The Memory Tapes: Voices from the Oral History Collection of the National Library of Australia
- New book showcases Australia’s most significant oral history collection, housed at the National Library of Australia
- Edited by Australian historian Dr Shirleene Robinson AM, the book includes hundreds of excerpts from oral history interviews across 16 broad themes
- Book offers readers a doorway into the prominent and personal moments that have shaped Australia
From the voices of First Nations peoples and early migrants to stories of resilience during natural disasters and pandemics, and reflections on life in sport, science and the arts, The Memory Tapes highlights diverse lived experiences with all their complexities, emotion and contradictions.
The National Library’s oral history and folklore collection includes recordings of prominent Australians such as May Gibbs, Charles Perkins, Bob Hawke, John Howard, Rosie Batty, Brett Whiteley, Vivian Bullwinkel and Katherine Bennell-Pegg, alongside thousands of lesser known but equally powerful personal histories. Some of these interviews come from major projects including Voices of the Bush, the Bringing Them Home project, Australian Responses to COVID-19, Australian Lesbian and Gay Life Stories and the Badja Forest Road Fire. Included alongside hundreds of curated extracts in the book is a QR code to access the original recordings.
The book is accompanied by a podcast of the same name, with all episodes available from 3 August on podcast platforms or via our website.
This book shows the power of oral history to bring the past to life, through the voices of people who lived through it. I can't wait for readers to encounter these remarkable stories, to listen to them, and to connect with them as deeply as I have.
Working on The Memory Tapes was a privilege—to hear and read so many life stories and accounts of struggle, passion and triumph. For anyone who seeks to understand Australia's past, whether they are a historian, a fiction writer, a student or just curious, this book is a seedbank for a million possible avenues of exploration.
The Memory Tapes: Voices from the Oral History Collection of the National Library of Australia is available from bookstores on 15 August.
The Library’s oral history collection can be accessed anytime online via Trove, by ordering copies through the Library catalogue, or by visiting the Library.
About Dr Shirleene Robinson AM
Dr Shirleene Robinson is an acclaimed oral historian who has interviewed in every Australian state and territory. She is also a curator and an Honorary Associate Professor and Visiting Fellow in the School of Communication at the University of Technology Sydney. She has published extensively across the areas of oral history, colonisation and Indigenous and non-Indigenous contact histories, LGBTQIA+ history and the history of childhood.
Selected quotes from interviews featured in the book
Then they returned, sort of wiping their bayonets and then indicated to us that we were to get up and march into the sea.
And our sportsmaster, after witnessing my performances in the athletic area, had a talk to me and said, ‘Well, why don’t you, sort of, have a crack at the rugby league scene?’
And then, of course, during the AIDS period and all those awful stories where families, biological families moved in, totally denying the partner of the man who died any rights whatsoever. The way which that shifted is, I think, quite extraordinary.
We try to teach them, but they don’t want to. The peppers are good, but they don’t eat them. The tomatoes are good, but they don’t eat them. Do you know what my daughters like to eat? McDonald’s!
I remember the poor old convicts, so many of them. They worked for my father, some of them. Some of them had backs that were ridged and ridged from the lash.
And she kept lookin’ at me because I must have been her little mate, you know, her little friend. And the next minute she was gone in a whirl of dust on the mission track. Things like that over the years, you know. And as I said, you lived in fear all the time, of someone comin’, you know? To take you.
Media kit
Dr Robinson is available for interview, along with Dr Barbara Lemon, the Library’s Director of Curatorial and Collection Research who oversees the oral history collection. Please contact us to enquire.
About the National Library of Australia’s Oral History and Folklore collection
Images for media use are available via our Dropbox
Media enquiries
Lauren Conron | Media Liaison
0401 226 697 | media@nla.gov.au