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Oral history and folklore

Portrait of Steve Power being recorded, 1984
Description
Our Oral History and Folklore collection includes over 42,000 hours of recordings dating back to the 1950s. 1,000 hours of new interviews are added every year. You can listen to:
- Folklore recordings - traditional songs, dances, music, and stories
- Interviews with distinguished Australians - scientists, writers, artists, politicians and sports people
- Interviews with people who have lived through significant social trends and conditions - unemployment, the impact of child removals from families, the Depression, and migration to Australia.
Many interviews have transcripts or summaries and over 1,000 recordings are accessible online.
Highlights
- Interviews by Hazel de Berg - 1,290 recordings of interviews and readings dating from the 1950s of prominent Australian poets, artists, writers, composers, actors, academics, publishers, librarians, scientists, anthropologists, public servants and politicians.
- Folk music by John Meredith - over 500 recordings between 1953 and 1994 of traditional Australian folk music, songs, recitations, bush dance music, yarns and reminiscences. John Meredith was a foundation member of the Bushwhackers and helped form the Bush Music Club and the Australian Folklore Society.
- Bringing Them Home oral history project - These include over 300 interviews collected between 1998 and 2002 of Indigenous people and others, such as missionaries, police and administrators, involved in or affected by the process of child removals. Listen online to a selection of interviews.
- Forgotten Australians and Former Child Migrants project - interviews with people who were in institutional and out of home care as children. Listen online to a selection of interviews and register interest in being interviewed.
- Australian Paralympic stories - interviews with key people responsible for the growth and success of Paralympic sport in Australia. Listen online to Australian Paralympic stories
- Explore the National Library's digitised Oral History
