THE FOLEY COLLECTION
ANDS OPEN DATA PROJECT
Adrian Gallagher, Karen Anderson, Julie Gardner & Edwina Howell, Victoria University
Activist, performer, educator and historian,
Gary Foley was born in Grafton (1950) of
Gumbainggir descent and came to Sydney
as an apprentice draughts person after being
expelled from school aged 15. In Sydney
Foley became rapidly politicized as a result
of the regular police brutality encountered in
Redfern by Aboriginal people in that period
and has since then been a key figure in the
fight for the political, legal, health & social
rights of Aboriginal people. Political activities
include:
•Springbok tour demonstrations (1971)
•Aboriginal Embassy in Canberra (1972)
•Protests during the Commonwealth Games
(1982) and bicentennial celebrations (1988).
OBJECTIVES OF THE COLLECTION
Foley helped to establish many of the first
Aboriginal self-help and survival organisations
including:
•Redfern’s Aboriginal Legal Service
•Aboriginal Health Service in Melbourne
•National Black Theatre
Currently an Associate Professor at Victoria
University, Foley recently been awarded the
most esteemed peer assessed honour for an
Indigenous artist in recognition of a lifetime
of achievement in the arts as pioneer for
Aboriginal self-determination within the film
and television industries.
• Complete collection of known published material
The Foley Archive is a unique collection of print, audio
visual and digital works collected over the past 45 years
by Aboriginal activist/academic Gary Foley. It aims to
provide organized access to key primary resources
enabling Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians
to understand the activities and impact of Aboriginal
activists and their struggles. The open access format
also provides a crucial resource for scholars of recent
aboriginal history by addressing the significant
dearth of publically available material on the politics
of the Aboriginal self-determination movement.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE COLLECTION
and campaign related documents on the struggle
Council for Aboriginal Affairs 1967-1976 Foley
to re-open the Northland Secondary College (1992-
G. & Howell E. (eds) Keeaira Press, QLD.
1995)
Gary Foley and Edwina Howell – ASIO surveillance of
the Black Power movement. Funded by VU CRGS.
Open access materials from the
Gary Foley and Clare Land, Northlands Secondary
ANDS ODC project:
College – Oral History Project. Funded by VU CRGS.
• A selection of Gary Foley’s personal papers including
essays, speeches and papers written by Gary Foley
• Key correspondence covering Gary Foley’s
at the VU Moondani Balluk Academic Unit
- includes a broad range of primary source
CREATIVE WORKS AND
EDUCATIONAL IMPACTS
Resources from the collection are important for a range
engagement with major issues in the history of the
of educational and creative work projects including
aboriginal self-determination movement
outlines for potential documentary series on Aboriginal
political activism and the history of Aboriginal
• Papers and administrative documents of
The complete Foley Archive – currently housed
Barrie Dexter (2014) Pandora’s Box: The
representation in Australian cinema as well as a new
committees and organizations with significance
film from recently found raw footage shot by the
for the history of Koori activism, health
ground-breaking grassroots activist Bruce McGuinness.
services, art programs and education
materials. Particular strengths include:
http://www.vu.edu.au/library/researcher-support/special-collections-archives/foley-collection
• Rare collection of early Koori radio programs from
1973 such as Sydney’s Radio Redfern, Radio Skid Row
creation of the first Aboriginal owned and operated
website - the Koori History website http://www.
IMPACT AND RESEARCH PROJECTS
kooriweb.org/ - which provides open access to
and the Koori Survival Show with the Cosmic Avenger
Aboriginal education resources. The online material
The Foley Archive has made a major
(1991-95)
fills an important gap providing illustrative historical
contribution to supporting Gary Foley’s
• Major video and film collection charting Gary Foley’s
contribution as a performer, producer and educator.
• Extensive collection of newspaper clippings of key
The online works build upon Foley’s innovative
resources to support the development of Black Studies
research projects and publication history over
curriculum, the teaching of Aboriginal and Australian
the last 5 years. Recent works include
history and politics from an informed Aboriginal
perspective as well as teacher training programs.
Foley, G. Schaap, A. & Howell E. eds. (2014) The
events related to aboriginal affairs from the 1930s
Aboriginal Tent Embassy: Sovereignty, Black Power,
to the present day including extensive thematic files
Land Rights and the State, Routledge: London UK. for media coverage of key events such as Dennis
Walker’s Black Panther Party of 1971 and the 1972
Aboriginal Embassy
Foley, Gary ‘ASIO and the Aboriginal Rights
Movement 1951-1972’ in Meredith Burgmann
ed (2014) Dirty Secrets: Our ASIO files,
NewSouth Publishing: Sydney NSW.
Foley, Gary ‘A short history of the Australian
Indigenous resistance 1950-1990’ in
Allison Cadzow, John Maynard and Larissa
Behrendt, (2012) Nelson Aboriginal Studies,
Cengage Learning: South Melbourne.
Works from the archive are also playing a
major role in a diverse range of research
projects currently underway, including:
vu.edu.au
Victoria University CRICOS Provider No: 00124K (Melbourne), 02475D (Sydney)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
This project is supported by the
Australian National Data Service (ANDS)
ANDS is supported by the Australian
Government through the National
Collaborative Research Infrastructure
Strategy Program