Podcast focused on anti-conscription movements within the CBD awarded

A podcast series exploring the efforts of women of Melbourne to resist conscription during the Vietnam War has received best oral history prize at the Victorian Community History Awards, held on March 24 at The Langham in Southbank.

This award winning podcast series by Alexandra Pierce comprises 15 segments, focusing on Melbourne women’s participation in protests opposing conscription in the Vietnam War.

Ms Pierce did all the research and writing herself as part of a project that took five years to complete.

Presented by Public Record Office Victoria with the Royal Historical Society of Victoria, the Victorian Community History Awards celebrate historians and community groups committed to preserving and sharing stories of the past.

Public Record Office Victoria director and keeper of public records Justine Heazlewood said the organisation was “continually impressed by the calibre of entrants for these awards and this year was no exception”.

Ms Pierce said to being acknowledged on the shortlist for the awards on its own felt “incredible”.

“All the projects were exceptional. Just being on the shortlist was a pretty amazing experience, to think that the judges thought my work was just as good as these other works,” she told CBD News.

“So, when my name got called out and I walked up there to accept the certificate, honestly, I was shaking. It was such a shock and very, very exciting.”

In addition to her award-winning podcase, Ms Pierce had another work shortlisted – another podcast looking at anti-conscription movements, but this time with a focus on World War One.

Produced in collaboration with Soundtrails and with the support of the Australian Living Peace Museum, this six-part series can be listened to as a self-guided walking tour of significant anti-conscription sites in Melbourne’s CBD.

For Ms Pierce, protesting is an important but often overlooked part of history. Before starting these projects, she said she was unaware of the extent of the Vietnam war anti-conscription movement.

“There are photos from May 1970 showing 100,000 people sitting down in the middle of Bourke Street Mall, all protesting. it's simply phenomenal but people don’t know about it,” she said.

“I had just no idea that protest has such a long history in Australia, and I think that's really important for us to know, perhaps especially at the moment,” she said, adding that historians are not “doing as much as we might to understand the role of ordinary women throughout Australian history.”

“I hope that my work helps to fill in a few gaps and get people interested.”

The award-winning podcast series on the anti-conscription movement during the Vietnam War can be found here and the walking tour is accessible here.