Bringing Them Home Oral History Project

ISSN 1442-3723

Newsletter No. 3

In September 1997 1 Senator Herron announced that the Australian Government had asked the National Library to conduct a major oral history project among people involved in the separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families. Indigenous people directly affected by the separations, would be invited to record their stories. So too, would government administrators, missionaries, police and others concerned with the policies and their administration, be given the opportunity to speak about this period of our history and what they knew about it from personal experience.

Thus the Project will result in a wide range of individual accounts, providing oral evidence which will assist researchers and the general public to understand what happened and why, during this difficult period of Australia’s history. This oral history project is part of the Government’s response to the Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from their Families, which published its report in April 1997 under the title Bringing them Home.

The three-year project is well under way

The National Library is pleased to report that following the conclusion of a pilot phase, the oral history project, Bringing Them Home, has been established under the direction of Project Manager, Doreen Mellor. Ms Mellor is an Indigenous Australian and an experienced senior manager with a background in the arts and education sector. Prior to moving to Canberra, she was the Director of Flinders University Art Museum in Adelaide and was a member of the Board of the Art Gallery of South Australia, Chair of the Contemporary Art Centre of South Australia, and Chair of the South Australian Arts Ministry’s Festivals, Events and New Commissions Committee.

The activity generated by the successful implementation and completion of the pilot project, managed by Dr Gwenda Davey AM, with the assistance of Francine George, meant that a number of interviewers were already in the field gathering material when Ms Mellor was appointed. Dr Davey, who has returned to Melbourne to live, is to coordinate research and interviews in Victoria and Tasmania. Consultants in other States will also work with the team at the National Library, to collate data and facilitate interviews.

Once interviews are forwarded to the Library, the Sound Preservation and Technical Services Unit, in close association with the Oral History Unit, preserve the digital recordings in several formats, including cassette tape, CD and reel to reel tape. Staff from these areas provide technical support and advice to the Project and are closely involved in the generation of this material for the Library’s Oral History Collection, a selection of which will feature in the major publication planned as a conclusion to the Project.

The Induction of Interviewers - An Important Part of the Process

Five new interviewers from Victoria and Tasmania were trained in Melbourne in late January, in preparation for joining the two interviewers already active in Victoria. Ensconced in the red upholstered chairs, at tables made of smooth, pale timber, in the boardroom of the State Library of Victoria, all eyes were drawn to the expanse of plate glass which revealed the grey, intricately-carved stone facade of the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. The wood in the boardroom and the stone through the glass provided a pleasurable visual contrast—a situation regarded as an affliction by Technical Officer, Shelly Grant. Why? Shelly explained to the new interviewers that they should avoid recording in rooms with windows like these, because plate glass conducted sound far too well! While, from the boardroom the sound of the traffic was muffled and hardly discernible, she said that the delicate microphones would record the faintest sound and, unlike the human ear, do not discriminate. Unwanted noise is therefore picked up and often overrides what we all want to hear—the human voice.

All active interviewers, including the five who joined the Project in Melbourne, were recently invited to the National Library, where further technical discussion became part of a much larger discourse, in the form of a seminar. The event was multifaceted, in that a further small group of new interviewers were introduced to the intricacies of Digital Audio Tape (DAT) recording; legal issues were addressed by a representative from the Library's law firm; officers from various parts of the Library spoke about the administrative systems in place to support the work of interviewers; the transcription service providers spoke about the special requirements for transcribing recorded material; and best of all, people got to talk about ORAL HISTORY, and to discuss some of their experiences in the field.

The particular sensitivities of the Project were addressed at the seminar along with protocols for working with Indigenous and other communities. One of the most interesting parts of the meeting was the introductory session, where the 23 participants and Library staff most directly connected to Bringing Them Home, spoke about their professional and life experiences, and what they brought to the Project. This session established at the outset, that the group provided a rich and varied amalgamation of skills, experiences, and approaches. The ingredients were promising—and the result after two intense days of discussion, social activity and information-sharing was an inspiring fulfilment of that promise. All at the National Library feel assured that the interviewing process is in capable and responsive hands.

