Excavating MacGregor: re-connecting a colonial museum collection. Sensing the impacts of colonisation, the first Administrator of British New Guinea William MacGregor made a significant collection of objects specifically for its future citizens. This comprehensive legacy of 13 000 objects did not remain in the country but was dispersed to three Australian and six overseas museums. Our aim is to re-assemble and re-connect this material by 'excavating' its private and official components. This res ....Excavating MacGregor: re-connecting a colonial museum collection. Sensing the impacts of colonisation, the first Administrator of British New Guinea William MacGregor made a significant collection of objects specifically for its future citizens. This comprehensive legacy of 13 000 objects did not remain in the country but was dispersed to three Australian and six overseas museums. Our aim is to re-assemble and re-connect this material by 'excavating' its private and official components. This research aims to focus on the makers and traders to disentangle the social relationships embedded in the objects. Using material-centred, assemblage-based archaeological approaches, we aim to investigate how indigenous groups used objects to negotiate with the new colonial government.Read moreRead less
Reconstructing museum specimen data through the pathways of global commerce. This project aims to reconnect zoological specimens with vital collection data. From 1758-1900 millions of specimens were commercially traded to and between museums and collectors, frequently without retaining the data associated with the specimen. This project pioneers spectroscopic techniques to reconstruct data and enhance material conservation practice. The impact of the project will provide new pathways for recove ....Reconstructing museum specimen data through the pathways of global commerce. This project aims to reconnect zoological specimens with vital collection data. From 1758-1900 millions of specimens were commercially traded to and between museums and collectors, frequently without retaining the data associated with the specimen. This project pioneers spectroscopic techniques to reconstruct data and enhance material conservation practice. The impact of the project will provide new pathways for recovering lost ecological data, creating a resource to improve future biodiversity research.Read moreRead less
Cultural heritage and the mediation of identity, memory and historical narratives. Anxiety pervades many Western countries about the direction, nature and expression of social debate regarding community identities, and the social and cultural values underpinning them. In developing our understanding of heritage, and how it is used to construct and legitimatise certain social values and identities in certain national, cultural and social contexts, the research will inform the development of museu ....Cultural heritage and the mediation of identity, memory and historical narratives. Anxiety pervades many Western countries about the direction, nature and expression of social debate regarding community identities, and the social and cultural values underpinning them. In developing our understanding of heritage, and how it is used to construct and legitimatise certain social values and identities in certain national, cultural and social contexts, the research will inform the development of museum and heritage exhibition/interpretation policies. In examining the agency of heritage audiences, the research will inform and facilitate the abilities of museum and heritage professionals to effectively convey messages about contentious issues or make more informed interventions into social debates.Read moreRead less
Entangled Knowledges in the Robert Neill Collection. This project aims to reverse the trajectories of Menang Nyungar knowledge imbedded in a historical fish collection, returning language, stories, and fishing practices to the Menang community. By working in a cross-sector, collaborative and Indigenous-governed team our research will enrich and re-frame the understanding of this collection in the Museum, unearth Indigenous taxonomic practices, produce new histories of biocultural collections, an ....Entangled Knowledges in the Robert Neill Collection. This project aims to reverse the trajectories of Menang Nyungar knowledge imbedded in a historical fish collection, returning language, stories, and fishing practices to the Menang community. By working in a cross-sector, collaborative and Indigenous-governed team our research will enrich and re-frame the understanding of this collection in the Museum, unearth Indigenous taxonomic practices, produce new histories of biocultural collections, and develop the 'kaardtijin model' for participatory cross-cultural and cross-sector collaborations. Workshops on country will produce content for a digital reassembling of the collection to be used by museum partners, ensuring wide cross-sector and community engagement with project outcomes.Read moreRead less
Discovery Indigenous Researchers Development - Grant ID: DI100100200
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$177,000.00
Summary
