Collecting the Archives of Protest
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PROTEST! IMMIGRATION ANTI-CONSCRIPTION Archives from the REFORM University of Melbourne Verity Burgmann GROUP and Sean Scalmer Emily Were Suzanne Fairbanks Suzanne Fairbanks – PAGE 3 – PAGE 5 – PAGE 6 – PAGE 9 SPECIAL EDITION UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE ARCHIVES Wednesday 20 February 2013 Archives from the University of Melbourne deposits following union restructuring in INTRODUCTION the early 1990s.8 The theme of protest since the 1850s is central to these trade union collections, but these holdings proved beyond the scope of this exhibition.9 Less well known COLLECTING THE are the collections of the community- based organisations supporting protest campaigns, which were identified in part through their associations with archives of the labour movement. Key collections ARCHIVES OF PROTEST represented in the exhibition are those of the peace movement, critically the Katrina Dean Congress (later Campaign) for International Co-operation and Disarmament (CICD).10 N the June 1961 issue of the holdings of UMA, is not confined to records student learning and community action. Research interest in the peace collections University of Melbourne of student clubs and societies. UMA was There are remarkable cases too of scholarly was evident from the early 1980s. In student magazine Farrago established in June 1960 for two purposes: interests casting academics as witnesses to 1982, UMA’s annual workshop with the to preserve the archival records of the the major protest events of those years, such History Department, led by Professor Greg the university archivist, university and to build a broader research as French lecturer Stanley J. Scott’s study Dening, took the archives of the peace Frank Strahan, made a call to all collection. The papers of some professors leave in Paris during the student uprising of movement as its subject, resulting in a readers who might be holding the active in this period document not only May–June 1968.5 series of catalogues, interviews and student papers of student clubs and societies: ‘Have their roles in teaching and research but also In 1973 new sources on Victorian labour essays.11 you any Uni. Archives?’1 Among the first their contributions to reform and campaign history were brought to the attention of The photographic and poster collections to respond was the Students Representative organisations. This duality is most evident UMA through the research of Melbourne of the Communist Party of Australia Council,2 which would later play a central in cases where the arguments and forms history graduate Carlotta Kellaway.6 It was (CPA) are central to this exhibition. role in student protests at the university. of campaign action were underpinned by previously assumed that the Australian Initial instalments, mostly pamphlets, Many records of political and campaign academic expertise. The roles of economist National University’s Noel Butlin Archives circulars and campaign material, came to clubs and societies were transferred to the Kenneth Rivett and journalist and English would serve as the main repository for union UMA in late 1975, while another tranche University of Melbourne Archives (UMA) academic Hume Dow in the Immigration records nationwide. But some Melbourne of archival material and ephemeral in the second half of the 1970s. These Reform Group are examples. So too is organisations seemed reluctant to let publications followed the demise and collections are among the inspirations the role of architectural historian George their records go to Canberra; others were deregistration of the CPA in 1990. The for the exhibition Protest! Archives from Tibbits3 in the environmental and heritage reportedly destroying records. Proximity and photographic collection of peace activist the University of Melbourne, held in the campaigns of the Carlton Association.4 direct contact with UMA staff convinced a John Ellis chronicles anti-war and other Baillieu Library on the Parkville campus. Recently acquired university records show number of Victorian unions to transfer their activism from the anti-Vietnam War An exhibition on protest in the period this campaign as the subject of a student records to UMA from the mid–1970s.7 These campaign of the 1960s to recent times. around 1960 to 1980, drawn from the project, triangulating academic expertise, acquisitions were consolidated by a wave of CONTINUED Page 2 Gay Student THE UNIVERSITY liberation activism ASSEMBLY Suzanne Fairbanks and Graham Willett Alice Gibbons Katie Wood Katie Wood – PAGE 11 – PAGE 12 – PAGE 13 – PAGE 14 ABOUT THE AUTHORS PAGE 16 Page 2 — PROTEST! Archives from the University of Melbourne Badge, Black rights = Black land rights, diameter 4.3 cm. Reference no. 2010.0011, folder 1, Victorian Women’s Liberation and Lesbian Feminist Archives, University of Melbourne Archives. PROTEST! Archives from the University of Melbourne An exhibition held in the Leigh Scott Gallery, Baillieu Library, University of Melbourne 20 February to 2 June 2013 curated by Suzanne Fairbanks and Katie Wood Published 2013 by the University of Melbourne Archives John Ellis (photographer), May Day March, Melbourne, 1971, 9.0 x 13.0 cm (detail). 