Aboriginal Femininity and Modern Identity: Gender and Race in the Late Colonial Visual Scene. The project is the first sustained cultural history of Aboriginal femininity in Australian from 1870-1967. It will draw on diverse forms of modern visual culture: painting, black and white drawing, mass commodity spectacle, film and photography, to investigate six modes of production of Aboriginal feminine visibility: the 'primitive' woman in Western exhibiting practices such as colonial museums: the pe ....Aboriginal Femininity and Modern Identity: Gender and Race in the Late Colonial Visual Scene. The project is the first sustained cultural history of Aboriginal femininity in Australian from 1870-1967. It will draw on diverse forms of modern visual culture: painting, black and white drawing, mass commodity spectacle, film and photography, to investigate six modes of production of Aboriginal feminine visibility: the 'primitive' woman in Western exhibiting practices such as colonial museums: the perceived failure of 'Mission Mary' to appear modern; the relation of Aboriginal femininity to imported forms of exoticism; the fetishism of Indigenous women; girl piccaninny kitsch in domestic and tourist ornaments; and the entrance of public Aboriginal women and celebrities into modernity.
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Marcus Clarke's Bohemia: Literature, Popular Culture and Urban Experience in Colonial Melbourne. This study will contextualise Marcus Clarke's career in terms of the material culture of nineteenth-century Melbourne, producing the first complete and theoretically informed monograph on Australia's most important colonial prose writer. Clarke's self-conscious bohemianism highlighted the increasingly commercialised nature of nineteenth-century writing, the centrality of mass entertainment to urban l ....Marcus Clarke's Bohemia: Literature, Popular Culture and Urban Experience in Colonial Melbourne. This study will contextualise Marcus Clarke's career in terms of the material culture of nineteenth-century Melbourne, producing the first complete and theoretically informed monograph on Australia's most important colonial prose writer. Clarke's self-conscious bohemianism highlighted the increasingly commercialised nature of nineteenth-century writing, the centrality of mass entertainment to urban life, the circulation of cultural capital between Europe and Australia, and the emergence of Australian literary nationalism in a larger imperial context. His career is thus uniquely positioned to elucidate the hitherto under-explored but pivotal relationship between literature and commodified popular culture in the specific context of an Australian settler-colony. Read moreRead less
Confronting Representations: Performing Indigenous Protests. By using performance studies approaches to analyse public political events this work will provide the practical benefit of increasing our understanding of how different cultures interpret and misinterpret each other in public encounters. Examining the dynamics that have and continue to operate between people and social discourses increases our understanding of ourselves as Australians and our ability to interpret ourselves. A further b ....Confronting Representations: Performing Indigenous Protests. By using performance studies approaches to analyse public political events this work will provide the practical benefit of increasing our understanding of how different cultures interpret and misinterpret each other in public encounters. Examining the dynamics that have and continue to operate between people and social discourses increases our understanding of ourselves as Australians and our ability to interpret ourselves. A further benefit is that the project develops an innovative methodology for interdisciplinary research drawing from the fields of performance studies, media studies and cultural studies.Read moreRead less
Discovery Indigenous Researchers Development - Grant ID: DI0882245
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$170,648.00
Summary
Reconciliation game: Australian Football in the new South Africa. An understanding of the role sport has played in shaping settler/native relationships will enable Australia to support the development of enduring and meaning football contacts with post-Apartheid South Africa. These will be built on appraisals that admit a similar colonial inheritance to sport in South Africa. Recent embrace of Indigenous Australian participation in Australian Football indicates the possibility of reconciliation ....Reconciliation game: Australian Football in the new South Africa. An understanding of the role sport has played in shaping settler/native relationships will enable Australia to support the development of enduring and meaning football contacts with post-Apartheid South Africa. These will be built on appraisals that admit a similar colonial inheritance to sport in South Africa. Recent embrace of Indigenous Australian participation in Australian Football indicates the possibility of reconciliation and the potential for positive sporting interchange with post-Apartheid South Africa. This study examines how reconciliations through Australia - South Africa sporting dialogue can not only be promoted but realised in terms of developing sustained and socially meaningful engagements. Read moreRead less
The transnational history of the Chinese Nationalist Party. First the project contributes to better understanding of Australia's region, secondly it enhances understanding of the place of international Chinese communities in world politics, trade, and migration, thirdly it contributes to Australian understanding of the ties linking the Chinese diaspora in Australia to other Chinese communities around the world and in China, fourth it contributes to important international debates on migration an ....The transnational history of the Chinese Nationalist Party. First the project contributes to better understanding of Australia's region, secondly it enhances understanding of the place of international Chinese communities in world politics, trade, and migration, thirdly it contributes to Australian understanding of the ties linking the Chinese diaspora in Australia to other Chinese communities around the world and in China, fourth it contributes to important international debates on migration and ethnic politics over the course of the 20th century, and fifth it confirms Australia's international standing as a site of innovation and excellence in research on the Asian and Pacific regions.Read moreRead less
