Publications

The recent announcement of ARC Linkages Grants was good news for a number of collaborating scholars and one of the Research Centre’s Advisory Committee members.

Collaborating Scholars Jo McDonald and Peter Veth, together with other researchers from the UWA Centre for Rock Art Research and Management, were awarded over $1 million in funding for the project “From the Desert to the Sea: Managing Rock Art, Country and Culture”. The project will expand our understanding of Aboriginal settlement and land-use in north-west Australia by investigating how the mythological narratives of Australia’s deserts enable the transmission of knowledge in water-limited environments. It aims to provide new insights into human behaviour at rock art sites to ensure that intergenerational and culturally appropriate knowledge transfer protocols are in place at these significant heritage-listed sites.

Advisory Committee member Jane Lydon and Collaborating Scholar Charlotte Feakins, together with research associates, were successfully awarded funding for their “Everyday Heritage” project. The project aims to uncover everyday but overlooked forms of Australian heritage and will promote public debate on the role of the past in modern Australia through a range of new forms of history and heritage, digital resources and heritage management tools.

Congratulations to all involved! We look forward to seeing the outcomes of these innovative and important projects.

Postdoctoral Researcher, Laura Rademaker has been awarded the 2021 Chief Minister’s Northern Territory History Book Award, along with co-authors Sally May, Donna Nadjamerrek and Julie Narndal for their book ‘The Bible in Buffalo Country, Oenpelli Mission, 1925-1931’.

If we are to have truth telling about history, communities need to have access to these histories. The book was written in partnership with Injalak Arts and draws together documentary and photographic sources of the Oenpelli Mission in western Arnhem Land with community memory and interpretation of these sources. It emerged from community desire for access to the source documents of their own history and for their story to be known by the broader Australian public. The book also represents the beginning of what Rademaker hopes will be long-term collaborative research partnerships with the Gunbalanya community.

Co-author and Traditional Owner of Gunbalanya, Julie Gumurdul Narndal explained, “Mission histories are not just whitefella stories but Aboriginal stories, and Aboriginal people should be part of the telling. Story-telling and hearing about our past and our ancestors helps to keep us safe. This book tells our story from these early days – some good times and some bad times.”

Research Centre team member, Laura Rademaker, joined with Collaborating Scholar Sally K May, Joakim Goldhann, Paul S C Taçon and Julie Narndal Gumurdul in an article on aboriginal histories and rock art, Narlim’s Fingerprints. Published in the latest edition of the Journal of Australian Studies, Laura said this one was a fun collaboration.

Laura also spoke on “Against the Grain”, KPFA Pacifica Radio in Berkeley, about how members of the Anindilyakwa community on Groote Eylandt resisted and repurposed English literacies. This was based on the recent publication of “Going Off Script: Aboriginal Rejection and Repurposing of English Literacies” in Indigenous Textual Cultures Reading and Writing in the Age of Global Empire.

Collaborating Scholar, Robin Derricourt featured recently on RN’s Science Show talking about how archaeology could extend knowledge of the history of religion. His book, Creating God: The birth and growth of major religions has just been released by Manchester University Press. Advisory Committee member, Lynette Russell also featured on the same Science Show program, talking about her latest publication A Trip to Dominions: The Scientific Event that Changed Australia.

The WK Hancock Fellowship is open to Higher Degree Research (HDR) students in History and associated disciplines within the College of Arts and Social Sciences and to recent graduates up to one year after completion.

The aim of this Fellowship is to encourage greater understanding of the history of the Australian National University (ANU) and particularly to foster an appreciation of the achievements of history and historians within the institution. It is designed to stimulate innovative public-facing historical practice, and to provide an opportunity for professional development of a Higher Degree Research (HDR) student at the ANU. The Fellowship has been inaugurated by the WK Hancock Chair of History, Distinguished Professor Ann McGrath AM FASSA FAHA.

The Fellowship includes an Award of $5000, together with a mentoring, professional development and leadership opportunity.

More information can be found on the ANU website.

A new project at The Australian National University (ANU) shifts from the Australian history told from our colonial beginnings to one told by Aboriginal people, with stories that connect their recent past to the ancient history of their traditional lands.

Under the direction of the ANU Research Centre for Deep History, Professor Ann McGrath and mapping consultant Kim Mahood worked with Aboriginal Elders associated with the Lake Mungo region to record their family stories.

“The Elders of the Mutthi Mutthi, Nyaampa and Barkintji spoke about how their families were forced to move from mission to mission,” Professor McGrath says.

“A lot of the children were stolen. They worked all over the sheep stations in the region. They often saw ancient footprints and things when they were working. They were drovers, they worked on railways.”

Professor McGrath thought a good way for Aboriginal people to be able to tell these stories would be on a map that shows these movements on their traditional lands.

“These maps are often called cultural maps, but this is essentially a history map. This map offers a strong visual history, going back several generations. Some people also mention bunyip stories and ancient stories that wouldn’t really have a date,” she says.

