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Anthropological perspectives on ethnographic collecting by Australian colonial administrators in Papua and New Guinea and their contribution to museum collections. Australian colonial administrators in PNG built up large ethnographic collections. This study will examine the contexts in which 'ethnographic' objects were acquired from Indigenous peoples in PNG with particular emphasis on the role of Sir Hubert Murray. This will be the first study to examine the historical and cultural context of ....Anthropological perspectives on ethnographic collecting by Australian colonial administrators in Papua and New Guinea and their contribution to museum collections. Australian colonial administrators in PNG built up large ethnographic collections. This study will examine the contexts in which 'ethnographic' objects were acquired from Indigenous peoples in PNG with particular emphasis on the role of Sir Hubert Murray. This will be the first study to examine the historical and cultural context of the large PNG collections now held by the National Museum of Australia. It will provide a new perspective on Australia's role as a colonial power in the Pacific using ethnographic objects to explore the relationship between key figures in the Administration and Indigenous people.Read moreRead less
Discovery Indigenous Researchers Development - Grant ID: DI0347624
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$20,022.00
Summary
Dreaming Tracks and Trading Paths - a study of Aboriginal trading routes through Queensland. Aboriginal song lines and trade routes became the foundation for stock routes, coach ways and bitumen highways because successful European exploration used the expediency of Aboriginal guides who travelled along the routes already familiar to them. These routes are documented in instruments of land management such as churingas, toas or shields, and in the mnemotic memory of songs and stories. By reading ....Dreaming Tracks and Trading Paths - a study of Aboriginal trading routes through Queensland. Aboriginal song lines and trade routes became the foundation for stock routes, coach ways and bitumen highways because successful European exploration used the expediency of Aboriginal guides who travelled along the routes already familiar to them. These routes are documented in instruments of land management such as churingas, toas or shields, and in the mnemotic memory of songs and stories. By reading together these two types of knowledge - of European exploration and of Aboriginal authorship of country - popular ways of 'knowing Aborigines' become fundamentally reinscribed and much popular knowledge about Aboriginal societies is deeply challenged.Read moreRead less
Frontier Conflict in History and Memory: South and Central Australia from European settlement to the Present. The aims of this project are to map, as comprehensively as possible, the nature and extent of conflict between Aboriginal people and Europeans in South and Central Australia and to analyse the ways in which those events have survived in social memory. This is significant in light of recent contestations in Australian history about the degree and remembrance of conflict. No extensive regi ....Frontier Conflict in History and Memory: South and Central Australia from European settlement to the Present. The aims of this project are to map, as comprehensively as possible, the nature and extent of conflict between Aboriginal people and Europeans in South and Central Australia and to analyse the ways in which those events have survived in social memory. This is significant in light of recent contestations in Australian history about the degree and remembrance of conflict. No extensive regional study has been conducted for South and Central Australia. This project will contribute new research for academic and general social use.Read moreRead less
Judith Anderson 1897-1992: Voice and Emotion in the Making of an International Star. Australian-born Dame Judith Anderson was considered one of the greatest actors of the twentieth century. Renowned for her thrilling voice and portrayal of deep emotion and illicit sexuality and power, she influenced how women looked, spoke, and felt from the early 1920s through her roles on Broadway and in Hollywood films. This biography will preserve and make accessible a valuable part of our cultural heritage ....Judith Anderson 1897-1992: Voice and Emotion in the Making of an International Star. Australian-born Dame Judith Anderson was considered one of the greatest actors of the twentieth century. Renowned for her thrilling voice and portrayal of deep emotion and illicit sexuality and power, she influenced how women looked, spoke, and felt from the early 1920s through her roles on Broadway and in Hollywood films. This biography will preserve and make accessible a valuable part of our cultural heritage. It will give Australians and Americans a better understanding of the two-way cultural relationship between their two countries. It will help place Australian scholarship at the cutting edge of historical research on twentieth century auditory culture.Read moreRead less
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
Aboriginal Sandstone quarries, exchange and the history of seedgrinding in Australia. Exchange networks, developed from a complex series of interactions between Aboriginal groups, have permitted the movement of goods, ceremonies and stories across the Australian landscape. Examination of the evolution and development of exchange will be undertaken through the study of sandstone quarries and the grinding stones that were derived from these places. The interdisciplinary approach involves geologi ....Aboriginal Sandstone quarries, exchange and the history of seedgrinding in Australia. Exchange networks, developed from a complex series of interactions between Aboriginal groups, have permitted the movement of goods, ceremonies and stories across the Australian landscape. Examination of the evolution and development of exchange will be undertaken through the study of sandstone quarries and the grinding stones that were derived from these places. The interdisciplinary approach involves geological characterisation of the sandstones and the grinding stones coupled with an archaeological investigation of production and use. The results of this study will provide a picture of the antiquity of exchange networks in an economic and social context.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 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
Aboriginal Visual Histories: Photographing Indigenous Australians. This project will strengthen our understanding of Australia's place in the world and enhance our capacity to interpret ourselves by showing how we have been perceived internationally through visual imagery - and specifically what is unique about Australia and its indigenous people through international eyes. It will explore how we have represented ourselves and the place of Aboriginal people, both historically and in the present. ....Aboriginal Visual Histories: Photographing Indigenous Australians. This project will strengthen our understanding of Australia's place in the world and enhance our capacity to interpret ourselves by showing how we have been perceived internationally through visual imagery - and specifically what is unique about Australia and its indigenous people through international eyes. It will explore how we have represented ourselves and the place of Aboriginal people, both historically and in the present. It will help us to engage with our neighbours and the wider global community. Collaboration with Aboriginal descendant communities will address their current aspirations regarding this important aspect of their heritage. Read moreRead less
The Construction of Race and Racial Identity at the Antipodes of Empire, 1788-1840. The view that Australia was always a racially based society, pursuing racial policies to the detriment of indigenous Australians and our Asian neighbours, is subject to rancorous national debate. Polemical assertion by high profile journalists that race was never a driving force in Australian history is not conducive to understanding complex history, nor are derogatory attacks on historians helpful in explaining ....The Construction of Race and Racial Identity at the Antipodes of Empire, 1788-1840. The view that Australia was always a racially based society, pursuing racial policies to the detriment of indigenous Australians and our Asian neighbours, is subject to rancorous national debate. Polemical assertion by high profile journalists that race was never a driving force in Australian history is not conducive to understanding complex history, nor are derogatory attacks on historians helpful in explaining the past to our neighbours. Whether colonial Australia was a race-based society remains to be established. With indigenous uncertainty over the demise of ATSIC and rising antagonism among our Islamic neighbours, there is need, as never before, for dispassionate scholarship to provide a complex interpretation of Australia's past.Read moreRead less