Gary Foley Collection tells activism history through Aboriginal lens

Warning: This story contains images of Indigenous people who have died.

In the golden years of Australia's Black Power movement, a new generation of young Aboriginal activists paved the way for many of the political fights still being fought today. 

Gumbaynggirr academic Gary Foley was front and centre.

His organising and activism — alongside peers — helped to establish Aboriginal-led health, media and legal services.

And, as the years ticked on, he rarely threw anything out — letters, manifestos, posters, photographs, films and T-shirts, each item a memento to a day gone by.

Over 45 years, Professor Foley has been a prolific archivist, amassing thousands of items of ephemera.

His collection eventually outgrew Professor Foley's house and garden shed, so the search was on for a more permanent home.

"He kept things that he thought were significant along the way and then tried to have a university help him house it," says Kim Kruger, an Aboriginal lecturer and researcher.

In 2017, Victoria University's Moondani Balluk Academic Centre in Melbourne agreed to house what's now known as the Aboriginal History Archive.

This unique archive has been steadily, and quietly, growing ever since.

It now spans a century of activism from the 1920s and is cared for by a small team of staff and Indigenous students.

It is the only collection of its kind in Australia.

'Archives have often kept us out'

Acquisition of Aboriginal-owned artefacts, art and precious items has a long and chequered history in Australia, and institutions have not always included proper consultation with Indigenous elders and communities.

"Archives have often kept us out and they've been a tool of control," says Kruger.

"What Professor Foley's set up here is a collection of material that tells a very particular story about our political history from our point of view.

A large portion of the material was collected while Professor Foley played a central role in Aboriginal self-determination and land rights movements.

Families and individuals have since donated their own items and photographs.

Kruger says the collection illustrates Professor Foley's razor-sharp intellect, vision and "sharp wit".

And there is plenty of sharp wit adorned on T-shirts, posters and in written correspondence.

One archived letter, written to the KKK by the National Aboriginal Liberation Front, urges the white supremacist group to cease writing to Aboriginal activists because "we already have a good supply of toilet paper".

Precious items protected by archivists

Much of the vast collection has been digitised, but one-off physical copies of posters, letters and photographs are also stored carefully on site.

Archivist Will Bracks brings out a poster dating back to 1981 during the historic Springbok demonstrations led by Black activists in Australia as part of global protests against South Africa's apartheid regime.

"It's been really important to preserve things like this," Bracks says.

"I don't know if there's any other of these posters in existence. We've got quite a few [items] where this is the only copy."

First Nations students get the chance to peek into this window into the past, and there is a direct link to the political struggles their communities are still grappling with today.

"All of those records we have, even just being able to look at them is amazing and being a part of looking after that and preserving it for the future is a really great privilege for me," says Elijah McDonald, a Noongar and Yamatji student.

For Taylah Austen, a Gunggari and Kamilaroi student, working at the archive has immense meaning.

"You actually feel like you're making a difference in some way. I've never had a job where it has done so much for my brain, my soul, my spirit.