The Memory Tapes

The National Library of Australia’s Oral History and Folklore collection is the largest in the country, containing more than 58,000 recorded hours of interviews.

Captured in the collection are memories from the mid-nineteenth century to today – deep time to deep space and everything in between. Interviewees describe major moments of social change, cultural creativity, political struggle and everyday experience that will both enhance and challenge your understanding of Australian history.

The Memory Tapes brings together hundreds of interview excerpts, organised into chapters on broad themes, from domestic life to politics. The excerpts capture lived experiences in all their complexities, emotion and contradictions. Readers will get a sense of the textures of memory – tone, hesitation, reflection – learning about the past from the people who lived it. Through the voices of Elders, prime ministers, migrants, scientists, athletes, centenarians, artists and more, this is our national memory.

This book, an empathy-building doorway to discovery, is essential for classrooms, historians, writers and anyone who wants to understand more about this nation.

About the Author

Dr Shirleene Robinson AM is an experienced oral historian, curator and 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, LGBTIQ history and the history of childhood.

Her eleven books include Something like Slavery? Queensland’s Aboriginal child workers,1842-1945 and recent co-authored books, such as In the Eye of the Storm: Volunteers and Australia’s Response to the HIV/AIDS Crisis. Shirleene is currently the Oceania representative on the International Oral History Association Council and is a past President of Oral History NSW. In 2022, she was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for significant service to the LGBTIQ community, marriage equality and history.