We're actively looking for material from Australians with Indian heritage to add to the national collection. We invite you to help us to document the history of Australian-Indian people and communities in Australia.

You may consider offering us published material created by an individual or organisation, or unpublished material such as family papers, letters, journals and photographs.

About the collecting project

Australians with Indian heritage are Australia's fastest growing migrant group, comprising over 750,000 people in 2022. Indian diaspora communities have made a significant contribution to many aspects of Australian society and culture.

We are inviting Australians with Indian heritage to help the Library build a collection about their history and experiences. We will be guided by those who are by self-definition a part of the Indian diaspora in Australia. That may include people who trace their heritage to the pre-Partition Indian subcontinent.

By collecting stories of the Indian diaspora, we can can preserve and make accessible to social historians of the future, the stories of today. We aim to ensure that a permanent documentary record of Australia’s migration history is publicly available. This two-year project will end in June 2025, however we look forward to building ongoing relationships with the Indian-Australian community.

What are we looking for?

We are looking for material by and about Australian-Indian people and communities, their lives and experiences, their work and organisations.

• Books
• Newspapers or newsletters
• Manuscripts
• Pictures
• Photographs
• Posters
• Electronic publications
• Websites
• Oral histories
• Ephemera

How you can contribute

We are inviting you to offer books, newsletters, pictures, manuscripts, and published materials to the national collection. 

We are especially interested in collecting material published by Indian-Australians and printed material that relates to events and activities organised by community groups and organisations. This might include posters, brochures, pamphlets, flyers, invitations, maps, programs, badges and stickers. 

If you have items you’d like to donate, you can offer them for consideration.

You can deposit your electronic publications like eBooks and digital newsletters using the National edeposit service (NED).

What we do with material we collect

We provide access to our collections either onsite in Canberra, or online through our catalogue in line with relevant access and usage conditions. 

The material collected through this project will be a valuable resource for researchers and scholars, family historians, school students and general library users. 

Potential uses of the material may extend to publishing, exhibitions and more. Material that has been collected in this project is making its way onto the our catalogue and Trove.

Learn more about the our current collecting priorities.

Explore new collections

Our commissioned interviewers and photographers have been recording interviews and documenting community activities since this project commenced in July 2023.

You can explore more commissioned photography and oral history interviews in our collection.

Discover webpages and digital newspapers that have been archived in the Australian Web Archive.

How to contact us

If you would like to discuss collection material with our curators, please email select@nla.gov.au.