Oral history collection launched
A new online collection of LGBTI oral history has been launched to celebrate the completion of a community project dedicated to preserving Sydney’s gay past.
New South Wales Governor Marie Bashir and Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore introduced the collection at Paddington Town Hall on Wednesday. The ‘100 Voices’ online collection recently reached its target of collecting 100 LGBTI oral history sources.
Started in 2004 by the Pride History Group, the ‘100 Voices’ project aims to highlight Sydney’s LGBTI history by recording interviews with community members and creating a database of oral sources.
The collection covers Sydney’s gay and lesbian history from the 1950s and includes the start of Mardi Gras, the HIV/AIDS epidemic and the fight for decriminalisation of homosexuality, equal rights and marriage equality.
Pride History Group president Lex Watson said the collection was an important record of the Sydney gay community’s past.
“This material will remind present generations that much has been achieved and changed, and that gay and lesbian life was very different in the past,” Watson said.
INFO: www.pridehistorygroup.org.au
