J.G. Crawford: Shaping Australia's Place in the World. Through a study of Sir John Grenfell (J.G.) Crawford, this project will examine transformations in Australian policy during the middle decades of the twentieth century. Crawford was a leading member of a generation of public servants who recast the practices of government, in this case through a particular focus on Australia's role in our region and among developing countries.
Tibet's rivers in the Anthropocene: history and present trajectories. This project aims to produce a multifaceted history of the eastern Tibetan Plateau's rivers, focusing on the increasing human impacts during the Anthropocene. It will combine data from archival, cultural and oral sources in multiple languages with the results of scientific studies of river flow, water quality, and sediment, ice, and tree-rings analysis. The project will produce both historical narratives and graphic representa ....Tibet's rivers in the Anthropocene: history and present trajectories. This project aims to produce a multifaceted history of the eastern Tibetan Plateau's rivers, focusing on the increasing human impacts during the Anthropocene. It will combine data from archival, cultural and oral sources in multiple languages with the results of scientific studies of river flow, water quality, and sediment, ice, and tree-rings analysis. The project will produce both historical narratives and graphic representations that model past land and water usage. The results of the project will underpin environmental policy for this hydrologically and ecologically crucial region, including the development of a paradigm of care based on the region's indigenous cultural resources.Read moreRead less
The Last Soviet Famine, 1946/47: Drought and food crises in war's aftermath. This project aims to increase our understanding of the relationship between drought and famine by analysing the most recent, though least understood famine in Soviet and Modern European History. This famine followed a massive drought in the summer of 1946 across the western Soviet Union and led to the deaths of at least one million people. This research is timely given the growing threats to food security, markets and t ....The Last Soviet Famine, 1946/47: Drought and food crises in war's aftermath. This project aims to increase our understanding of the relationship between drought and famine by analysing the most recent, though least understood famine in Soviet and Modern European History. This famine followed a massive drought in the summer of 1946 across the western Soviet Union and led to the deaths of at least one million people. This research is timely given the growing threats to food security, markets and trade posed by the increasing incidence of severe and enduring drought in Australia and globally. The expected outcome of this research is to produce new historical knowledge with contemporary application to better inform policy approaches with the expected benefit of reducing the threat of food crises emerging from drought.Read moreRead less
A history of press photography in Australia. Press photography has long influenced how Australians have understood themselves and their world. In collaboration with the National Library of Australia and the Walkley Foundation, the project explores the evolving role of photographs in breaking news, and historical shifts in photographic technologies, media practices and ethics.
Entangled Knowledges in the Robert Neill Collection. This project aims to reverse the trajectories of Menang Nyungar knowledge imbedded in a historical fish collection, returning language, stories, and fishing practices to the Menang community. By working in a cross-sector, collaborative and Indigenous-governed team our research will enrich and re-frame the understanding of this collection in the Museum, unearth Indigenous taxonomic practices, produce new histories of biocultural collections, an ....Entangled Knowledges in the Robert Neill Collection. This project aims to reverse the trajectories of Menang Nyungar knowledge imbedded in a historical fish collection, returning language, stories, and fishing practices to the Menang community. By working in a cross-sector, collaborative and Indigenous-governed team our research will enrich and re-frame the understanding of this collection in the Museum, unearth Indigenous taxonomic practices, produce new histories of biocultural collections, and develop the 'kaardtijin model' for participatory cross-cultural and cross-sector collaborations. Workshops on country will produce content for a digital reassembling of the collection to be used by museum partners, ensuring wide cross-sector and community engagement with project outcomes.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
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
Women and leadership in a century of Australian democracy. This examination of Australian women leaders addresses the National Research Priority area, frontier technologies. Six Partner Organisations benefit through the use of new technologies that enrich their resources and disseminate new knowledge through websites, exhibitions and conferences. The returns to the broader Australian community include increased awareness of women's record of active organisational contribution including leadershi ....Women and leadership in a century of Australian democracy. This examination of Australian women leaders addresses the National Research Priority area, frontier technologies. Six Partner Organisations benefit through the use of new technologies that enrich their resources and disseminate new knowledge through websites, exhibitions and conferences. The returns to the broader Australian community include increased awareness of women's record of active organisational contribution including leadership in Indigenous, rural and migrant community organisations, in NGOs, social movements and unions. By identifying the contribution of women's leadership, nationally and internationally, the project offers Australian girls and women of diverse backgrounds encouragement to exercise their own capacities for agency and change.Read moreRead less
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.
Profit and Loss: The commercial trade in Indigenous human remains. This project will be the first to investigate the global commercial trade in Indigenous human remains. It will employ a multi-disciplinary approach involving history, economic anthropology, economic history, and data science. The project will generate new knowledge about the 19th century global marketplace in Australian Indigenous human remains, and will reveal whether and how these are involved in the trade’s modern manifestati ....Profit and Loss: The commercial trade in Indigenous human remains. This project will be the first to investigate the global commercial trade in Indigenous human remains. It will employ a multi-disciplinary approach involving history, economic anthropology, economic history, and data science. The project will generate new knowledge about the 19th century global marketplace in Australian Indigenous human remains, and will reveal whether and how these are involved in the trade’s modern manifestations from 1950 to the present. The project will uncover an unknown history, assist repatriation practice, provide information to help reduce the modern trade, and contribute to truth-telling as a precondition of healing and reconciliation.Read moreRead less