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Northland Secondary College: Koori kids' education. This project aims to chart the extraordinary history of the closure and eventual re-opening of Northland Secondary College (1992-1995). This is an episode known to Melbourne Aboriginal communities but despite its historical, political, legal and sociological significance, is largely overlooked in scholarly accounts. The project will deliver scholarly research resources and analysis, publicly accessible outputs and will provide culturally approp ....Northland Secondary College: Koori kids' education. This project aims to chart the extraordinary history of the closure and eventual re-opening of Northland Secondary College (1992-1995). This is an episode known to Melbourne Aboriginal communities but despite its historical, political, legal and sociological significance, is largely overlooked in scholarly accounts. The project will deliver scholarly research resources and analysis, publicly accessible outputs and will provide culturally appropriate accounts of this history.Read moreRead less
Land and life: Aborigines, convicts and immigrants in Victoria, 1835-1985: an interdisciplinary history. This project is an interdisciplinary investigation of dispossession and colonization of southeast Australia. It uses longitudinal cohort studies to produce new findings on the impact of stress, dislocation and economic change on individuals and families across five generations.
Serving our country: a history of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the defence of Australia. This project researches the history of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the defence of Australia. The project will provide authoritative accounts of their contributions to nation.
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
The NSW Aborigines Protection/Welfare Board 1883-1969: A History. Between 1883 and 1967 the lives of Aboriginal people in New South Wales (NSW) were in the hands of the NSW Aborigines Protection/Welfare Board. The impact of the Board's systematic control over Aboriginal communities through policies of segregation, assimilation, child removal and wage withholding would endure for decades, and the negative results of those government directives are still being seen today. To date, however, no subs ....The NSW Aborigines Protection/Welfare Board 1883-1969: A History. Between 1883 and 1967 the lives of Aboriginal people in New South Wales (NSW) were in the hands of the NSW Aborigines Protection/Welfare Board. The impact of the Board's systematic control over Aboriginal communities through policies of segregation, assimilation, child removal and wage withholding would endure for decades, and the negative results of those government directives are still being seen today. To date, however, no substantive history of the NSW Aborigines Protection/Welfare Board exists. This project aims to provide such a history, based on extensive archival and oral history research. Holding critical importance to NSW Aboriginal communities, the project expects to encourage the development of Indigenous historians in the process.Read moreRead less
Aboriginal Communities as Sites of Experiment: Making Research Subjects. How did Aboriginal Australians come to be treated as research subjects in the twentieth century? This project aims to examine six exemplary cases where Aboriginal communities became sites of medical investigation and scientific experiment. It is designed to explore different patterns of sympathy and exploitation, intimacy and objectivity, in the interactions of scientists and Aboriginal people. The sites range from Brewarri ....Aboriginal Communities as Sites of Experiment: Making Research Subjects. How did Aboriginal Australians come to be treated as research subjects in the twentieth century? This project aims to examine six exemplary cases where Aboriginal communities became sites of medical investigation and scientific experiment. It is designed to explore different patterns of sympathy and exploitation, intimacy and objectivity, in the interactions of scientists and Aboriginal people. The sites range from Brewarrina to Hermannsburg, Palm Island and Groote Eylandt; the time period is from the 1910s through the 1990s. The research will endeavour to translate the history of Australian science into a series of Indigenous local histories. Such an approach is unprecedented and is expected to serve as a model for the study of the entanglements between science and Indigenous peoples.Read moreRead less
The David Unaipon Award: Shaping the literary and cultural history of Aboriginal writing in Australia. The David Unaipon Award has fostered a rich lode of Aboriginal writing and is a vital site for the study of Aboriginal literature in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. This project uses the Award to critically analyse Aboriginal writing and cultural expression in the historical and political context of post-bicentenary Australia. In 2014 the award reaches its 25th year. Now is the time t ....The David Unaipon Award: Shaping the literary and cultural history of Aboriginal writing in Australia. The David Unaipon Award has fostered a rich lode of Aboriginal writing and is a vital site for the study of Aboriginal literature in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. This project uses the Award to critically analyse Aboriginal writing and cultural expression in the historical and political context of post-bicentenary Australia. In 2014 the award reaches its 25th year. Now is the time to review and explore the established canon of Aboriginal literature. The book produced from this project will model an historically broader, more nuanced and culturally sensitive paradigm for reading, reviewing, engaging with and teaching Aboriginal literature in the twenty-first century.Read moreRead less
Remembering dispossession: interpreting Aboriginal historical narratives. Since the arrival of the British, Aboriginal people have sought to make sense of their experiences of colonisation through telling powerful and memorable stories. This study not only reveals the richness of Aboriginal historical stories, but also models ways of using them in the telling of new Australian histories.
Recognising Aborigines: from objects of science to First Australians. Photographs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have played a powerful but unexamined role in shaping global views of race and identity. Reversing the flow of this significant heritage resource from European collections to descendants will enhance international research collaborations and our understanding of current Indigenous issues.
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.