Excavating MacGregor: re-connecting a colonial museum collection. Sensing the impacts of colonisation, the first Administrator of British New Guinea William MacGregor made a significant collection of objects specifically for its future citizens. This comprehensive legacy of 13 000 objects did not remain in the country but was dispersed to three Australian and six overseas museums. Our aim is to re-assemble and re-connect this material by 'excavating' its private and official components. This res ....Excavating MacGregor: re-connecting a colonial museum collection. Sensing the impacts of colonisation, the first Administrator of British New Guinea William MacGregor made a significant collection of objects specifically for its future citizens. This comprehensive legacy of 13 000 objects did not remain in the country but was dispersed to three Australian and six overseas museums. Our aim is to re-assemble and re-connect this material by 'excavating' its private and official components. This research aims to focus on the makers and traders to disentangle the social relationships embedded in the objects. Using material-centred, assemblage-based archaeological approaches, we aim to investigate how indigenous groups used objects to negotiate with the new colonial government.Read moreRead less
Reconstructing museum specimen data through the pathways of global commerce. This project aims to reconnect zoological specimens with vital collection data. From 1758-1900 millions of specimens were commercially traded to and between museums and collectors, frequently without retaining the data associated with the specimen. This project pioneers spectroscopic techniques to reconstruct data and enhance material conservation practice. The impact of the project will provide new pathways for recove ....Reconstructing museum specimen data through the pathways of global commerce. This project aims to reconnect zoological specimens with vital collection data. From 1758-1900 millions of specimens were commercially traded to and between museums and collectors, frequently without retaining the data associated with the specimen. This project pioneers spectroscopic techniques to reconstruct data and enhance material conservation practice. The impact of the project will provide new pathways for recovering lost ecological data, creating a resource to improve future biodiversity research.Read moreRead less
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
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE170100017
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$1,231,000.00
Summary
Networked knowledge for repatriation communities. This project aims to build a digital facility that supports the repatriation of Indigenous human remains. Repatriation contributes to reconciliation and Indigenous healing and wellbeing, and has been the most important agent of change in the relationship between Indigenous peoples, museums and the academy over the past 40 years. Successful repatriation requires and produces research materials diverse in type, geography and accessibility. Within a ....Networked knowledge for repatriation communities. This project aims to build a digital facility that supports the repatriation of Indigenous human remains. Repatriation contributes to reconciliation and Indigenous healing and wellbeing, and has been the most important agent of change in the relationship between Indigenous peoples, museums and the academy over the past 40 years. Successful repatriation requires and produces research materials diverse in type, geography and accessibility. Within an Indigenous data-governance framework, this project will gather, preserve and make accessible a critical and extensive record of repatriation information worldwide. The project is expected to support repatriation practice and scholarship and improve the opportunities of repatriation for social good.Read moreRead less
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
Life After Digitisation: Future-Proofing WA's Vulnerable Cultural Heritage. This project aims to do the following: 1. digitise significant cultural collections held across Western Australia, including Aboriginal languages, the WA performing arts collection, and selected objects of significance from across the State. 2. develop world-leading post-digitisation socialisation processes for the storage, management and dissemination of these collections. The project's significance lies in the preserva ....Life After Digitisation: Future-Proofing WA's Vulnerable Cultural Heritage. This project aims to do the following: 1. digitise significant cultural collections held across Western Australia, including Aboriginal languages, the WA performing arts collection, and selected objects of significance from across the State. 2. develop world-leading post-digitisation socialisation processes for the storage, management and dissemination of these collections. The project's significance lies in the preservation of the collections and the development of sustainable access protocols for the collection owners. Expected outcomes include digital preservation of the collections, plus new protocols and procedures for their digitisation and dissemination. Benefits include preservation of, and systems for access to, these collections.
