Wendy Lowenstein

Wendy Lowenstein (born Katherin Wendy Robertson; 25 June 1927 — 16 October 2006) was an Australian historian, author, and teacher. She pioneered oral history in Australia, and became known after her 1978 work, Weevils in the Flour, became a bestseller. She began collecting folklore and oral histories of early Australian working life in the 1960s. She is notable for her recording of people's everyday experiences and her social activism.

Early life and education Wendy Lowenstein was born Katherin Wendy Robertson on 25 June 1927, the daughter of Douglas and Rita Robertson.

In 1939 she won a scholarship to study at Box Hill Grammar School, and went to her first political meeting that year.

Other activities Lowenstein was a social activist most of her life. In 1955, she co-founded the Folk Lore Society of Victoria with Ian Turner and she contributed to and edited the Folk Lore Society of Victoria's magazine Gumsucker's Gazette, later Australian Tradition, for 15 years. Shirley Andrews (chairperson) and Lowenstein worked together on the committee which organised the first festival, held in Melbourne in 1967.

She worked voluntarily for organisations such as People for Nuclear Disarmament. She was also involved in a number of other organisations over the course of her life, including: New Theatre, the Eureka Youth League, the Victorian Folk Music Society, the Australian Folklore Expedition, the Boree Log Folk Club, the Colonial Bush Dance Society, Pram Factory Flea Market, various alternative and community schools and centres, Friends of the Earth Australia, Arts Action For Peace, the Palm Sunday Committee, the Victorian Secondary Teachers Association, and the Oral History Association of Australia. including filmmaker Richard Lowenstein, Weevils at work includes the 80 interviews Lowenstein recorded in Pannawonica and Robe River in 1986–1988 during the Pekoe Wallsend industrial dispute. These recordings give a picture of working life, changes in working conditions, family life, and the community affected by the prolonged dispute in Robe River, Western Australia.

Miscellaneous Shocking Shocking Shocking (n.d.) A self-published collection of improper Australian children's play-rhymes. published in Australian Academic and Research Libraries (AARL), March 1992.

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