Publications

On Wednesday, 7 August, many gathered at the Northern Territory Library to acknowledge and celebrate the accomplished historian, Mickey Dewar through the publication of RDHP’s Ann McGrath edited collection In Search of the Never Never: Mickey Dewar: Champion of History Across Many Genres. The well attended event included several of Mickey Dewar’s family members.

Joining Ann at the gathering were RDHP Advisory Committee Deputy Chair, Professor Lynette Russell, and Emeritus Professor David Carment who crafted very fitting speeches in honour of Mickey’s work and the publication. Lynette Russell, who officially launched the book, noted the excellence of Mickey Dewar’s book on Northern Territory literature, predicting that in its republished Ebook form, it would be widely read by numerous interested students, scholars and members of the public around the world and have the impact that it deserved.

As described in the publication, Mickey Dewar made a profound contribution to the history of the Northern Territory, which she performed across many genres. She produced high-quality, memorable and multi-sensory histories, including the Cyclone Tracy exhibition at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, and the reinterpretation of Fannie Bay Gaol. Informed by a great love of books, her passion for history was infectious

Sarah Yu, Special Projects Officer with Nyamba Buru Yawuru Ltd and one of RDHP’s Collaborating Scholars, visited during late July.

As an anthropologist, Sarah has worked on several native title claims and produced several Indigenous Protected Areas plans, including the award-winning Yawuru Cultural Management Plan. Sarah has also curated a number of exhibitions, including the award-winning Lustre: Pearling & Australia.

Sarah spent time during her visit consulting with RDHP team members and staff in the School of History, and working on her doctoral project on pearling heritage in the Kimberley. The team enjoyed a presentation from Sarah on her engaging thesis, Window to the Soul: pearlshell, pearling and saltwater country. Transcultural perspectives of pearling and its heritage in the Dampierland region, north-western Australia.

RDHP look forward to her returning visit later in the year.

Laura Rademaker, postdoctoral member of the RDHP program, has been shortlisted for the 2019 NSW Premier’s History Award for her book Found in translation: Many meanings on a north Australian mission’, published in April 2018.

These are the comments from the Judges: “Found in Translation explores the Anindilyakwa people’s interactions with Christian missionaries on Groote Eylandt in the mid-1900s. Laura Rademaker demonstrates how members of the Church Missionary Society sought to change these north Australian people’s beliefs by teaching them English and translating the Bible into their language – and changed themselves in the process. While demonstrating the missionaries’ impact, Rademaker also shows how the Anindilyakwa exploited their movement between languages, using creative interpretations and mis-translations to assert agency. Functioning both as a metaphor and a focus for concrete historical investigation, Rademaker’s interest in translation proves an inspired choice. While delving into the specifics of intercultural contact on Groote Eylandt, this generous interdisciplinary work thoughtfully illuminates wider themes. Readers will learn about the history of missions, mid-century assimilation policy, the phenomenon of settler colonialism and an Indigenous people’s efforts to negotiate its impact – all while appreciating Rademaker’s dazzling use of oral history and glowing prose.”

Laura’s publication is in competition with two other publications: Taking Liberty: Indigenous Rights and Settler Self-Government in Colonial Australia, 1830-1890 by Ann Curthoys and Jessie Mitchell and The Bible in Australia: A Cultural History by Meredith Lake. The New South Wales Premier Award is a highly competitive, nationally recognised award. The winning publication will be announced on 30 August, with the author receiving $15,000.

The RDHP team wishes to congratulate Naomi Appleby on her well-deserved selection as one of the National Museum of Australia’s 2019 Encounter Fellows and to wish her all the best as she commences this program.

Naomi Appleby is the first of our ANU Laureate Program’s (RDHP’s) Aspiring Future Leaders. Naomi is a Karajarri Yawuru woman working as the Project Coordination Officer for Future Acts & Heritage and Land & Sea at Nyamba Buru Yawuru in Broome, Western Australia.

