Aboriginalia: Collecting Histories of Aboriginal Representation. Since Federation, non-Indigenous people have produced material objects for the home depicting Aboriginal bodies, artefacts and designs and marketing these as the truly Australian look. Since the 1960s, Aboriginal people started to collect these material objects, defined as 'Aboriginalia'. This interdisciplinary project aims to examine Aboriginal collectors' representations of 'Aboriginalia'. This is the first study to examine Abori ....Aboriginalia: Collecting Histories of Aboriginal Representation. Since Federation, non-Indigenous people have produced material objects for the home depicting Aboriginal bodies, artefacts and designs and marketing these as the truly Australian look. Since the 1960s, Aboriginal people started to collect these material objects, defined as 'Aboriginalia'. This interdisciplinary project aims to examine Aboriginal collectors' representations of 'Aboriginalia'. This is the first study to examine Aboriginal collectors' representations of non-Indigenous historical depictions of Aboriginality within Australian material culture. The research and associated publications will explore the Aboriginal social life of material objects in historical perspective.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE210101721
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$428,865.00
Summary
Skulls for the Tsar: Indigenous human remains in Russian collections. This project aims to produce the first detailed investigation of the acquisition of Indigenous human remains from Australia, New Zealand and the broader Pacific by the Russian Empire during the long 19th century. It expects to generate new knowledge about Imperial Russia's scientific networks, anthropological collections and underlying intellectual traditions. Expected outcomes include a better understanding of Russian percept ....Skulls for the Tsar: Indigenous human remains in Russian collections. This project aims to produce the first detailed investigation of the acquisition of Indigenous human remains from Australia, New Zealand and the broader Pacific by the Russian Empire during the long 19th century. It expects to generate new knowledge about Imperial Russia's scientific networks, anthropological collections and underlying intellectual traditions. Expected outcomes include a better understanding of Russian perceptions of Indigenous peoples and the development of a new way of writing histories about the collecting of Indigenous human remains. Working directly with affected communities, this project should provide significant benefits to Indigenous peoples seeking the return of their ancestors' remains from overseas institutions.Read moreRead less
How Meston's 'Wild Australia Show' shaped Australian Aboriginal history. How Meston's 'Wild Australia Show' shaped Australian Aboriginal history. This project aims to produce an authoritative and original interpretation of the Wild Australia Show (1892–93), staged by a diverse company of Aboriginal people for metropolitan audiences. The Show will be the focus of an interdisciplinary study of performance, photography, collections and race relations in colonial Australia, using archival and visual ....How Meston's 'Wild Australia Show' shaped Australian Aboriginal history. How Meston's 'Wild Australia Show' shaped Australian Aboriginal history. This project aims to produce an authoritative and original interpretation of the Wild Australia Show (1892–93), staged by a diverse company of Aboriginal people for metropolitan audiences. The Show will be the focus of an interdisciplinary study of performance, photography, collections and race relations in colonial Australia, using archival and visual records. The project will situate the Show in local, national and transnational narratives informed by contemporary Indigenous perspectives. This research should illuminate Aboriginal agency in the ensemble, reconnect Aboriginal kin to performers, and chart changing concepts of race at a critical juncture in Australian history.Read moreRead less
Quandamooka Aboriginal women on the colonial frontier in the nineteenth century. This project aims to produce new insights about gender and race on the colonial frontier in Australia through revealing Aboriginal women's agency beyond the usual themes of labour and sexual exploitation. The historical record has too often represented Aboriginal women as victims, which has affected self-esteem and caused poor health and social alienation. This project will research how Aboriginal women resisted and ....Quandamooka Aboriginal women on the colonial frontier in the nineteenth century. This project aims to produce new insights about gender and race on the colonial frontier in Australia through revealing Aboriginal women's agency beyond the usual themes of labour and sexual exploitation. The historical record has too often represented Aboriginal women as victims, which has affected self-esteem and caused poor health and social alienation. This project will research how Aboriginal women resisted and negotiated with colonisation by examining the everyday and public performances of Quandamooka women on their own lands, Moreton Bay, Queensland, in the nineteenth century. The project aims to benefit the health and well-being of Aboriginal women.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE180100559
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$410,022.00
Summary
Decolonising the archives of Aboriginal domestic history. This project aims to investigate an undocumented history of Aboriginal domestic service in South Australia. It will create new knowledge about historical assimilation-based policies, particularly those that targeted girls for removal from their families, and that enabled indentured domestic labour. This work will improve understandings of local, national and international colonial histories.
