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