Women's History Month

• Tuesday, March 17, 2020 at 05:15 PM

  Royal Historical Society of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia

  What the Little Bird didn't tell me

  

  Professor Lynette Russell AM will deliver this lecture for the RHSV's celebration of Women's History Month.

  'Twenty years ago I wrote a book that documented a journey I had been on for over a decade. The book was A Little Bird Told Me: Family Secrets, Necessary Lives. This book represented a journey of discovery where I located my Aboriginal ancestors and answered a number of questions that had dogged my family for generations. Along the way, I discovered a story of secrets and lies, of madness, and refuge.  In this talk, I will reflect on this book nearly 20 years later with a focus on the importance of women as the keepers and tellers of family stories. In so doing I will consider the reasons why I wrote the book, what impact it had at the time and its ongoing influence. I hope that these reflections might have something to say to other family historians. I want to question whether there are there some family secrets and necessary lies that should never be told?'

  Professor Russell is an award-winning historian and Indigenous studies scholar at Monash University. In 2020 she is taking up an Australian Research Council Laureate Fellowship to examine 'Global Encounters and First Nations People: 1000 Years of Australian History'.

  Bookings are essential for this lecture ($10 for RHSV members; $20 for non-members).
  To make your booking, please visit the RHSV website:
  https://www.historyvictoria.org.au/event/what-the-little-bird-didnt-tell-me/

• Sunday, March 22, 2020 at 02:00 PM

  Old Heidelberg Court House in Heidelberg, Australia

  Bobbin lace-making demonstration

  

  The Banksia Lace Group demonstrates the traditional craft of bobbin lace-making, replicating the pattern used for the lace decorations made for Heidelberg's Busy Bee Signature Quilt in 1895-96.

  The quilt is the centrepiece of an interpretive exhibition that was commended in the 2019 Victorian Community History Awards.

  Visit the Heidelberg Historical Society's museum to see the original quilt on display, alongside the lace-making demonstration.

  Admission charges apply:

  Adults $5
  Children under 16 (and members of Heidelberg Historical Society) free

  Click HERE to explore the quilt online.

• Tuesday, March 31, 2020 at 11:00 AM

  Old Treasury Building

  Marking Women’s History Month – Votes for Women

  

  The Old Treasury Building is a key building in Victoria’s Parliamentary precinct; and rather appropriately located nearby is a wonderful sculpture by Susan Hewitt and Penelope Lee called Great Petition which reminds us of the long campaign for equal political rights for women. (Learn more about the sculpture via the City of Melbourne's Art and Heritage Collection.)

  The sculpture refers to the 'Monster Petition' calling for women to be granted the right to vote in Victoria. It was signed by 30,000 Victorian women over a period of six weeks in 1891. It took another two decades before women achieved the right vote! The original petition, which consists of sheets of paper glued onto lengths of calico fabric, is 260 metres long and is held by Public Record Office Victoria.

  Celebrated historian and museum specialist, Kenneth Park, will present a beautifully illustrated and fascinating lecture looking at the campaign for women’s suffrage in the United Kingdom and Australia. Kenneth will place a special focus on the jewellery, accessories, ceramics, banners, printed ephemera and other artistic objects that used distinct colour schemes and logos to popularise the cause.

  Tickets for this event cost $15. Please book by sending an email to: info@kennethpark.com.au, then pay in cash on the day.

  For further information, visit the Old Treasury Building's webpage about this event.

• Tuesday, March 31, 2020 at 06:00 PM

  Old Treasury Building in East Melbourne, Australia

  Teasing women’s stories from the archives

  

  In this seminar, three historians share their experience of researching women’s lives, as biographical dictionaries strive to increase their representation of women. From a medieval countess to Victoria’s female criminals, the stories uncovered range widely in both time and place, pointing to the richness the archives can yield 'with a little more effort and research'.

  The presenters and their topics are:

  Dr Carolyn Rasmussen, public historian

  ' "They just need a little more effort and research to track down": addressing the gender imbalance in the Australian Dictionary of Biography'

  The Australian Dictionary of Biography was, from its inception, intended to include representative as well as significant Australians, but nevertheless women remained in the shadows with only 10 women to 565 men in volume one and 11 women to 596 men in volume two.  The proportion has gradually increased to nearly one quarter of those who died between 1991 and 2001, but the challenge to redress the balance has now been taken up and the number of ‘recovered lives’ is testament to the effort and research of recent years. Plans are in hand to incorporate them into a revised Australian Dictionary of Biography.

  Dr Kathleen Neale, Monash University

  'Looking for Elizabeth: locating medieval women in the archives'

  In response to shifting community expectations, major biographical dictionaries are moving to include more women among their entries. How can medieval women be located in the archives of institutions from which they were largely excluded in their own time, and in which later archivists were often uninterested in noticing and listing them where their lives were recorded? This presentation reflects on my experience of researching the biography of one of the daughters of Edward I.

  Dr Alana Piper, University of Technology Sydney

  'Freeing female prisoners from the archives: understanding “criminality” in context'

  In his 1937 memoir about his career as a police detective in Melbourne, Alfred Stephen Burvett made a seemingly oxymoronic remark when he stated 'It must be remembered that it is not always criminals who commit offences or crimes'. Historically not every individual who entered the prison system fitted popular conceptions of the ‘criminal’; this seems especially true of women prisoners. Using archival prison records, this paper will discuss the offending careers of 6,042 women incarcerated in Victoria between 1860 and 1920 in order to reveal the complexities behind the 'criminal' identity imposed upon such women.

  Margaret Anderson, Director at the Old Treasury Building, will facilitate the discussion.

  This free event is fully subscribed.
  You can join the waiting list by sending an email request to info@historycouncilvic.org.au 

  The seminar is part of an ongoing series, Making Public Histories, that is offered jointly by the Monash University History Program, the History Council of Victoria and the Old Treasury Building. Each seminar aims to explore issues and approaches in making public histories. The seminars are open, free of charge, to anyone interested in the creation and impact of history in contemporary society. Click HERE to learn about other events in the series.

  We thank the series sponsors, Monash University Publishing, the Monash University History Program and the Old Treasury Building.