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NLA News - home August 2004 Volume XIV Number 11
Shirley Andrews: Adding a Personal Note to History

Jennifer Clark applauds Shirley Andrews, who contributed to
Australian society on three distinctly different fronts

A colour portrait of Shirley Andrews. Courtesy of Victorian Folk Music Club
Portrait of Shirley Andrews
Courtesy of Victorian Folk Music Club

Shirley Andrews was a remarkable woman, there is no doubt about that. Born in Melbourne in 1915, she died in 2001 after a life of contribution to Australian culture and society through her involvement in dance and science and her activism in Aboriginal affairs. Her strength was research, her mantle left wing politics, and her legacy to Australian life enduring.

The National Library holds Shirley Andrew’s publications in its collections as tangible evidence of her contribution to dance and Aboriginal rights but it is in the Oral History Collection that the breadth and depth of her involvement is most evident and her wit, personality and vitality emerges so clearly. This collection contains a number of interviews with Shirley Andrews about her life and work. In combination, they introduce us to a woman of enormous energy, dedication and commitment.

The great advantage of the Oral History Collection is the human dimension it can add to our understanding of Australian history. In the case of Shirley Andrews, her life story tells us a lot more about Australian culture in the twentieth century than her writings alone. In these recordings we hear Andrews tell the funny stories that are rarely written into the historical record, explain her understanding of events and developments, and reveal something of the personalities behind the scenes. The flavours and complications of individual lives that are left out of the greater narrative remind us that it really is people who make history—with their interests, energies, idiosyncrasies and personal motivations.

A gelatin silver photograph of 'Gay Rosalinda 1946' by Jean Stewart. Performed by the Borovansky Ballet. From the Geoffrey Ingram archive of Australian Ballet
Jean Stewart (b. 1921)
Gay Rosalinda 1946
Performed by the Borovansky Ballet
gelatin silver photograph;
11.2 x 23.5 cm
In Geoffrey Ingram archive of Australian ballet
Pictures Collection,
nla.pic-an24231798

Shirley Andrews grew up in Melbourne, the daughter of a working mother. Her father died of the Spanish flu just after World War I. She was a well-educated, middle-class girl with an intellectual bent and a love of ballet that developed early, when she studied under Edouard Borovansky. Although his training was classical, she was also introduced to the folk styles of Europe and so appreciated the importance of traditional dance even then.

A gelatin sivler photograph of the 'National Folk Festival Canberra: Australian Pioneer Dancers Display on the Piazza, Easter 1997' by Brendan Bell
Brendan Bell
National Folk Festival Canberra: Australian Pioneer
Dancers Display on the Piazza, Easter 1997

1 of 290 gelatin silver photographs;
16.0 x 21.0 cm. or smaller
Pictures Collection, nla.pic-an12549243-219
Cover reproduced from The Royal Minuet, written and composed by George Mahon. Papers of Shirley Andrews; Manuscript Collection MS Acc03/3
Cover reproduced from The Royal Minuet,
written and composed by George Mahon.
Papers of Shirley Andrews;
Manuscript Collection MS Acc03/3

In the 1940s Andrews worked with one of Boravansky’s leading dancers, Margaret Walker, in the Unity Dance Group—a group which not only began to explore Australian dance traditions but did so within the context of left wing politics. Margaret Walker was interested in the concept of using dance to explore social and political issues, to promote peace and to encourage international understanding. Her choreography, like that of Borovansky, combined the features of classical ballet and folk dance. This appealed to Shirley Andrews who appreciated the heritage of folk and who was too tall to become a leading classical ballerina.

Andrews learnt dance as what she called a ‘working girl’, in evening classes held after working hours. By day she worked as a bio-chemist at a time when few women even considered pursuing a career, and especially not in science. As a schoolgirl she was advised that of all the sciences, bio-chemistry, as an emerging field, would give her the best chances of employment. Women were finding work in that field, where they could not in industrial chemistry. Shirley Andrews graduated from the University of Melbourne in 1937, one of only four women in her class, and took a job at CSIRO as a scientific information officer. This position gave her experience in research techniques that she then employed to great effect in her after-hours activities.

Unlike other women in the workforce, she enjoyed equal pay at CSIRO and so was able to save (she explained that there wasn’t much to spend her money on in the immediate postwar years anyway). When CSIRO began to restructure, she took the opportunity to try something new and used her savings to travel to the World Youth Festival in Berlin with the Unity Dance Group. Margaret Walker also invited the activist for Aboriginal rights, Faith Bandler, to join the group. Together, they performed a prepared program that examined issues of racial discrimination and, afterwards, toured communist Europe in smaller groups.

Shirley Andrews was a communist but she speaks of herself as being politically conservative, thinking of communism not so much as a means to revolution but rather as a vehicle for social justice and reform. Because of her communism ASIO became interested in her and established a file. She was followed around Melbourne, her activities were monitored and her friends and acquaintances observed. ASIO knew where she went, where she lived, what vehicle she drove and even when she went on holidays. They knew when she applied for the position of bio-chemist at Royal Park Mental Hospital in 1953. The Public Service Board decided that she could only be employed as a warder’s assistant in the laboratory and not as the bio-chemist but the notification to that effect was received too late: the appointment had already been made and demotion would have amounted to a breach of contract. So Andrews kept her job and worked at the hospital from 1953 to 1977. During that time she made an important discovery about the psychiatric effects of bromureides. Many disoriented patients admitted into the hospital were taking preparations containing bromureides not realising that the bromine was accumulating in the blood and exacerbating mental dysfunction.

