ABSTRACT

Since the mid 1970s, Australian society has taken action to recognise the wrongs done to the Indigenous people of Australia. Developments such as the National Inquiry into the separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, the rise of the land rights movement, and the recognition of moral rights through the Copyright Act have affected the ways that Indigenous cultural material is managed in collecting institutions. This chapter will begin with a comparison of the ways archives and libraries manage Indigenous cultural material, then will move on to examine how each manages culturally sensitive materials. The findings will be based upon a study made of access policies in major libraries, archives, and Indigenous organisations in Australia.