Estonian Archives in Australia, Library, Archives and Information Centre, Sydney

daa/504

Estonian Archives in Australia, Library, Archives and Information Centre, Sydney

• Community

The Estonian Archives in Australia (EAA) was established by the Council of Estonian Societies in Australia on 5 January 1952. The Archives is one of the four Estonian Archives existing outside Estonia and holds an important collection of material relating to the lives and achievements of Estonians living outside Estonia.

The collection comprises a library, an archive and a museum of material collected from all over the world. Much of the collection is yet to be catalogued. The library contains books written in Estonian, by an Estonian or about Estonia in any language. A large part of the library consists of rare books published in Estonian prior to independence in 1918.

The archives comprises mainly published material, personal papers and memoirs, records of the activities of organisations, photographs, sound recordings, films, artefacts, ephemera and textiles. A major part of the collection consists of more than 10 000 reprints of scholarly works by researchers of Estonian origin living all over the world. This represents the largest collection of such material anywhere in the world.

A small but unique part of the archives consists of the records, personal papers, publications, memoirs, artefacts, photographs and sound recordings of the lives, activities and achievements of the Estonians in Australia. These records date back to the "first fleeters" of Estonians who came to Australia in the late 1880s, as well as those of the second wave of migration in the 1920s but the bulk of the material relates to the post World War II immigration. This collection is not only important to Estonia and the Australians of Estonian descent but also to Australia as it chronicles the contribution of the immigrants to the Australia of today.

The Estonian Archives in Australia are funded for their day-to-day expenses by the Council of Estonian Societies, the parent body for all Estonian Organisations in Australia. The staff consists of an Honorary Archivist assisted by a small number of volunteers. The work of the Archive is overseen by the Estonian Archives in Australia Advisory Board whose members are appointed by the Council of Estonian Societies in Australia and to whom it reports annually.

Aims of the Estonian Archives in Australia include:

• to collect material relating to the lives and activities of Estonians in Australia
• to collect material in Estonian from all over the world
• to collect material by Estonians or about Estonia in other languages
• to provide public access to the collections.

Include, for example:

• Records of Estonian organisations in NSW, SA, WA, ACT
• Meie Kodu newspaper, 1949- present
• Newspapers published in Estonian world-wide, 1944- present
• Newspapers and periodicals published in Estonia pre 1944
• Scholarly reprints by Estonian scholars world-wide
• Einsaar/Mielen family papers
• Kristof Kaldma archive
• Printed material from displaced persons camps in Germany, 1944-1952.

Wednesday 10am-3pm or by appointment made by email (archives@eesti.org.au).

Open to the public.

Revised 21 March 2021

• Arts and Culture (Thematic area)
• Family / Domestic Life (Thematic area)
• Immigration (Thematic area)
• Langue (Thematic area)
• Social Organisations and Activities (Thematic area)