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9679270
  • Title
    Item 1: Clive Faro interview by Bruce Carter
  • Level of description
    item
  • Date

    14 August 2023
  • Type of material
  • Reference code
    9679270
  • Physical Description
    4 audio files (1 hr., 38 min.) - digital, WAV, stereo (48 kHz, 24 bit)
  • Scope and Content
    In this interview, Clive Faro discusses his life lived on three continents. Born and raised in South Africa and 'classified' under the South African Apartheid regime system as 'Kaapse Kleurlinge' or Cape Coloured, Clive Faro migrated to Australia with his family in 1979 following high school.

    Faro describes his family as 'middle class'; his father being an accountant and later a Pastor with the Seventh Day Adventist Church and his mother a nurse. Faro describes family life in South Africa and the impact he feels his family's religious commitment had on him as he became aware of his same-sex attraction.

    Settling in Blacktown, Sydney, Clive recalls making a call to the Gay Counselling Service and being taken to Oxford Street, Darlinghurst. He soon after discovered the commercial gay bars there and mentions that Oxford Street at that time was very dynamic socially and politically. Enrolling in a Bachelor of Arts in Economic History at Sydney University, Clive became active in the campaign for homosexual law reform. He also met activist and historian Garry Wotherspoon, who was teaching at Sydney University, and reflects on their relationship of several decades.

    Awarded a Commonwealth scholarship to undertake a Master of Arts in South African history in London after his BA, Clive threw himself into social and cultural life there. He reflects on the delight he experienced seeing so many confident and happy people of colour in London, and the impact of a South African academic there on his awareness of his place in the world as a South African person of colour.

    Returning to Australia, Faro joined the NSW public service and has spent a lot of his working life in the areas of state investment and ministerial services. Between 1998 and 2000 he wrote 'Street Seen : a History of Oxford Street', which was published by Melbourne University Press. He reflects on the process of writing history, and the social and physical shifts in the Darlinghurst area and Sydney's LGBTQ+ subcultures in particular.

    Faro also discusses the impact of HIV/AIDs, the rise of social media, and the changes in how people in the LGBTQ+ communities meet and socialise.
  • Copying Conditions
    In copyright:
    Copyright holder:: State Library of New South Wales
    Please acknowledge:: Mitchell LIbrary, State Library of New South Wales
  • General note

    Recorded at Forbes Street Studios, Woolloomooloo, New South Wales on 14 August 2023
  • Creator/Author/Artist
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  • Place
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