Together, these YouTubers have racked up more than 36 billion views and boast 84 million subscribers worldwide. Now they are being immortalised for their contribution to Australia's cultural heritage. For the first time, 10 content creators have been inducted into the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA) in a partnership with YouTube. Among the inductees to be recognised at a Parliament House event today are mathematician Eddie Woo, musician Tash Sultana and independent animation studio GLITCH.
Woo, a teacher whose YouTube maths lessons went viral in 2012, said the induction was "really quite bizarre, but wonderful". "It feels completely surreal to be part of the historical cultural collection that the National Film and Sound Archive is," he said. "I grew up in Australia at a time where … I internalised that I was not Australian, despite the fact that this is where I was born and raised and this is the only place I have ever lived or known. "Being part of the National Film and Sound Archive — as someone who has taken a long time to appreciate and own my own identity as an Australian — just feels like an absolute privilege that no-one necessarily deserves, but I feel extremely honoured by."
Vlogger Wengie (aka Wendy Ayche) never imagined herself entering the annals of Australian history this way either. The Chinese-Australian grew up consuming Dolly and Girlfriend magazines that she said did not tend to reflect her own identity or features. Instead she turned to YouTube, dispensing makeup tips and DIY hacks of her own. "I would have never imagined me being part of an Australian collection, because even though I'm Australian, when you look different, it's hard to feel that way sometimes," Ayche said. "I think it's a great testament to our diversity and our acceptance of different people and what Australians look like." She joked that future viewers could be a little confused by some of her videos. "I'm imagining maybe future generations looking at this and going, 'Wow, wasn't culture weird back then?'" Ayche said.
Preserving the whole 'cultural wrapper' NFSA estimates 91 per cent of Australian adults use an online platform to watch video content weekly. None were more dominant than YouTube, NFSA chief executive Patrick McIntyre said. But he also understands some may still be catching up to its cultural impact and just how radically it has changed the game. "A couple of generations ago, if you wanted to make it big, you had to move to LA or you had to get a record deal. Or you had to get funding to produce a TV series that might take years to make," he said. "Now people with a story to tell can do it their way and still reach audiences of millions. "[YouTube] is not only helping to shape and explore Australian culture of now, but the majority of these creators' views are overseas, so it's actually a major cultural export too."
The archive has been collecting individual YouTube videos since 2013, but Mr McIntyre said this capsule would preserve each channel's "cultural wrapper" too. That means oral histories, fandom content and, in the case of the Outback Boys, budgie smugglers. "It was really important for us to collect all of that platform activity — the likes, the shares, the comments — because that is really part of the cultural impact of the videos themselves," Mr McIntyre said. It is also a sign of how the archive has adapted. "The iPhone came out 20 years ago and now robots have hit singles on Spotify," Mr McIntyre said. "We've really got to be much more dynamic and responsive to culture as it's happening."
Here are the YouTube channels selected:
