Davey Collection
Key items in the collection
Highlights from this collection demonstrate its historical significance and variety.
Oral History of Childhood Collection
The Oral History of Childhood Collection comprises 15 interviews recorded by Davey in Melbourne in 1988. The interviews deal mostly with life in the inter-war years, but a few memories extended back to the end of the nineteenth century. The recordings deal with earliest memories, family relationships, houses, schools, games, hobbies, picnics, chores, the impact of the Depression and first jobs.
Australian Children’s Folklore Collection
The Australian Children’s Folklore Collection was recorded by Davey in Melbourne from 1972 to 1977. They feature both children and adults performing songs, rhymes, chants, riddles, verse and playground games. They include children’s songs, rhymes and stories from Italy and Turkey.
Moe Folklife Oral History Project
The Moe Folklife Oral History Project, which consists of eight interviews, was recorded by Davey in 1995–96. The aim of the project was to document the living folk culture within the city of Moe in the Latrobe Valley of Victoria, focusing on handcrafts, music and dance, customs and celebrations, children’s folklife, foodways and occupational folklore.
Tradition Bearers Oral History Collection
The Tradition Bearers Oral History Collection comprises 32 recordings made between 2003 and 2005 by Davey and two other interviewers, and focuses on people with a lifetime of experience working in a particular craft or occupation. They include a farmer, a textile artist, a saddler, an apiarist, a stonemason, a funeral director, a seamstress, a basket maker and an Easter egg painter.
Children’s Folklore Collection
The Children’s Folklore Collection comprises 21 recordings about children’s games made in 2005–06 with children in the schoolyards of three Victorian primary schools. Davey organised this pilot project, although she did not do the interviewing.
Among other recordings made by Davey and held in the Library are interviews with the folklorists Percy Jones, Norm O’Connor, June Factor, Keith McKenry and Graham Seal.
The personal papers of Davey comprise notes for talks, seminar papers, drafts of articles and books, lectures, research files, correspondence, financial papers and publications. There are substantial groups of papers on The Oxford Companion to Australian Folklore, the Moe Folklife Project, and Davey’s doctoral thesis, ‘Folklife in Australia: Issues of policy and practice’.
About Gwenda Davey
Gwenda Beed Davey (born 1932) was born in Sydney, but moved with her family to Melbourne at a young age. She is a graduate of both the University of Melbourne and Monash University.
Career in education
Davey began her career as a teacher and school counsellor with the Victorian Education Department. In 1973, she was appointed lecturer in psychology and ethnic studies at the Institute of Early Childhood Development in Melbourne. From 1985 to 1986, she lectured at the Footscray Institute of Technology. In later years, she held academic positions at the National Centre for Australian Studies at Monash University and the Cultural Heritage Centre at Deakin University.
Interest in folklore
Davey’s interest in Australian folk music began when she was a young woman, singing and playing guitar with the Victorian Bush Music Club. Her academic focus turned to children's folklore after she joined the Institute of Early Childhood Development. Most of her research and publications have centred on this subject.
In 1979, she and her colleague June Factor established the Australian Children’s Folklore Collection, which includes records of over 10,000 playground rhymes and songs.
Contribution to folklife
Davey was a member of the Committee of Inquiry into Folklife in Australia, established by the Australian Government in 1986. In 1989, she was awarded a Harold White Fellowship to study the folklore collections of the Library. She was also the first Director of the Victorian Folklife Association, serving from 1992 to 1993.
Publications
Davey has written extensively on Australian folklore and children's traditions. Davey and Graham Seal edited The Oxford companion to Australian folklore (1993) and they also wrote A guide to Australian folklore: from Ned Kelly to Aeroplane Jelly (2003).
Among her books of children's rhymes and stories are:
- The great Australian pumpkin (1991)
- Duck under the table (1991)
- Jack and Jill, a book of nursery rhymes (1992)
- Snug as a bug (2005).
Background to the collection
The Library’s association with Davey began in 1987, when it agreed to provide her with equipment and tapes for her oral history of childhood project. The first recordings were received in 1988.
In 1989, the Library engaged Davey as a consultant on Australian folklore. Over the following years, she conducted a number of oral history interviews and contributed to several oral history and folklore projects.
In 1992, the Library acquired the Australian Children’s Folklore Collection, which Davey had compiled between 1972 and 1977.
The Library purchased Davey’s personal papers in 1999.
The oral history collections produced by Davey are held in the Oral History and Folklore Collection. All the recordings have been catalogued individually, as well as at the collection level.
The personal papers are held in the Manuscripts Collection at MS 9352. Use the finding aid.
This guide was prepared using these references:
- Carole Carpenter, Interview with Dr Gwenda Davey, 2000, TRC 4625
- Gwenda Davey, and Graham Seal (eds), The Oxford Companion to Australian Folklore, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1993.
- Gwenda Davey, The Haystack That Got Away, National Library of Australia News, vol. 15 (1), October 2004, pp. 18–21.
- Gwenda Davey, Umbrella Feet: Children’s Folklore and the National Library, National Library of Australia News, vol. 16 (12), September 2006, pp. 19–21.
Continue your journey
