International Archives Day - 9 June Archives: Governance, Memory and Heritage

VIC Branch Newsletter Report by VIC Branch Committee MAY 2018 25 MAY 2018

THIS ISSUE CONTAINS: • Notice of ASA VIC Branch seminar • Archives: Governance, Memory and Heritage - Richard Foy, Archives New Zealand • Archives: Governance, Memory and Heritage - Dr Valerie Johnson, The National Archives • Canadian refections on Archives: Governance, Memory and Heritage - Andrew Horrall, Library and Archives Canada • Capturing and sharing Victoria’s memory through the archives - Justine Heazlewood, PROV • ALGA - collecting, preserving and animating our very queer histories - Angela Bailey, ALGA • Finding delights in a 19th Century Inwards Correspondence Collection - Vivien Newton, Bendigo Regional Archives Centre • New grad chat with Suzy Goss • University Archives Special Interest Group seminar - Kim Burrell, Victoria University • 2018 Sir Rupert Hamer Records Management Awards • Call for Papers - Provenance: online journal Cropped image: Identity portrait of Wong Jim from Alien Re-entry records, 1915 / Photographer: Unknown / Source: Archives New • Upcoming events Zealand

NOTICE OF ASA VIC BRANCH SEMINAR MAY 2018 ARCHIVES AND IMPERIALISM

Date Tuesday 29 May 2018 Time Drinks and nibbles 6 - 6:30pm, Seminar 6:30 - 7:30pm Cost Free event, however, a $5 donation is requested, if possible, to cover drinks and nibbles Venue RMIT University Swanston Street Campus Megafex Room 2 Cropped image: Book cover, Displaced Archives, edited by James Building 8, Level 4, Room 13 Lowry, published in 2017 by Routledge 360 Swanston Street, Melbourne Seminar James Lowry is a lecturer at the Liverppol University Centre for Archive Studies and Chair of the Association of Commonwealth Archivists and Records Managers. Before joining the university, he was Deputy Director of the International Records Management Trust, leading records and archives projects across Africa, Europe and the Caribbean. His recent publications include Displaced Archives, an edited collection published by Routledge in 2017.

In this seminar, James will discuss British colonial recordkeeping and its efects on records and archives in the post-colonial context, before looking at the particular problem of archival displacement during decolonisation.

Please note, this is a special event, hence the changed date and time to usual Victorian Branch events. RSVP https://www.archivists.org.au/events/event/victorian-branch-seminar-archives-and-imperialism

VIC Branch Meetings/Seminars First Wednesday of every month (except January and special events). Archives: Governance, Memory and Heritage - Richard Foy, Chief Archivist and General Manager, Archives New Zealand My grandfather was an alien. Not from a distant planet in a neighbouring solar system or a galaxy far, far away, but from rural mainland China. He arrived in Auckland, New Zealand, on 28 July 1907 as a lowly steerage-class passenger aboard the steamer SS Victoria from Sydney, and not at warp speed as the trusted helmsman of an interstellar starship. He was an alien, not of this planet, but of this new land of strange faces, foreign languages and inscrutable customs. He didn’t ask to be taken to our leader, but instead was unceremoniously instructed to give his fngerprints to the border authorities and pay the obligatory £100 poll tax that was levied against all Chinese immigrants entering New Zealand in that day. My grandfather, Wong Jim, remained an alien until he died in 1955.

111 years after Wong Jim was declared an alien of this country, I fnd myself as the Chief Archivist and General Manager of Archives New Zealand, the national archive of his foreign home. My grandfather, the itinerant market gardener, would no doubt be bemused to fnd that his grandson, whom he would never meet in his lifetime, is the statutory keeper of the very bureaucratic records - now public archives - that framed his ofcal status as an alien in Poll Tax certifcate butt recording immigration details of Wong Jim, Chinese New Zealand. It’s a bittersweet irony to me, the proud Chinese- alien / Source: Archives New Zealand Kiwi that the only documentary evidence of my grandfather’s alien life and existence in my birth country, are due to the shameful anti-Chinese immigration policies of colonial New Zealand, enshrined in statue under the Chinese Immigrants Act, 1881. But life, and archives, can be full of ironies.

This story of my whakapapa draws together the grand notions of Governance, Memory and Heritage from the public world of archives, and connects them to my very personal place in the Universe.

I never knew Wong Jim, as a beloved grandfather or as an honoured ancestor, because I was born almost two decades after his demise. I have no personal memory or recollection of him, but through the bureaucratic instruments that are now held safely in our national archive - the Chinese poll tax certifcate butts with his fngerprints and Chinese signature and the Alien Re-entry certifcates with his identity portraits - I am able to ‘remember’ him, even if it’s but a faint impression of who he was.

In those archival records I see a man of 31 years who looks uncannily (and unfortunately) like my older brother Colin, and whom at age 49 is my dear father as I still picture him so clearly. And, after growing up as a self-efacing New Zealand- born Chinese boy trying so desperately to ft into an anglophile Kiwi culture, I’m fnally getting comfortable with accepting that I do possess Chinese identity and heritage, despite having a better grasp of Te Reo than my mother’s Cantonese.

Wong Jim’s records, along with the poll tax certifcates of thousands of other Chinese men, and few women, are now an important reminder of the discriminatory immigration policies of a less enlightened New Zealand. The records and evidence of their alienation serve as our nation’s memory of a collective shame, but also connect recent generations of New Zealand Chinese, like myself, to a distinct heritage and culture from a distant land.

