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History Council of New South Wales (NSW). NOTICE.

This month in history…News from the History Council of NSW January 2012

Upcoming History Council NSW Events

Happy New Year! We hope you had a relaxing and enjoyable festive season.

Theme for 2012 History Week Announced: Threads

They wore what?! Long before the fashionistas of today decided ‘the look’, dress was an important element of human expression. From status to style, culture to professional identity, clothes have defined us. History Week 2012 will explore the history of threads and unpick the meaning behind the wardrobes of the past.

Keep an eye on the HCNSW website for more information about events and ways to get involved!
Prime Minister’s Literary Awards: Australian History
Don’t forget the Prize for Australian History is now part of the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards. This Prize is awarded to an individual or a group for an outstanding publication or body of work that contributes significantly to an understanding of Australian history – and it’s not just for books.  Eligible works can include a published book, website, film or radio documentary, CD-ROM, DVD, other form of multimedia or a series of these works.
To be eligible, the work must be first published, produced or broadcast between 1 January 2011 and 31 December 2011.
Entries close 1 February 2012. To enter or for more information, visit our website.

News
NSW Premier's History Awards under review
Arts NSW has announced a review of the NSW Premier’s History Awards. The History Council of NSW will monitor closely the outcome. Check in on our website for more information, and find out more on the Arts NSW website.
Member Announcements

Conferences

From the Ground Up: Call for submissions

In an article in the Journal of Urban History in 2002, Grace Karskens recounted an overheard train conversation in which a boy, around ten years of age, asked his brother: ‘What is Sydney? Where is it?’ In the article that followed, she noted the difficulties in conveying the complexity, substance and feel of
a city. She suggested, though, that it was possible to develop such histories ‘from the ground up and from the inside out’ through critical and substantive research into, and with, places and people.

By bringing together academics, postgraduate students and professional historians engaged with the history of Sydney and its suburbs, From the Ground Up offers an opportunity to explore the complexity of the city’s past. It is interested in illuminating the mundane, ordinary and everyday; acknowledging the marginalised and dispossessed; exposing the forgotten; and exploring the connections in Sydney between people, place and broader historical, environmental and social forces. In considering how we might rethink the history of cities, and Sydney in particular, papers might draw on immigrant, feminist, Aboriginal and environmental history, although a broad range of papers engaging with the conference themes is expected and encouraged.

A selection of papers from the conference will be collated in a special edition of the referred Sydney Journal, and published in the Dictionary of Sydney.

Those wishing to present papers should send a 200 word abstract (for a 20 minute paper), and a brief CV to the conference organisers at SydneyHistoryConference@gmail.com, by 10 February 2012. For inquiries about the conference, or proposals for panels, please contact Dr Matt Bailey.

Contact: matthew.bailey@mq.edu.au.
When: People and Place in Sydney’s Past
Where: Metcalfe Room, State Library of NSW
Date: 23-24 August 2012

Heritage Courses on Indigenous and Cultural Heritage

You might be interested in these courses being run by The University of Queensland, School of Social Science. Follow the link for more information.

http://www.lifebeyondtourism.org/wp-content/themes/k2/workshop/dett_workshop.asp?id_work=373

Powerhouse Discovery Centre Open Day

The Powerhouse Discovery Centre kicks off its 2012 open day program with an exciting day for all the family on Saturday 11 February 2012. Highlights include a very special behind the scenes tour of time-keeping objects (and a few telescopes) led by Andrew Jacob the new Assistant Curator at Sydney Observatory, and a very special live performance with our very own Chinese Water Dragon at 11am. Young visitors can enjoy making a space mobile or paper dragon puppet to take home from our make and do craft stations.

When: Saturday 11 February 2012
Website: www.castlehill.powerhousemuseum.com

Kate Laing
Administrative Assistant
History Council of NSW
PO Box R1737
Royal Exchange   NSW   1225
T: (02) 9252 8715
F: (02) 9252 8716
www.historycouncilnsw.org.au

Office days: Tuesday and Wednesday

My Life Magazine; Armidale and District Recruitment!

Well I have just been interviewed by My Life Magazineas a spokesperson for the New England Colonial Living History Group. Let us hope that this article can attract more members for our group.
I started this group about 18 years ago, three other people came in response to my advertising to help me start this group. Those people became founding members like myself. They were Geoff Howarth, Arthur Baker and Shane Murphy. All three were prime-movers in our group. These men became my very close friends, and they are now all dead. I am the only remaining founder member alive and I fear that if we do not find more people to join our group, it will die with me!
I have tried everything over the years to find more members; posters in the Armidale Public Library and on other notice boards, events in the local Newspaper, registered our group on the internet, printed information brochures for distribution and yet in 18 years we have had no enquiries!!! We are now down to four members, the other three are much younger than I but like I said, I can't see this group continueing after I have gone and I need someone else to take up the rains, someone I can pass on my skills to.
Here's hoping, fingers crossed!