As a historian, Professor McGrath was interested in how to switch away from the colonial narrative of Australia’s history, and tell the stories of the country’s First Nations people.

“Aboriginal people tell the story of a very important woman who’d been buried 42,000 years ago in Mungo, which I thought was amazing,” she says.

“That’s a biography, that’s a human being that we can relate to. I met lots of amazing Indigenous elders and young people and Aboriginal people who were Discovery Rangers at the National Park. They were proud to tell their stories of this ancient woman.”

Academics typically write books or journal articles, which are standards of academic outputs, but Professor McGrath “knew these Aboriginal people weren’t particularly interested in our books at all”.

“They were, however, proud to tell their stories of this ancient woman. We made a film about it called Message from Mungo, which came out in 2015. They’re able to speak in their own voice, and they’re able to directly tell you what they see is important in history.”

Fast-forward to today’s project, which captures their more recent history and ongoing connection with traditional lands through the retelling of ancient stories.

“Aboriginal people have a very different relationship with the deep past. They talk about Lady Mungo like she’s an aunty who died yesterday,” Professor McGrath says.

“Aboriginal Elders asked, ‘Why are you only interested in our ancient past? What about our more recent past? We’ve got our own biographies, with our grandmothers, our great grandmothers. These stories need to be heard too.”

The map tells the stories of their families’ own connection to Country, which itself is a deep history of deep connection to lands of ancient association.

“Even though these people were forced by the Government to keep moving from one mission or government reserve to the next, they still stayed very close to Country. They’re still staying there today in these little towns.”

Bernadette Pappin, a Mutthi Mutthi woman, says the stories on the cultural map comes from “the mouths of Indigenous people and not non-Indigenous people”.

“We are telling our story; everybody’s got a story, got a connection to this land here that we are talking about,” Ms Pappin says.

“It shows the storyline of our people and where we belong and where we come from, and other people having an understanding of where we are, and we still are today.”

Patricia Johnson, a Paakintji Elder, says the map helps her heal.

“I believe it will help all my people too, the same way how I feel,” she says.

The project will have a handover ceremony, with a proposed traveling exhibition through each of the communities where Aboriginal people shared their stories. A digital interactive version of the map, with historic photographs shared by participants, will be made available on the Research Centre for Deep History website. Project leaders are in talks with the National Library of Australia about plans to digitise the map so that it is available worldwide.

Article originally published on the ANU website.

‘How to write so that people will read’ was the central question of our recent writing workshop, “Expand your writing.” The Research Centre for Deep History hosted a writing workshop for scientists in April 2021. Attendees were members of CABAH, of which the Research Centre is now an affiliate. It was an honour to have Prof Ann Curthoys (aka ‘Ann 1’) join us to share her expertise, as well as Prof Ann McGrath (aka ‘Ann 2’) and Dr Laura Rademaker from the Centre. Participants spanned the scientific disciplines and enjoyed presentations from the two Anns as well as discussion about shared frustrations and joys of writing. They were challenged, in the final session, to re-create an academic publication as a piece for public readership. We expect, soon, to see these pieces in print.

Bringing four decades of hands-on knowledge and experience in First Nations affairs, The Australian National University welcomes Dr Jacqueline Huggins AM FAHA as an Honorary Professor in History.

Dr Huggins, a Bidjara/ Birri Gubba Juru woman, has enjoyed a stellar career across academic, corporate and social sectors. She is among the first First Nations historians in Australia.

From 2017 to 2019, she served as co-chair of the National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples, a representative body of 10,000 members and 180 organisations providing a leading voice for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

She has also served as a Board member of the State Library of Queensland and the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, former Co-Chair Reconciliation Australia, Co-Commissioner for Queensland for the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children From Their Families, directed her own consulting firm, and was Deputy Director of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies at the University of Queensland.

Dr Huggins was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 2001, recognising her significant service to Australia’s First Nations peoples, particularly in the areas of reconciliation, social justice, literacy and women’s issues.

Dr Huggins was made a Fellow of the Academy of Humanities in 2007, one of the first First Nations scholars to receive the prestigious status.

She has written widely for history books and journals nationally and internationally such as Aboriginal Workers 1995 (and new edition 2021) with Ann McGrath and Kay Saunders. Her books include Auntie Rita 1996, Sistergirl 1998 with Sistergirl new edition and Jack of Hearts: QX11594 due for publication early 2022.

She is currently Co-Chair of the Treaty Advancement Committee in Queensland and has contributed to numerous government enquiries and advisory committees, both state governments around Australia, the federal government and philanthropic organisations.

Dr Huggins stated: ‘I am honoured to receive this position in a leading University that elevates the scholarship and integrity of First Nations peoples.’

Joining ANU, Dr Huggins will provide guidance and strategic advice to the Research Centre for Deep History within the School of History.

Article originally posted on the ANU website.