Diverse voices challenging our practice the history or Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander protocols by Dr Alex Byrne CEO and Sate Librarian, State Library of NSW

Diverse voices challenging our practice: the history of the Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Protocols for Libraries, Archives and Information ServicesAlex ByrneState Library of New South WalesAustralian Library History Forum7-8 July 2016, State Library of Queensland

Aust Library History Forum 2016 - Alex Byrne - Diverse voices challenging our practice

2 The Appin Massacre 17 April 1816On any occasion of seeing or falling in with the Natives, either in bodies or singly, they are to be called on, by your friendly Native Guides, to surrender themselves to you as Prisoners of War. If they refuse to do so, make the least show of resistance, or attempt to run away from you, you will fire upon and compell them to surrender, breaking and destroying the spears, clubs, and waddies of all those you take Prisoners. Such Natives as happen to be killed on such occasions, if grown up men, are to be hanged up on trees in conspicuous situations, to strike the Survivors with the greater terror. On all occasions of your being obliged to have recourse to offensive and coercive measures, you will use every possible precaution to save the lives of the Native Women and Children, but taking as many of them as you can Prisoners.

Governor Lachlan Macquarie’s Instructions to Captain Schaw of the 46th Regiment


3 The Redfern Statement 9 June 2016 17 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peak

representative organisations on the anniversary of Prime Minister Paul Keating’s 1992 Redfern Speech.

They expressed deep concern: that in 2016 First Peoples continue to experience

unacceptable disadvantage that the challenges confronting Aboriginal and Torres

Strait Islander people continue to be isolated to the margins of the national debate

that Federal Government policies continue to be made for and to, rather than with, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people

that the transformative opportunities for Government action are yet to be grasped


4 ALIA Values Promotion of the free flow of information and ideas through open

access to recorded knowledge, information, and creative works Connection of people to ideas Commitment to literacy, information literacy and learning Respect for the diversity and individuality of all people Preservation of the human record Excellence in professional service to our communities Partnerships to advance these values


5 Invasion and its consequences Europeans continued to arrive hungry for land and

opportunity it was necessary to remove Aboriginal peoples from their

land, suppress their culture, erase them from the record paradox of humane treatment of convicts and recognition of

emancipists and simultaneous dispossession and marginalisation of the first peoples

The rule was to inspire terror by slaughter, and then to treat with contemptuous sufferance or marked ill-usage the remnant of the tribe. - GW Rusden, 1883


6 The Great Australian Silencea code of silence was rigidly imposed on participants in punitive expeditions … repeated references to drawing a veil over the past

– Henry Reynolds

urged the Government to 'shut its eyes for say three months' … [which] 'once done could easily be forgotten’ - West Kimberley correspondent to the North West Times 1894


7 Savage and primitive… a curious noise, of animal gibbering, or human chatter, slight at first … on a rise in the middle distance appeared one, three, half-a-dozen savages, not entirely naked, for each wore a kind of primitive cloth draped from a shoulder, across the body, and over his private parts.

… some black women … advanced, six or seven of them, from hags to nubile girls … The natives glowered and cowered on hearing for the first time the voice of one who might have been a supernatural creature … The monkey-women snatched...

Patrick White, A fringe of leaves


8 Inadequate portrayals

We pay ourselves back. You know that. Because you know our crimes are like a stone, a stone again, thrown into a pool, and the ripples go on washing out until, a long time after we’re gone, the whole world’s rocked with them. Nothing’s the same again after we’ve passed through.

Randolph Stow To the Islands


9 Imperial myths in our librariesWorks on Indigenous Australians over simplified the diversity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait

Islander peoples reinforced the silence about frontier violence by inserting

comfortable stereotypes reinforced the beliefs in an Aboriginal culture, an Aboriginal

languages and exotic but primitive belief systems said nothing of the lives of contemporary Indigenous

Australians.


10 General ignorance

• Ineka Voigt, Doodle, Australia Day 2016


11 Libraries and Australian Indigenous peoples

F M Bladen (1906), Historical notes: commemorative of the building of the Mitchell Wing, Public Library of New South Wales

Ralph Munn and Ernest R Pitt (1935), Australian libraries : a survey of conditions and suggestions for their improvement

Lionel R McColvin (1947), Public libraries in Australia: present conditions and future possibilities; with notes on other library services

Maurice F Tauber (1963), Resources of Australian libraries: summary report of a survey conducted in 1961 for the Australian Advisory Council on Bibliographic Services


12 Model school library shelf list A list and collection of about 2,000 titles for school

libraries in New South Wales The only works listed on Indigenous Australians, listed

under Dewey 919.4 were: Mary Durack and Elizabeth Durack, Chunuma: the

story of an aboriginal child, Sydney, The Bulletin, 1936.

