Spotlight On: Queer Provenance in Archives

In this spotlight program archivist Morgan Flack, along with Queer Archive specialist Dr Elliot Freeman, highlight the possibilities created by re-describing archival collections and the impact that social politics, stigma and law had on queer lives that are ambiguous on the record.

Within the University of Melbourne Archives repository sit six boxes of records documenting the life of June Barnett, her diplomatic career, testimony as witness at the 1954 Royal Commission on Espionage along with records detailing her personal life including hundreds of photos, travel documents and correspondence. In this session, Barnett’s archive will be considered through a lens of queer curiosity and contemporary archival practices including how records are now being re-interpreted or re-described for students, scholars and other audiences.

Join for this talk and conversation and discover the current state of community-led archiving and considerations for building future queer archives.