Archives of protest

Although Germaine Greer has engaged in her fair share of protest, the author and feminist says rather than seeing herself as an activist, she has simply spent her life “trying to think clearly about things that weren’t clear.”

Professor Greer, an arts graduate of the University, made these comments at the recent launch of a new exhibition drawing on material held in the University of Melbourne Archives related to protest movements in Australia from the 1960s through to the 1980s.

Protest! Archives from the University of Melbourne focuses on a number of key social movements and campaigns of that time – and how they were reflected in activity on campus by students and staff.

The anti-conscription campaign during the Vietnam war and anti-war movement in general, student activism, gay liberation, women’s liberation, the Carlton Association, the Immigration Reform Group and the University Assembly (which was designed as a permanent consultative body for students and staff) are all covered.

The ephemera on display in the exhibition – letters, pamphlets, posters and other collateral, badges, are descriptive of the passion that can motivate an educated generation of justice-seekers. As is the slingshot used in the May 1968 Paris student strikes, a reminder of the important role that students, young and idealistic, have played in protest movements around the world, from Melbourne to Paris and Tiananmen Square.

On display also is a vase made from the casing of a used anti-aircraft missile and pieces of a US aircraft found shot down in North Vietnam. It was presented to the Campaign for International Co-operation and Disarmament by the Hanoi Peace Committee in 1972, and its inclusion in the archives of protest is indicative of the unease that the increasingly empowered citizens of a democratic nation, were beginning to feel about a war whose aims were questionable and unclear.

The exhibition showcases action as much as ideas, with several posters on show that were a call to rally, and badges worn by activists intended to remind themselves and others of their concerns.

And as much as the objects celebrate protest, they also celebrate the role of archives in telling historical stories.  As Professor Greer said during her speech, “archives are the paydirt of history. Everything else is opinion.”

University Archivist Katrina Dean says it is also important to consider the gaps revealed in the documentation of protest movements.  UMA holds little documentation from the crucial Indigenous protest movements from the 60s and 70s, such as the 1965 University of Sydney freedom ride, the 1966 Wave Hill pastoral strike, the ’67 referendum, or the 1972 establishment of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy. 

“As archivists, we need to engage with the creators and custodians of collections that tell the story of Indigenous rights and protest movements, to find new models of collecting so that these important records can be preserved,” Dr Dean says.

During the launch event, former student activist and Professor at Victoria University in Melbourne Michael Hamel-Green, commented that mainstream media largely ignored early student protests that were peaceful and marches that took place on the footpath, leading protesters to take actions that were – while still non-violent – more assertive.

And he described how the Vietnam War and Australia’s “tool to fight it, namely conscription” galvanized attention and action.

In their essay on protests in the exhibition catalogue University of Melbourne academics Verity Burgmann and Sean Scalmer from the politics program write that: “Many Australians were inspired by the cause of peace and opposed to the compulsion to bear arms, and the growing popularity and momentum of these campaigns stimulated much broader activism.”

Protest! Archives from the University of Melbourne is on show in the Leigh Scott Gallery, Level 1, Baillieu Library, until 2 June.

www.lib.unimelb.edu.au/collections/archives/exhibitions/protest/