In a recently completed project we called for material from Australians with Indian heritage to add to the national collection. We invited you to help us to document the history of Australian-Indian people and communities in Australia.

The formal project is now complete, but you can still consider offering us material through our regular collecting channels. You may consider offering us published material created by an individual or organisation, or unpublished material such as family papers, letters, journals and photographs.

About the collecting project

Australians with Indian heritage are Australia's fastest growing migrant group, comprising over 750,000 people in 2022. Indian diaspora communities have made a significant contribution to many aspects of Australian society and culture.

We invited Australians with Indian heritage to help the Library build a collection about their history and experiences. We were guided by those who are by self-definition a part of the Indian diaspora in Australia. That may have included people who trace their heritage to the pre-Partition Indian subcontinent.

By collecting stories of the Indian diaspora, we aimed to preserve and make accessible to social historians of the future, the stories of today. We sought to ensure that a permanent documentary record of Australia’s migration history is publicly available. This two-year project ended in June 2025, however we look forward to building ongoing relationships with the Indian-Australian community.

What we collect?

Although the project has formally ended we are still looking for material by and about Australian-Indian people and communities, their lives and experiences, their work and organisations.

• Books
• Newspapers or newsletters
• Manuscripts
• Pictures and photographs
• Posters
• Electronic publications
• Websites
• Oral histories
• Ephemera

How you can continue to contribute

We are inviting you to offer books, newsletters, pictures, manuscripts, and published materials to the national collection. 

We are especially interested in collecting material published by Indian-Australians and printed material that relates to events and activities organised by community groups and organisations. This might include posters, brochures, pamphlets, flyers, invitations, maps, programs, badges and stickers. 

If you have items you’d like to donate, you can offer them for consideration.

You can deposit your electronic publications like eBooks and digital newsletters using the National edeposit service (NED).

What we do with material we collect

We provide access to our collections either onsite in Canberra, or online through our catalogue in line with relevant access and usage conditions. 

The material collected through this project will be a valuable resource for researchers and scholars, family historians, school students and general library users. 

Potential uses of the material may extend to publishing, exhibitions and more. Material that has been collected in this project is making its way onto the our catalogue and Trove.

Learn more about the our current collecting priorities.

Explore new collections

Our commissioned interviewers and photographers began recording interviews and documenting community activities in July 2023. 

You can explore more commissioned photography and oral history interviews in our collection.

Discover webpages and digital newspapers that have been archived in the Australian Web Archive.

Discover recorded events and lifelong learning products created as part of the Indian Diaspora collecting project.  

How to contact us

If you would like to discuss collection material with our curators, please email select@nla.gov.au.