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ISSN 1039-3498 | no. 52| August 2001


Bringing Them Home—The Book

With over 300 tape-recorded and transcribed interviews now in the Bringing Them Home collection, the focus of the Project is turning towards production of a book. The publication, to be launched in late 2002, will be edited by Bringing Them Home Project Manager Doreen Mellor and historian and academic Anna Haebich.

The Bringing Them Home Oral History Project is one of the initiatives funded by the Federal Government as a response to the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission’s National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from their Families. It offers the opportunity to come to grips with the complex layers of experience inherent in participation in this history, by recording a range of narratives about removal of children from their families. Indigenous community members directly affected by these events—over 200 of them so far—have put their stories on record, as have people who fostered or adopted children, or who worked within the systems of removal, as policymakers, administrators, welfare officers, police officers, institutional carers or missionaries. The many narratives included in the collection allow various elements of this history to be considered through personal testimony, and will assist in an understanding of the diversity of individual experiences, as part of the history.

Taking the material to a wide audience has always been an important aim of the project, and as well as making sound archives and transcripts available in other states—where permitted by the interviewee—a publication has been part of the project concept from the start. Recently appointed co-editor Anna Haebich has an extensive knowledge of Indigenous Australian history and culture, based on over 25 years of professional and personal relationships with Indigenous people. Through marriage, she is part of a large extended Nyungar family in Perth.

Haebich has made major contributions to the field of Indigenous history and the history of the separation of Indigenous children from their families, and is recognised as a leading historian in the field. She has published widely in this area. The most recent book, Broken Circles—Fragmenting Indigenous Families is Australia’s first comprehensive national history of the removal of Indigenous children. It is groundbreaking in its attention to all Australian colonies, States and Territories and its detailed analysis of impacts on Indigenous families. Reflecting its major contribution to the body of Australian literature, Broken Circles won Book of the Year and the Gleebook Prize at the recent NSW Premier’s Literary Awards 2001, was short listed for the 2001 WA Premier’s Book Awards, and also won the AIATSIS 2001 Stanner Award.

Doreen Mellor is a researcher and writer in the field of Indigenous Australian culture, particularly in the visual arts, and is well known as an Indigenous curator. Her recent work has been in management, and she has combined this with writing, continuing to produce reports, articles and essays. A forthcoming publication Valuing Art, Respecting CultureProtocols for Working With the Indigenous Visual Arts and Craft Sector, with a legal section contributed by Indigenous law practitioner Terri Janke, was commissioned by NAVA, the National Association for the Visual Arts, and will be launched at the National Gallery in Canberra in August 2001. A number of exhibitions she has curated are currently touring in Australia and internationally. Many of the exhibitions she has researched and curated have included material on the separation of Indigenous children from their families, and she has presented conference papers, lectures and talks referring to this issue both prior to, and since being involved with the Bringing Them Home project.

Haebich and Mellor are now in the process of finalising the selection of writers, having worked on the demanding task of creating a plan and structure for the book. Through the publication, the editors will endeavour to present a richly textured and comprehensive picture of separation within living memory, through the voices of interviewees and the perceptions of those who are to write the text. An historical overview of relevant administrative structures and legislation will serve as a reference for the events described by those who took part in them. Another important element of the publication will be the contribution by a group of interviewers, to a portrayal of the project itself, and the rich experiences of hundreds of people who have been touched by the process of putting these experiences on the public record.

There are many challenges inherent in a publication like this one, not least, making it relevant to a wide range of readers. The experience of both editors in researching and presenting exhibitions—Haebich at the Western Australian Museum and Mellor as Director of Flinders Art Museum, and Curator at Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute—will assist in recognition of the requirements of a range of audiences, and in portraying through text and image, the vitality of the oral material.

A meeting with Anna Haebich     
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A meeting with Anna Haebich in Bookplate Cafe at the National Library in April 2001 was recorded by her co-editor Doreen Mellor. Seated at the table are, from left, Mark Cranfield, (Curator, Oral History), Julee Willey (BTH staff), Lee-Anne McConchie (OH staff), Veronica Falko, Ann-Mari Jordens (BTH staff), Paul Hetherington (Director, Publications and Events), and Anna Haebich.
Photographer: Doreen Mellor

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Please address any comments and enquiries to The Editor, Gateways: dthomas@nla.gov.au

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