Indigenous Australians
Scope of collection
Indigenous Australians encompasses materials reflecting largely European interpretations of the history, language, art and culture of the Aboriginal peoples of Australia. This is particularly evident in the early written accounts detailing the first contacts between Europeans and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. It also includes documentation created by Aboriginal Australians about their life and activities.
Collecting aims and intentions
The Library aims to collect current and retrospective material documenting all aspects of the history, language and culture of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples with an emphasis on the area now called New South Wales.
Material is collected that documents and reflects the experiences, activities and culture of Aboriginal Australians, including information about their languages and beliefs.
The writings of Aboriginal Australians are increasingly being published in the mainstream and their stories are sought for incorporation into the collection whenever possible.
Existing collection
- Important ethnological and scientific works of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries
- Biographies, community and cultural histories
- Journals and indexes, including the official journals of historical societies, government, religious and other organisations, containing information about Aboriginal art, culture, genealogy and social history
- New South Wales newspapers containing information about family and local histories of Aboriginal people in rural and regional areas as well as political and legal challenges relating to suffrage and land rights
- National Native Title Tribunal determinations of Native Title applications and Native Title land use agreements informing on Aboriginal use of land
- Policies affecting Aboriginal Australians as expressed in the records of European institutions and organisations and Australian government publications
- Diaries, journals and correspondence of explorers and colonists detailing contact between Europeans and Aboriginal Australians
- Records of churches and missions
- Images depicting Aboriginal Australians, their life and culture
- Film and videorecordings produced by or depicting Aborigines
- Information about Aboriginal Australians from online databases and Internet sites originating in New South Wales or specifically about Aborigines in New South Wales and information produced by New South Wales government agencies concerning Aboriginal Australians
Some examples of unique or significant items
- Papers of George Augustus Robinson, Protector of Aborigines, including journals, letterbooks, correspondence and also the first periodical ever produced by Aboriginal people, The Aboriginal or Flinders Island chronicle
Mitchell Library: A 7022-A 7092 - The original manuscript of Legendary Tales of the Australian Aborigines, 1924-1925 by David Unaipon, the first Aboriginal author to be published
- The records of :
- Anglican Board of Missions incorporating the papers of John and Ernest Gribble
Mitchell Library: MLMSS 7319, MLMSS 4503 ADD-ON 2226, MLMSS 4503 ADD-ON 2212, MLMSS 4503, MLMSS 4503 ADD-ON 1822 - Australian Indigenous Ministries (formerly Aborigines Inland Mission).
Mitchell Library: MLMSS 7244 1904-1930, MLMSS 7167 boxes 1-20, 1903-1998, MLMSS 7167, boxes 21-40, 1903-1998, PXA 773/box 6, 1860-1909, PXA 773/box 8, 1908-1960s, PXA 773/box 1, 1920s-1950s, PXA 773/box5, 1930s-1970s, PXA 773/box 3, 1939-1970s, PXA 773/box 2, 1945-1971, PXA 773/box 4, 1950s-1984 - Presbyterian Church of Australia (Board of Ecumenical Missions and Relations).
Mitchell Library: MLMSS 1893; MLMSS 1893 ADD-ONs 1173, 1616, 2097 - Uniting Church of Australia.
Mitchell Library: MLMSS 1893 ADD-ON 1918 - Methodist Church of Australia.
Mitchell Library: MLMSS 197
- Anglican Board of Missions incorporating the papers of John and Ernest Gribble
- The journals and papers of explorers:
- Sir Thomas Mitchell.
Mitchell Library: A 290-A 295; C 36-C 79 - Ludwig Leichhardt.
Mitchell Library: A 1383; C 145; C 155-C 163
- Sir Thomas Mitchell.
- Papers of Herbert Basedow, anthropologist, explorer and medical practitioner, including correspondence, journals, notebooks, articles, sketches and photographs.
- The illustrated journals of Sir Walter Baldwin Spencer, anthropologist and scientist.
- Papers of Faith Bandler including correspondence, literary manuscripts, subject files and oral history interviews.
Mitchell Library: MLMSS 6243, MLOH 242, MLMSS 6243 ADD-ON 2196, MLOH 307 - Records of the Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders (FCAATSI).
- Drawings of Australian Aborigines by:
- Artworks of Mickey of Ulladulla and Tommy McRae, Aboriginal artists who used European media to illustrate their communities in the nineteenth century.
- Photographs of Aboriginal Australians at Momba Station, New South Wales by Frederic Bonney.
Mitchell Library: PXA 562 - Breast or King plates awarded to Australian Aborigines to denote supposed leadership and also for services to the Colony.
Mitchell Library: DR 204 R 250, R 251, R453 - John Heaviside Clark. Field sports etc. etc. of the native inhabitants of New South Wales : with ten plates by the author, 1813.
- Published works of Robert Hamilton Mathews
- Complete set of Dawn and New Dawn magazines, 1952-1975 and microfilm, produced by the New South Wales Aborigines Protection Board documenting life on Aboriginal reserves throughout New South Wales.
- Man continues Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland continued by The journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute.
- Oceania
- Mankind continued by the Australian journal of anthropology
- Walkabout
- The Australian Abo Call, a newspaper edited by activist Jack Patten during Australia's sesquicentenary year (1938) to proclaim citizen's rights for Australian Aborigines.
- NAIDOC (National Aboriginal Islander Day Observance Committee) Week posters, 1972 to date
- Australian Indigenous Index, an electronic index to Aboriginal published sources including the Koori Mail reporting on people, issues and events affecting Indigenous peoples from all over Australia from an Indigenous perspective from May 1991; and biographical information on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples from the magazines:
- Tindale alphabetical listing of names for Woodenbong (NSW) and Queensland sourced from Norman Tindale's accounts of his extensive travels throughout Australia in the 1930s and 1960s in particular his visits to the Queensland settlements of Cherbourg, Woorabina, Mona Mona, Palm Island, Yarrabah, Woodenbong, Boggabilla.
