A century ago, women discovered the movement for women’s rights through publications like The Dawn. Edited and published by Louisa Lawson, The Dawn was Australia’s first journal produced solely by women, employing ten women at its height, including women printers to run its printing presses. Louisa Lawson was a pioneer for women’s rights. Close to our hearts here at Google, she was also an innovator in information technology, patenting a mailbag fastener.
Today, we discover this rich history in slightly differently ways - we search. This is what Donna Benjamin did, when researching her talk on women in technology for linux.conf.au this year. But she couldn’t find The Dawn anywhere online - she knew it was preserved in libraries around Australia, but it couldn’t be easily accessed and browsed by most Australians. So she decided to do something about it.
By the end of the conference, and with the help of the Australian Women's Archive Project, Donna had launched the #digitisethedawn campaign. Through the campaign, Donna has campaigned to raise the funds to digitise The Dawn - so that it will be preserved electronically in the National Library’s collection and accessible and able to be searched by all.
From Louisa Lawson’s descendants, to Senator Carol Brown from Tasmania, to the Chifley Research Centre, Calyx and WikiMedia, to us here at Google Australia and many others in the community, people around the country have recognised the importance of this project - and donated.
This afternoon, a chapter in this history was opened up to the world. The funds have been raised to digitise The Dawn, and make it accessible and able to be searched by the world.
Through Donna’s own pioneering efforts, we will now be able to discover this important chapter in Australia’s history, and in the history of women’s rights - by searching.
As Donna says,
[The Dawn] was the first publication that gave voice to Australian feminist politics. It is a significant publication and often cited by scholars of history and feminist thought.
It's now in the public domain, so making it available online makes it available to all. As an important primary source for the suffrage movement it might help future scholars rediscover the fight to win women the right to vote, the right to work, and the history of the struggle for equal pay.'
Posted by Alice Boxhall, Software Engineer.
