History Matters

My initial expectations:

When I first contacted the staff at Sydney Jewish Museum, I was apprehensive. Jewish history is not something I am familiar with, and to be honest, it did not feel like it was my place to tell it. I worried that the history I would end up involved in would be too far away from what I knew. But then, isn’t that what a good historian does? Push out of their comfort zone, engage with projects that, whilst unfamiliar, excite them. The history the Museum involves itself with is delicate, it needs to be carefully considered before engaging with it. There is real tragedy within the objects I handle. It is quite something to hold in your hand a medal emblazoned with the Nazi emblems. It feels heavy. Not just in weight, but in responsibility. Am I the right person to tell this story?

The reality:

The reality of what I have experienced is very different from my expectations. The highlight of working at the Museum for hasn’t been about what objects they have, but the staff there too. My main contact in the Museum has been nothing short of wonderful. Accommodating and always willing to impart his knowledge upon me. The staff are incredibly welcoming and eager to help, this immediately quelled my fears.

Working with the Education side of the Museum is fantastic, as the work they do is so vital. Educating Sydney’s students about the horrors of the Holocaust and giving children a transformative experience is something to be treasured. There is so much experience in the Education team, and the care I saw them put into their work was inspirational. The Museum staff are truly dedicated to providing the highest quality educational experience to kids. It is a shame to me that my first interaction with the Museum was in university, and not in High School. Staff informed me that my former High School does now take classes there, which is good to see, as exposure to new perspectives in history is always important.

The project:

I have spent, and will spend my time at the museum cataloguing objects in their Education Collection. Personally, for me, it was a real joy to spend time cataloguing some German bank notes from 1922-1923. Having learned of the hyperinflation a decade ago at school, it was incredible to hold in my hands notes from this time. My colleague had so many interesting stories attached to not just the notes but their journey into the Museum’s possession too. But they showed so many signs of life too: A rip in the right corner, a fold down the middle, water stains and sun damage. Signs of a life well used. To get to hold something from a century ago is not something that one can experience every day. It speaks to the amazing work the museum does in curating their displays. Working in the Education office has impressed upon me that the students aren’t the only ones learning here.

So much of the story of Australia is in the story of its waterways. Yes, the stories of Cook and invasion and European migration. But also the stories of First Nations communities connections with waterways, how these bodies have provided for and been cared for since Deep Time. The Australian National Maritime Museum is deeply aware of these huge and varied stories that they have the opportunity to tell. A new permanent exhibit, ‘Under Southern Skies’ has been designed to interweave these histories and perspectives, to create a coherent timeline and find connections with these many stories.

There is something fascinating about the many worlds that are encompassed by a maritime museum: boats of course, but also stories of migration, of dock unions, of coastal fashion, of aquatic life. There is somehow intriguing about the interplay of this incredible sense of eclecticism and coherence; of the many things tied together under this umbrella. I am not entirely sure as of yet what my project will look like, but the scope of this museum really excites me. As with so much of history, it is simultaneously huge, global, expansive – yet also intimate, specific, personal.

The social justice agenda of the museum really sparked my interest. Looking after the seas, they do incredible work around climate change. One of their ongoing exhibits displays artworks made out of found, discarded fishing net, done by Torres Strait Islander artists. The different ways that they are able to engage the public in these environmental issues is so interesting to me, and they have such an array of approaches. Currently they also have multiple temporary exhibits that use marine science to demonstrate the wonders of the oceans, the threats to it and the innovations working to save it. The museum does an amazing job of utilising a diverse range of disciplines and modes of engagement to try and engage with the public in a myriad of ways.

I am particularly excited by their integration of Aboriginal ways of knowing and understanding throughout many exhibits. It is evident that they take their role as storytellers on Gadigal Land very seriously and make an effort to go beyond acknowledging custodianship to championing it. This is especially vital for a museum that houses a replica of the HMB Endeavour, which is such a symbol of violence and oppression for First Nations Australians. I am hoping to learn how they go about engaging in processes of truth telling and working to champion these voices, as it is some of the most important history that can be told on this land.

In a museum of this scope, it is easy to see the huge collection of boats as the most noteworthy or important acquisitions, but of course there are so many smaller artefacts and exhibitions that have so much to tell. My project will most likely involve writing the story of one such donation, that is still waiting to be fit into the larger narrative of Australia’s maritime history. It is such an honour and a privilege to be a part of this process and to have the opportunity to contribute to this public history.