Cover of Take your Partners: Traditional Social Dancing in Colonial Australia, by Shirley Andrews (Melbourne: Victorian Folk Music Club, 1974)
‘Life on the Goldfield—A Diggers Ball’. Illustration used for the cover of Two Hundred Dancing Years and How to Celebrate Them with a Colonial Ball by Shirley Andrews and Peter Ellis ([Melbourne]: Australian BicentennialAuthority, 1988). Papers of Shirley Andrews; Manuscript Collection, MS Acc03/3
Cover of Take your Partners:
Traditional Social Dancing in
Colonial Australia
, by Shirley Andrews
(Melbourne: Victorian Folk Music
Club, 1974)
‘Life on the Goldfield—A Diggers Ball’
Illustration used for the cover of Two Hundred Dancing Years and How to Celebrate Them with a Colonial Ball by Shirley Andrews and Peter Ellis ([Melbourne]: Australian BicentennialAuthority, 1988)
Papers of Shirley Andrews; Manuscript Collection, MS Acc03/3

Although this was an important discovery, Shirley Andrews is best known as a folk dancer. Her book Take Your Partners is the classic text on Australian traditional dancing. She was a founding member of the Victorian Bush Music Club, the editor of its journal and a founding member and president of the Traditional Social Dance Association of Victoria. With Peter Ellis, she also wrote Two Hundred Dancing Years.

A black & white photograph of 'Rock Against Racism, Melbourne, March 1980' by Lyn McLeavy. From Aboriginal Rights Movement Collection, 1978–1980

Lyn McLeavy (b. 1948)
Rock Against Racism, Melbourne, March 1980
b&w photograph; 19.0 x 29.4 cm
Aboriginal Rights Movement Collection, 1978–1980
Pictures Collection, nla.pic-an23385905

Andrews was chair of the first National Folk Festival in Melbourne in 1967. This was patterned on the Newport Folk Festival in the United States of America and was a great success. Two weeks before the festival the organising committee realised a new venue had to be found in order to accommodate the large numbers of expected interstate visitors. In an oral history interview, Shirley Andrews tells how, in hat and gloves (to make a good impression), she went to see the principal of the Melbourne Teachers College to hire rooms. He agreed but, fearing folk dancers would be riotous, stipulated that police must be in attendance. Without a riot to quell, the police simply enjoyed the music. The crowd was so big and the event so popular that the performance rooms still weren’t big enough, forcing the dancers to appear upstairs and then immediately perform again downstairs for the flow-over crowd.

In 1994 Shirley Andrews received an OAM in recognition of her contribution to Australian dance. At the time of her death, aged almost 86, she was involved with Lucy Stockdale in reviving yet another selection of old quadrilles and cotillions.

This list of Andrews’ activities suggests a continuing and busy involvement with Australian dance but, more importantly, it confirms that she was at the forefront of the folk revival in Australia. In the 1950s and 1960s this was very important in stimulating interest in Australian culture and heritage, which, in its turn, contributed to the development of Australian nationalism. The folk movement grew to include music and dance collection, recording, publication and performance. Shirley Andrews researched the old dances, formulated steps, published dance forms, taught dancers, demonstrated revived dances and helped to promote the tradition to others. As a member of the Sydney Bush Music Club, I benefited from Shirley’s pioneering work and her book sits on my shelf today as it does, no doubt, on the shelves of other devotees to Australian traditional dance.

A black & white photograph of 'Aboriginal Tent Embassy, Victoria Park, University of Sydney, 2000' by Loui Seselja
Loui Seselja (b. 1948)
Aboriginal Tent Embassy, Victoria Park,

University of Sydney, 2000
Pictures Collection, nla.pic-an23218461

In another circle, Shirley Andrews was equally well known for her work as an activist for Aboriginal rights. For many years she was secretary of the Council for Aboriginal Rights (CAR), a Victorian group interested not in remedial Aboriginal welfare or amelioration so much as political activism for social change. As secretary, Andrews did a lot more than simply take minutes. When discrimination issues came before the CAR Committee she was the one to undertake copious correspondence—following the case, writing to newspapers, pestering government officials and informing others interested in Aboriginal affairs. Her letters were long, rich in information and sprinkled with wit and the odd, clever turn of phrase. She was the voice of CAR in its formative and most important years.

Andrews’ research skills were also employed to delve into the conditions of Aborigines across Australia, especially in regard to equal access to welfare payments and equal pay. She undertook and coordinated research into the status of Aborigines in each state for the Anti-Slavery Society in Britain so they could petition the United Nations. As no-one really knew how Aborigines fared under the law Australia-wide, Andrews undertook to examine all of the state acts and tabulate discrimination against Aborigines so differences and inconsistencies could be seen at a glance. The resulting document was then circulated to other groups as supporting evidence in favour of the 1967 referendum.

We can look at Shirley Andrews’ publications and acknowledge her pioneering research. We can read the list of organisations she belonged to or founded—she was known to be an office bearer in many of these. However, when we hear her speak about her life she adds a personal note to the story and reminds us that it is ordinary men and women like her, behaving in an extraordinary way, that have made our history.

JENNIFER CLARK is a member of the School of Classics, History and Religion at the University of New England, Armidale

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