More recently, in my role as Chief Archivist, I’ve come to understand the deeper value of our archives beyond just being ‘memories’ of cultural heritage. I’ve seen them as holding the evidence by which past governments are held accountable for their policies and actions. In 2002, the New Zealand government, under Prime Minister Helen Clarke, formally apologised to the New Zealand Chinese community for having forced payment of poll tax from 1881 until 1944. Thanks, Wong Jim! And than you, New Zealand government bureaucracy and your damned efcient public recordkeeping! Dr Valerie Johnson, Director of Research and Collections, The National Archives, UK Archives: Governance, Memory and Heritage

So: ‘Archives: Governance, Memory and Heritage’. This was the title given to me - and I was to interpret it as I wished. I looked at the title. There was an obvious subject staring back at me - the importance of governance in the management of records, in the holding and use, preservation and access to records which document memory and comprise our written heritage. In England, on 25 May 2018, a new legal framework, the General Data Protection Regulations or GDPR, will come into force. These regulations reinforce the current Data Protection regulations, and lock into law greater responsibilities for those processing and using personal data alongside greater rights to data privacy and consent for the individuals who are the subjects. Archives even have a special mention: a dispensation to enable them to keep data and records that constitute “archiving in the public interest”. Image: Access between East and West Berlin, 1962 / Photographer: unknown / Source: The National Archives, FO 371/163600 (2) I could have written about that. But it seemed that that would be the predictable thing to write about, that kind of governance. And I didn’t want to write the obvious. In addition, it seemed to me on refection that is the very ungovernability of archives that is one of their greatest strengths.

What do I mean by that? Much has been written about the role of archives in repressive regimes, controlling people through their documents. Yet it is important to remember that it is not the archives or records themselves that are doing this, but people using records to faciliatate abuse and control that is the issue. And this is not a pedantic distinction. Because it seems to me that it is these very same archives or records, which, later on, become the means to bring these people to justice, to provide evidence for abuses, to be the key to accountability, and to be often the means - sometimes the only means - by which victims of repression and abuse can recover memories. In this way, the records themselves are actually subversive: initially silent witness to events, at worse, the means to support repression and abuse, over time, they take on the opposite function, to become the very weapons with which to fght that repression and abuse.

As such they also become dangerous: witness the Stasi fles, which during the Communist regime in East Germany, were products of repression and tools with which to prosecute and punish. When the tide turned, the records turned too, into a witness against their creators; and those same fles, husbanded and carefully stored, were suddenly something that needed to be destroyed, too dangerous to exist. Many were shredded, but even these survived, and so-called Puzzle Women work to reconstitute the shredded pieces back into whole sheets, so important are they as witness, memory and heritage.

For me, this subversive, dangerous nature of archives - this ungovernable nature of archives - is one of the main reasons that archives are so important. Because archives speak ‘the truth’ - and that too is a dangerous thing to say. In this world of postmodernism, what is truth? I know there is no single truth, no whole truth and certainly not ‘nothing but the truth’ in archives, but archives certainly provide evidence, stand as witness, even if only to say, somewhat paradoxically, this is a record of bigotry, or of falseness.

Truth and trust are close bedfellows, and Trust is one of the central themes running through the UK Government’s new strategic vision for archives - Archives Unlocked - launched in March 2017. It refects the hugely important role of archives in underpinning accountability and transparency in our society. A second theme articulated in Archives Unlocked is Openness, deeply related. Archives Unlocked was co-created and is co-owned by the archives sector across England, a hugely diverse sector of over 2,500 archives of all types. It is interesting to see re-emerge in the digital age, through these themes of Trust and Openness, one of the oldest tenets of archival theory: informational or evidential value.

But archives can only manifest this evidential value if they survive, and that is where we need governance to support the creation, proper use, preservation and access that allows archives to be the ungovernable and dangerous selves that I value so much. So for me, good governance is what allows ungovernability - that is when archives are working at their best to support rights and values. © Crown copyright ASA NSW Branch Newsletter – August 2016 3 Cropped image: Girl carrying her baby sister in her mother’s parka, Iqaluit, Nunavut [Napatchie carrying Paujungi - identifed through Project Naming], 1960 / Photographer: Rosemary Gilliat Eaton / Source: Library and Archives Canada, e010975474 Andrew Horrall, Senior Archivist, Library and Archives Canada Canadian refections on Archives: Governance, Memory and Heritage

On behalf of Library and Archives Canada (LAC), I am delighted to share some thoughts about how the institution is engaging with the concepts of Governance, Memory and Heritage to meet evolving societal expectations and new technologies.

LAC is mandated to identify and acquire the archival records of Canada’s federal government, in order to facilitate efective information management, and preserve the nation’s history. No record can be disposed of without LAC’s permission, but identifying the ones with archival value across 175 federal institutions has always posed enormous challenges. Therefore, LAC staf developed new ways of working with departments and broke appraisal and disposal into logical steps. Thanks to this approach, this (Canadian) spring LAC put disposition authorisations in place for the entire federal government for the frst time. We celebrated this new governance structure with cake, though there is still work ahead as the disposition program rolls out.

LAC is an important place where ideas about Canadian history and society are shaped. So we are very proud of our frm and growing commitment to Reconciliation, or the renewal of Canada’s relationship with its Indigenous peoples, and the revitalisation of Indigenous cultures and languages. In 2017, LAC received government funding to support the digitisation of existing Indigenous documentary heritage material, and to support Indigenous communities in the digitisation of Indigenous language recordings.

These initiatives are being developed and implemented with the guidance of an Indigenous Advisory Circle. LAC is actively engaging with, and listening to what communities need and how we can support them. We are also hiring Indigenous staf to help build capacity in their communities. This new governance model, in which LAC listens rather than leads, acknowledges that we can only understand, preserve, and make Indigenous heritage accessible in historically accurate and culturally appropriate ways through meaningful engagement and collaboration.

In the frst initiative, LAC will provide free online access to unrestricted holdings of all kinds that contain First Nations, Inuit, and Métis Nation related content. In the second, LAC is providing support and expertise to Indigenous communities in their eforts to preserve and revitalise First Nations, Méthis Nation and Inuit languages by preserving and providing access to Indigenous oral recordings. We are collaborating with communities to improve existing access tools, and develop new ASA NSW Branch Newsletter – August 2016 4 Continues on page 5 Continues from page 4

Cropped image: Hockey Australia vs. New Zealand, 1952 / Photographer: unknown / Source: Library and Archives Canada, PA-184724 engagement, learning and crowdsourcing applications. These will empower Indigenous peoples to enrich the meaning and context of records by transcribing, tagging, translating, describing and correcting descriptions.