A short way up from the corner of Devonshire and Randle St, right next to Central Station in the metropolitan heart of Sydney, sits the Irish National Associations building, the Irish Cultural Centre. Most know this building for the Gaelic Club. However, at the back of the club room, through a little door, sits the office of a perhaps lesser-known organisation, the Irish Support Agency (ISA).

The ISA was established in 1995 by Frank O’Donoghue under the name of the Irish Australian Welfare Bureau & Resource Centre NSW Inc. Today, the ISA, rebranded in 2015, is a registered charity responsible for a series of public-facing community wellbeing initiatives and events. Current service initiatives include things as diverse as men’s mental health walks, wellbeing seminars for mothers, visa information evenings, book clubs, and much more, giving a sense of the diversity in their work. The ISA also directly supports individual Irish and Irish-Australian community members, supporting people through crisis, unemployment, immigration, housing and accommodation, funeral, and repatriation.

As with Irish and Australian society at large, since 1995, the ISA has undergone unprecedented change. It is in understanding the nature of this change that my project sits. With increased community demand and funding, notably in 2005 with financial assistance from the Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade, the ISA has grown from an entirely volunteer organisation to now employing two Outreach Workers and a Project Officer. In addition, with the organisation’s 2025 thirtieth anniversary approaching, the ISA has felt the need to understand better how they have developed over the years. Accordingly, the ISA has identified their desire to record a much-needed oral history, presented in video format, for their anniversary commemoration.

I will work closely with the ISA team to develop a clear outline of the organisation’s early years, including key personnel, service developments, and achievements. Through this project, by establishing a more transparent, more objective understanding of the ISA’s early history, we can look toward the planning and execution of interviews with early members of the organisation.

These interviews are critical to the ISA and offer the opportunity to shed light on the history of Irish Sydney at the turn of the millennia. One of the strengths of oral history is the ability to capture the stories and reflections of the past still in living memory. As many members within the Irish community here closely associated with the ISA start to age, there is a growing urgency to capture these stories. The stories attached to these members also hold the potential to not only tell the story of the ISA but also shed light on the motivation and experience of Irish immigration in the second half of the twentieth century, more generally.

My interest in the organisation stems from my ongoing interest in Irish history throughout my degree. I felt like it was time to give back to the Irish community in Sydney, those whose history has already given me so much. With my initial engagement and work to date, I’ve been met with great enthusiasm from the ISA team.

I’m looking forward to the weeks ahead.

Outloud is a social impact arts organisation which facilitates meaningful creative and performing arts opportunities and experiences for culturally and linguistically diverse young people in Western Sydney. Many of Outloud’s programs serve as early intervention harm reduction projects that target issues affecting young people in the Canterbury-Bankstown community. My project will focus on the history of RESPECT, a music program which educates boys in Years 5 and 6 about gender equality and family violence in a school setting.

In September, I visited Outloud for the first time to meet with Craig Taunton and Van Nguyen who both work on the RESPECT Program. Outloud is based at the Bankstown Arts Centre, and entering the premises, you very clearly get the sense that it is part of a thriving, interconnected hub of artistic activity. The night before we met was the first Tuesday of the month, and so the famous Bankstown Poetry Slam had taken place downstairs. Craig was pleased to inform me that an alumnus of the RESPECT Program had taken up the mantle of timekeeper for the night.

We quickly fell into a discussion about some of the most recent music videos uploaded to Outloud’s YouTube channel, including some very impressive fast rapping in Punchbowl Public School’s “A Good Foundation”. Craig and Van then guided me through some of the framed pictures on the opposite wall of rap performances that had taken place at Bankstown Shopping Centre during pre-pandemic years, explaining that hundreds of boys would usually take part.

Check out “A Good Foundation” below. I hope you appreciate the green screen backgrounds as much as I did— my personal favourite is the Bankstown Sports Club!

After visiting Outloud, meeting Craig and Van, and watching past musical performances, the community impact of this incredibly special program was undeniable. The sheer amount of young people that Outloud has supported to engage with the arts is such a meaningful feat to begin with. RESPECT goes above and beyond even this.