120–122 Dawson Street Reference no. 1999.0081, UMA/I/91 JE 065 11a, John Ellis Collection, University of Melbourne Archives. Brunswick VIC 3056 Australia 03 8344 4122 • FROM Page 1 1960s and 1970s marked by events such The advantage of UMA as both a place for www.lib.unimelb.edu.au/ The poster collections of Melbourne history as the 1965 University of Sydney freedom the preservation of historical records about collections/archives/ graduate, student activist and later mayor ride, the 1966 Wave Hill pastoral strike, the the university and a research collection [email protected] of the inner-Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy 1967 referendum campaign and the 1972 is the ability to document connections Ralph McLean, and previous UMA archivist Aboriginal Tent Embassy, to name but a between the university and the community Copyright © the authors and the and labour historian Andrew Reeves, add to few. As archivists we need to engage with in reflecting on and addressing wider issues. University of Melbourne 2013 the striking visual aspects of the exhibition. the creators and custodians of collections University of Melbourne Archives is well The women’s movement was an early that tell the story of Indigenous rights and placed as an organisation to preserve those All material appearing in this contributor to UMA’s collections, and in protest movements, to find new models of connections and, as a research collection, to publication is copyright and cannot be reproduced without the sufficient quantities for the Archives Board collecting so that these important records respond to new directions for collecting the written permission of the publisher of Management to consider seeking from can be preserved. archives of protest in a digital age. and the relevant author. the National Council of Women a grant UMA holds evidence of solidarity with to catalogue these holdings. For example, the Indigenous rights movement in the 1 Frank Strahan, ‘Have you any Uni. Archives?’, papers relating to the Women’s Electoral forms of posters, badges and photographs. Farrago, 22 June 1961, p. 7. All reasonable effort has been 2 Reference no. 1961.0030, University of Melbourne made to contact the copyright Lobby’s (WEL) crucial 1972 federal But one voice in the exhibition evokes this Students Representative Council Collection, owners. If you are a copyright election campaign came to UMA through the above all: a recording of American singer University of Melbourne Archives. auspices of WEL’s University of Melbourne and civil rights activist Paul Robeson’s 3 Reference no. 1980.0095, George Tibbits Collection, owner and have not been in University of Melbourne Archives. correspondence with the university graduates and other associates as early as appearance at a meeting of peace workers in 4 Frank Strahan was also a member of the association 12 please contact us. 1974. Pamphlets and documents of the Melbourne, introduced by ‘peace pastor’ and the collection followed: reference no. 1984.0092, more radical women’s liberation movement the Reverend Alf Dickie.13 The year was Carlton Association Collection, University of Melbourne Archives. Editor: Belinda Nemec trickled in from the mid–1970s, relating 1960 and the meeting was well attended by 5 Reference no. 1990.0006, Stanley Scott Collection, Design: Janet Boschen for example to equal-pay activist Zelda an enthusiastic if polite audience. Robeson University of Melbourne Archives. d’Aprano. These small deposits were later in his engaging speech and unaccompanied 6 Carlotta Kellaway, ‘The Melbourne Trades Hall Printer: Aegis Security Printing Council: Its origins and political significance, joined by a substantial collection gathered by song referred to issues of racism and civil 1855–1889’, PhD thesis, La Trobe University, 1973. ISBN 978 0 646 59407 1 the Victorian Women’s Liberation Archive, rights for Australia’s Indigenous people.14 7 Of the 37 unions that were approached, 28 agreed which began as a reading group in 1983. Models of community archiving and to transfer their archives for loan or copying, or expressed interest in doing so in the future. The eventual transfer to the University of partnerships with collecting institutions 8 The trade union collections are discoverable in the Front page header image based on John Melbourne of this collection, which contains are being reinvigorated by challenges of online resource Australian Trade Union Archives, Ellis (photographer), Protest against a plenitude of banners, posters, T-shirts and the digital age, when the very nature of www.atua.org.au. Premier of Victoria Jeff Kennett, badges, resulted from a partnership forged protest is being shaped by communications 9 These were well represented in a 1984 exhibition, Melbourne, 1992, 9.0 x 13.0 cm (detail). documented in Andrew Reeves and Jennifer Feeney, in 2000 with the keepers of the successor technologies of the Internet, social media Peace, progress, amity: Trade union banners and Reference no.