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In Search of “Australia and the Australian People”: The National Library of Australia and the Representation of Cultural and Linguistic Diversity

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Remembering Migration

Part of the book series: Palgrave Macmillan Memory Studies ((PMMS))

Abstract

The Australian government’s 2017 Multicultural Statement implies that migrants are absorbed into a fully formed Australian nation. Their memories are to confirm that the process of absorption has been successful.

Tasked to “maintain and develop […] a comprehensive collection of library material relating to Australia and the Australian people,” the National Library of Australia has a collection development policy that is informed by a comparatively expansive understanding of “Australia” and “the Australian people.” This chapter identifies factors that prevent the Library from fully realizing the aspirations of its policy but argues that its commitment “to build the nation’s memory,” guided by that policy, potentially challenges the idea of Australia as a territorially bounded nation-state and recognizes that migrants’ lives and memories keep transforming Australia.

Research for this essay has been supported by Australian Research Council grant LP170100222. I thank my colleagues Jodie Boyd, Morgan Harrington, Ian McShane and Michael Piggott for their comments on a previous version of this paper. I am also indebted to the staff of the National Library of Australia for conversations about some of the ideas discussed in this chapter, while taking full responsibility for my interpretation of National Library policies.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Australia, Federal Government, Multicultural Australia: United, Strong, Successful: Australia’s Multicultural Statement (Canberra: Australian Government, 2017), 3, 7 and 13.

  2. 2.

    Multicultural Australia, 7.

  3. 3.

    Multicultural Australia, 7.

  4. 4.

    National Library of Australia, “2018–19 Corporate Plan: Covering Reporting Periods 2018–19 to 2021–22” (2018): 5.

  5. 5.

    Joan M. Schwartz, “‘We Make Our Tools, and Our Tools Make Us’: Lessons from Photographs for the Practice, Politics, and Poetics of Diplomatics,” Archivaria 40 (1995): 40–74; Edwin Klijn and Yola de Lusenet, In the Picture: Preservation and Digitisation of European Photographic Collections. (Amsterdam: European Commission on Preservation and Access, 2000); Gabrielle Ritchie, “The Culture of Collecting: The National Library as a Memory Institution,” Historia 47, no. 2 (2002): 511–30; Helena Robinson, “Remembering Things Differently: Museums, Libraries and Archives as Memory Institutions and the Implications for Convergence,” Museum Management and Curatorship 27, no. 4 (2012): 413–29.

  6. 6.

    National Library of Australia, “2017–18 Corporate Plan: Covering reporting periods 2017–18 to 2020–21,” 2017, 3.

  7. 7.

    National Library Act 1960: s. 6.

  8. 8.

    Kim Edward Beazley, Commonwealth Parliamentary Debates (CPD), Representatives, 24 November 1960, 3239, Leonard James Reynolds, CPD, Representatives, 24 November 1960, 3258; William Henry Spooner, CPD, Senate, 29 November 1960, 1801. Robert Menzies referred to the library’s function to collect material “illustrating the life and achievements of the people” (CPD, Representatives, 10 November 1960, 2724); H. L. White, “Source Material for Australian Studies,” Historical Studies: Australia and New Zealand 7, no. 28 (1957): 453, 455.

  9. 9.

    National Museum of Australia Act 1980: s 6.

  10. 10.

    National Museum of Australia Act 1980: s 3, 1 and s 3, 2.

  11. 11.

    Robert French, “The Constitution and the People,” in Robert French, Geoffrey Lindell, and Cheryl Saunders eds, Reflections on the Australian Constitution, 60–85. (Annandale: Federation Press, 2003).

  12. 12.

    National Library of Australia, National Library of Australia Selection Policy, (Canberra: National Library of Australia, 1981).

  13. 13.

    National Library of Australia, “2016 Collection Development Policy,” 2016.

  14. 14.

    National Library of Australia, Collection Development Policy, (Canberra: National Library of Australia, 2005).

  15. 15.

    National Library of Australia, “2016 Collection Development Policy,” Principles.

  16. 16.

    Office of Multicultural Affairs, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, National Agenda for a Multicultural Australia: Sharing Our Future (Canberra: AGPS, 1989), vii.

  17. 17.

    National Agenda for a Multicultural Australia, vii.

  18. 18.

