In honour of Loris Williams

On Tuesday 21August, the 2012 Australia Society Archivists will host the Loris Williams Annual Lecture.

Loris Williams was a passionate advocate for the right of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to use archives as a means of reconnecting with their family, country and Indigenous identity. She was the first Aboriginal person from Queensland to gain professional archival qualifications and only the second Aboriginal person to do so. She spent the last 11 years of her life helping Indigenous people to reconnect with their Indigenous identity and encouraging her professional colleagues, non-Indigenous as well as Indigenous, to recognize the significance of this work.

In 1994 she began work assisting researchers at the Indigenous Resources Unit of State Library of Queensland. In 1998 she moved to the Community and Personal Histories Section of the Queensland Department of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Policy (DATSIP). Part of her working week was spent at the Queensland State Archives helping Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander clients to trace their family and community through the records. Apart from a short secondment to SLQ in 2002, she remained with the Community and Personal Histories Section until she passed away.

SLQ has named a room in honour of Loris and ATSILIRN has announced that an annual grant to assist an Indigenous member to attend their conference will be set up in her memory.

Loris’ dignity and strength is warmly remembered within the archival profession, by the community she served and no doubt by the many Indigenous clients she helped. She was an effective advocate for her people’s right to have access to archives as part of a service which met their need for support on their journey into a difficult past and a mentor and friend to Indigenous and non-Indigenous people alike.

For more event information contact Margaret Reid on 07 34043008