Barry York reports on the culmination of a major Library project, and its fruition as a book, Many Voices: Reflections on Experiences of Indigenous Child Separation If it is true, as some historians say, that the point of studying history is to learn from the past with a view to building a better future, then the National Library’s ‘Bringing Them Home’ Oral History Project (‘BTH’) stands as a case in point. The project arose from the Commonwealth Government’s National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from their Families, which tabled its report in April 1997. BTH ran from July 1998 to June 2002, and was funded by the Commonwealth Government to the value of $1.6 million. It was one of the largest oral history projects ever conducted in Australia. The project recorded the reminiscences of a range of individuals involved in the process of separation: the children themselves (widely known as the ‘Stolen Generations’), their parents and relatives, foster parents, and missionaries, teachers, institutional carers, policy officers and senior administrators.
This wide-ranging and significant project has operated under the direction of Doreen Mellor, an Indigenous Australian, and follows on a successful pilot project managed by Dr Gwenda Davey. Mellor is a former Director of Flinders University Art Museum, and formerly managed the visual arts program Tandanya, at the National Aboriginal Cultural Institute, as well as serving as Chair of the Contemporary Art Centre of South Australia and on the board of the Art Gallery of South Australia. The full three-year project, concluding in June 2002, was supported by a steering committee chaired by National Library Council member Winnie Pelz. The committee, which included Baiba Berzins, Jackie Huggins, Jeremy Long, Ann-Marie Schwirtlich, Russell Taylor, Judith Winternitz, and Library staff Pamela Gatenby and Doreen Mellor, brought together extensive experience in the areas of senior public administration, librarianship and archives, history and Aboriginal advocacy and research. The project featured in the Library’s recent centenary exhibition, Treasures from the World’s Great Libraries, alongside materials of international significance on loan from overseas libraries. In this way, the point was made that BTH is not just another major project, but one of special, historic importance. In such a context it was implicitly suggested that the past lingers on well into the present. BTH was not just about ‘remembering the past’; the project took place at a time when the issue was topical and figured highly in current debate. The taped interviews from the project have been preserved by the Library’s Digital and Audio Preservation Resources unit, ensuring that the ‘spoken word’—people’s stories, told in their own words—will be available to future generations. Transcripts have also been made, but nothing can beat the actual sound-recording for insights into the stories.
Conditions of access to the recordings and transcripts vary, and were set by the individual interviewees in consultation with the Library, with the understanding that this was to be a public record collection, where researchers and the wider community could access first-hand testimony about Indigenous child separation. The interviews span memories of removal from 1918 to the 1970s. Men and women recalled experiences in homes specifically established for Aboriginal children, as well as in orphanages, dormitories and foster and adoptive families. A small number of interviewees proved to be positive about the experience, but the great majority bitterly regretted their loss of identity and family connections. Effort was made to record the memories of people in distant parts of Australia, and the team of 37 interviewers achieved representation from each of the six States and two Territories. Building a sense of community between all participants was the basis for the approach to the project, and incorporated sensitive and ethical communication with interviewees. It was important to ensure opportunities for personal communication and familiarisation about these sensitive issues, rather than just hand the interviewers a manual. Meetings were convened at the National Library to reaffirm the project’s aims and interviewing approaches, to discuss issues, and to ‘debrief’. Before interviewers set up their microphones, they attended training sessions either at the Library or in one of the capital cities. The training included instruction on use of the state-of-the-art technical equipment, as well as in oral history techniques as they applied to this particular project and its work with Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities. Many interviewers remained in contact with each other to provide mutual support, some as part of smaller collegiate groups which shared schedules for equipment, as well as participating in debriefing and discussions of their own. Project Director Doreen Mellor elaborates on this:
Indigenous interviewees who had been separated from their families were asked about their early memories, and recollections of family and home—always with sensitivity to the issues they faced. While question lists were used as a guide, the key approach was a quite elaborate structure of human interaction and familiarisation preceding the actual interview. In cases where children had been taken to an institution, topics included the daily routine, the time spent in the institution, and the extent of contact with their family while institutionalised. One of the most important elements of the project was the expectation that each and every interviewee would be treated with respect. Every perspective and narrative would be honoured, even if views were expressed which the interviewer might not personally agree with. The project allowed many people, who had not previously had the opportunity, to speak out personally for the record. It was to be their own perspective, not something given under pressure. This is simply the technique of any good oral history interviewing of course—developing a trusting relationship, and space in which an informant feels free to speak his or her own mind. The project sought to draw the broadest range of people and perspectives, to provide a many-faceted view on this complex issue. A separate set of questions was designed for interviews with former officials, such as administrators and policy-makers—these questions taking the same respectful approach, and similarly striving for insights that go beyond the print-based documentary record.
In addition to the creation of 340 archived interviews, a major book—Many Voices: Reflections on Experiences of Indigenous Child Separation—has just been published by the Library, being launched this month. It is edited by project director Doreen Mellor, along with historian Anna Haebich, who won awards for her celebrated book Broken Circles: Fragmenting Indigenous Families 1800–2000 (2000). While based on the project’s interviews, Many Voices also provides context for the history of the separation policy. Themes include the children’s life journeys (both after leaving their families, and continuing up to the present), and the systems of planning and care. The book discusses cases where people have returned to their families, and also offers the interviewees’ thoughts on the interviewing experience. The final chapter considers the notion of ‘unfinished business’: what are the intergenerational effects, and the ongoing issues for families today of the previous policies? According to Doreen Mellor:
The assembling of Many Voices by so many writers—20 in all, who listened to, and comment on, the voices and perspectives recorded—expands the community of people seeking to understand and communicate the removal process, and contribute to the BTH project. When asked for her views on the project’s outcomes, Doreen Mellor said she felt its greatest achievement was as an outlet for the many voices wanting an opportunity to speak out. In so doing, she says, the project
BARRY YORK is a researcher and writer. His email address is garocon@pcug.org.au The
information in this article was provided by Doreen Mellor and the Bringing
Them Home Oral History Project team
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