Out of history’s page

In a city of four million people, some people and stories can fall through the cracks of memory and get forgotten.

But John Witte and the Pride History Group are determined the tales of gay life in Sydney across the previous decades will be recorded for future generations.

The group has just published its latest historical book, Camp As A Row Of Tents, which traces the history of Sydney’s gay and lesbian social groups as far back as the 1930s.

Camp As A Row Of Tents explores the foundation of such legendary social groups as the Chameleons, Pollynesians, Boomerangs, Clover Club and South Pacific Motor Club.

Witte, secretary of the Pride Group, says as the history group works on each of its books, they realise the depth of stories available.

It is a little like voyeurism as you get into people’s lives and you see your city so differently, Witte says. You learn what was happening in places around the city 40 years ago, and it makes you see it in a different light.

If we can get out there with these stories, it means people in our community realise that gay life in this city didn’t start in 1973 with the Gay Pride March or 1978 with Mardi Gras, but that gay lives had been going on for a long time.

It is just nice to know we have a history too.

The Pride History Group is compiling a digital library of images, as well as recorded oral histories of people who have shared their stories.

Witte, a veteran of the 1973 Gay Pride March and the 1978 Gay Solidarity March that spawned Mardi Gras, says the history group is also working on a book to mark the 30th anniversary of the Mardi Gras.

As he recalls his own memories of that fateful night, which ended up in a brutal riot, Witte says the tales should not be forgotten for the courage of the people involved, and the political tide it changed.

I didn’t get arrested and I didn’t throw a punch, but I think the women really took the baton up from the men, he says. The lesbians were far more aggressive, more pushy, and they couldn’t cope with the police aggression and fought back.

I think Mardi Gras has kept a core commitment to the community. You go to the pride marches in places like London and it is a ragtag group of people walking along. I think activists here have cottoned on to the fact you can have fun and protest at the same time.

Camp As A Row Of Tents is on sale now at the Bookshop Darlinghurst for $9.95.