We have also revitalised Project Naming, an initiative we frst launched in 2002, that includes approximately 10,000 images from our collection featuring unidentifed Inuit, First Nations and Métis Nation individuals, activities and places. By working with the communities, we have recorded information provided by Indigenous peoples about thousands of photographs. Their contributions have helped members of communities connect with their past and greatly enriched our descriptive records.

A more traditional memory project is ending this year. The names Gallipoli and Vimy Ridge resonate in our respective countries as the First World War’s key events. Canadian interest in the war has increased in recent years, as it passes from lived memory to history. LAC has been digitising the individual personnel records of the men and women who served in Canadian uniform. The project will fnish in time for Remembrance Day, the 100th anniversary of the armistice that brought fghting to an end. The extent of these records conveys the scale of Canada’s wartime eforts - 644,000 men and women in uniform, leading to an estimated 32,000,000 digitised images, or almost 617 terabytes of data.

The rich details in the fles document the experiences of individual men and women. The records can also show how Canadians and Australians served alongside one another. Like Nursing Sister Mary Munro, from a small town in Ontario, who tended to Australians in the Dardanelles and is bured among them in a cemetery on ANZAC Street on the Greek island of Lemnos.

The high demand for these records illustrates the vital role archives play in commemorating heritage. In 2017, Canada celebrated its 150th birthday with events throughout the country that heightened public interest in history. LAC has been meeting this growing demand for several years by making our services and collections accessible in new ways.

We have embraced social media, while also strengthening our physical presence across the country. In 2017, we opened two new public service points - alongside a national museum in Halifax, and at the main branch of Vancouver’s public library. We are also collaborating with the Ottawa Public Library to design a shared building, set to open in 2021, that will support new ways of making our collections known.

In order to draw attention to the importance of Canada’s documentary heritage collections, we collaborated with the University of Toronto Library to have the archival collection and private research library of Marshall McLuhan inscribed on the UNESCO Memory of World Register. Then we worked with national partners to launch a Canadian Register, to celebrate Canada’s key heritage collections.

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We have reanimated our existing main building in Ottawa by holding interviews with public fgures, screening historic Canadian flms, mounting exhibitions relating to comic books, self-portraits and the Métis Nation. A few weeks ago, we had a major exhibition of new acquisitions. Our exhibitions travel across the country, while in Ottawa LAC material is displayed in dedicated rooms in Canada’s National Gallery and Museum of History.

Finally, we are actively capturing the public’s expertise through our DigiLab, where people can digitise and describe LAC collections, and the CoLab crowdsourcing tool that allows people to transcribe, translate, tag and add keywords to digitised documents.

This short list shows that LAC, like similar institutions throughout the world, has become dynamic and foward-looking. Though we are stewards of the past, we are adapting constantly to support rich redefnitions of history, memory and heritage because, as the American poet E.E. Cummings wrote, ‘tomorrow is our permanent address’.

Cropped image: Abandoned 7 Eleven, Coburg, Beyond Bluestone exhibition, 2018 / Photographer: Andrew May / Source: Public Record Ofce Victoria (PROV) Justine Heazlewood, Director and Keeper of Public Records, PROV Capturing and sharing Victoria’s memory through archives

International Archives Day is a great opportunity for us all to refect on the work that we do to preserve the memory of the people, communities and institutions we live and work in.

Those outside our industry often presume that the work of archivists is solely focused on the past. Of course in truth, we know that our work is also about the future. The future accessibility and use of the public records we preserve, the future practices of making and capturing records, and the future of the records themselves. The decisions we make today about what we capture and how we capture it may have profound impacts on those that come after us and I think as archivists we are all alive to that terrifying responsibility.

Earlier this year Public Record Ofce Victoria (PROV) completed two interesting projects which refect the relationship between the past, the present and the future.

Our archive holds more than 100 kilometres of Victorian government records dating from the 1830s right up to the present day. Our collection includes records of shipping, criminal trials, prisons, premiers and governors, royal commissions, wills and probates, to name just a few. Our collection also includes an impressive number of photographs taken as part of government business.

Many of these photographs document Victoria’s built environment; some buildings and structures that no longer exist, others that were controversial public works when being planned but soon became success stories after their creation. Federation ASA NSW Branch Newsletter – August 2016 6 Continues on page 7 Continues from page 6

Cropped image: Flagstaf Station Tunnel construction, State Transport Authority, c. 1980 / Photographer: unknown / Source: PROV VPRS 8609 P33 Unit 13 Item 78, photograph featured in Beyond Bluestone exhibition Square is an example that comes to mind.

We recently embarked on an exhibition project to put on display some of the photographs of Melbourne’s built heritage, focused on development projects which were transformational for the City. As part of the project we asked Melbourne street photographers to refect on their own understanding of built heritage and send in their photographs of present-day buildings that they feel raise questions about the buildings we use and inhabit. What’s emerged from this project is a fascinating display of Victoria’s built heritage where images of past Melbourne sit alongside those from the present, in an exhibition called Beyond Bluestone, displayed in our gallery for the community to enjoy. The present-day photographs submitted will become part of our archive once the exhibition closes and travel forward in time to possibly raise diferent questions and pose diferent understandings.

This is just one recent example of how records of the past can be used to engage with people in the present. But we’re not just about showcasing the records already in our collection. We’re planning for the records of the future too.

Our recent Technology Assisted Appraisal of Email Proof of Concept is an example of a project designed to help us understand and deal with one of the major emerging issues of the digital age: the sheer volume of records.

