The two lakes project: a research history of Lakes Mungo and Gregory. This project investigates the history of research relations between scientists and Traditional Owners at Lakes Mungo and Gregory. Connecting recent histories of agency and reconciliation with deep time, it will produce a publicly accessible narrative that increases national understanding of significant stories in the peopling of our continent.
Torres Strait Islander History: Sport, Culture and Identity. This project aims to investigate sport as a means of understanding the cultures, identities and history of Torres Strait Islanders. Through a community-centred approach, and a project team including Torres Strait Islanders, the project challenges versions of Australian history that marginalise the Strait or conflate Islanders with Aboriginal people. Expected outcomes of this project include a more nuanced history of Indigenous Australi ....Torres Strait Islander History: Sport, Culture and Identity. This project aims to investigate sport as a means of understanding the cultures, identities and history of Torres Strait Islanders. Through a community-centred approach, and a project team including Torres Strait Islanders, the project challenges versions of Australian history that marginalise the Strait or conflate Islanders with Aboriginal people. Expected outcomes of this project include a more nuanced history of Indigenous Australia, a significant body of repatriated resources on Islander sport and increased involvement of Islander communities in the history-making process. Anticipated benefits include a multifaceted contribution to reconciliation and better understanding of our unique and complex national identity.Read moreRead less
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.
Pride, resilience and identity: reimagining Aboriginal sport history. This project aims to investigate the largely invisible history of sport for Aboriginal people who were institutionalised during the 19th and 20th centuries. Sport is central to Indigenous communities, identities and cultures. This project aims to engage Australian Aboriginal communities in the history-making process by combining the passion for sport with culturally appropriate digital technologies. The project will expand our ....Pride, resilience and identity: reimagining Aboriginal sport history. This project aims to investigate the largely invisible history of sport for Aboriginal people who were institutionalised during the 19th and 20th centuries. Sport is central to Indigenous communities, identities and cultures. This project aims to engage Australian Aboriginal communities in the history-making process by combining the passion for sport with culturally appropriate digital technologies. The project will expand our understanding of the complexity of Aboriginal existence during their institutionalisation under the State Protection Acts. Using innovative digital technologies, this project will generate a comprehensive body of scholarship and an archive of artefacts about Aboriginal sport, developing capacities in Aboriginal communities to reclaim their history and enhance their cultural identities through digital storytelling.Read moreRead less
Protection & Punishment: colonial networks & the legal reform of indigenous people, Australia 1837-1911. This project will analyse how objectives to protect Indigenous people under the law after the 1830s became entwined in Australian colonial governance with objectives to transform them into legal subjects through policing and punishment. It will do so by examining the everyday work of Protectors of Aborigines, magistrates and mounted police as a network of colonial officials whose roles tested ....Protection & Punishment: colonial networks & the legal reform of indigenous people, Australia 1837-1911. This project will analyse how objectives to protect Indigenous people under the law after the 1830s became entwined in Australian colonial governance with objectives to transform them into legal subjects through policing and punishment. It will do so by examining the everyday work of Protectors of Aborigines, magistrates and mounted police as a network of colonial officials whose roles tested the boundaries of law in frontier settings where colonial relationships were still in the making. In exploring tensions between goals of humanitarian reform and demands of colonial development, it generates new insight into the intents and disputes that marked the practical pursuit of jurisdiction over Indigenous people.Read moreRead less
Aboriginal Exemption: Truth-telling, History, and Healing. This project aims to develop accessible, Indigenous-led knowledge about little known twentieth-century Australian policies that caused pain and dislocation in Indigenous communities. Expected outcomes will include an anthology of family stories, school curriculum materials, symposia, and methodological articles. Benefits include empowering descendants to access archival information about exemption in culturally safe ways, disseminating ....Aboriginal Exemption: Truth-telling, History, and Healing. This project aims to develop accessible, Indigenous-led knowledge about little known twentieth-century Australian policies that caused pain and dislocation in Indigenous communities. Expected outcomes will include an anthology of family stories, school curriculum materials, symposia, and methodological articles. Benefits include empowering descendants to access archival information about exemption in culturally safe ways, disseminating culturally appropriate histories, financial support for Elders acknowledging their time and expertise, and a model of collaboration in which Elders lead Indigenous and non-Indigenous historians to undertake urgent history-making.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
Indigenous mobilities to and through Australia: agency and sovereignties. Indigenous peoples have always undertaken extensive travel and movement, but colonisation brought new reasons for travel and new Indigenous peoples from New Zealand and the Pacific to Australia. Historians have not yet fully grappled with these histories. These migrations and journeys always traversed Indigenous geographies. Bringing Indigenous perspectives and ethical methodologies to an analysis of mobilities, we aim to ....Indigenous mobilities to and through Australia: agency and sovereignties. Indigenous peoples have always undertaken extensive travel and movement, but colonisation brought new reasons for travel and new Indigenous peoples from New Zealand and the Pacific to Australia. Historians have not yet fully grappled with these histories. These migrations and journeys always traversed Indigenous geographies. Bringing Indigenous perspectives and ethical methodologies to an analysis of mobilities, we aim to explore hidden histories of Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander, Maori and Pacific Islander travel to and across Australia, and engage with Indigenous communities to understand meanings associated with travel and current implications for sovereignties and identities. 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.
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