Collecting Indigenous Stories
The Pigram Brothers Band

In November 2009, Brenda Gifford, from the NFSA's Indigenous Collections Branch recorded the first session of an oral history with Stephen Pigram from the legendary band, the Pigram Brothers.

The Pigram Brothers are a seven-piece country folk/rock band from the pearling town of Broome, Western Australia. Their original music is well-known for capturing the spirit of the local country. Songs from their album Saltwater Country have become hometown anthems and have also attracted wider critical acclaim.

From 1983 to 1995 the brothers Alan, Stephen and Phillip Pigram were part of the Scrap Metal Band, another Broome group. The Scrap Metal Band recorded four albums and travelled nationally with Midnight Oil on its 1987 Diesel and Dust tour. The brothers were also heavily involved in Broome's other famous national musical theatre export, as part of the original backing band of Bran Nue Dae.

Brenda covered a wide range of topics with Stephen, asking him about his music and involvement in Bran Nue Dae.

Stephen also spoke about the Pigram Brothers' debut album Saltwater Country, recorded in 1996-97 with highly respected singer/songwriter Shane Howard as producer.

School Screen - In the Company of Actors

Imelda Cooney, Ian Darling and Aden
Young participating in the Connected
Classrooms program.

The NFSA's School Screen program recently partnered with the NSW Department of Education and Training (DET) to present a very special Q & A session. Under DET's Connected Classrooms program, students can talk via new technology to people currently working in the Australian creative arts industry. 

Nine schools from around NSW dialled in via Connected Classrooms to NSW DET headquarters in Sydney for a Q & A with actor Aden Young and film director Ian Darling. Aden is well-known as an actor, having been part of the Sydney Theatre Company's production of Hedda Gabler, which was invited to play a season in New York in 2006.  Ian directed and produced the insightful documentary In the Company of Actors which followed the cast of Hedda Gabler as they rehearsed in Sydney and then attended the glamorous opening night at the prestigious Brooklyn Academy of Music.

After a very successful session, Ian commented more than once on the excellence of the questions asked, while Aden said it was a real joy to be able to field questions from so many different schools. He thanked everyone for the opportunity. There was thunderous applause from the students at the end, with one school holding up a hand-written sign to the camera: 'We Love You Aden!'

School Screen is now planning the next 'Connected Classrooms' Q & A and inviting suggestions from schools on topics and who they would like to interview.

Collecting Indigenous Stories in Darwin

Listen to Big Kev daily at TEABBA.

Jade Christian and Michael Weir from the NFSA's Indigenous Collections Branch and Nick Weare from the Sound Broadcast and New Media Branch recently spent several days in Darwin, meeting with stakeholders. First stop was a meeting with the Yothu Yindi Foundation to discuss the recent deposit by the Foundation of significant Yothu Yindi material, including videos, artworks and artefacts. The Foundation also expressed interest in having an NFSA representative present an archiving workshop at the upcoming Garma Festival in August.

Next on the agenda was a visit to the Top End Australia Bush Broadcasting Association (TEABBA) radio, the hub broadcaster for 29 remote stations which are distributed throughout the top end. A meeting with station management discussed the possibility of the NFSA archiving TEABBA material, including television programs made for Indigenous television stations. Management was enthusiastic about the idea and has asked the NFSA to liaise with the Board of TEABBA.

While at TEABBA, Jade, Michael and Nick met with Big Kev Ebsworth who broadcasts daily from the network to a large audience. Big Kev provided a copy of his music library which contains many unpublished Indigenous works by musicians from the top end. Michael recorded a number of NFSA promos for Big Kev's program and Nick Weare recorded interviews with Big Kev and Bernard Namok, the network's senior broadcaster.

The following day saw a visit to Skinnyfish Music, a top end recording company. Co-owner of the company, Mark Groves, provided a range of CDs and DVDs for the NFSA collection and an introduction to the music group, B2M, made up of Tiwi Islanders who expressed a strong interest in working with the NFSA to record Tiwi Island songs.

FIAF in the Far North!

FIAF Second Century Forum panel.
Credit: Mikko Kuutti, National Audiovisual
Archive, Helsinki.

The 66th FIAF Congress in Oslo incorporated the 2010 Joint Technical Symposium which themed around 'digital challenges and digital opportunities in audiovisual archiving,' and worked in partnership with the Co-ordinating Council of Audiovisual Archiving Associations (CCAAA). The symposium drew on many current digital experiences, discoveries and concepts including the teaching of digital archiving, to provide a rich range of perspectives.

Norway's advanced role in digital projection rollout illustrated many issues and archival concerns regarding both cinema experience and curatorship. New developments including the release of a new Fuji film stock specifically designed for digital intermediate use balanced with online gathering and exploitation of digitised archival works. Recognition of the original film and sound carriers as artefacts and artworks in their own right, followed on from looking at the options for both standard and high definition transfer of 16mm film, and the restoration of optical soundtracks by digital image processing.

The FIAF Congress Second Century Forum focused on archival relevance and identity in the 21st century, looking at practical means to ensure engagement with as wide an audience range as possible. FIAF's established programs supporting audiovisual cataloguing and technical standards; further strengthening archive and industry relationships; providing ongoing audiovisual training in Latin America; and seeking ways to assist African archives in need, continued to be a focus for the Congress. An excellent issue of the Journal of Film Preservation was also released.

As FIAF Secretary General, the NFSA's Meg Labrum continues to play a significant role in broadening and sustaining FIAF's world view and active contribution, and supports the NFSA's ongoing profile and contribution to international projects.

NFSA expertise on call

General Manager of Collection Development and Outreach, Ann Landrigan, has been appointed a member of the Australian National Commission for the UNESCO Australian Memory of the World Committee and will be able to advise on film, sound, broadcast material and associated documents and artefacts nominated for UNESCO World Memory listing.

In July Sophia Sambono, a curator from the Indigenous Collections Branch will join the British Library for two weeks as a Staff Exchange Fellow. She will present an important paper called Restitution of Intangible Cultural Heritage from an Australian Audiovisual Archive, at the Museums and Restitution Conference in Manchester. She will also spend a week undertaking professional visits to cultural institutions in London and Cambridge to discuss collection management and repatriation issues relating to their Indigenous collections.

Farewells to Dennis Hopper and Gary Coleman

This month has seen the passing of two stars of the screen. Many words have been written about the career of Dennis Hopper which began in the 1950s with Rebel Without a Cause and Giant and continued to his death when he was working on his TV series, Crash. He had a strong Australian connection, coming to Australia in 1976 to star in the film Mad Dog Morgan. Arc cinema recently featured a special season of the new print of the ground-breaking Easy Rider.

Gary Coleman, born in 1968, became famous as the character Arnold Jackson in the hit TV series Different Strokes (1978- 86), and then appeared in films such as On the Right Track and Kid with the Broken Halo. It is reassuring to know that the work of actors like Hopper and Coleman will be preserved in audiovisual archives around the world.