Mrs Jeannie Gunn, The little black princess of the Never-Never, Melbourne, Robertson and Mullens, 1936.

Tarlton Rayment, Prince of the totem: a simple black tale for clever white children, Melbourne, Robertson and Mullens, 1933.


13 Horton Report 1976Recommendation 27 Consultations should be undertaken concerning the library and

information needs of Aborigines at the national level, by the proposed Public Libraries and Information Council with government departments and Aboriginal groups, and that State Library Authorities should undertake a similar role at State level and that funds be provided within the proposed Program to support suitable projects arising from these consultations.

Recommendation 40: funding for action research, demonstration projects and innovatory services to special groups, such as migrants, the illiterate and the functionally

illiterate, the institutionalised and the housebound, the blind and the partially sighted, the geographically isolated, Aborigines, young adults, small business and local government.


14 The ATSILIRN Protocols1. Governance and management2. Content and perspectives3. Intellectual property4. Accessibility and use5. Description and classification6. Secret and sacred materials7. Offensive8. Staffing9. Developing professional practice10. Awareness of Aboriginal and Torres Strait

Islander peoples and issues11. Copying and repatriation of records12. The digital environment


15 Coming together

It is my view that you need to look carefully at the way Aboriginal people are portrayed in libraries, and you need to reach out to Aboriginal people and show us that we are welcome to participate in an area which we were excluded from for a long time.

- Mick Dodson 1993


16 2015 survey of Indigenous services in NSW public libraries

only 20% had Indigenous Australian employees working in their library 34% had organised cultural competency training in the last two years and 39%

planned to have Australian cultural competency training in the future 68% had organised programs and/or events targeted for the Australian

Indigenous community in the last two years 32% had spaces or features designed to encourage Indigenous Australian

clients to visit nearly half of the respondents have been involved in collaborations with

Indigenous Australian groups and/or organisation in the local area only 51% were aware of an Aboriginal Liaison Officer in their local council


17 2015 survey of Indigenous services in NSW public libraries

56% have a Collection Development Strategy which includes Indigenous Australian resources but others report a more general policy, or no strategy in place

K-12 students seemed to be the main users of the library's collections related to Indigenous Australian culture – presumably to address aspects of the curriculum

69% arranged their Indigenous collections with a particular label to be easily recognised and 23% house Indigenous collections in a dedicated area of the library

34% have an awareness of the ATSILIRN Protocols; some report that a few staff members are aware of them, but they do not currently use them; interestingly, 73% think they would benefit from training on implementing the ATSILIRN protocols

84% do not have shared ideas, information and/or strategies on how to better engage their library services with Indigenous Australians


18 “We treat everyone the same”

… migrants, the illiterate and the functionally illiterate, the institutionalised and the housebound, the blind and the partially sighted, the geographically isolated, Aborigines, young adults, small business and local government.

- Horton Report, Committee of Inquiry into Public Libraries 1976


19 Four key areas include Indigenous peoples in decision making and policy

formulation and, where relevant, in governance and operations recognise cultural diversity and consult with community

representatives to provide culturally appropriate access to information and services

offer employment opportunities at all levels and in all areas with education and training to foster careers

implement cross cultural awareness programs reflecting the diversity of Indigenous peoples and the local Indigenous community

- Statement on Libraries and information services and Indigenous peoples, ALIA 2009


20 SHARE – an agenda for action Share - tell of the first nations, recognise their languages, and

work with them to document their stories Hear – long term commitment to listening to and collaborating

with Indigenous communities Access - develop our collections and services responsively to

offer the information and ideas desired by Indigenous Australians and to present those that they want to share

Respect - engage with the Indigenous peoples in our communities, listen not ‘communicate’

Engage - reach out to our communities and examine our policies and practices boldly so as to find more inclusive approaches


21 End the silence, advance reconciliation and achieve our shared vision

In furthering the goals of free flow of information, library and information services must engage with indigenous clientele and with issues arising from indigenous knowledge and the experiences and priorities of indigenous Australians.

- Policy on Libraries and Information Services and Indigenous peoples ALIA 2009

Education

Diverse voices challenging our practice the history or Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander protocols by Dr Alex Byrne CEO and Sate Librarian, State Library of NSW