Australia’s Federal Record: A review of Archives Act 1983 (Australian Law Reform Commission Report No 85, 1998) notes that
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have had a significant but troubled relationship with recordkeeping by governments, churches and other organisations and individuals… At best, many of these records now seem intrusive and patronising. At worst, they can be cruel, malicious and misleading… yet the records created by Europeans are also of great importance to Indigenous people… [They] provide vital evidence on issues such as land rights and the reunification of families from whom children were removed forcibly.
This page, as part of the Archives of Australia network, offers opportunities for the promotion and protection of collections of value to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. It provides annotated links to websites which provide information about archival resources relating to Indigenous Australians under the following headings:
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Protocols for Libraries, Archives and Information Services were developed by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Library and Information Resource Network and published in 1995. The protocols are intended to guide libraries, archives and information services in appropriate ways to interact with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in the communities which the organisations serve, and to handle materials with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander content.
The Australian Society of Archivists in May 1996 issued a Policy statement on Archival Services and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples which outlines the role archives and archivists in Australia can play in assisting the process of reconciliation with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. The ASA also has an Indigenous Issues Special Interest Group.
On 5 March 1997 a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for access to open period Commonwealth records by NT Aboriginal people was signed by the Director-General of the Australian Archives and representatives of the Northern Territory Stolen Generations Combined Reference Groups, the KARU Aboriginal and Islander Child Care Agency and the Central Australian Aboriginal Child Care Agency (CAACCA). Information about this MOU is given in a National Archives Fact Sheet .
The report of the 1988 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody included as its recommendation 53 that the Commonwealth, State and Territory governments provide access to all government archival records pertaining to the family and community histories of Aboriginal people. The records of the Royal Commission are in the custody of the National Archives of Australia and both a fact sheet (number 112) and a guide to the records 'Aboriginal Deaths in Custody - The Royal Commission and Its Records, 1987–1991' is available.
Bringing Them Home, the Report of the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families which was released in April 1997 contains a chapter specifically devoted to ‘Access to Personal and Family Records’. This examines the difficulties in the way of Indigenous people seeking to trace separated family members through archival research and makes 9 recommendations to help overcome these difficulties. The response of the Australian Catholic Social Welfare Commission to this report, including information about records held by Catholic agencies is available on the Catholic Welfare Australia website at 'A Piece of the Story - national directory of records of Catholic organisations caring for children separated from families'. The National Archives of Australia has a fact sheet about its project to index the names of Indigenous people in Commonwealth records which is part of the Government’s response to the Report as well as another fact sheet about how to access the index (number 175). Another part of this response is the National Library of Australia’s Bringing Them Home Oral History Project.
The Victorian Koorie Records Taskforce, in association with the Public Record Office of Victoria, has developed 'Finding your story' website.
Australia’s Federal Record: A review of Archives Act 1983 which was released in May 1998 contains a chapter specifically devoted to ‘Records relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’. This chapter addresses a range of issues and makes recommendations relating to the ownership, custody, appraisal and disposal of records and access to them; consultation between archives and Indigenous people; and the training of Indigenous archivists.
The Cultural Ministers Council publication Records of National Cultural Significance: Indigenous Australians contains details and descriptions of records in more than fifty-five institutions Australia-wide.
The Register of Australian Archives and Manuscripts (RAAM) contains records describing non-government archives held in Australian archival repositories and libraries. It includes a subject search facility. A search for ‘aborigines’ and 'aboriginal' reveals nearly 600 entries.
The National Archives of Australia’s website provides an overview of its holdings of records relating to Indigenous people. This provides links to database entries for relevant government agencies and series. The National Archives has also issued fact sheets on records relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, records relating to the Royal Commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody, the Bringing Them Home indexing project, British nuclear tests at Maralinga, Albert Namatjira, the pastoral industry in the NT, the 1967 Referendum and Bishop Francis Xavier Gsell MSC. Its photographic database lists nearly 6000 captions to Australian Overseas Information Service photographs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
The National Library of Australia’s Readers’ Guide number 30, Resources on Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander People, includes an overview of manuscript and oral history holdings. This includes links to listings of the papers of Neville Bonner and Barry Christophers. A guide to Eddie Mabo's papers is also available. The Library’s website contains Staff papers relating to indigenous cultures including The Chamberlain and Mabo Papers: Case Studies of Personal Papers of National Symbolic Significance, Making History: Acquiring the Mabo Papers, and 'White Australia has a Black History': Sources for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies in the National Library of Australia
The Australian War Memorial’s photographic database has over 470 images of Indigenous Australians and its private records database lists 11 relevant collections.
The website of State Records New South Wales includes an extensive and detailed Guide to New South Wales State Archives Relating to Aboriginal People.
The New South Wales Parliamentary Archives guide to Parliamentary Archives Relating to Aboriginal People has been removed from the Parliamentary website.
A search under ‘aborig*’ in the State Library of New South Wales’ picman database reveals over 3340 entries of pictures and manuscripts of relevance to Indigenous people.
State Records, South Australia provides an online overview of its holdings of records relating to Aboriginal people. It includes information about guides, research kits and its name index as well as copies of a few records and pictures.
The Northern Territory Archives Service has a List of record holdings relating to Aboriginal people which lists entries under the headings of personal records, including photographs and oral history recordings, records of non- government organisations such as societies, clubs, companies, churches and political organisations, and records of government agencies.
The Library and Information Service of Western Australia's Aboriginal Resources in the Battye Library & State Records Office lists oral history interviews with Aboriginal people and Western Australian Government record series relating to them. of government agencies.
A subject search under ‘aboriginal’ in the Directory of Archives in Australia lists 20 archives with relevant holdings.
The Australian Institute for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies maintains an Aboriginal Studies Electronic Data Archive. This focuses on information about Australian Indigenous languages, with nearly 300 languages represented. However, it also holds other information on Indigenous topics such as items relating to the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, Land Claim transcripts.
The Anthropology Department of the University of Western Australia has an Archive of Native Title Claims which is a collection of legal authorities and documents relating to the Australian High Court's Mabo decision and the Federal Native Title Act. It has not been updated since June 1996.
For all other information contact the National Archives of Australia.
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The world’s largest island
nation, Australia’s vast coastline and splendid beaches made surf swimming popular,
though risky. The surf life-saving reel, designed by Lyster Ormsby, was first
demonstrated on 23 December 1906 at Bondi Beach. Two weeks later it was first
used to rescue two schoolboys swept out in a rip - twenty-two years later one
of those boys, Charles Kingsford-Smith, made the first aeroplane flight across
the Pacific Ocean.