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The Polish Historical Institute in Australia, or PHIA, is a nonprofit
association created in 1996 with the following mission and objectives:
- To preserve the memory of the settlement of Poles in Australia
through the activities of collecting primary source materials
from prominent Poles and nationally oriented Polish organisations.
- To find and locate in appropriate public repositories these
documents where access for the purpose of research is available.
- To provide information about the history of Polish settlement
in Australia in print, electronic or other forms.
- To collect, record, and subsequently write the history of
Polish immigration to Australia from 1940 onwards.
- To collect all available records of all principal Polish organisations
active in Australia since 1940.
- To assist researchers, historians and writers in their work
of obtaining and disseminating material relating to the history
of Polish immigration to Australia.
- To cooperate with other organisations of similar character
and Polish organisations in particular.
Immediately after World War II, Australia embarked on a large
scale immigration program aimed at populating a continent with
a multicultural mixture of immigrants from various countries.
Poles came either as displaced persons, refugees or immigrants
characterised by two major waves of migration. The first wave
came between 1945 and 1960 and the second the "Solidarity period"
between 1981 and 1989. Stories of their settlements in the states
and territories of Australia tell of their difficulties, adaptation
and integration into Australian society.
In 1993-1994 Mr Andrew Kleeberg saw the need to form an organisation
that would find, collect and preserve the primary source materials
such as manuscripts, oral history tape interviews and photographs,
pertaining to Polish immigration and settlement in Australia since
1940. His aim was to store and preserve these materials as a Polonica
collection in an appropriate Australian library or archive where
proper storage and access through the agency's catalogue would
ensure widespread availability. The organisation would find, sort
and list the materials prior to their deposit there.
On 11 February 1996 the inaugural meeting of the newly named
Polish Historical Institute in Australia took place in Canberra,
where its creation, structure and committee were approved and
elected. Membership was to be by invitation only on the grounds
of what the members could do for the Institute. The Committee
of twelve was centered in Canberra and the remaining twenty-eight
members were scattered in the main city centres of Australia,
making a total initial membership of forty.
In Canberra the twelve consisted of administration (4 members),
a Manuscript Team (3 professional librarians), an Oral History
Team (3 members), a Photo History Team (2 professional photographers).
The Polish Ex-Servicemen's Club, Canberra provided a room for
free where storing, sorting and listing took place because the
Institute had no premises and initially no equipment until a successful
grant from the ACT Bureau of the Arts and Heritage was received.
The Institute's activities have been entirely financed through
grants.
The generosity of Sydney businessman Mr Felix Parry Pisarewski
allowed tape recorders to be bought which initiated the Oral
History program which bears his name.
Donations
Please contact PHIA.
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