Witnesses to War: Australian War Correspondents from the Boer to the Gulf War. This national project will be the first study to examine the collective history of Australian journalists and photojournalists who have covered major wars and international conflicts from the Boer War to the 'war on terror'. It will be a timely and path breaking contribution to history, offering a new understanding of key issues including the journalists' experiences; the discourses that defined Australian national id ....Witnesses to War: Australian War Correspondents from the Boer to the Gulf War. This national project will be the first study to examine the collective history of Australian journalists and photojournalists who have covered major wars and international conflicts from the Boer War to the 'war on terror'. It will be a timely and path breaking contribution to history, offering a new understanding of key issues including the journalists' experiences; the discourses that defined Australian national identity; truth and mythmaking; war correspondents' influence on public commemoration and how they shaped attitudes to war, allies, enemies and race; how reporting changed; and the role of political and military censorship. Read moreRead less
Building Difference: Architectural Strategies in Colonial Museums. Natural history and ethnology museums built in the 19th century in British imperial territories in Australia, New Zealand, India, and Canada were driven by specific colonising intent. Their architecture reflects the cultural complexities of empire. Using archival sources, the project researches the deployment of metropolitan architectural theory in colonial museum design from the foundation of these institutions to decolonisatio ....Building Difference: Architectural Strategies in Colonial Museums. Natural history and ethnology museums built in the 19th century in British imperial territories in Australia, New Zealand, India, and Canada were driven by specific colonising intent. Their architecture reflects the cultural complexities of empire. Using archival sources, the project researches the deployment of metropolitan architectural theory in colonial museum design from the foundation of these institutions to decolonisation and institutional modernisation in the mid-20th century. It examines how architectural strategies were exploited and inflected by different local conditions, to produce a sophisticated investigation of the architecture of empire.Read moreRead less
The Darwinian Screen: Race in Pacific and Australian Film 1900-1970. This project examines the influence of Darwinism in filmic narratives which deal with race that are set in Australia and the Pacific from 1900-1970. Science Fiction, Travel, South Seas Island Romance, Colonial Adventure and Jungle films made in Australia, New Zealand, America, the UK and France will be considered in order to determine the design and construction of race. The search for primitive man, the construction of 'types' ....The Darwinian Screen: Race in Pacific and Australian Film 1900-1970. This project examines the influence of Darwinism in filmic narratives which deal with race that are set in Australia and the Pacific from 1900-1970. Science Fiction, Travel, South Seas Island Romance, Colonial Adventure and Jungle films made in Australia, New Zealand, America, the UK and France will be considered in order to determine the design and construction of race. The search for primitive man, the construction of 'types', the creation of utopian spaces for white subjects, the representation of evolution and devolution, the making of the Pacific as site for scientific endeavour and the production of narratives of survival are among the areas to be considered.Read moreRead less
Blackfella Historians: An Historical Study of Aboriginal History-Making in South-eastern Australia. Aboriginal people had not only to endure colonisation, but to make sense of it. This innovative study examines their deployment of history, focusing on south-eastern Australia in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It will explore the importance of history in the efforts made by Aborigines to explain their plight to non-Aborigines and to make sense of it for themselves. The project will offer ....Blackfella Historians: An Historical Study of Aboriginal History-Making in South-eastern Australia. Aboriginal people had not only to endure colonisation, but to make sense of it. This innovative study examines their deployment of history, focusing on south-eastern Australia in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It will explore the importance of history in the efforts made by Aborigines to explain their plight to non-Aborigines and to make sense of it for themselves. The project will offer major new insights into the role of history in shaping relations between Aborigines and non-Aborigines and will also enrich our understanding of history's political and cultural uses and its significance as a medium for cross-cultural communication.Read moreRead less
Working the Land: Women's Rural Labour and the Making of a Nation, Australia, 1901-1945. Dr Ford's research delivers social, cultural and economic benefits to Australia, particularly for rural Australia, for women and for aging Australians. Her work will increase community understanding about working life in rural Australia; the relationship between land, agriculture, gender and national identity; and the ways women combined family responsibilities with farm work - issues central to debates abou ....Working the Land: Women's Rural Labour and the Making of a Nation, Australia, 1901-1945. Dr Ford's research delivers social, cultural and economic benefits to Australia, particularly for rural Australia, for women and for aging Australians. Her work will increase community understanding about working life in rural Australia; the relationship between land, agriculture, gender and national identity; and the ways women combined family responsibilities with farm work - issues central to debates about the role of rural Australia and work/life balance. Her project will contribute to rural communities' sense of identity, as well as promote heritage tourism, important to regional economic development. It will also develop partnerships between universities and rural communities and improve the global visibility of Australian research.Read moreRead less