Staff Papers
Melting Pot or Monoculture: Archives and Cultural Diversity in Australia
August 2002
A paper presented by Margy Burn, Assistant Director-General, Australian Collections & Reader Services, National Library of Australia, at the Australian Society of Archivists Annual Conference 2002- Past Caring? What Does Society Expect of Archivists? .
Australia is often hailed as one of the worlds most successful examples of multiculturalism. The most recent Census data (1) reveals over 200 different ancestries reported (with Italian, German, Chinese and Greek in the top eight); 22% of the population born overseas (11.2% born in Europe, 5% born in Asia and 1% born in the middle east or north Africa). Italian is the most popular language other than English spoken at home, followed by Greek, Cantonese, Arabic and Vietnamese
Yet where are the archives of multicultural Australia to be found? A search of the repositories included in RAAM (2) lists four concerned with cultural diversity: The Estonian Archives in Sydney; the Archive of Australian Judaica at Sydney University; the Jewish Museum of Australia in Melbourne; the Australian Jewish Historical Society Archives in Sydney. The ASA directory (3) lists an additional four: the Australian Jewish Historical Society in Victoria, the Bendigo Chinese Museum, the Cornish Guild of Heralds in Queensland and the Elda Vaccari Collection of Multicultural Studies at Victoria University of Technology.
What are things like in the state and national libraries?
Recent interest from the Council of the National Library, now including four members who have a strong personal interest in cultural diversity, led to my surveying (4) members of the Council of Australian State Libraries last year asking them to report on archival holdings documenting cultural diversity in this case archival materials being considered inclusive of pictures and oral histories and only excluding publications. I particularly sought information about formal collecting partnerships with ethnic communities. Lets start with the National Librarys collection. The Library's only formal collecting partnership is with the Polish Historical Institute in Australia. Through an agreement with the Institute the Library accepts collections of manuscript and pictorial material, as well as publications of Australian interest in Polish or English, and undertakes a series of oral history interviews with Polish Australians.
As well as Polish Australians, the Manuscripts collection has a strong collection on the Maltese, thanks to its association with the Maltese-Australian historian Dr Barry York. The recent acquisition of the papers of refugee advocate and migration agent Marion Le gives us strength in relation to Indochinese Australians and recently concluded negotiations to acquire the collection of Dr Spiro Moraitis will give us a strong collection on Australian Greeks. There is some representation of Czechs, Irish, Dutch, Welsh, Latvians and Chinese in our collections. Cultural diversity may also be reflected in the papers of many distinguished Australians represented in the Manuscripts collection such as Yasmine Gooneratne, Ali Kazak, Heinz Arndt, Larry Sitsky, Judy Cassab and David Martin. The Manuscripts collection also includes papers of Australians who have made significant contributions to immigration policy including Arthur Calwell, Al Grassby, Jerzy Zubrzycki and Geoffrey Blainey.
Similarly, the Library's Pictures collection includes many examples of portraits of nationally significant Australians from culturally diverse backgrounds. The collection includes a large series of photographs from the Australian Information Service documenting immigration. The Library has commissioned or acquired photographs which document social history and reflect cultural diversity in working and living conditions; such as Greek, Arabic, Turkish, Chinese and Lebanese festivals and ceremonial occasions and photographs of religious services of the Buddhist, Muslim, Greek Orthodox and Croatian Catholic communities have also been documented.
The Oral History collection is the repository of much material documenting cultural diversity. As well as interviews with eminent Australians of culturally diverse backgrounds there have been a number of special projects to record the lives and experiences of people from a range of ethnic communities, including more than 550 hours of interviews with Maltese, Chinese, Polish and Greek Australians, as well as smaller collections on Irish, Scottish and Khmer communities. There is also much material reflecting cultural diversity within the folklife collection, such as the Peter Parkhill collection of recordings of traditional music, folk tales and interviews with Australians of European, Middle Eastern, Pacific and South American background.
In summary Id give us a mixed report card - could try harder! I think its fair to say from the National Library perspective that in the past we have assumed that cultural diversity will be better covered by the state and territory libraries. So what did my survey reveal about these libraries?
The ACT Library and Information Service replied that it has no collections in the area of multicultural studies. The Librarys role and services are currently being reviewed and it is anticipated that there will be a recommendation that the Resource Development Policy reflect the need to document the cultural diversity for the ACT.
Responsibility for private archives in Tasmania lies with the Archives Office of Tasmania and the Tasmanian return indicated no targeted program had been established to collect records from ethnic community groups or individuals. There has been some recent contact with the Tasmanian Office of Multicultural Affairs to broaden awareness in ethnic communities about the role of the Archives Office concerning private records.
