What's on in History Compiled by Fiona Poulton PHA (VIC) PRESENTS Professional Historians Association (Victoria) ANNUAL DINNER Members and their guests are warmly invited to attend the 2016 Annual Dinner and AGM of the Professional Historians Association (Vic) Inc. This year our annual dinner will also be the dinner for the Working History Conference, allowing us to play host to visiting historians. It will be a wonderful opportunity to socialise with our colleagues from near and far, over a friendly meal and a bit of musical entertainment! The evening will incorporate the PHA (Vic) Annual General Meeting and includes a two-course meal and tea/coffee with cake to finish. Drinks available at bar prices. NOW BEING WAITLISTED Please RSVP by Friday 5 August: https://phavic.wildapricot.org/event-2283464/Registration $60 per person. Pre-payment is required for all attendees. Please note: if you have already RSVPed and paid for the dinner The Metropolitan Meat Market, North Melbourne, 1893, Gus B. through your conference registration, your booking is confirmed. 12 Pearce. State Library Victoria, H2013.190 State Library Victoria Oral History Victoria Making Public Histories ‘Black Thursday’ pop-up talk Introductory Workshop 2 The role of history today How do we relate to history today? Is history relevant still relevant in our cities, our institutions and our communities? Hear our expert panel of professional historians tackle some of the challenges of contemporary history practice and consider what it might look like in the future. When: 18 August 2016, 6:00pm–7:30pm Where: Conference Centre Cost: Free William Strutt, Black Thursday, February 6th, 1851 (detail),1864, Bookings: Book online oil on canvas, State Library Victoria Phone: 03 8664 7099 Soon after painter William Strutt’s arrival in Australia, a Sarah Rood, professional historian from Way Back When Email: [email protected] cataclysmic bushfire engulfed huge swathes of Victoria. Consulting Historians, will present this workshop. It will Eleven years later he painted his magnum opus: provide an introduction to oral history practice, focusing Speakers . on research, ethics, equipment, interviewing techniques Chair: Associate Professor Seamus O'Hanlon, Monash Black Thursday, February 6th, 1851 Join us to hear more about this powerful artwork. and transcribing. Suitable for students, volunteers, or University Prof Andrew May, School of Historical and Bookings are required. anyone with an interest in recording oral histories, you Philosophical Studies, University of Melbourne Chris with gain valuable insights into the work of doing oral Johnston, founding director of Context Pty Ltd Dr Lisa When: 04 August 2016, 6:00pm–6:45pm history. Learn how to prepare questions; about the forms, Murray, city historian, City of Sydney 23 August 2016, 11:00am–11:45am Where: Keith Murdoch Gallery the ethics and permissions involved; and the top tips to Cost: Free a good interview. Sarah uses real examples to illustrate Buried treasure: the colonial woman Bookings: Book a session online below some of the pitfalls and some of the gems from actual composer Phone: 03 8664 7099 interviews. You will have the opportunity to practice Email: [email protected] writing questions, as well as to conduct a short interview. Join us for a series of delightful lunchtime concerts to Book online for Thu 4 August Please bring your recording device with you. Morning hear renowned soprano Merlyn Quaife and leading Book online for Tue 23 August and afternoon tea are provided but you will need to harpist Jacinta Dennett perform compositions written by either bring or purchase your own lunch. early Australian women composers, arranged by Johanna ‘The burial of Burke’ pop-up talk When: August 27, 10:00 am - 4:00 pm Selleck. Where: Emerald Hill Library, 195 Bank St, An South Melbourne extraordinary Cost: Members $60, array of Non-members $100, works by Student / Concession $30. women Registration: composers https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/introductory-workshop- lies buried in 2-tickets-26400985057 the Library's archives, samples OHV Advanced Workshop: Interpreting of which Memories are being The burial of Burke (detail), William Strutt, 1911, oil on canvas, How do we make sense of the memories that we record brought State Library of Victoria News of the tragic fate of the great Victorian expedition as oral historians? How do we begin to transform stories to light for of Burke and Wills was met with a collective outpouring into histories? In this workshop we’ll consider a range these recitals of grief. of ways of approaching the interpretation of memories. in arrange- William Strutt was one of the 15,000 people who We’ll note the changing ways that researchers have ments farewelled the heroic explorers as they set out from used memory as a historical source. We’ll consider the Florence Ewart for voice Royal Park, headed for the Gulf of Carpenteria. Fifty