Indigenous Family History Records - Guides and Links
This page has links to web sites that have guides on Indigenous family history. These include mainly guides to records of a particular library, archive or government department. If there aren't any web guides, print guides are listed.
Select from one of three sections below
Records of National Cultural Significance - Records relating to Indigenous Australians -this lists all the organisations holdings records of value to Indigenous people. It also lists many printed guides, most of which will be held by the AIATSIS Library and will be found in our catalogue, MURA®.
RAAM: Register of Australian Archives and Manuscripts. With RAAM, in one search you can find out about the holdings of many Australian libraries, archives etc for personal papers and the records of organisations and individuals.
Australian War Memorial - no specific guides to Indigenous records, but there are useful biographical and collections (pictures, private records etc) databases that will include Indigenous people. Our military records page will contain further information.
National Archives of Australia (NAA) - Where to find Records on Indigenous Australians . The NAA holds many records relating to the States. In these cases, look in this page under each state.
See here for their Bringing Them Home name index. The project involves the identification and preservation of Commonwealth records relating to Indigenous people and communities, and the creation of an index to the names of Indigenous people contained in the records.
Records held in the Canberra office have been described in the Archives' guide Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People in Commonwealth records: A Guide to Records in the Australian Archives, ACT Regional Office (compiled by Ros Fraser, AGPS, Canberra, 1993, 478pp).
This guide has a comprehensive index which lists the names of Indigenous people identified in the records described in the guide. Records held in the Darwin office which date largely from the 1920s include population records, the Register of Wards, patrol officers' reports and records relating to pastoral property, health and education. The guide is currently out of print, but there are copies in all Archives reading rooms and in many State, local and university libraries. See here for contact details.
The Noel Butlin Archives Centre holds material relating to Indigenous Australians in records of pastoral companies which employed Aboriginal people and recorded their presence and activities on the stations, in the records of pastoral industry organisations which show the attitudes of the industry to wages and working conditions of Aboriginal employees and in the records of trade unions which at different times unionised or avoided unionising Aboriginal workers and which supported movements for Aboriginal rights.
See their publication, Records about Aboriginal People. There is a full list of holdings.
Select from the following states:
New South Wales - Northern Territory - Queensland - South Australia - Tasmania - Victoria - Western Australia
A Guide to New South Wales State Archives relating to Aboriginal People - by State Records NSW
This guide is selective. You should also check the Concise Guide to the State Archives.
Connecting kin : guide to records : a guide to help people separated from their families search for their records. Listing of records: NSW Government welfare agencies; Non-Government agencies; Public hospitals; NSW Government non-welfare agencies. Please note that it may take a long time to download this guide.
This publication is also in print form and should be available in many major libraries.
Tracking Family - A Guide to Aboriginal Records Relating to the Northern Territory
Guide to Records Holdings Relating to Aboriginal People - by the Northern Territory Archives (includes non-government and personal records)
Guide to records relating to the pastoral industry in the Northern Territory
Information about special arrangements the National Archives of Australia has been adopted to assist Northern Territory Aboriginal people obtain access to open period (those over 30 years old) Commonwealth records about themselves and family members is available in Fact Sheet 114 – Memorandum of Understanding with Northern Territory Aboriginal people.
Queensland Indigenous Family History: How to Get Started - by the State Library of Queensland
Resources Relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples - by the State Archives of Queensland
Finding Your Own Way - SA Link-Up
The guide describes all the records of institutions that were located as at December 2004. Unfortunately, it has been impossible to find documents relating to all the homes in South Australia and in many cases, records are missing. They may have been lost, destroyed or sometimes were never kept. Often there is no record at all of what has happened to them. For this reason, Finding Your Own Way calls on readers for assistance. If you have any information about the location of 'missing' records or on any of the homes listed in the guide or that have been inadvertently been left out, please contact SA Link-Up.
Aboriginal Family History - by the State Library of South Australia
There is also the print guide, Guide to the Archival Records Held in the Mortlock Library of South Australiana Relating to Aboriginal People. This publication is held at the AIATSIS Library and should be held in most state libraries. This guide is a subject index to the relevant archives in the State Library of South Australia, with over 1000 entries. The index concentrates on tribes and places.
Aboriginal Records - by the State Records of South Australia
There is a five volume print publication, Guide to Records Relating to Aboriginal People and an associated Aboriginal Resource Kit: An Introduction to Primary Sources Held by State Records Relating to Aboriginal People.
It has has listed item-by-item the many individual records held. Some of the series comprise thousands of documents. This publication is held at the AIATSIS Library and should be held in most state libraries.
Brief Guide No. 18 - Records Relating to Tasmanian Aboriginal People
Brief Guide No.16 - Procedures for documenting Tasmanian Aboriginal descent
Brief Guide No. 17 - Issues in documenting Aboriginal genealogies
Public Record Office Victoria - select either Researching Koorie Family History at PROV or Aboriginal Records at PROV.
PROV has produced Finding Your Story - A Resource Manual to the Records of the Stolen Generations in Victoria
You can also search PROV's online catalogue for records held at Public Record Office Victoria.
It is important that you also look at the PRO's Victorian Koorie Records Taskforce web page which has valuable links.
There is a published guide, My Heart is Breaking, a comprehensive guide to official records about Victoria's Koories from 1836 to 1975. The records are held by both the Public Record Office of Victoria and the Melbourne Office of the National Archives of Australia. (See address )
You can obtain more information about the record series listed above (and the items within the series) from RecordSearch, the Archives database. Follow the links in the series lists to go directly to information on that series.
Looking West: A Guide to Aboriginal Records in Western Australia - Records Taskforce of Western Australia
Aboriginal Records - by the State Records Office of WA
'Katitjin': a guide to Indigenous records in the Battye Library- by the Library Service of Western Australia
Aboriginal Family History Information Service - by the West Australia Dept. of Indigenous Affairs
The Archives of the Benedictine Community, New Norcia