The Northern Territory Library & Information Service has a small archival collection relating to Northern Territory writers which includes material relating to the Chinese and prewar Japanese communities in Darwin. Its Territory Images collection includes a sizable number of images documenting the history of the Chinese Community and, to a lesser extent, the Greek community. I dont have any information about the coverage of cultural diversity in the private records collections of the Northern Territory Archives Service.
The State Library of Queensland reports some Dutch, Russian and German material and interviews with migrant women from the Wacol Migrant Centre in its oral history collection; collections of images documenting cultural diversity in thirty seven categories such as Gypsies in Queensland, Afghans in Queensland, Russians in Queensland. The archival collections are less extensive but include the Gilchrist papers on Greeks and a number of collections relating to Australian South Sea Islanders.
The State Library of South Australia reports that with the exception of oral history its collections are not strong and recent initiatives to establish links with ethnic communities have not had any significant impact on new acquisitions. There is a small amount of early German material; the records of the Good Neighbour Council and three Dutch community organizations are held; as well as papers of prominent South Australians such as the artist Stan Ostoja-Kotkowski. The State Librarys oral history collections documenting cultural diversity are extensive. The collection includes material in 40 languages and it is estimated that 15% of the total collection are interviews reflecting cultural diversity.
The State Library of Western Australia reported forty oral history interviews with people of Maltese, Jewish, Filipino, Italian, Dutch, Greek, Portuguese, Chilean and Russian origin and over sixty catalogue entries for images reflecting cultural diversity. Its private archives include fewer than a dozen collections which reflect migrant communities or individuals. In recognition of the significant gap within its collection the Library has recently established the Western Australian Migrant Communities Archive Project, with special funding from the WA Lotteries Commission. The project is guided by an advisory committee comprising Library staff and representatives from migrant communities and ethnic groups.
The State Library of Victoria has a formal collecting agreement and consultation mechanism with the Italian Historical Society and is discussing such an agreement with the Australian Jewish Historical Society. The State Library has had several externally funded high profile projects to build its collections of cultural diversity. Building a Country acquired 2000 pictorial items from Greek, Chinese, Italian, Vietnamese, Lebanese, Maltese, Japanese and German communities; another 2000 photographs accompany oral history interviews with holocaust survivors in a project run in association with the Jewish Museum. The Bonegilla Reunion project done with the Immigration Museum led to acquisition of pictures and documents; there have also been projects with refugee communities such as the East Timorese and Kosovars.
The State Library of New South Wales undoubtedly leads the way in documenting cultural diversity. The Library includes long-standing collections of papers which would now be regarded as documenting multiculturalism, such as those of Ludwig Leichhardt, Nikolai Miklouho-Maclay, Quong Tart, Charles von Hugel and Le Courrier Australien, to name a few. Over the last fifteen years or so the Library has developed more defined and strategic collecting policies to ensure selective representation of the diversity of cultures and peoples living within New South Wales through targeted collecting projects involving the establishment of close links with various community groups.
The success of the Librarys association with the Italian community is well known and demonstrated in Jim Andrighettis publication Italians in New South Wales: guide to archives in the Mitchell Library (5). This initial partnership with the CoAsIt sponsored Italian Historical Society in NSW committee was extended with support from an Australian Bicentennial Multicultural Foundation grant in 1990 which also enabled the employment of field officers to work with the Greek and Chinese communities to identify sources of personal papers and records for preservation by the Library.
There are formal collecting agreements with the Ukrainian and German-speaking Australian communities and much other less formal activity which has resulted in the acquisition of substantial archives representing cultural diversity in New South Wales The success of the State Librarys continuing proactive approaches is revealed by recent acquisition highlights including the papers of:
- William Liu ( pioneer immigration and Chinese interests advocate)
- Henry Lippman (Dunera archives)
- Indo - China Refugee Association
- John Shying (possibly earliest Chinese settler, 1818)
- Bookallil Family (early Lebanese settlers)
- Yennie Wang and William Yu (Chinese language plays in Sydney)
- Irene Pavlidis (memoirs of arriving in Australia from Greece, 1962)
- Nicholas Saradopoolis (late 19th century Greek settler)
- Wadim Jegorow (multicultural lobbyist)
- Boskovitz Family (Hungarian refugees, 1956)
- Viennese Little Theatre
The Library has also supported an active ongoing acquisitions program of exhibition quality contemporary photographic images depicting activities and lifestyles of different ethnic groups resident in New South Wales including:
- Kosovo Refugees; Arab community ( photographer John Immig)
- Vietnamese, Laotian and East Timorese (photographer N.M. Tiet Ho)
- Greek - Australians (photographer Effie Alexakis)
- Armenian community (photographer Teny Aghamalian)
- Migrant women's working conditions (photographer Anya van Lit)
- Lebanese community (photographer Emmanuel Angelicas)
- Vietnamese community (photographer Phong Nguyen)
- Jewish community (photographer Suzon Fuks)
- Cabramatta and Fairfield districts (photographers Paul Blackmore and Mark Tedeschi)
Oral history continues to be an area of active endeavour for multicultural collecting building on an extensive collection of interviews conducted by the NSW Ethnic Affairs Commission from 1981 to 1987 and lodged in the Mitchell Library.