In February this year, Naomi participated in the National Library of Australia’s Oral History Training workshop at Nyamba Buru Yawuru, in a collaboration with RDHP, the Yawuru Deep History Project. She interviewed her mother Dianne, a key Indigenous knowledge holder who has been championing language training.

Naomi will be undertaking further training and mentoring as part of the Kathleen Fitzpatrick Laureate Program, with her first mentoring visit to take place in December.

Josh Newham, a PhD student in the ANU School of History’s Rediscovering the Deep Human Past (RDHP) Laureate Program received two awards for his 2018 Honours Thesis at La Trobe University last week.

Josh received both the Richard Broome Indigenous History Prize, awarded to the highest mark for an Honours thesis on an Indigenous theme from any region of the world; and the Allan Martin Prize, awarded for the best interdisciplinary Honours thesis from the School of Humanities and Social Sciences.

Josh’s Honours thesis was entitled ‘An Enduring Blindness: Colonial Myopia and Indigenous Agency in the Burragorang Valley’ and combined a traditional historical essay structure exploring early contact histories with interspersed chapters of creative writing to evoke a sense of place, connection, loss and shared history in the region.

The Burragorang Valley, now Lake Burragorang is an area of enduring interest today as the NSW state government is considering raising the Warragamba Dam wall, further inundating 1,000 hectares of World Heritage listed wilderness and drowning hundreds of significant Aboriginal sites, beyond those lost previously when the Warragamba Dam was initially completed in 1960 to ensure the city of Sydney’s ongoing water needs were met.

Josh hopes to continue to engage with and challenge the enduring legacies of Australia’s colonial past through his research into the deep history of Aboriginal occupation of South Eastern New South Wales, including the Burragorang and the Canberra region, with the RDHP team at ANU.

ANU’s History Dr Laura Rademaker will be co-convening the Sacred Histories Symposium with Clare Monagle (Macquarie University).

The Symposium will examine the use of sacred ideas as a means of legitimacy conduct throughout history and will be held on Friday, 23 August from 2pm in the Menzies library.

Speakers will include:

Donovan Schaefer (Keynote), Laura Rademaker, Clare Monagle, Aileen Walsh, Katharine Massam, Joanna Cruickshank, Louise D’Arcens, Juanita Feros Ruys and Sally Treloyn.

You can find more information about the event here.

If you have any questions please contact Laura directly.

The RDHP team is delighted that Postdoctoral Fellow, Laura Rademaker’s publication, Found in Translation: Many meanings on a North Australian Mission, has been shortlisted for the 2019 Chief Minister’s Northern Territory History Book Award.

The shortlisted books for 2019 are:

• Found in Translation: Many meanings on a North Australian Mission by Laura Rademaker

• Northern Dreams: The Politics of Northern Development in Australia by Lyndon Megarrity

• Teaching “proper” drinking? Clubs and pubs in Indigenous Australia by Maggie Brady

You can read more about this year’s submissions and the shortlist via ntl.nt.gov.au.

The winner will be announced at the Award ceremony on Tuesday 2 July, 12pm – 1pm at the Northern Territory Library.

ANU recently marked National Reconciliation Week with a number of events. As part of this celebration, on 29 May the ANU College of Asia and the Pacific Reconciliation Committee hosted a well-attended special screening of the film ‘Occupation: Native’, directed by Anmatyerr filmmaker Trisha Morton-Thomas. The screening was introduced by Ben Silverstein, a Postdoctoral Research Fellow on the RDHP project. He spoke about his work on colonial and Indigenous histories, including research on the deep history of Indigenous peoples, which resonated with the National Reconciliation Week 2019 theme of ‘Grounded in Truth: Walk Together with Courage’.

‘Occupation: Native’ provides new understandings of Australian history, from an Aboriginal point of view. The film inspires pride in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures as the oldest living continuing cultures on the planet, and supports audiences to acknowledge the strength they have demonstrated in the face of colonial injustices.