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NLA News - home June 2000 Volume X Number 9
Bringing Them Together

Doreen Mellor highlights the partnerships being forged by the National Library’s Bringing Them Home Oral History Project

Aboriginal Mission Station
Unknown artist
Aboriginal Mission Station c.1860
oilpainting on copper sheet; 28 x 38 cm
Rex Nan Kivell Collection (NK4064)

'Bringing them home' has become an evocative phrase in the wider community in Australia since the Human Rights Commission’s Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from their Families, and its subsequent report, which used the phrase as its title. The National Library of Australia now also uses the phrase to identify the oral history project which implements the first recommendation of the report. A $1.6 million contribution from the Federal Government has enabled the Library to undertake the Bringing Them Home Oral History Project, which aims to produce a balanced history of the events surrounding the separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families by recording the personal narratives and perspectives of those directly affected by or involved in them.

After a one-year pilot project managed by Dr Gwenda Davey, AM, the Library recommended that a full three-year project should proceed. It is now well under way and, in late 1999, a new manager, Doreen Mellor, was appointed. Dr Davey, who returned to Melbourne in 1999, has continued her involvement, coordinating activities in Victoria and Tasmania.

National Library staff involved with the Bringing Them Home Oral History Project, April 2000
Seated at front, from left to right, are Shelly Grant, Acting Manager, Sound Preservation and Technical Services, Doreen Mellor, Manager, Bringing Them Home Oral History Project, and Mark Cranfield, Manager, Oral History Unit

Staff involved in Project

Due to the sensitive nature of the material being collected, the Bringing Them Home Oral History Project has special requirements, which are discussed in detail as part of the induction process for new interviewers. Training sessions for interviewers have been held in Canberra and in a number of other centres, and interviews have now been collected from every State and Territory. Most interviewers working with the project have extensive oral history experience, as well as a range of other experiences which assist in dealing with the complex issues the project presents. Both Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians are interviewed as part of this project, and both Indigenous and non-Indigenous interviewers are trained and available to record their experiences.

The project is a many-layered and complex operation. At its centre are the important testimonies of those people who have agreed to put their views on public record for the benefit of the community at large and for future generations. There are many processes and procedures related to the collection of these testimonies which make a significant contribution to their effectiveness and their availability for future generations, and the Bringing Them Home Project works collaboratively with other areas of the Library.

Most closely associated with the project, and with the actual production of tapes and transcripts, is Sound Preservation and Technical Services (SPATS), a sub-section of Preservation Services and the Oral History Unit. SPATS is responsible for the preservation and archiving of the National Library’s sound recording collections. Its role is to ensure that the recordings, which are primary historical documents, can be accessed well into the future by all Australians. SPATS staffShelley Grant (Acting Manager), David Blanken, Mark Tandy and Steve Tys, together with Kevin Bradley, now managing Digital and Audio Preservation Resourcesmake important and diverse contributions to the Bringing Them Home Oral History Project. Shelley Grant, for example, is responsible for training interviewers in the use of digital recording equipment (DAT recorders), both in one-to-one training sessions at the Library and in group workshops held throughout Australia. The SPATS staff provide technical support for interviewers and ensure that interviews meet National Library of Australia technical standards.

Interviewers Interviewers for the Bringing Them Home Oral History Project at a training session in June 1999

After the interviews have been recorded and accessioned into the Oral History Collection, SPATS staff preserve the interviews in analog and digital formats. In accordance with National Library sound archiving procedures, three copies are made of every interviewa CD-ROM, an analog 1/4 inch reel-to-reel tape and a user cassette copy. This last is the version which the public accesses at the Library. The original tapes and all the copies are then housed in an environmentally-controlled facility, designed for storing magnetic tape. To date, SPATS has acquired nine DAT recording kits, trained approximately 30 interviewers and preserved 90 interviews for the project.

Staff in the Oral History Unit, including Dianne Dahlitz and Lee-Anne McConchie, also work with Bringing Them Home material. Mark Cranfield has managed the unit since 1981, and has a rich store of knowledge and experience to draw ona wonderful resource for large- scale projects like Bringing Them Home. Through regular meetings and discussions with Dr Davey, he contributed a great deal to the establishment of parameters for the pilot project, and was a member of its advisory committee. His professional support has continued to be vital to the projectand he believes that it works the other way, too, making the relationship between the Oral History Unit and the Bringing Them Home Project a reflexive one. He considers that the Bringing Them Home Project has identified a new community of people to represent within the wider Oral History Collection, which already incorporates the views and experiences of a diverse range of people.