Read moreRead less
Mobilising Dutch East India Company collections for new global stories . Australia has a rich legacy of archives, art and artefacts, including 4 shipwrecks in WA, from its history of encounters with the Dutch East India Company (VOC). Through comparative research in Australian and overseas museums and archives we aim to situate Australian collections in a global context, creating new stories about Australia as part of the VOC global network. An interdisciplinary team will train 3 ECRs and 7 HDRs ....Mobilising Dutch East India Company collections for new global stories . Australia has a rich legacy of archives, art and artefacts, including 4 shipwrecks in WA, from its history of encounters with the Dutch East India Company (VOC). Through comparative research in Australian and overseas museums and archives we aim to situate Australian collections in a global context, creating new stories about Australia as part of the VOC global network. An interdisciplinary team will train 3 ECRs and 7 HDRs and forge partnerships with the Netherlands, Britain, Denmark, Germany, Sweden, Indonesia, Malaysia, and South Africa, strengthening national capacity. Our analysis will enrich the value of collections, provide narratives for museums and sites, and revitalise content for international and domestic tourism markets.Read moreRead less
Western Australia from its collections. Western Australia from its collections. This project aims to understand how collecting and display practices created knowledge about Western Australia that shaped its social relations, mediated its relationship to the environment and produced its identity in Australia and overseas from pre-colonial times to the present. This research will contribute to the largest museum development in the country. This research is expected to lead to collecting and displa ....Western Australia from its collections. Western Australia from its collections. This project aims to understand how collecting and display practices created knowledge about Western Australia that shaped its social relations, mediated its relationship to the environment and produced its identity in Australia and overseas from pre-colonial times to the present. This research will contribute to the largest museum development in the country. This research is expected to lead to collecting and display practices that enable a new vision of Western Australia's place in the world to emerge, one better suited to the demands of the future.Read moreRead less
Mobilising Aboriginal objects: Indigenous history in international museums . The project aims to build knowledge about exceptional, but poorly-documented, Aboriginal objects from Sydney and NSW coast (c. 1770-1920s) in British and European museums. These objects have not been accessible to Aboriginal communities and other researchers. This project proposes a major innovation: to bring objects to Sydney for community-led and interdisciplinary interpretation. Outcomes will include strong relations ....Mobilising Aboriginal objects: Indigenous history in international museums . The project aims to build knowledge about exceptional, but poorly-documented, Aboriginal objects from Sydney and NSW coast (c. 1770-1920s) in British and European museums. These objects have not been accessible to Aboriginal communities and other researchers. This project proposes a major innovation: to bring objects to Sydney for community-led and interdisciplinary interpretation. Outcomes will include strong relations between Aboriginal communities and overseas museums; a model for collaborative research about historic objects; and a material history of Aboriginal/colonial relations. It benefits communities, governments and museums by laying robust foundations for future projects seeking the return of Indigenous cultural heritage.
Read moreRead less
The Collaborative Museum: Embedding Cultural Infrastructure in the City. In partnership with the Museum of Arts and Applied Sciences, this project analyses the developing, complex processes of collaboration needed to embed the new Powerhouse Museum within the key Western Sydney city of Parramatta. The project’s significance lies in exploring the concept of the ‘collaborative museum’ as a synergising agent, proposing an invaluable, ground-breaking framework for establishing community-embedded cul ....The Collaborative Museum: Embedding Cultural Infrastructure in the City. In partnership with the Museum of Arts and Applied Sciences, this project analyses the developing, complex processes of collaboration needed to embed the new Powerhouse Museum within the key Western Sydney city of Parramatta. The project’s significance lies in exploring the concept of the ‘collaborative museum’ as a synergising agent, proposing an invaluable, ground-breaking framework for establishing community-embedded cultural infrastructure. Its outcomes will be beneficial across the entire cultural sector in shaping dynamic programs and encounters that resonate both locally and globally in underpinning an exciting model for conducting innovative, engaged research in large, diverse and culturally under-resourced metropolitan regions. Read moreRead less