Museum, field, metropolis, colony: practices of social governance. This project studies early twentieth-century Australian museums comparatively by considering parallel developments in Europe, North America, and New Zealand. Examining the relations between anthropological collections and social governance in colonial and metropolitan settings, it highlights the roles of museums in culturally diverse societies.
Significances of 'childhood' in postcolonial Australia. This project aims to investigate the rhetorical and political use of the figure of the Aboriginal child as a site of mediation in efforts to reconcile cultural tensions in Australia, particularly between Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities. Utilising an interdisciplinary critical analysis of concepts of childhood, the expected outcomes of the project include enhanced understanding of the specific character of injury inflicted upon Abo ....Significances of 'childhood' in postcolonial Australia. This project aims to investigate the rhetorical and political use of the figure of the Aboriginal child as a site of mediation in efforts to reconcile cultural tensions in Australia, particularly between Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities. Utilising an interdisciplinary critical analysis of concepts of childhood, the expected outcomes of the project include enhanced understanding of the specific character of injury inflicted upon Aboriginal communities through interventions targeting their children, such as their removal into out of home care. This should provide significant benefits to the contemporary social project of reconciliation, through increasing critical attention to the part of cultural misunderstanding in perpetuating Aboriginal disadvantage.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE140100878
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$394,605.00
Summary
The Other War: An investigation via documentary film into images of race and otherness in WW1 and their implications for Indigenous communities today.
. In 1915, German scientists began an immense task of wartime science designed to categorise 'the peoples of the world'. This ideological experiment involved Indigenous Australian and Pacific prisoners of war, and paved the way to post-war Nazi racial ideology. The sound, image and other cultural records captured during this wartime experiment ....The Other War: An investigation via documentary film into images of race and otherness in WW1 and their implications for Indigenous communities today.
. In 1915, German scientists began an immense task of wartime science designed to categorise 'the peoples of the world'. This ideological experiment involved Indigenous Australian and Pacific prisoners of war, and paved the way to post-war Nazi racial ideology. The sound, image and other cultural records captured during this wartime experiment are now listed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation. This project will use documentary film and will apply innovative and socially inclusive 'reconciling' research methodologies to repatriate significant Australian cultural records from this World War I prisoners of war archive. It will document a post-colonial chapter in the aesthetics of 'otherness', and describe an important history of indigenous involvement in the foundational Australian narrative of World War I conflict.Read moreRead less
The Long-term Dynamics of Higher Order social Organisation in Aboriginal Australia. The two principal aims of the project are to show: that the Holocene prehistory of Australia was dynamic, involving significant expansion and migration of language groups; and, that in such expansion, migration, and resistance to them, higher-order social groupings were formed: the ‘nations’ reported by earlier anthropology and the ‘cultural blocs’ of recent anthropology. Evidence will come from comparative lingu ....The Long-term Dynamics of Higher Order social Organisation in Aboriginal Australia. The two principal aims of the project are to show: that the Holocene prehistory of Australia was dynamic, involving significant expansion and migration of language groups; and, that in such expansion, migration, and resistance to them, higher-order social groupings were formed: the ‘nations’ reported by earlier anthropology and the ‘cultural blocs’ of recent anthropology. Evidence will come from comparative linguistics, anthropology, and the role of geography in the distribution of social groupings, principally in subtropical Eastern Australia but also in the Victoria River district and Tanami Desert, Northern Territory. This project challenges the dominant view of static Indigenous Australia pre-colonially, and will benefit Native Title anthropology.Read moreRead less
Remaking the Australian environment through documentary film and television. This project aims to investigate how documentary film, television and online media have transformed our sense of the Australian environment since the 1950s. The project will produce a historicised account of how media has fashioned contemporary environmental consciousness. Expected outcomes include environmental knowledge and social action, collaborations between media producers, scientists and educators, and attention ....Remaking the Australian environment through documentary film and television. This project aims to investigate how documentary film, television and online media have transformed our sense of the Australian environment since the 1950s. The project will produce a historicised account of how media has fashioned contemporary environmental consciousness. Expected outcomes include environmental knowledge and social action, collaborations between media producers, scientists and educators, and attention to the role of Indigenous knowledge practices in relation to the environment. The project will enhance understanding of the significance of environmental documentaries in shaping practical and imaginative responses to a world undergoing transformation.Read moreRead less
The legacy of 50 years of collecting at Milingimbi Mission. This project will bring life to Aboriginal material collections made at Milingimbi, in Arnhem Land, Northern Territory. A model for museums and Aboriginal people will be made that will give more Aboriginal authority over collections and benefits the museum's knowledge base.