Special Research Initiatives - Grant ID: SR200200383
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$230,277.00
Summary
The cultural impacts of introduced animals in Australia. The presence of pastoral and feral animal populations has brought into sharp relief highly divergent views of settler and Indigenous Australians about the status of animals and their management. In response to recent calls for greater recognition of Indigenous ecological knowledge, this project will generate new knowledge about the cultural impacts of conflict over introduced animals. Three case studies will show how Indigenous and settle ....The cultural impacts of introduced animals in Australia. The presence of pastoral and feral animal populations has brought into sharp relief highly divergent views of settler and Indigenous Australians about the status of animals and their management. In response to recent calls for greater recognition of Indigenous ecological knowledge, this project will generate new knowledge about the cultural impacts of conflict over introduced animals. Three case studies will show how Indigenous and settler Australian thinking about animals emerged in the colonial period and continues to shape modern Australia. Significant benefits emerge from deepening our understanding of the cultural impacts of ecological harms, addressing conflicts as well as successful collaborations.
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From illustration to evidence in native title: The potential of photographs. This project aims to test the evidentiary value of large photographic collections of Aboriginal people in southeast Queensland and northern New South Wales. The project will seek to identify the photographed subjects and where and how they were photographed. Drawing on photographic theory, anthropology and Indigenous studies, the project should throw light on how photographs can reveal information about historical conti ....From illustration to evidence in native title: The potential of photographs. This project aims to test the evidentiary value of large photographic collections of Aboriginal people in southeast Queensland and northern New South Wales. The project will seek to identify the photographed subjects and where and how they were photographed. Drawing on photographic theory, anthropology and Indigenous studies, the project should throw light on how photographs can reveal information about historical continuities and changes, regional mobility patterns and connections to country over time. The expected benefit of the project is to assist in demonstrating Indigenous connections with land and place in native title claims.Read moreRead less
The Relational Museum and its Objects. This project, being conducted in collaboration with Indigenous communities and regional museums in Australia and the United Kingdom, aims to develop and to pilot approaches that facilitate Indigenous people’s access to and engagement with museum collections and objects. Reconnecting Indigenous Australian communities with ethnographic collections is central to contemporary museum practice. Yet, the historical dispersal of objects across museums, nationally a ....The Relational Museum and its Objects. This project, being conducted in collaboration with Indigenous communities and regional museums in Australia and the United Kingdom, aims to develop and to pilot approaches that facilitate Indigenous people’s access to and engagement with museum collections and objects. Reconnecting Indigenous Australian communities with ethnographic collections is central to contemporary museum practice. Yet, the historical dispersal of objects across museums, nationally and internationally, makes relationship and reconnection a challenge to communities and museums alike. The project seeks to address this and to contribute to new museum practice and museum development in Australia.Read moreRead less
Indigenous leaders: lawful relations from encounter to treaty. This project aims to draw together history, law and the creative arts to recover, make visible and make accessible the continuous traditions of Indigenous people’s leadership in conducting lawful relations in Victoria. The project aims to develop methods of translating these encounters and their insights. The intended outcomes should shape critical deliberations on the future of non-Indigenous Australia’s legal and social relationshi ....Indigenous leaders: lawful relations from encounter to treaty. This project aims to draw together history, law and the creative arts to recover, make visible and make accessible the continuous traditions of Indigenous people’s leadership in conducting lawful relations in Victoria. The project aims to develop methods of translating these encounters and their insights. The intended outcomes should shape critical deliberations on the future of non-Indigenous Australia’s legal and social relationships with its First Peoples, particularly regarding treaty-making.Read moreRead less
Reconciling with the Frontier: Accounting for Colonial Conflict. This project aims to widen public access to different kinds of historical knowledge about colonial frontier conflict, and thereby to contribute to contemporary processes of truth telling and reconciliation. It will use the innovative technology of Story Map digital software to open up new dialogue on how different communities interpret the past. In addition to scholarly publications, outcomes include an updatable story-map of front ....Reconciling with the Frontier: Accounting for Colonial Conflict. This project aims to widen public access to different kinds of historical knowledge about colonial frontier conflict, and thereby to contribute to contemporary processes of truth telling and reconciliation. It will use the innovative technology of Story Map digital software to open up new dialogue on how different communities interpret the past. In addition to scholarly publications, outcomes include an updatable story-map of frontier relations for use by the partner museums and history organisations. Other expected public outcomes include a touring exhibition, education packs on frontier history for classroom use, and ongoing community applications of the Story Map digital database for use in regional reconciliation projects.Read moreRead less