Archive Fever

Clare and Yves are joined by journalist and broadcaster Tamara Oudyn whose latest ABC podcast series, ‘The Good Divorce’, tells the story of the seemingly elusive good divorce. Where does the research begin for a topic that’s still so taboo? The group discusses the key ingredients that make good talent, sources as a human archive, and balancing the light and shade in the world today.

Clare and Yves are joined by Duane Hamacher, a cultural astronomer from the University of Melbourne, specialising in Indigenous astronomy. Duane’s book, The First Astronomers: How Indigenous Elders Read the Stars (2022), is the product of 10 years of collaborative research with Indigenous elders. How does a boy from Missouri wind up reading the antipodean stars? What gets overlooked when knowledge is discredited as myth and legend? The group discusses outsiders, variable stars changing the history of science, and researching with ears open, mouth shut.

Historian Anna Clark explores the addictive nature of archives and challenges traditional historical definitions. They discuss incorporating Indigenous knowledge, family legacies, and the political dimensions of Australian history. The episode ends with a humorous 'dirty archive secret' and a teaser for the next episode.

Clare and Yves are joined by the spectacular Kate Grenville to discuss searching for secrets, fictionalising colonial history and Kate's latest non-fiction book, Elizabeth Macarthur's Letters.

Yves and Clare are joined by literary biographer Bernadette Brennan and documentary filmmaker Tosca Looby, who have recently documented the life and times of two of the most influential women in recent Australian history, to learn how the archive shapes and limits the stories we tell about powerful women.

Yves and Clare are joined by Professor John Carty and Dr Jared Thomas from the South Australia Museum to learn how the museum is grappling with its collection of unidentified Indigenous human remains — an archive of bones — and explore how the museum’s historical artefacts can operate as a “cultural seedbank” to facilitate the memory of and reconnection with Indigenous knowledges.

Yves and Clare are joined by Catherine Dwyer, the filmmaker behind Brazen Hussies (2020), a history of the rebels and activists who brought the women’s liberation movement to Australia. What happens when someone’s story is in contention with the archive? What do you do with the footage left on the cutting room floor? The group discusses uncovering buried treasure, the methodology of visual storytelling, and the nitty-gritty of using archival footage in Australia.

Yves and Clare are joined by Samia Khatun, historian, filmmaker, and senior lecturer at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies. Samia’s latest book, Australianama: The South Asian Odyssey in Australia (2019) takes aim at the claim that the knowledge traditions of Enlightened man have superseded the epistemologies of peoples colonised by European empires. Are the archives themselves the problem, or the questions we ask of them? The group discusses an extraordinary discovery in the middle of the Australian outback, the historian’s power of time travel, and the potential of the dream archive.

Clare and Yves are joined by medical historian and public history advocate extraordinaire, Dr Peter Hobbins. In 2020 Peter’s expertise surrounding the influenza pandemic of 1918 came into play as the world grappled with the Covid-19 crisis. What can we learn from the past? Is history really cyclical, or more parallel? The group discusses an archival submarine, misgivings with a digital archive of data, and documenting the pandemic in real time (#covidstreetarchive).

Yves and Clare are joined by Lynne Kelly and Margo Neale, co-authors of Songlines: The Power and Promise (2020), the first in a ground-breaking series on “First Knowledges”. How do songlines, visualized as pathways of knowledge that crisscross the continent, act as an embodied knowledge system? What is the connection between memory and place? The group discusses the recipe for unforgettable information, the “third archive”, and the mind-altering power of bringing humanity into… everything.