$988 000 grant funding for Australian History Archive at Victoria University

From the grant documentation:

The Aboriginal History Archive 2.0 builds on its success in filling the gaps in Australia’s knowledge estate by adding never-before-seen data on Aboriginal political movements. It expands the infrastructure by incorporating significant collections curated by Prof Gary Foley from individuals, families and community organisations. The current IT framework is limited to scholarly reference and needs to be upgraded to meet new researcher expectations and accessibility for growing demand by researchers, educators, creative industry professionals, Aboriginal community members and the general public. These advances expect to accelerate uptake in AHA’s collection and contribute to enhanced research and community understanding.

Australia’s historical record suffers through a lack of Indigenous voice and context leading to an incomplete and imbalanced understanding of our shared history. The Aboriginal History Archive (AHA) has developed a framework for capturing, contextualising and sharing previously unavailable materials and creative, proven approaches to research impact that contribute to a more accurate record based on the founding ‘Foley Collection.’ However, there is still much to be uncovered and disseminated through adding until-now privately held collections, to significantly expand the archive ...

This project will expand historical data available to the research community, enabling researchers to reveal Aboriginal perspectives, produce more accurate narratives and advance Australia’s truth-telling endeavour. Building on AHA's recognition amongst researchers nationally and internationally, and the reputation it has earned with Aboriginal people and organizations as a trustworthy repository, this project scales up AHA's use, translation and understanding. (Emphasis added)

Among the investigators involved are Prof. Gary Foley, Prof. Larissa Behrendt (a distinguished Supporter of Defending Country), Dr Padraic Gibson and Prof. John Maynard. Among the organisations involved are Victoria University, University of Technology Sydney, University of Melbourne, National Archives of Australia, National Library of Australia, and Bubup Wilam Aboriginal Child and Family Centre Incorporated, but not the Australian War Memorial.

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Picture credit: Victoria University Footscray Nicholson Campus – Building T as viewed from Buckley Street, 2020 (Aidanthomas99; CC-BY SA 4.0)