Australian libraries’ oral histories recognised by UNESCO

Oral histories from five Australian libraries’ collections will be added to UNESCO’s Australian Memory of the World (AMW) national register.

Drawn from the oral history collections of the National Library of Australia, the South Australian Migration Museum, and the State Libraries of Western Australia (SLWA), New South Wales and South Australia, Migration Voices is a distributed national collection of first-person accounts exemplifying the long history of immigration to Australia from many countries of the world.

SLWA’s contribution includes over 430 interviews and stories of migration to Western Australia from the 1900s to the present day.

‘It is a rare honour to be added to the UNESCO AMW register,’ said WA culture and arts minister David Templeman. ‘The inclusion of these oral histories is recognition of the national importance of SLWA’s collections, and the contribution the library’s collections make to maintaining and sharing the diverse history of Australia.’

An inscription ceremony for the addition of the oral histories to the AMW register will be held in Sydney on 27 February. For more information about the AMW register, visit the website.

Category: Library news