Storylines Project — Ron Williams as a 16-year-old. he went on to become a travelling storyteller, preacher and custodian of Aboriginal grassroots history, so loved that he was accorded a State funeral in Canberra in 2003. Source: Supplied

He stands tall, wavy hair and green clothes blowing in the wind as he smiles faintly at the photographer.

Ron Williams was 16 years old when the picture was taken at Cundeelee, 160km east of Kalgoorlie. It doesn’t do him justice.

The caption says simply “Ron Williams (‘Big Ronnie’) at Cundeelee, 1954”, and notes he would often play during prayer meetings in the area in the 1950s.

There was nothing to suggest he would become a renowned travelling storyteller, preacher and custodian of Aboriginal grassroots history, so loved that he was accorded a State funeral in Canberra in 2003.

The State Library made the picture public in 2013, as part of a series of postcards promoting its new Aboriginal heritage online interactive archive project, Storylines.

Several local Noongar people were able to identify “Big Ronnie” in the fading photograph, allowing the library to contact Williams’ wife Diana and daughter Lydia, who had never before seen such a young picture of him.

After seeing this postcard in the Port Hedland library, Pearl and her daughter got in touch with the Storylines Project team to share some more of her story. Source: Supplied

Pearl Ashwin (Baumgarten) was among the first Aboriginal registered nurses in Meekatharra, and is pictured here in 1958 after winning the Daisy Bates Award for Civic Achievement. Source: Supplied

Ron Williams’ story is one of 1700 the State Library has discovered through the project.

And the search is on to identify thousands more in its vast archive, estimated to hold about 100,000 photos of Aboriginal West Australians, donated mostly by non-Aboriginals over the past 125 years.

Many of the pictures bear no information about who or what is in the photo beyond captions such as “Blacks, WA”.

The project is seeking the community’s help to learn more.

It will also repatriate photos so that individual communities can build a private archive of their people’s history, with strict cultural protocols defining who has access.

Storylines Project — ‘Carrolup Children’, taken in 1933. Source: Supplied

Storylines Project — schoolgirls in Mount Margaret, taken in 1950. Source: Supplied

Storylines manager Damien Webb said the library hoped the initiative would help support Aboriginal people’s efforts to strengthen their culture and identity, and change perceptions about Aboriginal people and history.

“Aboriginal people haven’t had a big enough stake in telling their own story,” Mr Webb said. “ I think this is a way for that to happen.”

He said the stories the photos told were “part of the core fabric of WA” but they had always been left behind.

So far, about 2500 photographs have been uploaded to a central online archive. The software allows users to add their own written or oral annotations explaining who or what the picture shows.

A few thousand more photos will be uploaded during the next few years.

Storylines Project — Derby violinist, 1948 Source: Supplied

Storylines Project — girl from Roebourne. Source: Supplied

Photos with some information or visual cues will be prioritised, along with older pictures for which there is some urgency before no one is left alive who can identify them.

Strict cultural protocols have been developed in collaboration with Aboriginal reference groups over two decades so that secret or sacred information can be safely stored and accessed by the right people or taken down if necessary.

State Library Battye historian Susanna Iuliano said the project was about more than the photos.

An underlying aim was to engage more Aboriginal people with the library, build information literacy and get communities interested in the other services they had to offer.

Dr Iuliano said the library was also very conscious of building a reciprocal relationship by sharing and not exploiting.