Conclusion
The results of my survey suggest a situation that is far from satisfactory in my view. In mainstream collecting institutions cultural diversity is most likely to be represented in pictorial and oral history collections, rather than in the private record groups of papers of individuals or community organisations. The documentary record of the larger, older established community groups such as the Greek, Italian and Jewish communities seems to be reasonably secure and some smaller communities such as the Maltese, Ukrainian, Polish, Dutch, German and Estonian communities will be represented in at least one major collecting institution or specialist community archive. The Chinese community seems to be a notable omission and Professor Henry Chan has recently (6) commented that Chinese archives and manuscripts are at risk compared with objects, buildings and sites. The size of Arabic and Vietnamese speaking populations in the 2001 Census would also suggest some attention is needed here.
A landmark conference: New responsibilities - documenting multicultural Australia
My survey suggests there has been little progress since the landmark conference of November 1988 organised by the Victorian Branch of the then Museums Association of Australia and the Library Council of Victoria. New responsibilities: documenting multicultural Australia (7) was a conference for museums, libraries, archives and historical collections towards a national agenda for a multicultural Australia.
Amongst the participants were Leonard Janisewski and Effy Alexakis who gave a powerful presentation on their project Greek-Australians in their own image. In their informal comments they were scathing about campaigns by collecting archives to document multicultural Australia. Not long before the conference the State Library of NSW had held a reasonably high profile campaign under the banner Ethnic history why care? Effy and Leonard lampooned it as Ethnic history who cares? The nub of their criticism was that collecting archives were insufficiently engaged with ethnic communities, made no attempt to understand what mattered to them or to offer any practical support to people in the community sector who were endeavouring to undertake archiving activities. They characterised strategies of collecting institutions as being only PR campaigns, with little impact after the high profile launch was over and the glossy fliers published in several community languages had been distributed. And as two individuals who had made considerable personal sacrifices to document Greek heritage in Australia they were scathing about the lack of resource commitment by cultural institutions to documenting cultural diversity. It was hard to deny the truth of their stinging rebukes.
Towards Federation 2001
This 1992 summit conference about linking Australians and their documentary heritage included significant representation by archivists. Improved coordination of multicultural services and collections was one of the strands of the summit which resolved to establish a biennial roundtable on library services in a multicultural Australia, to be chaired by a representative of the Council of Australian State Libraries, with participation from multicultural community organisations.
The roundtable was never established.
The Heritage Collections Council
In 1996 John Thompson, then on the staff of the National Library, was commissioned to prepare a discussion paper (8) for the Conservation Working Party of the Heritage Collections Committee on cultural diversity in Australia. The paper was written in the context of the statement in the HCCs National Conservation and Preservation Policy (9) that: The Commonwealth, State, Territory and Local Governments acknowledge the diversity of cultures of the Australian people which should be reflected in the definition and identification of moveable cultural heritage.
Johns thoughtful paper concluded that there had been a tendency for governments and policy makers to assert the importance of policies of inclusion without considering the complex issues and costs of implementation if institutions are to achieve more than token recognition of cultural diversity. He commented that it has been too easy to blame institutions and their curatorial staff for operating within a narrow cultural framework and to suggest that if they only tried harder they will do better in addressing the imbalance.
John commented that his paper was not definitive; his research revealed that there is no central point of reference for projects and programs in any jurisdictions and that it is difficult to quickly obtain a picture of the full range, quality and variety of activity. He was critical of what central agencies such as the then Commonwealth Department of Communications and the Arts were doing with data revealed by its survey on cultural diversity in collecting institutions and the lack of translation of this data into the development of policy, strategies and programs or even as the basis for some kind of publicly accessible register of projects and programs. There have been major institutional projects in two states with Australian Italians, for example, as well as inclusion in other states in general collecting projects. There have been different approaches and emphases taken but no evaluation to gain any understanding of critical issues affecting performance and results.
