Oceanic Encounters: colonial and contemporary transformations of gender and sexuality in the Pacific. This project innovatively combines an analysis of past and contemporary configurations of gender and sexuality across the Pacific, using historical and ethnographic methods to address interconnected questions about women, men and transgendered persons. It situates dynamic transformations of gender and sexuality in cross-cultural encounters wherein indigenous and exogenous patterns creatively com ....Oceanic Encounters: colonial and contemporary transformations of gender and sexuality in the Pacific. This project innovatively combines an analysis of past and contemporary configurations of gender and sexuality across the Pacific, using historical and ethnographic methods to address interconnected questions about women, men and transgendered persons. It situates dynamic transformations of gender and sexuality in cross-cultural encounters wherein indigenous and exogenous patterns creatively combined. It focuses successively on four epochs and processes: the Cook voyages in the late eighteenth century; Christian conversion from the nineteenth century and the changing fabric of femininities; parallel transformations of masculinities with Christian conversion and male migrant labour and contemporary reconfigurations of gender liminality in relation to homosexuality.Read moreRead less
Discovery Indigenous Researchers Development - Grant ID: DI0347845
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$10,000.00
Summary
Cultural continuity and change at Shark Bay, Western Australia: an anthopological and historical study of the Malagana Aboriginal people. This project considers issues of cultural change, continuity and identity as they arise from the historical foundations of Shark Bay's present day community in Western Australia. It examines the ways in which Indigenous customary practices continue among the Malgana people, and how connection to sea and country remains an important facet of life. Drawing upon ....Cultural continuity and change at Shark Bay, Western Australia: an anthopological and historical study of the Malagana Aboriginal people. This project considers issues of cultural change, continuity and identity as they arise from the historical foundations of Shark Bay's present day community in Western Australia. It examines the ways in which Indigenous customary practices continue among the Malgana people, and how connection to sea and country remains an important facet of life. Drawing upon archaeological, historical and ethnographic materials, this project will produce an original account of changing patterns of identification with Aboriginal cultural heritage in an Indigenous community. The study will encompass relations between Malgana people and others who have historically come to live in the area.Read moreRead less
A study of writers and regional identity in the Pacific, Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand. There is currently heightened community concern about supra-national loyalties that transcend and seem to threaten national boundaries. This project will help to inform discussion about the role of transnational belonging and the complexities of regional identities, so that it can be seen that multiple loyalties are common and often enriching. It will increase the audience for some neglected lif ....A study of writers and regional identity in the Pacific, Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand. There is currently heightened community concern about supra-national loyalties that transcend and seem to threaten national boundaries. This project will help to inform discussion about the role of transnational belonging and the complexities of regional identities, so that it can be seen that multiple loyalties are common and often enriching. It will increase the audience for some neglected life writing in the Pacific area, particularly from Indigenous writers.Read moreRead less
Learning to Drink:a socio-cultural history of the introduction of alcohol to Indigenous Australians and a critique of existing explanations. The wide distribution of alcohol-related problems among Indigenous people is undoubtedly related to the ongoing legacy of Australia's colonisation. This study examines forces and factors that have shaped distinctive present-day Indigenous alcohol-related behavioural patterns, by analysing the history of interactions between Aborigines and colonisers around ....Learning to Drink:a socio-cultural history of the introduction of alcohol to Indigenous Australians and a critique of existing explanations. The wide distribution of alcohol-related problems among Indigenous people is undoubtedly related to the ongoing legacy of Australia's colonisation. This study examines forces and factors that have shaped distinctive present-day Indigenous alcohol-related behavioural patterns, by analysing the history of interactions between Aborigines and colonisers around alcoholic beverages. In this endeavour, the historical and cultural continuities in the style of drinking are the focus, rather than the number of consumers. Current understandings of problem drinking, emphasising distress and biology, impede progress and will be challenged. In contrast, a social learning model is conducive to optimism about implementing new treatment approaches.Read moreRead less
Paths Not Taken: The False Spring of Political Pluralism in Postwar Singapore. The project aims to recast Singapore's postwar history to challenge the hegemonic paradigm by studying civil and political movements that have operated outside the parameters of imagination created by the ruling party. Using a combination of archival, interview, and anthropological/artistic research techniques, we will study Singapore's postwar period of political pluralism, which was finally smothered in the late 197 ....Paths Not Taken: The False Spring of Political Pluralism in Postwar Singapore. The project aims to recast Singapore's postwar history to challenge the hegemonic paradigm by studying civil and political movements that have operated outside the parameters of imagination created by the ruling party. Using a combination of archival, interview, and anthropological/artistic research techniques, we will study Singapore's postwar period of political pluralism, which was finally smothered in the late 1970s. It will culminate in an international conference and an edited book. We intend to use the project to build international partnerships and it should place Australia in an unprecedented strategic position as a major partner of researchers in Singapore.Read moreRead less
Spaces of Becoming: Spatial Strategies and the Formation of Modern Identities in Urban South Asia. The intensification of urbanisation in South Asia calls for new ways of understanding the politics of identity, and social complexity. This project will explore ways in which urban spaces (such as places of worship, streetscapes, markets, festival grounds, procession routes, and 'neighbourhoods') are used by different groups as a fundamental principle of organising social relations, including trans ....Spaces of Becoming: Spatial Strategies and the Formation of Modern Identities in Urban South Asia. The intensification of urbanisation in South Asia calls for new ways of understanding the politics of identity, and social complexity. This project will explore ways in which urban spaces (such as places of worship, streetscapes, markets, festival grounds, procession routes, and 'neighbourhoods') are used by different groups as a fundamental principle of organising social relations, including transmission of culture and creation of identity.
