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
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
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.
Defending Australia, defending Indigenous rights: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander military service and Australian identity, 1946-2003. This project will examine the experiences of Australian Indigenous service personnel between 1946 and 2003, both during their times of service and in civilian life. The project will analyse the links between military service, the advancement of Indigenous rights, Australian identity, and the development of contemporary Indigenous communities.
Financial dispossession: a history of Indigenous peoples and stolen wages in Victoria. This project will investigate the history and impact of past Victorian government policies on stolen wages on Victorian Indigenous communities. The project will further the understanding of these stolen wages policies and assist in the campaigns for justice for those Indigenous people affected by these policies.
Collaborating for Indigenous Rights: a fifty year retrospective exploring the history of black and white Australian activism, 1957-1972. The year 1957 marks the beginning of a fifteen year period in which black and white Australians collaborated for Indigenous rights. Although this work began with a concentration on civil rights, by the end of the period a new set of rights was being sought based on the unique circumstances of Indigenous Australians. This project will explore the struggle for ci ....Collaborating for Indigenous Rights: a fifty year retrospective exploring the history of black and white Australian activism, 1957-1972. The year 1957 marks the beginning of a fifteen year period in which black and white Australians collaborated for Indigenous rights. Although this work began with a concentration on civil rights, by the end of the period a new set of rights was being sought based on the unique circumstances of Indigenous Australians. This project will explore the struggle for civil rights and the more radical proposition that other rights flowed to Indigenous Australians due to their original occupancy and dispossession.The proposed end products are a fully developed exhibition brief and catalogue essay, an on-line exhibition with supporting educational resource material and scholarly articles.Read moreRead less
The Burden of Freedom? Aboriginal Exemption Policies in Australia. This project aims to be the first major study of the clauses in Aboriginal Protection Acts that allowed Aborigines to be released from control by the government; these are also known as exemption policies. By examining rich and underutilised government archives, it aims to provide a nuanced account of how Aboriginal people negotiated the pressures and possibilities of assimilation from 1897 to 1967. At the same time, it aims to r ....The Burden of Freedom? Aboriginal Exemption Policies in Australia. This project aims to be the first major study of the clauses in Aboriginal Protection Acts that allowed Aborigines to be released from control by the government; these are also known as exemption policies. By examining rich and underutilised government archives, it aims to provide a nuanced account of how Aboriginal people negotiated the pressures and possibilities of assimilation from 1897 to 1967. At the same time, it aims to reveal how non-Aboriginal Australians imagined Aborigines becoming equal citizens. More generally, this study is expected to advance scholarly knowledge of the intricate workings and development of assimilation policy and enable a new reckoning of the legacy and practice of assimilation.Read moreRead less
Changing landscapes, changing people: Australia's southern mallee lands, 1830-2012. This project reveals how Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, from the 1830s to the present, have created and responded to changes in nature in the mallee regions of southern Australia. Findings will provide knowledge for both rural Australia and policy makers to understand and respond to environmental change.
Rediscovering religious diversity 1852 – today. Rediscovering religious diversity 1852 – today. This project aims to re-discover, interpret and share knowledge about the role and value of faith during the gold rush, and on the goldfields until today. Encouraging Australians to respect faith adherence has never been more urgent, and recent events in Bendigo illustrate the social cost of religious intolerance. Researching Bendigo’s faith history, part of gold-mining’s cultural ‘melting pot’ experi ....Rediscovering religious diversity 1852 – today. Rediscovering religious diversity 1852 – today. This project aims to re-discover, interpret and share knowledge about the role and value of faith during the gold rush, and on the goldfields until today. Encouraging Australians to respect faith adherence has never been more urgent, and recent events in Bendigo illustrate the social cost of religious intolerance. Researching Bendigo’s faith history, part of gold-mining’s cultural ‘melting pot’ experience, could help communities to understand diversity and difference. A new multi-faith interpretive centre will communicate results to contemporary audiences in relevant ways. Connecting people to their own history is expected to optimise Bendigo’s heritage assets, benefit tourism and promote cohesion in Australia’s increasingly diverse communities.Read moreRead less