The Australian Women's Register

The Adelaide Women’s Liberation Movement Archive gathered the memorabilia of women and groups who had been and were part of the Women’s Liberation Movement. The archive includes minutes, agendas, correspondence, films, photographs, video and audio tapes, posters, flyers, pamphlets, banners, badges, newspaper clippings, scrapbooks and financial records.  A Collective was formed and they set about writing the rules of the archive and for collecting. They created forms for the donors, with reference to copyright and for biographies for the groups and individuals. However over the years a lot of material was just left as donations with little or no detail as to its provenance. As women’s organisations folded with the Fraser government’s cuts to women’s programs in the early eighties the archive was a safe alternative to the loss of these records. The organisations which contributes included the Women’s Liberation Movement. This material from the Women’s Movement includes daybooks for many women’s group, pamphlets, information, booklets, news clippings, posters – both theirs and those of other groups. The papers of Feminists Against Nuclear Energy Group (FANG) and Women Against Nuclear Energy (WANE) were listed as the Women’s Peace Movement. Many women donated material on the Women’s Theatre Group, including film, video, audio tapes scripts and music along with photographs. The Women’s Art Movement (WAM) donated their records which includes, posters, minutes, correspondence, prints, and a newsletter. WAM was also involved with the Women’s Art Register so there are many slides of photographs of performance art and exhibitions along with a profile of slides showing the women’s artwork. The Women’s Advisory Unit donated their news clippings used for women’s policy development and in highlighting women’s needs. The Hindmarsh Women’s Community Centre, Women’s Studies Resource Centre pamphlets and information on a wide range of women’s services and issues. Individuals including Sue Sheridan, Molly Brannigan, Sylvia Kinder, Frances Phoenix, Suzi Jones, Annie Dugdale and Margaret King and Robin Eagle donated posters, information, and papers. Sandra Grimes donated her collection of audio and video interviews with bar women in Adelaide done for her Ph D thesis. Janet Maughan donated her scrapbooks on many feminist issues. Silver Moon donated the Women’s Environmental Action Group and the Unemployed women’s Union papers. The St Peters Women’s Community Centre now called the Women’s Community Centre donated records. The collection was documented until the late 1990s, when the collective was reduced to a few dedicated members. While the collection was accessed from time to time by various researchers the collective decided to hand the collection over to the State Library of South Australia in 2009.

As part of the process of moving the Archive from the Women’s Studies Resource Centre to the State Library, the records of The St Peters Women’s Community Centre, now called the Women’s Community Centre, were returned upon their request. There is a separate entry to these records in the AWAP register.

There were a number of journals and newsletters with the Archive and these have now been donated to various libraries in Australia including to the Women’s Studies Resource Centre.