Cultural Artefact: History Department J.C.U. Black Oral History Collection
Summary
The Department of History holds a substantial collection of tape recordings of interviews carried out by members of the department, students and visiting researchers. Those interviewed are Aboriginal and Pacific Island people who are living, or who have lived in north Queensland. There is also a miscellaneous collection relating to Chinese people. Recordings date from the early 1970s. A large section of the collection comprises interviews with Pacific Islanders in north Queensland, taped by Patricia Mercer and Clive Moore. Interviews with Aboriginal people have been recorded chiefly by Noel Loos, Helen Brayshaw and Robert Armstrong. There are also interviews of Palm Island people recorded by Carolyn Strachan, member of a team who filmed a documentary in 1974, on the 1957 strike on Palm Island. Interviews with Chinese people in north Queensland were collected by Cathie May during research for her doctoral thesis: The Chinese in Cairns and District, 1870-1920. Access to the Black Oral History Collection is considerably restricted, and application should be made through the head of the Department of History. The collection is fully indexed.