Estonian Oral Histories to be inscribed on Australian Memory of the World Register.

The Memory of the World Register is maintained by UNESCO as a record of documents, books and other records of enduring worth for the world. It is a parallel register to the World Heritage Register of Places.

The Australian section of the Register includes records such as the convict records held in the NSW, West Australian and Tasmanian Archives, the Endeavour journal of Captain James Cook, and the First Fleet journals.

A major entry on the Register is ‘Migration Voices’, recognising migrant oral histories held in archives and libraries such as the Victorian State Library, the Mitchell Library in NSW and the Migration Museum, South Australia. The Estonian Archives in Australia was invited to submit its oral history collection for consideration as an addition to ‘Migration Voices’.

The collection has now been accepted becoming the first ethnic community oral history collection held outside a major national library or archive added to the Australian Register.

The Estonian oral history collection will be formally inscribed on the Register at a ceremony at 3.00 pm, Friday, 26 February 2021. This will be a virtual ceremony held via ZOOM. Viewers can access the ceremony via the link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81586806400

The Estonian Archives in Australia is currently investigating digitisation of its oral history collection.

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