    Derek Whitehead, “Documenting Diversity: Acquisitions and Access to Material Reflecting a Multicultural Australia,” in Towards Federation 2001: Linking Australians and Their Heritage, 263–69. (Canberra: National Library of Australia, 1993), 264.

  19. 19.

    Office of Multicultural Affairs, National Agenda for a Multicultural Australia, 47.

  20. 20.

    National Library of Australia, “2016 Collection Development Policy,” Introduction.

  21. 21.

    Joint Committee of Public Accounts and Audit The Efficiency Dividend and Small Agencies: Size Does Matter (Canberra: Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia, 2008), 56.

  22. 22.

    National Library of Australia, “2016 Collection Development Policy,” Principles.

  23. 23.

    Copyright Act 1968: s. 195CD.

  24. 24.

    Katarzyna Kwapisz Williams, “Transnational Literary Cultures in Australia: Writers of Polish Descent,” in Bruno Mascitelli, Sonia Mycak and Gerardo Papalia eds, The European Diaspora in Australia: An Interdisciplinary Perspective, 114–35 (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2016).

  25. 25.

    The NLA sources overseas publications with the help of contractors. In 2018, the only country in which the NLA maintains a physical presence to collect material is Indonesia.

  26. 26.

    Janina David, A Square of Sky: The Recollections of a Childhood (London: New Authors Limited, 1964); Janina David, A Touch of Earth: A Wartime Childhood (London: Hutchinson, 1966).

  27. 27.

    National Archives of Australia (Canberra): A12508, 50/435, National Archives of Australia (Melbourne): B78, DAWIDOWICZ J.

  28. 28.

    Janina David, Light Over the Water: Post-war Wanderings (London: Barnet Libraries in conjunction with JMLS, 1995).

  29. 29.

    The NLA purchased a copy of Light Over the Water in 2016. The catalogue metadata identify the book’s author as Australian, but include the same incorrect subject terms as the British Library catalogue summarizing David’s experiences as related to World War II.

  30. 30.

    Janina David, Leben aus zweiter Hand (Frankfurt: Fischer Taschenbuch-Verlag, 1990), Janina David, Die Perle der Weisheit (München: Droemer Knaur, 1994); Janina David, Eurydikes Augen (Berlin: Berliner Taschenbuch-Verlag, 2004).

  31. 31.

    Sanford Berman, Prejudices and Antipathies: A Tract on the LC Subject Heads Concerning People (Metuchen: Scarecrow Press, 1971); Hope A. Olson, “The Power to Name: Representation in Library Catalogues,” Signs 26, no. 3 (2001): 639–68.

  32. 32.

    Judah Waten, Alien Son (Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1952); Herz Bergner, Light and Shadow, translated by Alec Braizblatt (Melbourne: Georgian House, 1963).

  33. 33.

    Janina David, A Part of the Main (London: Hutchinson, 1969).

  34. 34.

    National Library of Australia, “2016 Collection Development Policy,” Principles.

  35. 35.

    Joseph Ribarow ed., From Eritrea to Australia: The Recollections of Abraham Hadgu: A Refugee from Africa (Melbourne: Inner Western Region Migrant Resource Centre, 2001); Brett Hilder, The Sea of Chance (Millers Point: Pier 9, 2007); Tewodros Fekadu, No One’s Son (Fredonia: Leapfrog Press, 2012); Keiron Galloway, Kemey de Han w’alu: Kibra’s Story (Sandy Bay: Tasmanian Council for Adult Literacy, 2014).

  36. 36.

    National Library of Australia, “Collection Statistics: Holdings by Type (as at the End of 2016–17),” n.d. [2017].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Hamburg Foundation for the Advancement of Research and Culture, Hamburg, Germany

    Klaus Neumann

  2. Deakin University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    Klaus Neumann

  3. Hannah Arendt Institute, Dresden, Germany

    Klaus Neumann

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  1. Klaus Neumann
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Correspondence to Klaus Neumann .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Tasmania, Hobart, TAS, Australia

    Kate Darian-Smith

  2. University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Paula Hamilton

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Neumann, K. (2019). In Search of “Australia and the Australian People”: The National Library of Australia and the Representation of Cultural and Linguistic Diversity. In: Darian-Smith, K., Hamilton, P. (eds) Remembering Migration. Palgrave Macmillan Memory Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-17751-5_19

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