Interviews are in Progress in Your State

The task of recording the experiences of people from all over Australia has begun in all States except South Australia—and things are about to happen there too. Because of the scope of the Project, it was decided that a few States would provide the focus for interviews initially, with activity in other States increasing as the Project progresses. As the table below indicates, 67 interviews have been recorded to the end of February 2000 as part of the three-year project. Interviewers have recorded the stories and perspectives of a wide range of people, including, most importantly, separated children and their parents, but also foster parents of separated children, members of religious orders, and former welfare officers, senior administrators, protectors, patrol officers, matrons, nurses and teachers.

Interviews Conducted

1/7/99 to 29/2/00

NSW 15
ACT 1
QLD 32
VIC 8
TAS 1
SA -
WA 9
NT 1
TOTAL 67

Interviewer Profile

Rob Willis — New South Wales

There are 25 interviewers, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous, currently working with the oral history project, Bringing Them Home. They all need more than a trace of compassion and idealism to get them through the tough spots. The Project is one which requires great commitment. Interviewers are drawn into the personal experiences of others, and at times feel emotional, yet at the same time, they must allow the interviewees the freedom to narrate their own experiences and express their own thoughts and philosophies without feeling pressured or coerced. It is also often difficult for the interviewees—both Indigenous and non-Indigenous—to speak of their experiences, and for many of them, difficult to remember so far back.

The program has been fortunate to have had the benefit of the energy, enthusiasm and interviewing expertise of Rob Willis, a collector of folklore and social history. Rob is the sort of person who plays music at the drop of a hat, and recently joined forces with one of the Project’s other interviewers, Jenny Gall, in leading an impromptu barn-dancing session (in which all interviewers who were present participated enthusiastically) at an interviewers’ gathering in February.

Rob started conducting oral history recordings of personalities in his home town of Forbes in 1975. His audio and photographic collections are held in the Oral History and Pictorial Collections of the National Library of Australia, and his video collection is with ScreenSound Australia. In 1984 he undertook a field trip for the Library with Australia's foremost collector of folklore, John Meredith. The Meredith–Willis team worked together for many years recording oral histories throughout New South Wales and Victoria. When John retired, Rob continued to record people’s stories, music and song in every State in Australia apart from Western Australia and the Northern Territory. Rob's wife, Olya, shares his interest and assists in the areas of photography, recording and documentation.

Since mid-1999 Rob has been particularly active on behalf of the Bringing Them Home project. He has been interviewing people from various parts of New South Wales, many of whom were inmates of that State’s institutions most frequently connected with child separations—Bomaderry, Cootamundra Girls’ Home and Kinchela Boys’ Home. Rob often speaks of feeling privileged that over the past 24 years so many people have allowed him into their lives to record their stories for future generations. This respect for all people is certainly evident in his interviews. He appreciates the many close friends he has made through the interviewing process, and the acceptance, trust and friendship which have resulted, especially with regard to the Bringing Them Home project. One of the most rewarding moments he experienced during the Project was when an Aboriginal person he had interviewed commented ‘This is what reconciliation is all about, sitting down together and talking.’

Rob is an accomplished, self-taught musician, playing many traditional instruments including concertina, button accordion, banjo, mouth organ and whistle. He has produced theme concerts and documentaries for major folk festivals and, in conjunction with the National Library, he has brought performers to the annual National Folk Festival since the early 1990s. He has produced radio programs for the ABC and public access stations and has assisted with production of television documentaries for the BBC. Working with David de Santi, Rob produced the ‘Pioneer Performers’ series of books and CDs.

We can’t work out how he does it all, yet Rob, in conjunction with his son Mark, owns and runs a successful electrical and airconditioning retail store in Forbes, New South Wales. We are very pleased that he is able to do so many things at once, and hope that he continues to do so for a while to come!

NOTE:

1 Please note that this announcement by Senator Herron took place in December 1997 and NOT September 1997 as originally published. 15/5/2000

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