This interdisciplinary project argues that historicism - an exclusive temporal emphasis - can not capture the fundamental relationship between spaces and social processes that shapes contemporary cultural and social complexity in South Asia.
Read moreRead less
Sisters and Sojourners: Stories of Rural Women in Urban China. A large increase in unofficial rural to urban migration has been one of the most significant aspects of social change in China in the last two decades. This project aims to advance our understanding of this phenomenon through a study of rural Chinese women's experiences of migration to the city, and in particular, the effects of migration upon their sense of identity, worldview and relationships with others. The project will involv ....Sisters and Sojourners: Stories of Rural Women in Urban China. A large increase in unofficial rural to urban migration has been one of the most significant aspects of social change in China in the last two decades. This project aims to advance our understanding of this phenomenon through a study of rural Chinese women's experiences of migration to the city, and in particular, the effects of migration upon their sense of identity, worldview and relationships with others. The project will involve ethnographic fieldwork, centring on the collection and analysis of rural migrant women's life stories. It will result in the publication of a book and three scholarly articles.Read moreRead less
Contexts of Collection- a dialogic approach to understanding the making of the material record of Yolngu cultures. The research project will make people aware of the collaborative nature of the material record of Yolngu societies that has been made over time by the participation of researchers, collectors, filmmakers and Yolngu people themselves. It will demonstrate the ways in which digital technology can be used as an integral part of a research process to produce outcomes that can be made acc ....Contexts of Collection- a dialogic approach to understanding the making of the material record of Yolngu cultures. The research project will make people aware of the collaborative nature of the material record of Yolngu societies that has been made over time by the participation of researchers, collectors, filmmakers and Yolngu people themselves. It will demonstrate the ways in which digital technology can be used as an integral part of a research process to produce outcomes that can be made accessible to a wide range of different users. It will help people understand the complex historical processes that have resulted in the present museum and archival record and facilitate their use.Read moreRead less
The Western Nation-State, Cultural Pluralism and the Transnational Circulation of Political Emotions in the Shi'a Lebanese Diaspora. At its most general level, this research aims to expose and explain the importance of emotions in the formation of all cultures. In so doing it opens the way for a more complex understanding of some of the invisible but important forces that shape intercultural relations within culturally plural nations. It will thus open the possibilities for ameliorating and refi ....The Western Nation-State, Cultural Pluralism and the Transnational Circulation of Political Emotions in the Shi'a Lebanese Diaspora. At its most general level, this research aims to expose and explain the importance of emotions in the formation of all cultures. In so doing it opens the way for a more complex understanding of some of the invisible but important forces that shape intercultural relations within culturally plural nations. It will thus open the possibilities for ameliorating and refining government policies concerned with the management of pluralism. At a more particular level, the research hopes to produce critical knowledge about diasporic Arab Muslim cultures that will ameliorate the thorny relations these cultures have today with western governments.Read moreRead less
Transnational Affect and the Moral Economies of Temporary Skilled Migration of South Indians to Australia. India is expected to surpass China soon as Australia's third largest migration source after New Zealand and the United Kingdom. A majority of Indian migrants to Australia work in highly skilled occupations, a large proportion of whom arrive on a temporary skilled migration visa (457). There is intense international competition for these highly educated and skilled migrant workers and this m ....Transnational Affect and the Moral Economies of Temporary Skilled Migration of South Indians to Australia. India is expected to surpass China soon as Australia's third largest migration source after New Zealand and the United Kingdom. A majority of Indian migrants to Australia work in highly skilled occupations, a large proportion of whom arrive on a temporary skilled migration visa (457). There is intense international competition for these highly educated and skilled migrant workers and this migration category represents a major new direction in Australia's migration policy. The proposed study will provide significant insights for policy makers into the impacts of the new temporary skilled migration scheme on both the temporary migrants and the wider Australian community. Read moreRead less