Western Australia’s long-running LGBTIQA+ archives, WestPride Archives, has secured another decade of their vital work in collaboration with Murdoch University.
Formerly known as Gay and Lesbian Archives WA (GALAWA), the archive holds a key into Western Australia’s LGBTIQA+ history over the decades.
WestPride Archives has been a valuable resource for educators, students, political commentators and historians since the 1990s.
The archives hold a range of meaningful artefacts, including fabulous costumes, posters, photographs, organisational history, newsletters and LGBTIQA+ publishing – including OUTinPerth and our predecessors ShOUT and Westside Observer.
WestPride Archives committee member Graham Grundy said the agreement would allow for further investment in the collections.
“The long-term stability provided by the agreement gives us confidence to invest further resources into the collection and to continue to promote our services by partnering with LGBTIQA+ organisations and making more of the catalogue available online through our digitisation projects,” Grundy said.
Murdoch University’s Pro Vice-Chancellor Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, Dr Rebecca Bennett, said the agreement was a step forward in ensuring autonomy and agency in sharing LGBTIQA+ stories.
“It is a testament to the collective effort, love and care that has preserved over 90 years of LGBTIQA+ history in WA,’ Dr Bennett said.
“The collection documents stories of survival, protest and celebration that add depth, truth and colour to the effort to make sense of and reconcile with our past.”
Murdoch University librarian Dawn McLoughlin said signing the 10-year agreement held deep significance for the future of LGBTIQA+ recordkeeping and knowledge sharing.
“The collection holds an extensive range of artefacts including oral histories, audiovisual records, all kinds of literary and printed educational materials; organisational records, textiles, photographs, posters and personal ephemera… the collection also holds significant material relating to the push for law reform in WA,” McLoughlin said.
“This partnership has provided an opportunity to confirm that WestPride and the university, including Murdoch University’s EDI team, will collaborate with each other to promote and support the collection through planning and coordinating joint initiatives.”
Declaration: OUTinPerth co-editors Leigh Andrew Hill and Graeme Watson work in the higher education sector at other WA universities.
