OverviewIn December 1997, in response to the first recommendation of Bringing Them Home: Report of the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families, the Commonwealth Government announced the National Library would be funded to develop and manage a new oral history project. The oral history project will collect and preserve the stories of Indigenous people and others, such as missionaries, police and administrators involved in or affected by the process of child removals. The project is one of enormous historical significance and the Library is very pleased to be managing it. These pages bring you background information and news on the Project. The Library sees this as one way we can keep you in touch with it. Please continue to visit the site and let us have your comments about the project and about any additional information you would like us to include on the site. The Library is also periodically issuing a Newsletter about the project. Other general background information about the National Library of Australia, its reading rooms and policy and planning documentation including service charter, National Library of Australia Act and NLA Strategic Plan may be found by following these links. Information about the Library's oral history program, including advice about conducting oral history, is also available on this site. Further information about the National Inquiry is available on the website of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission and its report, Bringing Them Home is on the website of the Reconciliation and Social Justice Project. IntroductionThe National Library of Australia is pleased to have a role in fulfilling the recommendations of the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families. The National Inquiry recommended the recording and preservation, for future access, of the testimonies of Indigenous people affected by removal policies. The Commonwealth Government announced in December 1997 that $1.6 million would be allocated to the Library to undertake a rounded oral history project to collect and preserve the stories of Indigenous people as well as others others involved in the process of child removals. The funding was contingent upon a pilot assessing the feasibility of a full-scale project. The pilot project which ran for twelve months duration until June 1999, aimed to test a methodology and clarify issues by interviewing thirty individuals. It recommended that a full scale project was feasible. The full scale project which commenced in July 1999, will run over a further three years and will record around three hundred interviews. The funding allocated to the Library also provides for a publication, based on the oral histories, which will make the stories more widely accessible. The National Library has very extensive experience in conducting oral history. Over the last forty years the Library has conducted interviews with a range of Australians who have been involved in, and made a contribution to, a wide variety of enterprises and disciplines. We know what this project requires, and we are keen to ensure wide consultation with, and the involvement of, the Indigenous community and others with an interest in the project. As part of the communication and consultation process, we plan to provide information on the progress of the project. We would value any comment you might care to make about the way we proceed. Should you have information about oral history projects, be they completed, in train or proposed, which have similar aims please let us know of them as there may be scope for cooperation and we are anxious to avoid duplication. You may also wish to propose individuals, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous, whom you consider should be interviewed for the oral history project. If this is the case please let us have their names, contact details and an indication of why you are proposing them. Should you be able to suggest newsletters or websites to which we might contribute information about the project please let us know. The Library is periodically issuing a newsletter about the project. Please let us know if you think these ideas are worth pursuing and if you would like to be on our mailing list. For further information contact: |
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