[Dialogue] [Oe List ...] Trashing the Archives

[frank bremner]

To David Walters and other archivists.

(1)

Thanks, David, for your well-structured letter about the various archiving 
projects.  I am in favour of all of them, for all their different purposes.

And I especially like the Repository as a place for an "ongoing canon" to 
develop. [When writing liturgies for Catholic school use, I added something 
from contemporary writings to reflect this "ongoing canon".  Maybe heretical 
according to someone in Rome but I stand my ground, and "can do no other". ]

Remember that quote from "The Journey to the East", where writing history is 
seen as self-justfication?  That quote has been used many times to counter 
archiving efforts - yet Betty kept the JWM collection in shape - and 
contains some wisdom but not all.  I was pleased, following the events of 
1984 and afterwards, to see reflective and interpretive comments about our 
history appearing in the early versions of "Edges" and in the on-line 
Dialogue.  It meant that, as a movement in a very broad sense, we were 
growing up into mature adulthood.  But that's another conversation which is 
proceeding still in conversations about O:E. EI and ICA.

(2)

In Australia we gathered together many filing cabinets when the Sydney ICA 
office closed, and stored them in my garage.  When archiving was later 
generally seen as something more than just the quirky whim of a few 
eccentrics and intellectuals, and Chicago started developing its CD, in 
Australia we went the same direction.

Eccentrics and intellectuals (and historians, despite the quote from Herman 
Hesse's book) had often cringed when piles of folders were consigned to the 
fireplace eg when the ICA identity "took over" from the EI identity and lots 
of records of local church projects were destroyed.

The above filing cabinets went to the home of Joan (Priest) and Michael 
Firkins in the Adelaide Hills, with great views of the Adelaide Plains, St 
Vincent Gulf - but also in territory with high bushfire danger - so we 
wanted to deal with the stuff fairly quickly!  Other circumstances: I had to 
move house, and there was no room for the archives or working on them, and 
the Firkins had an old room at the back of their carport for storing them 
AND working on them.  Eventually the need to tear down that old carport and 
room, and hope that the possums in the ceiling foudn new homes in the 
surrounding trees, also hastened our efforts.

We had many sessions, under the leadership of Katrin Ogilvy and others, in 
which we ordered those archives.  The headings and categories of the US CD 
were used as an initial guideline.  Then those with appropriate expertise 
made the CD "Dreaming Tracks", covering the OE/EI/ICA history in Australia 
to that date.  It's not perfect by more recent standards (eg getting around 
the CD, some mistakes, some almost unreadable scanned documents etc) but 
that will have to wait for a second edition - sometime!

The archives themselves are now with the National Library in Canberra, 
awaiting processing.  The Library is a great building - Tom Schwartz and I 
visited there late last year prior to a ToP Module 5 in Canberra.

(3)

Many (most?) Australian colleagues contributed sections or the whole of 
their own archives to that Australian Library collection.  I know a few 
people, like myself, who have comprehensive collections for their local 
regions.  I have about 9 filing cabinets of material from 1968 onwards.  It 
includes a large collection of Community Meeting Australia and Walkabout 
documents, probably rescued from the Adelaide ICA office when it closed.

(4)

Since the mid-70s I have had the vague, now much less vague, idea that 
saving this stuff is important.  It used to annoy me that people would quote 
philosophers, theologians, social commentators and others at great length - 
people who would work surrounded by documents etc etc - but who would then 
put down any of our number doing the same.

My once vague idea had blossomed into a proposed PhD/book/publications on 
the history of the OE/EI/ICA movement in Australia.  "Dreaming Tracks" is a 
start but I have wanted to do some of the underlying examination and 
commentary that is now possiible.  And when I was getting credits and 
distinctions (even high distinctions) for academic work in educational 
administration (in the 70s/80s), drama (2006 - work on Beckett, Sondheim, 
Brecht etc), and theology (particularly sociology and christology) - then I 
realised that I should not waste this talent.

I have my own ideas and analysis, but also want to include reflections of 
others - I want to "map the territory of experience and opinion".  So I will 
be gradually chatting with (albeit at a distance at times) with Australians 
who have been (and maybe still are) involved with the OE/EI/ICA movement - 
in Australia and elsewhere - and non-Australians who have spent time here.

One thread I want to explore is how we "Australianised" the influences from 
the USA and elsewhere, and the dangers of that.  I remember David McLeskey 
saying, in about 1974-75, that "you Australians need to be careful about 
your casualness".  A useful comment.  I think that Australian is now a 
player on the world stage, with that Australian egalitarianism and 
casualness combined with lots of hard work, imagination and expertise.

(5)

Finally, did Chicago ALWAYS receive a copy of every document produced 
anywhere?  Is the Chicago collection "the big daddy of them all"?

Are there other OE/EI/ICA collections, gathered or dispersed in countries 
other than the USA?  Are there archives projects ocurring elsewhere, of 
local materials etc, going back decades?

(6)

There's been a great British detective comedy series here called "New 
Tricks", featuring Amanda Redman, Denis Waterman, James Bolan and Alun 
Armstrong.  It's about three retired coppers, of varying former ranks, 
working on unsolved crimes from their days in the police force.  Armstrong 
is especially interesting - his character remembers who was where and on 
what day of the week back when.  It's like remembering who was at an RS-I 
course in July 1968 - a propensity of which I am guilty!

Best wishes

Frank Bremner