A trove of extraordinary stories: Collaborative project wins top multicultural history award

Transcolonial Journeys: The Ayahs and Amahs Project’s online exhibition uses images and stories to reconstruct, describe and analyse the experiences of these women as well as digital technologies to make history accessible to a global audience.

The exhibition is part of a major research project, Ayahs and Amahs, funded by the Australian Research Council and led by one of Purai Global Indigenous History Centre's founding members, historian Professor Victoria Haskins.

Together with Associate Professor Claire Lowrie and Dr. Lauren Samuelsson (University of Wollongong), Professor Swapna Banerjee (City University of New York), and University of Newcastle’s Research Assistant, Srishti Guha, the team drew upon the wealth of visual and literary representations of ayahs and amahs from across the world.

Visitors to the site can ‘choose their own adventure’ or be directed to galleries which have a particular thematic focus with interweaving narratives both within and throughout the galleries.

“I am proud that this project is contributing to the cultural diversity of our history,” said Professor Haskins.

“I hope that people might recognise echoes of their own histories in these stories that we share."

Celebrating history in all its diverse forms, the HCNSW awards and prizes acknowledge individual history makers and its thinkers as well projects that document collective memory and multicultural history.

Particularly, it supports historical practice and theory contributions that explore the past in ways that engage and inform the memories and historical narrative of our present and future communities.

Rosanna Barbero, CEO of Addison Road Community Organisation (Addi Road), a charity that works with the community to elevate human rights, arts & culture and sustainability, said the online exhibition was a trove of extraordinary stories.

“[Exploring] the historical experiences and cultural memories of these earliest global domestic workers makes a strong contribution to the study of multicultural experiences and exchanges throughout the period of British colonialism with a particular focus on Australia,” Ms Barbero said at the ceremony on the evening on 6 December 2022.

This year’s judging committee included Michael McDonnell, Jan Lanicek, Julie McIntyre and Naomi Parry Duncan, as well as members of the History Council of NSW Board.

The online exhibition closes on 8 June 2023.