Reversing the gaze: Indigenous perspectives on cultural representation in national museums. Through a focus on new media and digital engagements the project will identify the capacity for Indigenous communities to act as partners in their representation in the national museum space. By contributing an indigenous-centred review of best-practice moments at both a national and international level, the project will deliver modes of engagement that will benefit both Indigenous communities and museu ....Reversing the gaze: Indigenous perspectives on cultural representation in national museums. Through a focus on new media and digital engagements the project will identify the capacity for Indigenous communities to act as partners in their representation in the national museum space. By contributing an indigenous-centred review of best-practice moments at both a national and international level, the project will deliver modes of engagement that will benefit both Indigenous communities and museums engaged in Indigenous cultural representation.Read moreRead less
Increasing Visitor Frequency: approach to understanding and forecasting how cultural attraction visitors respond to various incentives to increase visitation rates. Museums have been steadily losing visitors over the past decade. While current research indicates that this may be attributed to greater leisure competition, little is understood about how people make choices to visit or not to visit cultural attractions. The aim of this project is to develop, demonstrate and test a Random Utility Th ....Increasing Visitor Frequency: approach to understanding and forecasting how cultural attraction visitors respond to various incentives to increase visitation rates. Museums have been steadily losing visitors over the past decade. While current research indicates that this may be attributed to greater leisure competition, little is understood about how people make choices to visit or not to visit cultural attractions. The aim of this project is to develop, demonstrate and test a Random Utility Theory (RUT)-based modelling approach allowing managers of cultural attractions to understand and predict the likely visitation consequences of potential initiatives. We wish to model visitor choices of museums versus other competing attractions to allow museums to identify specific strategic actions (or combinations) to achieve organisational goals.Read moreRead less
Engaging objects: Indigenous communities, museum collections and the representation of Indigenous histories. This project centres on the research process leading up to a major exhibition in Australia of the British Museum's Australian Indigenous collections. By exploring the historical and representational issues evoked in creating this exhibition, new understandings of these collections and their historical and contemporary significance will result.
Return, reconcile, renew: understanding the history, effects and opportunities of repatriation and building an evidence base for the future. The repatriation of ancestral remains is an extraordinary Indigenous achievement and inter-cultural development of the past 40 years. This international project will provide critical new knowledge to understand repatriation, its history and effects and will provide scholarly and public outcomes that empower community-based research and practice.
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE170100017
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$1,231,000.00
Summary
Networked knowledge for repatriation communities. This project aims to build a digital facility that supports the repatriation of Indigenous human remains. Repatriation contributes to reconciliation and Indigenous healing and wellbeing, and has been the most important agent of change in the relationship between Indigenous peoples, museums and the academy over the past 40 years. Successful repatriation requires and produces research materials diverse in type, geography and accessibility. Within a ....Networked knowledge for repatriation communities. This project aims to build a digital facility that supports the repatriation of Indigenous human remains. Repatriation contributes to reconciliation and Indigenous healing and wellbeing, and has been the most important agent of change in the relationship between Indigenous peoples, museums and the academy over the past 40 years. Successful repatriation requires and produces research materials diverse in type, geography and accessibility. Within an Indigenous data-governance framework, this project will gather, preserve and make accessible a critical and extensive record of repatriation information worldwide. The project is expected to support repatriation practice and scholarship and improve the opportunities of repatriation for social good.Read moreRead less
Profit and Loss: The commercial trade in Indigenous human remains. This project will be the first to investigate the global commercial trade in Indigenous human remains. It will employ a multi-disciplinary approach involving history, economic anthropology, economic history, and data science. The project will generate new knowledge about the 19th century global marketplace in Australian Indigenous human remains, and will reveal whether and how these are involved in the trade’s modern manifestati ....Profit and Loss: The commercial trade in Indigenous human remains. This project will be the first to investigate the global commercial trade in Indigenous human remains. It will employ a multi-disciplinary approach involving history, economic anthropology, economic history, and data science. The project will generate new knowledge about the 19th century global marketplace in Australian Indigenous human remains, and will reveal whether and how these are involved in the trade’s modern manifestations from 1950 to the present. The project will uncover an unknown history, assist repatriation practice, provide information to help reduce the modern trade, and contribute to truth-telling as a precondition of healing and reconciliation.Read moreRead less