Emails are a vital part of doing business. In years past, important correspondence was paper-based, and this paper record informed decision making that shaped our State’s developments. Photographs (like the ones featured in our exhibition) were printed or kept as flms or slides and (relatively) easily preserved. Now however, everything is digital, and routine business correspondence predominantly takes place over email. Emails enable exhange of ideas, enactment of decisions and support collaboration between an increasingly dispersed workforce. In government, emails also provide evidence essential for accountability and need to be preserved as public records into the future.

Over twenty years of routine storage of email has resulted in an unwieldy volume of Victorian government emails amounting to 67,000 tapes and 28 petabytes of content. These emails have not been appraised or classifed. And every day the emails remain unmanaged, the costs and risks associated with future management, storage and retrieval increase.

We’ve been working with the Victorian government technology provider, CenITex, on a project to better manage and classify this large volume of email records. Our recently completed Proof of Concept project is just the frst step.

The project involved testing the capabilities of an eDiscovery tool to analyse and faciliate disposal of large volumes of emails, including: • An initial assessment of a sample email data set ASA NSW Branch Newsletter – August 2016 Continues on page 8 7 Continues from page 7

• Identifying duplicates within the data set • Identifying low value versus high value records within the data set • Assigning contextual information to the de-duplicated set • A manual review of results to determine level of accuracy

The eDiscovery tool was successful in allowing us to identify emails eligible for disposal, as well as assessing and classifying at a high level the reamaining emails with between 98% and 100% accuracy.

Of a sample of 4.6 million emails, we found that 43% were duplicates and 7% were of low value (not ofcial records). So up to 50% of the sample was identifed for potential disposal.

The tool allowed us to apply additional metadata to every email in the set, enabling easier identifcation of emails at a high level, facilitating future decision making around retention.

We found that an eDiscovery tool can be used to reduce email volumes and provides a way to manage what might seem like an unmanageable ‘lump’ of data. This is valuable information we can now pass onto government agencies. The goal is that in years to come emails will be stored securely yet in a more managed and accessible way, ensuring transparency and availability for government and the public, and maybe even photographers to learn from and engage with in decades to follow. Angela Bailey, President, Australian Lesbian and Gay Archives (ALGA) ALGA - collecting, preserving and animating our very queer histories

In 2018 ALGA celebrates its 40th Anniversary. Initiated in 1978 by a group of dedicated Gay activists the Archives have developed into an organisation with a rich and diverse collection dedicated to preserving our LGBTIQ+ histories and also a vital resource from which new forms of self-determination, interpretation and afrmation can be constituted.

Queer archives often initiated unconventionally (Kumbier, 2014) and usually at times of political upheaval, are often at the forefront of new considerations in archival practice. These archives have been built and managed by communities - often wary of donating material to larger institutions for fear of it being lost or under acknowledged. ALGA represents a diverse range of sectors that make up our community who share histories and memories in common.

Mainstream archives and cultural institutions have historically neglected LGBTIQ+ histories. In Three Faces of Candee - You and Me against the World, 2017, Peter Lambropoulos, video still from the exhibition WE ARE HERE, State Library of Victoria, 2018 2005/2006 the ALGA, Museum Victoria and the

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Cropped image: ALGA supporters after marching in the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade, 2018 / Photographer: unknown / Source: ALGA State Library Victoria initiated a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Material Survey - the frst major attempt to confront the invisibility of the LGBTI community in its collections and displays. The survey concluded that it was not absence of material but the silence of our cultural institutions that perpectuated this omission. A silence that suppressed LGBTI/queer representation in stories of immigration, in Melbourne life, within Indigenous Australian histories, and in relation to scientifc, biological and technological areas. The survey concluded that cultural diversity in major institutions was for a long time focused on race, ethnicity and nationality and did not acknowledge sexuality and gender (Davison, 2006). Without histories, without an archive, a community can quickly lose the common threads that bind them together. A strong history replete with rich multi perspectival interpretations contributes to strong communities with a sense of continuity, connectedness and agency.

In recent times, archives have moved beyond engagement and interpretation and ALGA’s ongoing programing and cultural activities refect this. Each year ALGA generates exhibitions, flm screenings, panel discussions, Queer History walks across Melbourne, a history conference, and Thesis Prize. We also engage and present at various community events around Australia. In all our programing, we aim to collaborate to extend our resources and reach. Earlier this year ALGA partnered with the State Library Victoria (SLV) and the Midsumma Festival in the exhibition - WE ARE HERE at SLV. The project invited fve artists to engage with the collections of ALGA and SLV to create contemporary interpretations of our often-secreted queer histories. The artists all explored their queer cultural heritage and created works that explored their own queer identity while also considering the collective memory of LGBTIQ communities. In curating these exhibitions we aim to fnd ways to animate connections between LGBTIQ+ histories by providing new spaces for artists and audiences to conceive of their past as a dynamic infuence on the present and the future.

One of our challenges as a community, volunteer run archives organisation, reliant on membership, donations and small project funding, is the sustainability of the organisation into the future. Our human resources currently rely on our dedicated volunteers and Commiittee members - the work load is considerable and with more visibility and relevance this inevitably increases. We are also conscious of those who came before us and moving forward, being mindful of the principles of the organisation and its origins. One issue we are facing into the future is a name change that better refects our commitment to all our LGBTIQ+ communities. A process that will require consultation membership input, and commitment.

As a community organisation we are supported by an ongoing partnership with the Victorian AIDS Council who have supported us with accommodation for over 20 years and in the next few years, along with other LGBTIQ+ organisations, we will be moving into the new Victorian Pride Centre as one of their key tenants. This presents a unique opportunity to further connect and collaborate with our communities.

Our Anniversary year presents an opportunity to refect on our own history and the journey of the organisation over the past 40 years. This has been brought to the fore by the recent passing of ALGA’s founder - Graham Carbery - who was an active, Continues on page 10 ASA NSW Branch Newsletter – August 2016 9 Continues from page 9 passionate historian who held the collective living memory of our organisation. While collecting our communities’ histories it’s also important to document the history of ALGA - as our stories and those we collect link us to the past / present and gives contours to our aspirations for the future.

