13th Congress of the International Society for Folk Narrative Research

Presentation Abstracts

YORK, Barry

The Australian National Library and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australia

The National Library of Australia commemorates its centenary in 2001. As the preserver of the nation's memory, it is appropriate that in the year that also marks the centenary of federation, the National Library has in progress two major projects of importance to Aboriginal Australians. The most significant oral history project ever undertaken in Australia is the Bringing Them Home project, which the Commonwealth Government has funded to the value of AUD$1.6 million. My presentation will focus on a separate project, the National Library's Annotated Guide to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples. The National Library has taken stock of its wider holdings on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples by compiling, over a number of years, an annotated directory to its special collections of relevance to that subject. The directory draws on primary sources in oral history, manuscripts and pictorial collections. Both projects involve a national institution creating and/or making available sources that are vital to the interpretation and re-interpretation of history. My paper will discuss the practicalities, problems and progress of the Annotated Guide.