When Professor Ann McGrath launched the Research Centre for Deep History in 2019, she spoke of her frustration that historians generally use European discovery narratives to mark the beginning of Australian history. Europeans could not logically ‘discover’ Australia when sovereign people were already living in it. Nor could today’s researchers ‘discover’ deep Indigenous pasts, for it will always be a rediscovery of a lived and ongoing experience.
Since its inception, the Research Centre has expanded the practice of history into deep history. By attending to the specificities of Indigenous knowledges, as well as to the knowledge produced by historians, archaeologists, and anthropologists, the Centre has demonstrated the importance of deep history while also considering its methodological challenges.
Join us as we reflect upon the outcomes of Professor McGrath’s ARC Laureate program Rediscovering the Deep Human Past: Global Networks, Future Opportunities, and the innovative histories it created in partnership with Indigenous communities across Australia and collaborating scholars across the globe.
The Centre is hosting two events to celebrate this outcome and to bring together those who have worked on the project with those interested in and supportive of it.
Launch of Marking Country: A Deep History Digital Mapping Project
5pm – 7pm, Tuesday 22 November AEDT.
In person and online attendance.
Marking Country is a digital mapping project that represents Indigenous deep histories from a number of Countries across Australia. We are thrilled to have ANU Vice-Chancellor Professor Brian P. Schmidt with us to launch Marking Country.
Deep Histories: Reconfiguring Space and Time Symposium
9am – 5pm, Wednesday 23 November AEDT.
In person and online attendance.
This symposium accompanies the launch of the Centre’s collaborative deep history mapping project Marking Country and across four sessions will explore the following:
What useful purpose can deep history play in truth telling? How might Indigenous perspectives shed light on the chronology and temporality of history? And what aspects of the deep history approach might productively expand the history discipline in general?
Panelists include: Professor Ann McGrath, Professor Lynette Russell, Professor Jackie Huggins, Professor Alison Bashford, Professor Daniel Lord Smail, Dr Mike Jones, Dr Laura Rademaker, Dr Ben Silverstein, Dr Amy Way, Neil Brougham and Tabassum Fakier.
Download the full program here.
Both the launch event and symposium will be fully catered.
Register to attend either in person or online here: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/marking-country-project-launch-and-symposium-registration-432188797327