Automotive Historians Australia hosted the 5th annual conference on Saturday 4th September 2021, a workshop with the theme set as 'The Future of Automotive Collections & Archives in Australia’.
This AHA planned this workshop due to an increasingly pressing need to audit and assess the cultural collections held across Australia’s hundreds of automotive clubs and societies, which often fall outside the purview of the more recognised entities of the galleries, libraries, archives, and museums (GLAM) sector. As the founders and stalwarts of these clubs and societies retire and a younger generation of enthusiasts is not necessarily materialising to take their place, the accumulated wealth of material collected over the past decades, and, as importantly, the tacit knowledge and skills club members hold both individually and collectively, are at risk of loss.
In this workshop, we heard from speakers representing national, state, club and private archives and collections. They outlined challenges faced by these entities in areas such as skill shortage, knowledge transfer, access and research. The day ended with a summary by Professor Sarah Teasley, and general discussion proposing future actions that would be appropriate for AHA to undertake on behalf of this vast national resource. Co-conveners Professor Harriet Edquist, Dr Norm Darwin, and Dr Simon Lockrey managed the virtual aspects of the day, with the assistance of our RMIT design interns Jordan Hammill and Dawn Liu. Please click below for the proceedings from the day.
Video content from presenters is free for paid up AHA members, so join or renew through this link for 2021, so that these become available to you (email us at info@autohistoriansaustralia.org if you’re a member and do not have the links)
Here is a taste of the 2021 action, with Professor Sarah Teasley presenting the event summary at the AHA Conference: The Future of Automotive Collections & Archives in Australia.
Video produced by Jordan Hammill and artwork by Dawn Lui of RMIT.
Please visit our YouTube channel for more full filmed versions of each of the paper presented from all of our conferences.