OHV Symposium - Victoria's Precarious Oral History Collections: from Identification to Preservation

Date: Friday, 21st August, 2026.

Time: Symposium starts at 9.30am- 12:30pm

Location: Hybrid event - in person at the Royal Historical Society of Victoria, 239 A'Beckett St, Melbourne, 3000 and online on Zoom.

Last year, the Identifying Victorian Precarious Oral History Collections project was hugely successful in identifying close to 10,000 oral history recordings in the Victorian community at risk of being lost without support for their sustainable preservation. This symposium provides an opportunity to come together as a community of creators, holders and preservers of oral histories to consider what next steps we need to take to move beyond identification to preservation of Victoria's precarious oral history collections.

Join us for a conversation with panellists representing oral history collecting organisations as well as community collection producers and holders, as we reflect on the state of precariousness of oral history collections and what we can do to move from a phase of identification to preservation for more of these critical historical and cultural materials.

Speakers:

Hosts: Emeritus Professor Alistair Thomson and Jen Rose, President Oral History Victoria

·      Dr. Alexandra Mountain, Project Lead, The Precarious Oral Histories Project.

·      Dr. Barbara Lemon, Co-Director, Curatorial and Collection Research, National Library of Australia.

·      Greg Gerrand, Senior Collections Curator, Victorian and Australian Collections, State Library Victoria.

·      Nicole Hilder, Local History and Heritage Team Leader, City of Port Phillip.

·      Rose Blustein, Library Coordinator, Kadimah National Library and Cultural Centre.

·      Anna Donne, Committee Member, Sunshine and District Historical Society.

·      Dr Juliet Fox, Projects Coordinator, 3CR Community Radio.

·      Professor Nathalie Nguyen, School of Philosophical, Historical and International Studies, Monash University.