Historian Jen Rose has won a national award for her meticulous efforts to document the history of Australia’s first organisation to work exclusively with migrant and refugee youth.
The PhD candidate at ACU was named joint winner of the Oral History Australia’s Media Award for her research into a collaborative website on the history of the Centre for Multicultural Youth (CMY). The award honours oral history productions in any media other than a book, such as websites or film. Tegan Burns was also named winner of the same Media Award for her collaboration with Goompi Give and Grow.
During an internship with CMY as part of her PhD studies, Jen collaborated on a project to bring the origin and development of the organisation to the internet.
Consulting with archives and conducting oral history interviews, Jen and CMY launched an interactive timeline for the website, complete with video interviews, audio extracts and archival images, for the organisation’s 35th anniversary.
On receiving the Award, Jen paid tribute to the founders of CMY, who have made a significant contribution to shaping multiculturalism in Victoria and nationally.
“The founders of CMY were inspired by their experiences as young people and as youth workers to challenge the anglo-centric assumptions that made services inaccessible to young people from non-English speaking background in the 1980s” Jen said.
“CMY’s history is a story about the potential for community organisations to create social change and the central role of young people as drivers of that change both historically and today.”
Jen and Tegan are the fourth recipients of the OHA’s Media Award, which was established in 2019 to promote innovative approaches to oral history.
Dr Mary Tomsic from ACU’s Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences (IHSS), who is supervising Jen’s PhD studies along with fellow IHSS researcher Dr Rachel Stevens, said it was fantastic to see Jen’s work recognised by Oral History Australia.
“Jen devoted much time and energy to this collaborative project, which showcases the range of people involved in the development of CMY and how the organisation has grown over time,” Dr Tomsic said.
“Jen’s ability to carry out oral histories and then translate them into an accessible public history is impressive.”
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