Ron Edwards and the Fight for Australian Tradition

Ron Edwards (1930–2008), along with many other Australian collectors of folklore, pursued his passion for most of his adult life. Keith McKenry is likewise a dedicated folklorist of vast experience, and this is the second biography he has produced about prominent figures in the field; the first one recorded the life of Australian song collector John Meredith. McKenry presents a well-investigated account of Edwards’ personal and professional life, although the term “professional” is applied loosely, since Edwards mostly supported himself and his family through miscellaneous means rather than receiving anything approaching a regular income for his folkloric collections.McKenry adopts a chronological approach to his account of Edwards’ life and presents many personal details about Edwards’ childhood in both Geelong, a regional town in Victoria, and Melbourne; his courtship and marriage to Anne; and later, his children and grandchildren. This information gives readers an insight into Edwards’ personality and passions. It also serves to contextualize the monumental contribution made by Edwards to the nascent field of Australian folklore. As a young adult, Edwards made his way north to the state of Queensland, where he eventually spent most of his adult life. Serendipitously, he decided to enroll in music classes run by John Manifold, another significant folklore collector, and together they formulated a plan to gather a small collection that they eventually published as Bandicoot Ballads. During his life, Edwards also entered into diverse working relationships with other prominent Australian folklorists, including fellow song collector John Meredith and historian Hugh Anderson.Edwards established Rams Skull Press and began to publish his own writings as well as books by other collectors. He self-published more than 300 works, as well as using other publishers: for example, Australian Traditional Bush Crafts (Landsdowne, 1975) and The Big Book of Australian Folk Song (Rigby, 1976). His range of interests was widespread; along with songs, stories, and numerous handcrafts, Edwards sought out and documented First Nations Australian rock art and recorded songs from the people of the Torres Strait Islands (between Australia and Papua New Guinea). Later in life, he undertook several trips to China and Japan, keenly observing traditional practices such as calligraphy in both nations.Certainly, Edwards engaged in meticulous documentation of his collected materials in a professional manner. Edwards understood the need for archiving his own catalog, and thus offered copies of his collections of songs and yarns (stories) to the National Library of Australia, although his raw materials were immediately transferred to the newly established National Film and Sound Archive (https://www.nfsa.gov.au/collection). He was initially wary of formal folklore organizations such as the Australian Folk Trust (AFT), established in 1977 by the nation's state-based folk federations, which sought to act as the national peak body for collection activities, festivals, and other events. However, his attitude eventually changed, and he gained an AFT Fellowship to undertake research in British archives, searching for ballads relating to Australia. Later still, he conducted a survey on behalf of the AFT to determine folklore research areas that needed to be prioritized.The story of Edwards’ contribution to Australian folklore is worth telling; in particular, it validates the work undertaken by “untrained” collectors who may operate on the fringes, without the same access to funding opportunities or publication prospects that academic folklorists had. Indeed, Australian folklore scholarship owes as much, if not more, to amateurs such as Edwards as it does to university-trained professionals. The biography is certainly a meticulously researched work, with the author consulting Edwards’ publications (memoirs, other books and journal articles), along with numerous oral histories and manuscript collections. McKenry skillfully intertwines milestones of Edwards’ life with the development of folklore as a formal field of scholarship in Australia and, as such, makes a significant contribution to that discipline's history.Ron Edwards and the Fight for Australian Tradition is not intended as a textbook and would not adequately serve as such. However, as supplementary course reading, it could be useful because it demonstrates how researchers’ personalities influence their fieldwork interests and methods. The book is better suited to the general public; McKenry brings a colorful personality to life, and readers receive insight into the character and experiences of someone who was determined to squeeze as much activity and adventure into his life as possible. The book's focus is, naturally, Australia, and hopefully many copies will be sold in that nation, but the extent of overseas interest in Australian folklore per se or in the life stories of aficionados such as Ron Edwards is difficult to predict.