AustLit

'By academic training, Alan was a librarian taking his library qualification while at the National Library, which he joined in 1971, having spent his Christmas holidays working for Hamersley Iron in Dampier, Western Australia. The theme that has run through most recollections of Alan is his passion for collecting and bibliography. So, it should come as no surprise to us that his recollection of his summer holiday job in Dampier is that it mainly involved, and here I quote from a biographical essay about Alan written by Gary Kent, ‘labouring on the rubbish truck, which allowed him to collect maps, plans, engineering and other drawings [which] remain in Alan’s collection to this day’.' (Introduction)

'In Position Doubtful Kim Mahood, a Canberra-based visual artist and teacher, describes how since 2004 she has travelled each year to spend time in Mulan, a Walmajarri community in Western Australia, close to the Mongrel Downs station where she spent her childhood, and which has since been returned to the traditional owners. An intensely personal memoir, she describes how she grew up between two cultures. Her interest lies in exploring ‘what happens when the unconscious mind experiences a fundamental displacement … when the body feels an almost cellular affinity to a place that has been constructed by a different cultural imagination’ (p. 296). The result is a book that is fascinating on many levels, but is particularly valuable for the insights it brings to themes relevant to those working in archives and memory institutions – issues such as identity, memory, the meaning and interpretation of records (maps in particular), the importance of place, and cross-cultural relations.'  (Introduction)