Researchers seek queer history
Queensland researchers are calling for LGBTI volunteers to recount their experiences as part of a national project documenting Australia’s queer history.
The Australia Research Council Linkage Grants, which collects oral histories with the help of universities around the country, has launched a three-year project to track the emergence of the gay and lesbian subculture in Australia from around the 1890s by gathering in-depth interviews from 60 people around Australia, aiming for roughly 300 hours of content.
Professor Clive Moore from the University of Queensland said that the project was especially hoping to hear from people who never had a great involvement in ‘mainstream’ queer political culture.
“Some of these people might have been politically active or out on the gay scene in the 1970s, some may have been in relationships for 30 years, right through to the new younger generation of people who don’t have the same gay and lesbian identity, of fitting into a subculture,” Moore said.
The project will eventually lead to a five-part television series, the publication of a book and several academic journal articles, with the interviews being freely available in the National Library of Australia.
