Working with words: Turning oral history into art

A year or two ago a factory closed down in the Adelaide Hills. The Onkaparinga Woollen Mill in the township of Lobethal was once famous for its blankets. When it closed, union organisers and local residents were keen to historically record and preserve aspects of the lives of the employees who had worked there over many years. They approached the United Trades and Labour Council's Arts Officer. As a consequence, there is now a developing Mill Museum collection and a display entitled Through the Mill, a collection of paintings, photographs and 3-D artworks on the Mill. In December 1994 another display, Boatload of Dreams, was installed there after spending two months in the Migration Museum's community access gallery, The Forum. This display will be the focus of this paper.