Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Matters

Component identifier:

Series 11

Content Summary:

The core of this series is Bryant's period as Minister for Aboriginal Affairs (1972-73), much of which is documented in the papers held by the National Archives of Australia, but his involvemernt with indigenous issues extended beyond that portfolio. He was President of the Aborigines Advancement League, Victoria, from 1957 to 1964, and Senior Vice-President of the Federal Council for Aboriginal Advancement (later FCAATSI) from 1957 to 1973. He was also a member of the [Parliamentary] Committee on Aboriginal Affairs and of the Committee on Aboriginal Land Rights.

The following bodies or issues are represented in the various parts of this large series:

Federal Council for Aboriginal Advancement (founded 1957) and its successor Federal Council for the Advancement of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders (FCAATSI).

National Aboriginal Consultative Committee (independent body which followed FCAATSI in 1973).

Council for Aboriginal Rights, Victoria.

House of Representatives Committee on Aboriginal Affairs.

Federal Parliamentary Labor Party Subcommittee on Aboriginal Affairs and ALP Caucus Welfare Committee.

Aboriginal Loans Commission.

Central Australian Aboriginal Congress (Inc.).

Aboriginal Development Commission Bill, 1979.

Aboriginal Land Fund Bill, 1974.

Family Law Bill.

Aboriginal Embassy.

Land Rights.

Abschol.

Aboriginal Child Care Agency.

Mapoon and Yirrkala missions.

Rainbow Alliance.

Immediate source of acquisition:

The Bryant Papers were received in two consignments. The first was transferred from the Victorian Regional Office of the National Archives of Australia in November 1991, in accordance with Mrs Bryant's wishes. These papers had been deposited there in 1975. Just over half of them had been assigned the control number MP1803/1. The remainder had been registered into 31 individual record series and held under Commonwealth Record Series control numbers. Further papers at Mrs Bryant's home (in a garage) had been put into cartons by NAA staff in 1991 and brought to the National Archives of Australia on a temporary basis. At the time of transfer to the National Library, NAA staff retained series or parts of series which related to periods when Gordon Bryant was Minister, as well as diaries from 1973 to 1975 and one notebook. In 1992, papers relating to Bryant's post-parliamentary activities were transferred direct from Mrs Bryant's home to the Library. Amongst these cartons was material which had been packed from his office at La Trobe University's School of Economics and Commerce and returned to Mrs Bryant.

Names:

Bryant, Pat, Mrs.

Contents

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