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Australian Folklore Research Unit

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AFRU Background
Research Expertise
Recent Achievements
Recent /Current Research Activity
External Links
Training Opportunities
Selected Recent Research Publications
Research Staff in AFRU
AFRU Key Contact Information
Western Australian Folklore Archive



AFRU Background

The Australian Folklore Research Unit (AFRU) was established within Australian Studies in the Faculty of Humanities in March 2002. The unit developed from folklore and folklife activities undertaken at Curtin University of Technology since the 1980s, including:

  • the development of Australia's only state folklore collection, the WA Folklore Archive
  • the teaching of folklore units
  • a significant record of research and publication in Australian and international folklore studies
  • the foundation of the journal Australian Folklore in 1987
  • the establishment of Black Swan Press in 1992 to publish research in folklore and related fields.
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Research Expertise

  • Australian folklore
  • Global hero traditions
  • Urban folklore
  • Australian cultural history
  • Anglophone cultural traditions
  • Applied folklore

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Recent Achievements

AFRU is currently, or has recently been involved with, the following funded research programs:

  • Peel Heritage Tourism Project (Curtin, Peel Development Commission)
  • ARC LIEF Preserving Australia's Sound Heritage, 2003-2005 (UWA, Monash, Curtin, Screensound Australia)
  • ARC Linkage 'Remembering the Wars', 2006-2009 (Curtin, RSLWA, Deakin)
  • ARC Linkage 'Childhood, Tradition and Change', 2006-2010 (Melbourne, Deakin, Curtin, National Library of Australia, Museum Victoria)

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Recent/Current Research Activity

  • AUSTRALIAN FOLKLORE NETWORK. In 2001 AFRU founded and continues to convene the Australian Folklore Network (AFN), an organisation that connects folklorists, festival organisers, performers and other interested individuals and organisations. The AFN publishes a regular e-newsletter, Transmissions, runs an annual conference in conjunction with the National Library and the National Folk Festival and rujs other projects, such as the online Register of Australian Folklore Collections, publication, fieldwork and research projects
  • Cobber: Tracking Thomas Wood. In partnership with Oxford University, Sheffield University, English Folk Dance & Song Society, UWA
  • WA Folklife Project 2004-continuing with National Library of Australia and Australian Folklore Network
  • Director 'Gallipoli 2015' research program including:

The WA role at Gallipoli - with S Smith, J Stephens, WA RSL.
Anzac Cottage: Gallipoli Memorial - Vietnam VeteransWA, various industry, community and government partners
The Service at Dawn - Dr Robyn Mayes, UWA
The Cultural Expressions of Gallipoli Soldiers

AFRU also conducts the following ongoing activities:

  • Western Australian Folklore Archive
  • Graduate Diploma in Australian Folklife (Curtin-OLA)
  • Folklore Australia - online resource base

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External Links

AFRU maintains links with individual folklore collectors, organisations such as:

  • the Australian Folklore Association
  • the Australian Folklore Society
  • Australian Children's Folklore Collection at Museum Victoria
  • National Library of Australia
  • National Museum of Australia

as well as folk festivals, libraries and associated bodies around the country.

Internationally the unit has links with:

  • Office of Folklife and Cultural Heritage in the Smithsonian Institution
  • National Centre for English Cultural Tradition at Sheffield University
  • Chinese Folk Literature and Art Society
  • Journal of Indian Folkloristics
  • Folklore Society (UK)
  • English Folk Dance and Song Society
  • Oxford University

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And collegially with academic departments of folklore around the world.


Training Opportunities

  • Graduate Diploma in Australian Folklife Studies
  • Research MA and PhD

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Selected Recent Research Publications

Encyclopedia of Folk Heroes, ABC-Clio, Oxford/Santa Barbara CA, 2001.

Seal, G., 'Applying Folklore: Now and in the Future', Lore and Language 15 2002.

Seal, G., 'Tell 'em I Died Game': The Legend of Ned Kelly, updated second edition of Ned Kelly in Popular Tradition Hyland House, 2002.

Seal, G., 'Folk Literature of Australia', Assamese Encyclopedia (World Literature and Folk Literature Volume) 2003.

Davey, G & Seal, G (eds), A Guide to Australian Folklore (with G. Davey), Simon & Schuster, Sydney, 2003.

Seal, G., 'Introducing Outlawed!' in Outlawed! Rebels, Revolutionaries and Bushrangers, National Museum of Australia, 2003.

'Anzac Day: A Customary Complex', Australian Folklore 18, Nov 2003.

Seal, G & Willis, G (eds), Verandah Music: Roots of Australian Tradition, Curtin University Books, Fremantle, 2003

'Anzac Day: An Australian Folk Custom', Journal of Indian Folkloristics 2003-2004. (Invited)

Inventing Anzac: The Digger and National Mythology, University of Queensland Press, St Lucia, 2004.

Seal, G., Echoes of Anzac: The Voice of Australians at War, Lothian, Melbourne, 2005.

Fahey, W & Seal, G., Old Bush Songs: The Centennial Edition of Banjo Paterson's Classic Collection, ABC Books, 2005.

Seal, G., 'A L Lloyd in Australia: Some Conclusions', Folk Music Journal (English Folk Dance and Song Society), 2005.

Seal, G., 'Poor Ned, You're Better Off Dead', chapter in Innes, L., Ned Kelly, Icons of Western Culture series, Croom Information, UK, 2006.

Seal, G.,Seal, G., 'Cracker Nights and Saints' Days: The Neglected Study of Australian Folk Customs', Australian Folklore 2006.

Seal, G.,Review article: Hayward, P., Hearing the Call: Music and Social History on Lord Howe Island, Lord Howe Island Arts Council, 2003 in Folk Music Journal 9:l2006 (English Folk Dance & Song Society).

Seal, G.,'Indigenous Australian Life Histories: A New Genre of 'Writing' and a New Paradigm of Publishing?', International Journal of the Book, 2006.

Seal, G., These Few Lines: The Lost Lives of Myra and William Sykes, ABC Books 2006.

Seal, G., 'West Australian Folklife', in Historical Encyclopedia of Western Australia, UWA Press, 2007.

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Research Staff in AFRU

Affiliated:

  • Dr Gwenda Davey, Deakin University
  • Dr Robyn Mayes, Curtin University of Technology
  • Mr Rob Willis, NLA
  • Mr Stephen Smith, BEAD
  • Dr Dawn Bennett, UWA

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Key Contact Information

Professor Graham Seal
Phone: (08) 9266 3234
e-mail: G.SEAL@exchange.curtin.edu.au