References

Davidson, K. 2006. Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Material Survey, Museum Victoria Kumbier, A. 2014. Ephemeral Material: Queering the Archive, Sacramento, Litwin Books

Cropped image: Emu letter, 18-30 October 1897 / Photographer: unknown / Source: Bendigo Regional Archives Centre, VPRS 16936/P1, Unit 46 Vivien Newton, Bendigo Regional Archives Centre Finding delights in a 19th Century Inwards Correspondence Collection “Should you care to accept same...I will have it placed on the train and consigned to you”. What is about to be consigned to the Bendigo Town Clerk in October 1897? A live emu that the Borough of Echuca can no longer keep.

This little gem was a letter from the Town Clerk of Echuca to the Town Clerk of Bendigo dated 21st October 1897 (VPRS 16936/P1, Unit 46, 18-30 October 1897). It surfaced as Box 46 of the Sandhurst/Bendigo Inwards Correspondence Collection was being indexed and resulted in a lively discussion amongst researchers about how an emu would travel and did the Bendigo Council accept the ofer. We have yet to fnd a conclusive answer!

Bendigo Regional Archives Centre is a partnership between PROV, City of Greater Bendigo and Goldfelds Library Corporation and provides researchers access through a Reading Room within Bendigo Library. We have a wide-ranging collection of historic local government records, nineteenth century court registers, material from other government agencies and a developing collection of community records all pertinent to the growth of Bendigo and surrounding areas following the discovery of gold in the 1850s.

Our collection of Rate books from the historic shires that now make up the City of Greater Bedigo (Sandhurst, Eaglehawk, Marong, Strathfeldsaye, Huntly and part of McIvor) remain our most used resources but the complete Bendigo/Sandhurst Inwards Correspondence Collection dating from 1856 to the 1970s is a largely untapped resource, not only for family and local history research, but for anyone interested in aspects of social and civic activity.

The 19th Century Correspondence, in particular, is a handwritten treasure trove for which we have several excellent catalogues and indexes providing access to the letters.

The correspondence are letters of request, complaint or enquiry, the ofer of a service or merchandise, reports, petitions and other documents is fled chronologically with two bundles of about 20 documents per month, each piece folded tightly and neatly into a consistently sized rectangle. The date of receipt, the sender and a brief description of the contents has been ASA NSW Branch Newsletter – August 2016 10 Continues on page 11 Continues from page 10

Cropped image: Extract of the Petition protesting the lack of lighting in the early morning Fruit and Vegetable Market - this is signifcant as it is in support of a matching Petition from the Chinese traders - the gentlemen listed are remembered by having many of the streets of Flora Hill named after them / Photographer: unknown / Source: Bendigo Regional Archives Centre, VPRS 16936/P1, Unit 51, 18990419 written by the Town Clerk of the day on the outside and occasionally a notation of result or forwarding to various Council ofcers for follow-up is also pencilled in.

One of the signifcant discoveries has been the presence of more than 600 petitions presented to the Council. Ranging in size from 3 signatures to more than 2,000 signatures (The 1886 Moral Pestilence of Horse Racing Petition) and spanning the years 1870 to 1899, the Petitions of the People have been transcribed, digitised and indexed. 265 Petitions and the accompanying name indexes are currently available through the BRAC website. More than 30,000 signatures will have been captured when the project is complete. Men and women signed petitions often also giving their occupation and location be it street or suburb. These Petitions can be the surviving record of someone’s signature and a wonderful barometer of civic issues many of which would be recognised around the current Council table. Explore the collection on the BRAC website or contact us for more information. Suzy Goss, ASA member and new graduate New grad chat with Suzy Goss: the job search part 3

Congratulations on your new job! Although being an archivist has many joys (indexing, anyone?) you may also fnd that your role challenges you in ways that your studies didn’t prepare you for.

New archivists will fnd themselves dealing with diferent personalities, making things work with limited resources, navigating new work environments and learning technical stuf. Sometimes there’s a big learning curve which can add to the stress of starting a new job. Compounded with all of this is one of the biggest challenges for archivists, and one of the least discussed - the stress of dealing with intense records of things like crime, disaster and tragedy.

Research has proven that the impact of repeated exposure to the traumatic experiences of others can eventually be similar to actually experiencing the events. What used to be labelled ‘burnout’ or ‘compassion fatigue’ is now recognised as vicarious trauma. If you’ve been dealing with challenging records and you’re feeling a bit ‘funny’, don’t just ignore it. Take a moment to notice how you’re really feeling and ask yourself if you need a bit of extra self-care today.

There’s some things your can try to help you with the stress of dealing with intense records. Because people respond diferently depending on personality and conditions, don’t worry if some of these don’t work for you • Yoga/meditation • Exercise such as running or swimming • Recalling a sense of purpose - why am I doing this • Journaling/drawing • Talking with a trusted person • Stepping away for a cuppa/walk • Giving yourself empathy and compassion • Learning your signs of ‘too much’ • Distracting yourself from rumination

Have a look at the recording of Addressing Separation Loss and Trauma: Emotional Labour and Archival Practice from the Australian Society of Archivists - Information Technologies Indigenous Communities (ASA-ITIC) 2017 conference in which Nicola Laurent, Michaela Hart and Cate O’Neill initiated a discussion about vicarious trauma in the archives in Australia. Next time we’ll chat a bit more about the essential archival skill of self-care.

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Cropped image: Folders made from found materials at the former Land Titles Ofce, 2018 / Photographer: Kim Burrell / Source: Victoria University Archives Kim Burrell, University Archivist, Victoria University University Archives Special Interest Group seminar

This is a version of a rather informal, fairly of-the-cuf seminar presentation before the Australian Society of Archivists VIC Branch meeting on 2 May 2018.