In Craig’s words, while Outloud as a community arts organisation is constantly cultivating artists in the Bankstown area, for this particular program, “art is a tool for engagement”. Over the course of 12 weeks, the boys learn from facilitators and family violence counsellors in a school setting, and write an original song which distils what they have learned. Not all the young boys will be transformed into career musicians (although their rapping is beyond impressive!). Most significantly, 98% of the boys come away from the program having developed a vital understanding of the harms of family violence and the characteristics of healthy relationships. Former participants have overwhelmingly expressed that promoting gender equality and preventing family violence are matters that are important to them.

In November of 2021, Outloud launched UNITY, a sibling program to RESPECT for girls and gender diverse students. This is a testament to the success of the RESPECT Program, as well as Outloud’s ongoing commitment to educating young people about healthy relationships and consent. With the launch of the UNITY Program, Outloud will continue to empower young people in Western Sydney by amplifying their voices in their community through art.

The Early Days

Thredbo in 1957 was not much more than an idea, road access through the valley from Jindabyne having only opened in 1956 thanks to the requirements of the Snowy Mountains Hydro Electric Scheme. Thredbo Alpine Club (www.tac.org.au) was one of the first lodges built in the fledgeling resort and was the initiative of a group of Sydney University students who spotted an opportunity and had the enthusiasm and commitment to turn it into a reality.

Between September 1957 and June 1958 this hard-working group managed to secure a site, found a club, raise finance, and design and build a lodge that could accommodate up to twenty-eight people (eight double bunk rooms to sleep sixteen and six double bunk beds in the hallway spaces under the stairs as overflow space for twelve). Most of the original one hundred and fifty members came from the Sydney University Ski Club, the Faculties of Law and Architecture and the residential colleges.

The more things change….

In the sixty-five years since then, much has changed. Like the resort itself, the club has grown and now has a membership of four hundred and fifty, among them many second-generation families of original members. The building has undergone one major and several minor renovations and now provides accommodation for thirty-two people in sixteen twin bedrooms. What began as a ski club mainly focussed on winter in the mountains is now one that aims at promoting all alpine sports both winter and summer.

…the more things stay the same.

While there have been many changes, there remain some constants that speak to the culture at the heart of the club. Just as they did when the club opened, the members share a love of the mountains and the alpine outdoors, and this shared interest forms the basis of the club’s collegiate and connected community. The club was built with the blood sweat and tears of a volunteer workforce and continues to be run on a purely volunteer basis by a committee of its members. And probably most importantly, the opening party in 1958 set the benchmark for the continued importance of inclusive sociability in club life.

Where to next?

How a group of uni students came to be involved in creating a ski club and building a lodge in the very early stages of the establishment of what has become one of Australia’s major ski resorts is, to me, an intriguing story. That the club’s story continues to be vibrant sixty-five years later is equally interesting and I hope to be able to trace the arc of that history through old documents and photos so as to pinpoint the major moments that make up the Thredbo Alpine Club timeline.

Esther Whitehead

For my history project I am working with the Jessie Street National Women’s Library. Hidden away amidst the lively Ultimo community centre, between a very competitive table tennis club and a childcare centre. 

The library is fully run by volunteers, many of them retirees who are more than willing to tell you stories of their involvement with feminism, the early women’s movements and the history of the library. So long as you’re generous with the cups of tea these women are generous with their stories. 

Many spoke of the history of the library. The library is named after Jessie Street an early Australian feminist, women’s rights campaigner and an inspiration that many of the volunteers hold dear. A photo of her in black a white is printed on a large canvas frame, the only woman at a conference table of men. 

Jessie was forward thinking for her time and campaigned for the rights of all women. She advocated against discrimination of Aboriginal People. She was involved in gathering signatures for petitions for the 1967 referendum. Before theories of intersectionality existed, even in academic circles, Jessie Street fought for the most marginalised, an inclusive campaigner for peace, for women, for Aboriginal People, for everyone.

The library was opened in 1989, to commemorate the life of Jessie Street almost 20 years after her death. This is an interesting part of the library’s history, it was built to commemorate an individual, but has grown to be so much more than that. It is now a specialist library that holds many rare books, as well the collections from defunct women’s organisations that have sadly lost funding and collapsed over the decades. 

