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"When a child is born into the world it is related to every other human being that lives...Aborigines have one of the most extensive kinship organisations which intereconnects, through religion, with all the world of living and inanimate things..."  Anderson, Michael, Aboriginal Philosophy of the Land, Empire Times, 1987, 19 (11-12).

Key Organisations and Resources supporting Indigenous Family History are:

• WA Government agencies with key Indigenous family history records and services
• Key non-government Aboriginal Family History Support Agencies
• State Library of WA, Battye Library - key Indigneous family history records and resources
• Other State and National Library and Museum Collections of interest to Indigenous family history researchers
• WA Indigenous Family History Resources
  

An introduction by Heather Campbell - Compiler of Katitjin, A guide to Indigneous Records of Battye

Family connections and oral tradition have suffered under the impact of contact. Aboriginal families have been decimated and dispersed making it diffiuclt for those seeking their family history. They also have to contend with scant and hard to find records, records generated from a European perspective and spread over many agencies.

Difficulties are also experienced researching Aboriginal family history and genealogy because of the variation in the spelling of names and words, through time. The rendition of words between cultures varies also. An Aboriginal person may have several names: a kinship name, a European name, a nickname and so on. To compound the problem names may change with marriage, adoption or fostering and the spelling of names may vary.

These difficulties not withstanding, the basis for collecting Aboriginal family history is substantially the same as collecting any family's history. Start with yourself and your own close and extended family, working from the known to the unknow. Either write down or record relatives' memories of stations, communitiies and missions, the people they knew, the work they did and the life they lived.  Try to locate family photos, birth, death and marriage certificates, diaries and letters, and ask your relatives to do the same. Be methodical, set up a system that suits you and remember to record the source of any information that looks promising - you might want to go back to it.

In many instance the State Library of WA's WA history collections in the Battye Library may not be the best place to start a search and it has a focus on non-government records and archives. The State Records Office and the Department of Indigenous Affairs deal with genealogy, while the Battye Library will be most helpful for those who lived on the missions, for which it holds many records.

 

Family History Information Guides

Come into the Battye Library to pick up a range of information sheets to get you started on your Family History journey. The guides relate to the information and records we have here at the State Library, as well as useful websites and organisation contact details to guide you through the genealogical jungle.