Although Victorian universities are well-represented in the University Archives Special Interest Group (SIG), I am the only Melbourne-based committee member; thus it was expedient that I speak about the SIG and present some of my thoughts about the role of University Archivists.

The University Archives SIG was formed 35 years ago in 1983. It is also known as the University and College Archives SIG.

The SIG aims ‘to discuss matters of mutual concern and to study problems and needs of university archives...and to represent the interests of university archives and to promote our role while developing means of cooperation with educational institutions, public bodies and the community at large’.

Currently the Convenor is Katie Bird, University of New South Wales and Nyree Morrison, University of Sydney is Secretary.

The group has members representing records and archives from the university and higher education sector Australia- wide, and from New Zealand and the South Pacifc, including over time and signifcant changes to the education sector, mainstream universities, institutes of technology, specialised colleges such as Victorian College of the Arts and National Institute of Dramatic Arts. The Group holds an Annual General Meeting (AGM) - minutes from the AGMs from 2012 to 2017 form a very useful ‘archive’ of activity, projects, concerns, challenges, progress, and so on, across the sector over time.

Despite distance of time and geography, I think it is a strength of this group that it is a truly supportive one (even ‘collegiate’) that shares its resources, advice, stories, experience and so on, generously and willingly.

What are university archives and, by turn, who or what are university archivists? They are: DIVERSE. We hold varied collections and we approach them in a variety of ways. I think this is apparent to all of us. I am very conscious of the presence of my predecessors in the way that the archive at Victoria University has been developed; in the precedents and

ASA NSW Branch Newsletter – August 2016 Continues on page 13 12 Recent news Continues from page 12

Cropped image: Fire-damaged volume of Footscray Technical School Council Minutes, 2017 / Photographer: Kim Burrell / Source: Victoria University Archives, VUS731 standards set, and in the personality that is represented there. The archive as an entity illustrates diferent emphases, the availability of diferent resources at diferent times, diferent legacies and talents - policy, procedures, preservation, research, description, visions for the future, items collected, and so on.

Collection policies difer from institution to institution; some/most are very institutional, tied to recordkeeping policy set by legilsation and institutional standards.

Archives in universities share diferent relationships within their institutions, so that where archives and records management sit in university structure (e.g. library/information services, governance, legal, policy areas) contributes to the way that not only the holdings or collections, but also the very role of university archivist, are understood, valued and used.

University archivists draw on diverse skills and all previous experience. There is a need for us to be able to manage multiple tasks in mostly the same timeframes; we need to be the appraisers, the arrangers, describers, removalists, conservators, curators, promoters, teachers, advisors... To the outside world, we are the keepers of their misplaced certifcates, a repository for old jumpers, school caps, an assortment of badges, sometimes quite ordinary things of great sentimental value but nonetheless unwanted, so more easily left at the archives. University archivists serve a broad audience, the institution, its staf, students, former students, supporters, partners, sponsors, community...

They are: COMPLEX. University Archives utterly refect all the disparate interests that are associated with them as educational institutions and as businesses.

They have complex histories that are lateral, hierarchical and vertical over time, and at the same time. Many, particularly those that have grown from the secondary and technical education sectors, have a long history that dates back to traditional public school systems and that have moved according to demand and possibility, to grow and diversify by absorbing and merging with similar institutions, often only linked geographically.

This is a provenance nightmare - but fascinating. Records from institutions such as Victoria University combine to cover the full developmental breadth of the Victorian education system, illustrating the most signifcant practical, economic and philosophical changes in education in the 20th century.

There are many ‘challenges’ for the role as archivist in a university; it is far from the haven so often envied by colleagues. Most

ASA NSW Branch Newsletter – August 2016 Continues on page 14 13 Recent news Continues from page 13 often alone, it can be hard to retain perspective - challenges are rather ‘worries’ instead. How representative is the collection, and who does it represent? The extent to which an archive is able to refect a variety of voices is part of contemporary archival practice but this so often conficts with past policies and ideas, and how can these gaps be flled? In the archives of many educational institutions there is remarkably little evidence of students, other than those of exceptional talent or notoriety.

But, fnally, there are tiny pleasures in the form of: • learning that the vast accession that took the world’s best assistant archivist a year to unravel and re-ravel, makes the most beautiful, perfect sense when its contents are called upon • new eyes see new things and possibilities in the collection • collaborating with other university collections • archivist’s discretion

A university archive is the cumulative work of a group of people, often working alone, but with diferent interests, skills, priorities, and so on, that together have formed a collection that, hopefully, is and remains relevant to the institution, serves its legislative and institutional purpose, and continues to attract the interest and support of community, students, staf, present and future.

Cropped image: L-R Nicola Laurent, Michaela Hart, Nik McGrath and Mike Jones, ASA VIC Committee members, Hamer Awards, Queens Hall, Parliament House, 3 May 2018 / Photographer: Nicola Laurent Nik McGrath, Communications Ofcer, ASA VIC Branch 2018 Sir Rupert Hamer Records Management Awards / Call for Papers - Provenance: the online journal of PROV

Congratulations to all the nominees and award winners at this year’s Sir Rupert Hamer Records Management Awards, presented by PROV and the Public Records Advisory Council. For details of award winners and commendation certifcates please visit the PROV website.

Provenance is a free online research journal, published in August each year by PROV. The next issue will be published in August 2018. The journal is now seeking submissions for publication in the 2019 issue. Provenance invites contributions on any subject. To be eligible for publication, articles must have been researched using original records held by PROV, or contain research that promotes a better understanding of the collection.

Deadline for submissions is 31 July 2018 for August 2019 publication. Please visit the website for more information, or contact the editor.