John concluded that the effective representation of cultural diversity requires hard work, is costly, labor intensive and generally requires commitment over time and some special skills and expertise including careful, consistent and sensitive investment of personal time and effort in working with the community. The bureaucratic nature of institutions can be an obstacle in itself. John made a number of recommendations including:
- That some research effort should be devoted to a review and consolidation of the various recommendations of recent years to determine precisely what has been achieved and where further effort must be made
- Some case study analysis to be undertaken to gain understanding of issues which contribute to success or failure
- The development of performance measures within realistic time frames
- Consideration of funding implications of supporting cultural diversity and proper targeting of programs which will deliver outcomes
- Support to develop and extend cross cultural awareness in collecting institutions
- Attention to the composition of boards and governing councils
A number of Johns recommendations are still worthy of consideration in 2002, six years after Johns paper was published and fourteen years after the landmark Victorian conference.
And in 2002
I might say that I was disturbed by the poor attendance at a workshop on Preserving Multicultural Heritage in Australia organised by the School of History at UNSW and held at Estonian House on 18 May 2002 had Effy and Leonard been there fourteen years after the Victorian conference well may they have asked Ethnic history who cares?
What is to be done?
My brief outline of the finding of my survey of holdings of CASL members suggests that there is still a great deal to be done.
The report I wrote of my survey findings gave one example drawn from the community sector, that of the Estonian Archives in Australia, which I believe may be the oldest ethnic community archive in Australia. The Estonian Archives was established in 1952, consists of 100,000 items and is the largest of the four disapora archives outside Estonia. Its family collections date back to 1896 and it holds organisational records as early as 1912. It is open to the public one day a week (at other times by appointment) and entirely staffed by volunteers, although its honorary archivist has professional qualifications. The Estonian Archives has a website (10) and is computerising its catalogue and finding aids. Its holdings include nationally significant photographic, manuscript and limited edition printed materials including a complete set of the Australian Estonian newspaper Meie Kodu. The Estonian Archives is included in RAAM and the ASA Directory, but it is one of only a handful of ethnic community archives with this degree of visibility.
While all of John Thompsons 1996 recommendations still stand, in my opinion, to them I would add the critical need for a survey of archives documenting cultural diversity which are kept in the community sector, and in other collecting institutions such as museums, hopefully leading to a better representation of collections and services in resource discovery services such as RAAM and the ASA Directory. Because of the many locations of these archives and their invisibility at the present time this is a significant task and one for which the National Library is currently considering funding options.
It is also our intention to convene a roundtable on collections documenting cultural diversity in 2003, and in the period leading up to the roundtable to consult with key stakeholders, such as the Council for Multicultural Australia, the Australian Multicultural Foundation, the Federation of Ethnic Community Councils of Australia and other peak bodies. The Library will also gather more information about archives activity in the community. I hope that any recommendations arising from this roundtable will receive more attention and follow through than has apparently been the case in some of the earlier consultative processes I have outlined today. I welcome any input any of you might make on archives and cultural diversity leading up to this roundtable.
Margy Burn
Assistant Director-General, Australian Collections &
Reader Services
National Library of Australia
August 2002
Footnotes
1 Australian Bureau of Statistics media release 2015.0 "2001 Census reveals Australians' cultural diversity" www.abs.gov.au
2 Register of Australian Archives and Manuscripts. www.nla.gov.au/raam
3 Directory of Archives in Australia. www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/asa/directory/
4 Information about the survey results has not been previously published but is reported more fully in papers presented to the Council of the National Library in December 2001 and the Council of Australian State Libraries meeting of March 2002.
5 Andrighetti, James Italians in New South Wales: a guide to archives in the Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales. Sydney, State Library of NSW, 1995.
6 Chan, Henry "Preserving the archival heritage of the Chinese community in Sydney" paper presented to the workshop Preserving the Multicultural Heritage in Australia, Sydney, May 2002.
7Birtley, Margaret and McQueen, Patricia (eds) New responsibilities: documenting multicultural Australia. A record of the conference for museums, libraries, archives and historical collections towards a national agenda for multicultural Australia. Melbourne, Museums Association of Australia Inc.Victoria Branch and Library Council of Victoria, 1989
8 Thompson, John "Cultural diversity in Australia: a discussion paper" www.nla.gov.au/nla/staffpaper/jthomp.3html
9 Cultural Ministers' Council. Heritage Collections Committee. National conservation and preservation policy for movable cultural heritage. Canberra, the Committee, 1995.
