AIATSIS Finding Your Family

An Aboriginal family outside their house, 1900, from the William Henry Corkhill Tilba Tilba Photograph Collection, National Library of Australia, http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-140334688.

Over 2015 I worked with Dr Tikka Wilson from Moreton Consulting (now the Burbangana Group) revamping the family history pages on the AIATSIS website. The brief was to develop family history web content that provides clear research pathways with accessible information and practical tools.

The Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) is a world-renowned research, collections and publishing organisation. They promote knowledge and understanding of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island cultures, traditions, languages and stories, past and present.

AIATSIS has a dedicated Family History Unit which works particularly with members of the Stolen Generations and Link-Ups around Australia. Funding limitations mean that AIATSIS isn’t able to help everyone wanting to trace their Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander family history, hence the need for some updated online material.

The project involved reviewing and identifying revisions to the existing content, developing a new site structure, and writing about forty pages of new and updated content.

The new look AIATSIS Finding your family went live in early February 2016.