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ISSN 1039-3498 | no. 52| August 2001


Polish—Australian Oral History Project

Tadeusz Mikucki

In 1996, the National Library of Australia embarked upon the Polish–Australian Oral History Project (PAOHP) in association with the Polish Historical Institute in Australia. There are currently 23 substantial interviews held by the Library as part of the project.

The recordings are an important addition to the Library’s holdings relating to ethnicity and the immigration experience. The Oral History Program collects and preserves interviews recorded by specialists. The preservation aspect reflects the Library’s commitment to the importance of the human voice itself. But arising from such interviews, there is great potential to add to other collections of original materials. There has been some success through the PAOHP with the acquisition of Manuscript, Pictorial, and Sheet Music material.

Interviews have been recorded in six centres of Polish settlement: Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney, Wollongong, Adelaide and Hobart. There is a reasonable balance of Poles eminent in the professions and those who are working class. The PAOHP focuses on Poles who arrived in Australia in the immediate postwar years, 1947 to 1955, when nearly 72 000 were admitted, mainly from Displaced Persons camps in Europe.

The main interviewer for the project is Dr Barry York, a specialist in Australian immigration history who also coordinated the Library’s Maltese–Australian Folklife and Social History Project. After nearly two decades’ experience in the field, he believes he has developed a methodology that suits the postwar migrant groups. ‘There are five basic fields of enquiry’, he said. ‘Firstly, the experience of the homeland. The migrant’s life did not begin with disembarkation in Australia. Then there are the reasons for emigration and the choice of Australia as a destination. The experience of the voyage can also be captured by oral history. Fourthly, there’s the whole area of settlement experiences: work, play, family, community involvement, and so on. And finally there’s the question of ethnic identity: how does the interviewee regard himself or herself today?’

Dr. York sees parallels between the Maltese and the Poles. ‘Both communities came here in the largest numbers after the Second World War’, he said. ‘Both suffered terribly during the War and saw the future being outside Europe. Both are predominantly Catholic and working class. And, sadly, both are elderly, declining, communities—which makes the Library’s work among them all the more important.’

Above, right: Tadeusz Mikucki, who was recorded in Adelaide for the Polish–Australian Oral History Project, with sheet music he composed for the Polish community in Adelaide. Copies of some of his sheet music were donated to the Library

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