Trained Staff in 14 Libraries
Following the State Library's consultation with Aboriginal community members in 1994, a recommendation was made to increase the numbers of trained Aboriginal staff to work in libraries. The Aboriginal Services Advisory Sub-Committee made the following recommendations to the Libraries Board of South Australia:
"That the Libraries Board of South Australia consider the awarding of an annual bursary or prize to an Aboriginal student either successfully completing, or in the last year of study of, formal qualifications in librarianship (or as a library technician) and who has done so with distinction. That the State Library explore an arrangement with the University of South Australia and the Adelaide Institute of Vocational Education and Training for the awarding of a bursary prize."
The first bursary prize has been awarded to Ms Isabel O'Loughlin, who has undertaken the Library Technician course. Ms O'Loughlin is a member of the Information and Research Services (Document Delivery) within the State Library. The formal presentation was made by Mr Chairman of the Libraries Board at a formal ceremony following a meeting of the Libraries Board on Monday 27th March 1995.
Discussions have taken place with the University of South Australia and the Adelaide Institute of Vocational Education and Training with regard to awarding a bursary prize. Negotiations will continue.
There have been a small number of Aboriginal staff employed at the State Library of South Australia, with those currently on the staff representing 3% of FTE staff. Most, not all, were initially employed as a result of government employment programs targeting Aboriginal people. Some of those recruited as part of that program, are still working at the State Library, within the "mainstream "functional units of the Library.
It is anticipated that efforts will be made to increase the number of Aboriginal staff within the State Library as vacant positions arise. Efforts will be made to fill positions at all levels. Two Aboriginal staff members have recently taken packages from the department, one of whom occupied a management position and the other was an Aboriginal Project Officer. Currently, the State Library has five full time Aboriginal employees, four of which have permanent positions. Another Aboriginal person is acting as a volunteer within the Mortlock Library, documenting the recent donation of records of Ms Ruby Hammond, (recently deceased prominent South Australian Aboriginal person).
The State Library also provides work experience and field placements for Aboriginal people. Students have come from as far as the Central Lands Council Library, for which a placement was arranged for a trainee conservator.
Inter-Agency Co-operation
Both the Libraries Act and the Strategic Plan commit the State Library to cooperating with the network of libraries and to participation in cooperative collection and service development strategies with other cultural institutions. These institutions include those in the cultural precinct, such as the Art Gallery, South Australian Museum and the universities in South Australia.
As part of its role, the State Library provides advice to state government departments and agencies concerning the provision of library services within government. For this reason, the Aboriginal Services Advisory Sub-Committee had discussed the opportunities within existing programs of the State to encourage the training and employment of Aboriginal people in libraries. It also believes that the library schools in the universities and Institute of Vocational Education should be encouraged to promote their courses to young Aboriginal people. Production and dissemination of an appropriate brochure is a manageable means of promotion and ought to be taken up by the Libraries Board as part of its wider role.
Similarly the concept of the "wider community" is articulated in the Plan, with its commitment to reflect the increased emphasis on access to, rather than ownership of, library collections The Sub-Committee notes the recent moves to work with a number of institutions, including the University of Adelaide's Aboriginal Students Services program (a temporary staff placement was secured as a staff development exercise for a State Library Aboriginal staff member), and with the University of South Australia's Faculty of Aboriginal and Islander Studies, especially with its Aboriginal Research Institute and its Resource Centre.
Because of the clear wish of Aboriginal people to be consulted on matters pertaining to library collections and services, and in keeping with the following resolution of the Towards Federation 2001 Conference:
"That the State and Territory Libraries establish advisory mechanisms appropriate to State and local needs which will result in improved access in libraries to documentary heritage of and for Aboriginal people".
The Sub-Committee affirms the importance of an ongoing consultative mechanism by which the Aboriginal people of South Australia can participate in and contribute to the further development of library services.
The following recommendations were made to the Libraries Board:
"That an Aboriginal Services Advisory Sub-Committee be established on an ongoing basis for the purpose of advice from and consultation with the South Australian Aboriginal people;
That the Libraries Board and staff of the State Library of South Australia be represented on this Sub-Committee."
Pending the availability of Sub-Committee members, the first meeting for 1995 is scheduled to take place in April.
Services
An example of services offered through the State Library, to Aboriginal people within South Australia, is the Make a Book workshops. These are offered to interested Aboriginal community groups (including primary schools with a high population of Aboriginal children) with the cooperation of Conservation Services. The aim of this program is to increase awareness and use of non-traditional library services to and for Aboriginal people. Aboriginal staff of the State Library began informing Aboriginal community groups and organisations of the Make a Book workshops, in 1992. The workshops were initially held at the State Library and offered free of cost. Many schools have since participated in this service, but we have also offered the workshops to Aboriginal staff of Children's Services Office. A book of Aboriginal children's stories was complied as a result of that workshop.
Two series of workshops are offered annually, one being offered as an activity during NAIDOC week (July) and the other during Aboriginal Youth Education Cultural Awareness Week (September). Other workshops are conducted when requested.
At the community level, the State Library continues to promote and increase awareness of its collections, services and resources amongst Aboriginal communities, by maintaining regular contact. Contributions are made to Aboriginal community newsletters of forthcoming exhibitions and Aboriginal related activities such as NAIDOC week. Information about significant events, such as the awarding of the bursary to Aboriginal library technician, Isabel O'Loughlin, is supplied to the libraries magazine, INCITE. Regular activities are also advertised in the local papers and forwarded to Aboriginal radio and papers including Koorie Mail and Land Rights News.
Other significant services offered to Aboriginal people, include utilising the State Library as a venue for community meetings, information dissemination, displays, exhibitions and launches. Examples of which include: the launch of a book of poetry called "Raukkan" by Aboriginal author and poet, Margaret Brusnahan and published by Magabala Books, the popular publication, "Recommended Books for Aboriginal Studies" by the Aboriginal Education Curriculum Unit, Education Department of South Australia, was launched at the State Library.
Information sessions on how to begin a Local Aboriginal History Collection for public librarians.
Regular tours of the library are offered to Aboriginal community members. Special interest groups are catered for, these include, people wanting to begin research into their family histories. Special tours have been organised for Aboriginal people with disabilities, such tours are Coordinated with the School of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education.
Information sessions are also offered pending the availability of guest speakers and facilitators. Eleanor Bourke, Director of the Aboriginal Research Institute and member of the Libraries Board, assisted in the facilitation of an open public seminar / debate on MABO. Guest Aboriginal speakers included:
The Aboriginal and Islander Library Network.
- Research and materials for exhibition outside of SLSA
- Creating Aboriginal (SLSA) Homepage on INTERNET
- Image Services i.e.; Max Roberts, American Indian Dance Theatre
- Seminar / annual consultation (formal)
Return to the Aboriginal Roundtable
May 1995
Last updated 12 June 1998
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