ASA NSW Branch Newsletter – August 2016 14 Upcoming events Events at a Glance

20 March - 1 July Terror Nullius ACMI p15 7 June Redmond Barry Lecture 2018: Science and uncertainty in the age of SLV p16 Sir Redmond Barry and today 8 June June cardi party nC p16 15 June Simone Forti, Huddle NGV p17 18 June Uncommon Knowledge: Fiona Hall on Global Politics, Brexit and the EU ACCA p17 21 June Refugee Week Torquay Library p18 22 June Up from the Vaults - Tales from the Crypts Melb Uni p18 22 June Trivia-au-go-go RHSV p19 23 June - 9 September Into Light - French Masterworks from the Musée de la Chartreuse Art Gallery of p19 Ballarat 28 June - 7 July Melbourne Rare Book Week Various p20 29 June Surveying the Rare Book Collection - Conservation at the Museums MM p20 Victoria Library 29 June - 18 August My Monster: The Human Animal Hybrid RMIT Gallery p21 30 June - 14 October NAIDOC Week 2018 Exhibition Bunjilaka p21 3 April - 29 July Writing in the Rain: Contemporary Asian Video Art from the National Latrobe p22 Gallery of Victoria Regional Gallery 29 July 2018 Symposium - Oral History and the Emotions OHV p22

Australian Centre for the Moving Image Terror Nullius

Hitch a ride into the dark heart of Australia with Soda_Jerk’s Terror Nullius, a Dates 20 March - 1 July blistering, badly behaved sample-based flm that confronts the horror of our contemporary moment. Venue ACMI Gallery 2 For more information, please visit: Federation Square https://www.acmi.net.au/events/terror-nullius/ Flinders Street Melbourne

Cost Free

ASA NSW Branch Newsletter – August 2016 15 Upcoming events

State Library Victoria Redmond Barry Lecture 2018: Science and uncertainty in the age of Sir Redmond Barry and today

Sir Redmond Barry could never have imagined the ways science would transform Date Thursday 7 June our world during the late 19th and 20th centuries. In today’s rapidly changing technological environment, our future is just as unpredictable. In the 2018 Time 6:30pm to 7:30pm Redmond Barry Lecture, Professor Adrienne Clarke explores how strong science Venue State Library Victoria and mathematics education can help prepare us for the future, whatever it may The Courtyard hold. 328 Swanston Street For more information and to book, please visit: Melbourne https://www.slv.vic.gov.au/whats-on/redmond-barry-lecture-2018-science-uncertainty-age-sir-redmond-barry-today Cost Free

newCardigan June cardi party

Join us to celebrate newCardigan’s third birthday! ‘cardiCore’ members will talk Date Friday 8 June about where newCardigan has been and where we are heading. If you’d like to share your favourite newCardigan memories, send us an email by 1 June so we Time 6:30pm to 10pm can mention them. Otherwise, just book your place at this year’s hottest party. Venue Duke of Wellington Hotel There will be cake! Upper Terrace Room

146 Flinders Street The Duke ofers a full range of food and drinks - please join us for dinner. Melbourne

For more details and to book please visit: Cost Free https://newcardigan.org/cardiparty-2018-06-melbourne-birthday-party/

ASA NSW Branch Newsletter – August 2016 16 Upcoming events

National Gallery of Victoria Simone Forti, Huddle

Simone Forti’s seminal performance piece Huddle, 1961, will be performed Date Friday 15 June in Federation Court as part of MoMA at NGV: 130 Years of Modern and Contemporary Art. Time 7:30pm to 8:30pm

For more dates, details and to book please visit: Venue NGV International https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/program/simone-forti-huddle/#date0 Ground Level Federation Court 180 St Kilda Road Melbourne

Cost $13 - $37

Australian Centre for Contemporary Art Uncommon Knowledge: Fiona Hall on Global Politics, Brexit and the EU

One of Australia’s best known contemporary artists, Fiona Hall represented Date Monday 18 June Australia at the Venice Biennale in 2015 with the exhibition Wrong Way Time. At the heart of this revered work was the tension between global politics, world Time 6pm fnances and the environment. For ACCA’s 2018 lecture series Uncommon knowledge: artists on their special interests, Fiona Hall will discuss the climate of Venue ACCA disunity and conficts within the European Union, Brexit and conficting ideas for 111 Sturt Street society, drawing on research for a new work in development All along the watch Southbank towers commissioned by the Domaine de Chaumont-sur-Loire, France. Cost $35 For more details and to book please visit: https://acca.melbourne/program/uncommon-knowledge-fona-hall/

ASA NSW Branch Newsletter – August 2016 17 Upcoming events

Torquay Library Refugee Week

Torquay Library, together with Spring Creek Community House and Rural Date Thursday 21 June Australians for Refugees, bring you Bronwyn McNamee and Gerry Baldock who were employed on Nauru from 2011 to 2015. They will share their experiences Time 6:30pm to 7:30pm there and their understandings of what is happening to refugees still on Nauru, Venue Torquay Library those who have been moved from Nauru, and those who are in Indonesia on Surf Coast Highway the way to Australia but were stopped by the ‘Boat arrivals will never settle in Cnr Beach Road Australia’ policy. Next to visitor For more information and to book please visit: information centre https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/refugee-week-torquay-library-tickets-46309468868 Torquay VIC 3228

Cost Free

University of Melbourne Up from the Vaults - Tales from the Crypts Date Friday 22 June

Time 11am to 12pm In this presentation Assoc Prof Andrew Jamieson will discuss the Numrud ivories in the Classics and Archaeology Collection at the Ian Potter Museum of Art. Venue Ian Potter Museum of Art At Nimrud in Fort Shalmaneser, archaeologist Sir Max Mallowan and his wife Multifunction room Agatha Christie discovered store rooms flled with thousands of ivory pieces. Level 1 Others were found discarded or dumped in wells. Swanston Street (between Faraday and For more details and to book please visit: Elgin Streets) https://events.unimelb.edu.au/events/10666-up-from-the-vaults-tales-from-the-crypts Parkville

Cost Free

ASA NSW Branch Newsletter – August 2016 18 Upcoming events

Royal Historical Society of Victoria Trivia-au-go-go

Come alone or bring a group to this history trivia night, and help raise funds for Date Friday 22 June the RHSV. Time 6:30pm For details and to book please visit: https://www.trybooking.com/book/event?eid=384042& Venue RHSV Drill Hall Downstairs Gallery 239 A’Beckett Street Melbourne

