wragge

Telling stories with data

Access to digital resources like Trove has changed the way we do history, but what about the way we communicate history? Sure, we now use blogs and social media to tell our stories, but there remains a divide between the data embedded within digital resources, and the narratives we construct on top of them. I want to explore ways in which we can maintain and enrich connections between data and narrative -- to tell stories that not only connect us to the past, but connect us to the wealth of historical material that exists within online collections.

See: Working History conference

wragge

Turning the inside out

In 1957 the Commonwealth Migration Officer sought ASIO's advice on an application from Leong Sam, a Chinese fruit dealer who had been living in Australia since 1901. Leong Sam had applied for a Certificate Exempting from the Dictation Test (CEDT) to allow him to travel to Hong Kong. ASIO noted that he had attended a Chinese film night organised by a member of the Communist Party of Australia, but raised no objection.

This brief bureaucratic exchange reminds us of three things. First the White Australia Policy was still in operation in the late 1950s, regulating the movements of non-white residents. Secondly, that long before the digital age and concerns of record linkage, the lives of Australians were monitored through multiple, intersecting systems of surveillance. And third, that recordkeeping is central to the practices of state surveillance.

Despite the secrecy surrounding our intelligence agencies I know about Leong Sam because someone asked if ASIO had a file on an associate,

wragge

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// @namespace      http://timsherratt.org/recordsearch-redactions
// @description    Access is not always accessible. This userscript enriches the National Archives of Australia's database by inserting information about redactions in ASIO files.
// @version        0.2
// @date           2017-06-22
// @creator        Tim Sherratt
// @include        https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ListingReports/ItemsListing.aspx*
// @include        https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/DetailsReports/ItemDetail.aspx*
// @grant          GM_xmlhttpRequest

wragge

Caring about access

You might have seen that the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet has opened discussion on an Open Government National Action Plan. Last week I was watching the Twitter stream from a briefing event in Melbourne, when I saw this tweet from Asher Wolf quoting the PM&C spokesperson:

. @pmc_gov_au: we don't want ppl to search for flaws or try to crack gvt datasets. #OGPAU

Now I'm not sure of the context of this statement, but it is a reminder that we can't take the meaning of words like 'open' or 'access' for granted.

They are what we make of them.

wragge

1901-EDMUND-BARTON

30 june 1900                             0.0452017025048
as to appointments                       0.0364684489678
barton and lyne                          0.0364684489678
be taken over                            0.0364684489678
direct taxation by                       0.0364684489678
from 30 june                             0.0364684489678
if he has                                0.0364684489678
illegible handwritten notes              0.0364684489678

wragge

10573 documents
10367 dates found (98% of documents)
8777 NAA references found (83% of documents)
2481 NAA barcodes found (23% of documents, 28% of references)
3615 unique NAA references found
961 unique NAA barcodes found

VOLUME 1: 1937-38:
    337 documents
    335 dates found (99% of documents)

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advertiser - 183
times - 111
news - 88
advocate - 84
chronicle - 74
gazette - 64
herald - 57
australian - 56
journal - 47
standard - 45

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Interjection	Speaker	Year
The white man does compete with them.	Mr JOSEPH COOK	1901
Would white men work for £6 a year?	Mr JOSEPH COOK	1901
The British are not the only white race.	Mr Wilkinson	1901
How will this produce a white Australia?	Mr Poynton	1901
Let us have it white.	Mr Page	1901
White men cannot do the work.	Sir Malcolm McEacharn	1901
But white people may employ them there.	Mr Poynton	1901
[White men can gr

wragge

Interjection	Speaker	Year
It is the inauguration of a Fascist dictatorship.	Mr Pollard	1938
It is a Fascist council.	Mr Ward	1938
They are mostly Fascist organizations.	Mr Lazzarini	1939
He is a fascist-minded gentleman.	Mr Calwell	1942
The greatest Fascist of all time!	Mr Harrison	1942
Some of the mine-owners are Fascists.	Mr James	1943
The honorable senator is a Fascist.	Senator Lamp	1943
[Fascist or

wragge

[Title withheld] -- access and surveillance in the archives

The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) was established in 1949 amidst Cold War fears of spies and secrets (Horner, 2014). In the decades that followed, ASIO compiled many thousands of dossiers on people and organisations who might pose a threat to the nation -- these included communists, writers, academics, scientists, unionists, and Indigenous rights activists. One historian has estimated that hundreds of thousands of files were created (McKnight, 2014).

Under the Australian Archives Act, the public has a right to access government records more than twenty years old. This is subject to exemptions on grounds such as national security and privacy. Exemptions are assessed and applied as part of a process known as 'access examination' (National Archives of Australia, 2016).

Unlike other government agencies, ASIO does not have to disclose information about its records. You can, however, ask whether they hold a file on a particular