WENDY LOWENSTEIN was indomitable, single-minded, opinionated and forthright. Over the years she was called many things by many people, including a force of nature, a wonderful original, inspiring, infuriating, combative, impossible, a force to behold. She was even described as like a kid on an adventure.
Lowenstein, who has died aged 79, was an oral historian and author who was driven by her belief in the power and importance of the stories of individuals and their direct experiences. Always an activist, she kept constant watch over the shifting fortunes of the working class. She was passionate about politics, workers' rights and working-class history, and was a fierce campaigner against the capitalist classes, bureaucracies and governments of all persuasions.
"I know I'm not impartial," Lowenstein would retort. "Impartiality is crap. It's like saying I'm not political."
Wendy Lowenstein recorded interviews with over 800 everyday people from all around Australia, who talked about their struggles to obtain better working and living conditions over a period of 40 years from 1965
Lowenstein wrote a number of the most celebrated oral histories in Australia, focusing on the lives and struggles of working class people. She is also one of Australia’s best known historians of folklore.
A member of many activist organisations since the age of fifteen, Wendy contributed to both social justice and aspects of Australian history which had, until she tackled them, been largely ignored. (from Australian Women’s Register)
"Working life fascinates me. Historians write as if it all happened without workers! Captain Cook discovered the east coast of Australia, but who sailed the ship? Interview with Fiona Moore, Meanjin, Dec 1987"
Wendy Lowenstein, was one of Scribe Publications’ first authors.
Weevils in the Flour, an oral history of the Great Depression and the book for which Wendy is best known, was first published by Hyland House in hardback in 1978, and was a bestseller for them. Scribe acquired the paperback rights to it a couple of years later, and published this edition in 1981. The book has never been out of print since. (Scribe Publications)
Wendy and Ian Turner were important folklorists who launched the long running folk song magazine Australian Tradition
Major Collections of Lowenstein’s Audio Interviews.
The Lowenstein Family Collection of over 900 hours of interviews is available for research purposes. These interviews are listed by the interview subject and names of interviewees can be searched on subject,place and industry.
1930s Depression collection: 108hours of interviews by Wendy Lowenstein
Outback Australia 1969 Working People: 126.5 hours
Melbourne Waterside Workers: Lowenstein & Hills Interviews; 60 hours
“The Left” in the Arts and Community: 125 hours interviews by Wendy Lowenstein
Wonthaggi Miners Collection: 50 hours of interviews by Wendy Lowenstein
Robe River Industrial Dispute W.A. 1986: Wendy Lowenstein Interviews; 80 interviews
Work Changes 1990’s over 80 hours of interviews by Wendy Lowenstein
No comments:
Post a Comment