Cost $20

Art Gallery of Ballarat Into Light - French Masterworks from the Musée de la Chartreuse

Dates 23 June - 9 September Renovations to the Chartreuse building have created a unique opportunity for Australian audiences to see sixty nineteenth and twentieth-century artworks Venue Art Gallery of Ballarat from this outstanding French gallery, alongside key paintings by Australian artists 44 Lydiard Street North working in France and discovering the same traditions, and works by French Ballarat VIC 3350 artists from Australian collections. Cost $0 - $16 For details and to book please visit: https://artgalleryofballarat.com.au/

ASA NSW Branch Newsletter – August 2016 19 Upcoming events

MRBW and partners Melbourne Rare Book Week

This year sees the seventh Melbourne Rare Book Week (MRBW) and the 46th Dates 28 June - 7 July Australian Antiquarian Book Fair, presented by the Australian Association of Antiquarian Booksellers (ANZAAB) and Rare Books Melbourne (RBM). Venue Various

For a full prgram and to book please visit: Cost See individual events http://www.rarebookweek.com/

Melbourne Museum Surveying a Rare Book Collection - Conservation at the Museums Victoria Library

Ever wondered about the work that goes on behind the scenes to protect our Date Friday 29 June rare books? From 2012 to 2016 an in-depth conservation survey was conducted of the Museum’s Rare Book Collection. Join our paper conservator to hear about Time 2pm to 3pm the survey, results, key learnings, and how the fndings can be used to improve Venue Melbourne Museum collection care. The library will display some beautiful items from its little-known 11 Nicholson Street Rare Book Collection. Carlton For more details and to book please visit: https://museumsvictoria.com.au/melbournemuseum/whats-on/surveying-a-rare-book-collection/ Cost Free

ASA NSW Branch Newsletter – August 2016 20 Upcoming events

RMIT Gallery My Monster: The Human Animal Hybrid

My Monster celebrates the 200th anniversary year of Mary Shelley’s novel Dates 29 June - 18 August Frankenstein and the enduring fascination with the human animal hybrid. Venue RMIT Gallery For more details please visit: Building 16 https://www.rmit.edu.au/events/all-events/exhibitions/2018/june/the-human-animal-hybrid 344 Swanston Street Melbourne

Cost Free

Bunjilaka Aboriginal Cultural Centre NAIDOC Week 2018 Exhibition

Our NAIDOC (National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee) Dates 30 June - 14 October Exhibition 2018 kicks of at the start of NAIDOC Week celebrating the achievements of Victorian Aboriginal women of the 20th century, highlighting Venue Bunjilaka quiet achievers, strong advocates, and women who are at the foundations of our Melbourne Museum vibrant First Peoples community today. 11 Nicholson Street Carlton Because of Her, We Can! is the theme of NAIDOC Week 2018. A celebration of the contributions that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women have made - Cost $0 - $15 and continue to make - to our communities, our families and to the world.

For more details please visit: https://museumsvictoria.com.au/bunjilaka/whats-on/naidoc-week-2018-exhibition/

ASA NSW Branch Newsletter – August 2016 21 Upcoming events

Latrobe Regional Gallery Writing in the Rain - Contemporary Asian video art from the National Gallery of Victoria

Features nine works from the NGV Collection, exploring the past decade of Dates 3 April - 29 July contemporary Asian video. Featuring works by artists from Taiwan, Thailand, China, and Indonesia, this exhibition explores the cultural underpinnings specifc Venue Latrobe Regional Gallery to each artist. Gallery 1 and 2 128 Commercial Road For more details please visit: Morwell VIC 3840 https://latroberegionalgallery.com/project/writing-rain-contemporary-asian-video-art-national-gallery-victoria/ Cost Free

Oral History Victoria 2018 Symposium - Oral History and the Emotions

Happy laughs, quiet sobs, difcult silences and traumatic memories have always Date Sunday 29 July been the matter of Oral History. Emotions have played a key role in the theory and practice of Oral History. In recent years, the emotional and ‘afective’ turn in social Time 10am to 4pm sciences and humanities has also seen the emergence of the history of emotions Venue Museo Italiano as a burgeoning feld of studies: how has our understanding of love, hatred, fear 199 Faraday Street and many other emotions changed over time; and how have emotions infuenced Carlton political events and impacted profound social and cultural changes in our society?

For more details and to submit an abstract please visit: Cost TBC https://oralhistoryvictoria.org.au/event/2018-symposium/

ASA NSW Branch Newsletter – August 2016 22 VIC Branch Information

CONTACT DETAILS FOR THE 2017-2018 VIC BRANCH COMMITTEE Did you know that donations to the ASA Co-Convenors are tax deductible? Mike Jones and Nicola Laurent [email protected] [email protected] Donations to the ASA go to support Secretary • Awards Imogen Telfer • Scholarships

Treasurer • Courses Rachel Naughton • Publications

Communications Ofcer and Newsletter Editor Enquiries on how to donate: Nik McGrath Mark Brogan (ASA Treasurer) [email protected] [email protected]

Membership and Education Ofcer Donate to the ASA Fraser Faithfull and support your

Elected Committee Members community! Michaela Hart Saribel Minero Aaron Richardson

Do you have a GLAM event you to contribute to the ASA VIC Branch newsletter?

Contact us with the full details at [email protected]. Our newsletter comes out in the last week of every month (except December), with content required by the 20th of the month for inclusion.

PREVIOUS MINUTES & NEWSLETTERS OF THE VIC BRANCH

At the VIC Branch website you will fnd: • Annual Reports to Council

• AGM Minutes

• Newsletters

• Rules

• Branch Minutes https://www.archivists.org.au/community/branches/victoria383

ASA NSW Branch Newsletter – August 2016 23