Once preserved on user cassette, the interviews are sent to service providers outside the Library for transcription. When the transcript is completedand it can take up to six hours to transcribe a two-hour interviewit is posted to the interviewee for correction. Finally, a spiral bound copy of the transcript is issued to the interviewee, along with a cassette tape of the interview. The interview is then catalogued by the Library.

Christina Rowe oversees Oral History Cataloguing, often advising on subject access and other related issues, but the bulk of the cataloguing for the Bringing Them Home Project is carried out by Ian Goldsmith. His job is to provide effective bibliographic access to the collection by providing sufficient detail to identify each interview, appropriate subject headings which describe the overall subject matter of the interview, and a concise summary based on the documentation provided by the interviewer.

The aim of the cataloguing process is to ensure that researchers and the general public can access the Bringing Them Home interviews easily through the Library’s own catalogue as well as Kinetica, the national cataloguing system. Both these catalogues are available on the Internet so users all over the world can readily determine which Bringing Them Home interviews are available and which of them may be relevant to their particular needs.

An important aspect of this project is the role it will play in making previously inaccessible information available on the public record. Interviewees are, therefore, encouraged to give permission for their interviews to be on open access, although some interviewsor sections of themare embargoed for particular periods of time. The National Library manages and monitors the conditions requested by interviewees. This does not preclude the possibility for some relevant recordings to be held by State or large regional libraries. Indeed, copies of interviews may be held in community keeping places, if the interviewee agrees. This distribution of tapes ensures material is accessible to a much wider audience than if it was held only at the National Library.

Part of the work carried out by the project office entails liaising with a wide range of cultural organisations, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous, throughout the country to ensure that the interviews are as accessible as possible when the project concludes in June 2002. These organisations may have a State, national or regional focus, and may or may not have significant oral history collections of their own. One such organisation is the Northern Territory Archives Service, which already has a substantial collection of oral history interviews. Francis Good, who has been involved with collecting many of these recordings over the years, is conducting Bringing Them Home interviews for the National Library. Copies of these interviews will also be held in the Northern Territory Archives.

Because of the nature of this project, it has been important to establish a strong sense of cohesion between all those who are contributing to it. Apart from the Oral History Unit, and the Sound Preservation and Technical Services team, there are many other areas of the Library working with Bringing Them Home issues and collaborating with the project team. Without this collaboration, the project could not proceed. The consultants who work with the project outside the Library are also important. These are the coordinators, researchers, historians and, importantly, the oral historians the interviewerswho work directly with the interviewees and their unfolding stories.

The interviewers, for the most part, operate far from the Canberra office, and are often in situations which require them to make independent decisions, such as whether to pursue a line of questioning, suggest counselling after an interview, or whether to approach someone for an interview. The project manager arranges access to all the facilities the Library offers, but during the interview itself, many unexplored possibilities will arise, and must be resolved instantly. This is why the training sessions are so important for project interviewers. Apart from the technical instruction, there is a need for the issues, aims and outlook of the project to be understood.

The 24 current interviewers and researchers for the Bringing Them Home Oral History Project attending a two-day seminar at the National Library, 23 February 2000 Current interviewers

Two sessions for interviewers have been held so far during 2000. The first was for five new interviewers in Victoria and Tasmania, and took place at the State Library of Victoria. Dr Davey hosted these sessions. In February, all 24 current interviewers and researchers were invited to Canberra to engage in a two-day seminar where various aspects of the project were discussed. Lively debate was generated on topics ranging from legal issues to transcribing, and a great sense of companionship between the participants was established. All worked towards a common understanding of ways to record important memories.

It was this mutually supportive environment, to which both Indigenous and non-Indigenous participants contributed, which led many of the group to see their exchanges as an expression of the spirit of reconciliation. As the Bringing Them Home team continues to grow, and its scope to broaden, there are hopes that the opportunities this project presents, for creating understandings and common goals between Indigenous and non-Indigenous cultures, will continue to be embraced with the warmth and enthusiasm already operating within this group of committed professionals.

Doreen Mellor is the manager of the Bringing Them Home Oral History Project

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