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE220100795
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$412,606.00
Summary
Message sticks: Long-distance communication in Indigenous Australia. Message sticks are marked wooden objects that were once used throughout Indigenous Australia to convey important information between communities. The intended outcome of this project is to answer a central question: What role did message sticks play in Indigenous long-distance communication? Drawing on archival evidence and original fieldwork in the Top End, the project aims to be the first empirically grounded study of message ....Message sticks: Long-distance communication in Indigenous Australia. Message sticks are marked wooden objects that were once used throughout Indigenous Australia to convey important information between communities. The intended outcome of this project is to answer a central question: What role did message sticks play in Indigenous long-distance communication? Drawing on archival evidence and original fieldwork in the Top End, the project aims to be the first empirically grounded study of message sticks as a practice. The project expects to define message sticks as a class of material culture, explain their communicative dynamics, generate new cross-cultural insights, and strengthen collaborations between research institutions, museums and Indigenous cultural organisations. Read moreRead less
Graphic Encounters: Colonial Prints and the Inscription of Aboriginality. This project plans to collate the archive of prints depicting Indigenous Australians, from national and international collections, to ask how people's place in this newly encroached territory was inscribed by colonial prints. Before the 1890s, prints (engravings, etchings and lithographs) were the principal means of reproducing images. Prints disseminated imagery of Indigenous people and determined how they were 'put in th ....Graphic Encounters: Colonial Prints and the Inscription of Aboriginality. This project plans to collate the archive of prints depicting Indigenous Australians, from national and international collections, to ask how people's place in this newly encroached territory was inscribed by colonial prints. Before the 1890s, prints (engravings, etchings and lithographs) were the principal means of reproducing images. Prints disseminated imagery of Indigenous people and determined how they were 'put in the picture' of settlement. Our colonial-era cultural heritage includes many prints (engravings, etchings, lithographs, etcetera) of Aborigines, yet they have been overlooked and the story of their production, dissemination and consumption is untold. This project aims to collate and trace this visual archive of Indigenous Australians and present its imagery to all Australians, including descendants, in an exhibition and conference, catalogue, monograph and online database.Read moreRead less
Cultural Conversations: A History of ABC Radio National. From old media to the digital, this project offers a detailed study and critical assessment of the national ideas network, Radio National. This ensemble of practices, identified within traditions of 'cultural radio', constitutes one of the most significant yet still underestimated platforms of public media internationally, and remains a singular cultural and media institution in Australia. The project will map practices and programs to und ....Cultural Conversations: A History of ABC Radio National. From old media to the digital, this project offers a detailed study and critical assessment of the national ideas network, Radio National. This ensemble of practices, identified within traditions of 'cultural radio', constitutes one of the most significant yet still underestimated platforms of public media internationally, and remains a singular cultural and media institution in Australia. The project will map practices and programs to understand their changing contribution to Australian public life, media and culture, whether through fostering the arts or contributing to the national conversation around science, politics, art or religion.Read moreRead less
Creative Micro-computing in Australia, 1976-1992. 1980s micro-computers introduced many to the digital age. Despite the importance of early micro-computing to the digital present, this early period is yet to be scrutinised by digital media scholars. This project recovers the local history of this most important media technology in the period 1976-1992, across the spectrum of practices in digital arts and culture. Delving deeply into the history of creative software and hardware practices, seekin ....Creative Micro-computing in Australia, 1976-1992. 1980s micro-computers introduced many to the digital age. Despite the importance of early micro-computing to the digital present, this early period is yet to be scrutinised by digital media scholars. This project recovers the local history of this most important media technology in the period 1976-1992, across the spectrum of practices in digital arts and culture. Delving deeply into the history of creative software and hardware practices, seeking to understand early users and their encounters with computers, and collating metadata on the products of their practice, this project builds the foundation for securing and remembering Australian digital cultural heritage.Read moreRead less