The library holds material related to the kind of women’s history that Jessie Street was involed with, Australian feminist activism and the women’s liberation movement. However it is a broad collection including records on women in the Church and diaries from female migrants to Australia. The shelves are home to many forms of written work from a cookbook from a home economics teacher to government reports into the gender imbalance of Parliament. The remit of the library is anything that aids in telling the story of women, all women, no matter how ordinary their lives. However it only receives material based upon donations so it is not an all encompassing collection, it has blindspots and gaps. Most large donations come from feminists’ personal collections, which are left to the library in their will. So there are things that people don’t think to keep around, or more often, items that the children of these collectors don’t see as worthy of donation. 

One of my favourite parts of the collection is the tapestry collection. These are short pieces of writing by women about their everyday lives. One powerful recount is the story of Antonina Komarowski who lived in Russia throughout Stalin’s rule. She recounts moving to Leningrad for University just before war broke out. 

Some of my favourite artefacts are the serials, these include newsletters, zine and self published literature by feminism activists from 1960’s to 1970’s, the peak of second wave feminism. Multiple zines from the 1970’s contain titlesd like, What Every Woman Should Know About Sex. Followed 

by pages of anatomy diagrams and information on contraception. Access to the knowledge I was taught in year 7 was once radical. We have come so far that the knowledge these women once fought to disseminate is now a mandatory part of the curriculum.

The library’s collection consists of more than just written works, it also has posters, pamphlets and banners. These were the tools activists used to campaign for many of the rights and privileges I enjoy today. From the sign of these posters you can imagine the marches, hear the protest chants and the anger and conviction. But some of the library’s artefacts tell stories of how progress is not linear, and in many ways women are losing the battle.

The wall opposite the entrance to the library is covered in posters, duplicates of those the library already has in its archive. One morning as I was waiting to be buzzed in, looking over these posters and one stood out. It was bright purple and read, “Repeal all abortion laws,” there was no date, but the top stated it was from International Women’s year. 

So I googled it, thinking it would be recent, from the past decade or so, with abortion being such a controversial issue.

1975.

47 years ago. Women have been fighting for control over their own bodies. 

Roe v. Wade was just overturned.

Maybe we need to remember these women of the past. So we can continue their fight.

For this major project, I am working with the Millers Point Resident Community Action Group. Located around Sydney Harbor, this group encompasses the suburbs of Millers Point, Dawes Point, Walsh Bay and The Rocks as well as Barangaroo. With over 50 years of history, the Millers Point Resident Community Action Group aims at advocating on behalf or residents within Sydney Harbor, particularly around the preservation of these suburbs as well as improve the safety and amenities within this area.

I first discovered this group on my weekly drives with my family around the city, where we would pass through The Rocks and the community center that this organization uses, the Abraham Mott Hall. My interest in the group started from a sign placed in front of this hall with the statement “Don’t Block the Rocks.” Further research through a Change.org page online would lead me to discover this group. Having some basic understanding of the kind of activism that took place within the 1970s around the preservation of The Rocks and surrounding suburbs, I was interested in delving into the history of the organizations behind this and reached out to the Millers Point Resident Community Action Group.

After contacting the organization’s secretary, I was invited one of the organizations meeting, where NSW government officials presented a proposal to construct an additional seating area for on of the finger wharfs in Walsh Bay. After the meeting concluded, I was able to meet with individuals of the organization, which included one of the oldest members of the group (in terms of membership) as well as the president. After explaining this project to them, I feel that they certainly did express interest in the project, however discussions on what project should be done are still in discussion.

However, for this project I have come up with some ideas. One of the main ideas I have is a video that discusses the history of the organization. In this idea, I plan on interviewing members of the organization as well as exploring the organization’s archives for additional information. I feel that by using oral history, I can bring light to individual experiences of members, particularly through a video as opposed to just plain text.

From this project, I feel that a historical research project may be of great benefit for the organization. Primarily, I feel that it will help bring to light some of the history that this organization offers in shaping the landscape of the Millers Point area. After looking through the organization’s website, there is a limited emphasis on its history, despite its influence in preserving the heritage of the suburbs around Millers Point. As well as this, I feel that a video would present its history in an engaging manner.

I think one major challenge for this project will be the consideration of time. While this should be completed by the 25th of November, I feel that the time needed to gather the history from members, as well as dedicating time to researching the archives and actual filming and editing pose a significant challenge.

Link to Millers Point Resident Community Action Group website:
https://www.millerspoint.org.au/our-mission

Link to image:

https://theconversation.com/let-it-rip-barangaroo-a-masterclass-in-planning-as-deal-making-188434