factors that shape memory stories. We’ll try out narrative and harp by Johanna Selleck as part of a Creative years later, he painted The burial of Burke, his elegy for analysis with interview extracts (from Al’s interviews with Fellowship. a national hero. migrants and war veterans) using the rich clues of sound, The compositions date from the mid-1800s and Come hear more about this moving piece. gesture, word and narrative form. We’ll think about how include rare gems by Emily Patton, Florence Ewart and we might work with a set of interviews to find historical Georgette Peterson, as well as some unique vocal When: 09 August 2016, 11:00am–11:45am patterns and illuminate historical themes. You’ll finish up cadenzas composed especially for Melbourne's own Where: Keith Murdoch Gallery brimming with ideas and enthusiasm for working with Nellie Melba. Cost: Free your own interviews (or other people’s interviews), armed Each performance is thirty minutes in duration. Bookings: Book online with lists of further reading if you wish to deepen your Bookings are not required. Phone: 03 8664 7099 understanding. Workshop facilitator: Alistair Thomson is When: 04 August 2016, 1:00pm–1:30pm Email: [email protected] Professor of History at Monash University. His oral history 11 August 2016, 1:00pm–1:30pm books include: Anzac Memories (1994 and 2013), The 21 August 2016, 1:00pm–1:30pm Oral History Reader (1998, 2006 and 2015 with Rob Cost: Free Perks), Ten Pound Poms (2005, with Jim Hammerton), Bookings: Phone: 03 8664 7099 Moving Stories: an intimate history of four women across Email: [email protected] two countries (2011) Oral History and Photography (2011, with Alexander Freund) and Australian Lives: An Venues Aural History (2017, with Anisa Puri). Thursday 4 August — La Trobe Reading Room. Website: Thursday 11 August — Cowen Gallery. http://profiles.arts.monash.edu.au/alistair-thomson/ Sunday 21 August — The Courtyard. This performance When: September 3, 10:00 am - 1:00 pm will include compositions from a children's songbook, Where: Emerald Hill Library, 195 Bank St, Bush songs by Georgette Peterson. The music is set to South Melbourne poems by classic children's author Annie Rentoul, with illustrations by her equally famous sister Ida Rentoul. Registration: http://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/ ohv-advanced-workshop-interpreting-memories- tickets-26400256879 13 Royal Historical Society of Victoria Yarra Ranges Regional Museum Lecture: The Vagabond in Virginia and New Caledonia Public Talk: Of Dresses and Memories Robert Flippen, Dr Willa McDonald with Michael Cannon To celebrate the ‘...there is much to support the view that it is clothes that wear us and not publication of the updated edition of The Vagabond Papers we them; we may make them take the mould of arm or breast, but they John Stanley James arrived in Farmville, Virginia in March 1875. He made mould our hearts, our brains, Farmville his home, built a grand mansion that still stands, and married a our tongues to their liking.’ wealthy widow, Caroline Lewis James. Virginia Woolf, Orlando Lorelei Vashti, author of Dress, Memory: A Memoir of My Twenties in Dresses, presents an illustrated talk about how clothing influences our stories and memories. Using examples from her own extensive collection of secondhand and vintage dresses, Lorelei will discuss how we build stories and meaning into our clothing every day, and how our own personal fashion choices transform our ordinary lives. Light refreshments will be provided. Please also feel free to wear or bring along an item of clothing with a special memory for you to share with the group. Lorelei Vashti is a writer and editor whose book Dress Memory: A Memoir of my Twenties in Dresses was published in 2014. She is a co- curator of the popular ‘Women of Letters’ series, and her latest projects include a baby surname handbook to help new parents choose their child’s last name, and a novel about matchmaking. She also manages a guesthouse and artist’s retreat in the Dandenong Ranges called Jacky Winter Gardens. When: Saturday 27 August, 11am-12pm Where: Yarra Ranges Regional Museum, 35-37 Castella St, Lilydale Cost: $17/$15 concession James’ aim was to assist in the revitalisation of the Southern economy; Bookings: Online he was appointed to the local Bank Board and elected to the Southside Virginia Immigration Society in an attempt to recruit more Englishmen to 1950s Gin Cocktail Workshop the area. Assuming the persona of a man of letters ‘Dr’ J.S. Stanley James Join Sam Ng, Four Pillars Ambassador also established a private school in his home called Stanley Park Academy. and Bartender-at-large for a hands-on James exhibited a zeal for American nationalism, but after only six months class where you will discuss the history in Farmville, he left suddenly due to a series of events and a spectacular of gin while learning how to make two fall from grace in the community.