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First Nation representation in museums and film have exploded in recent years. The importance of ‘seeing yourself’ in the mainstream cannot be understated and the success of shows like Cleverman in Australia and Rutherford Falls in the US continue to highlight that importance. Additionally, innovative and ground-breaking exhibitions like Apsáalooke Women and Warriors at the Field Museum in Chicago and Unsettled at the Australian Museum illustrate the ways in which material culture can be used to educate and advocate. Representation matters but what does representation mean to First Nation actors working in these spaces? How is representation imagined? How is the anthropological record turned on its head and reimagined? What kinds of representation are we looking for in anthropology? This plenary offers up some extraordinary accounts on the issue of representation.

Keynote speaker:

Associate Professor Michael Greyeyes, (he/him), Creative Director Signal Theatre and York University

Professor Greyeyes is a choreographer, actor, director, and the founding artistic director of Toronto’s Signal Theatre, a company that engages in practiced-based research to create live performance, exploring dance, opera, music, design and the spoken word. Signal is currently developing two major new works: Bearing, a dance opera that delves into Canada’s Indian residential school legacy, and Gallábárnit, a Sami language opera that is a collaboration with Soundstreams Canada, Musik I Syd (Sweden) and Beaivváŝ, the National Sami Theatre.

Professor Greyeyes’ directorial credits include Pimooteewin, the first Cree language opera, with libretto by Tomson Highway (Soundstreams Canada); Almighty Voice and his Wife, which toured across Canada and to London/UK (Native Earth Performing Arts); The River (Nakai Theatre, Yukon); and the short film Seven Seconds for Toronto’s imagineNATIVE film + media arts festival. His screen credits include Woman Walks Ahead, The New World, True Detective, Rutherford Falls, I Know This Much is True and Wild Indian.

Professor Greyeyes has a publication record that highlights the need for representation of Native voices and stories.

Panel speakers:

Dr Deana Dartt, (she/her), Live Oak Consulting

Dr Dartt, member of the Coastal Band of the Chumash Nation, and is the founder of Live Oak Consulting in Eugene, Oregon, an organization committed to reshaping public narratives about Native people and assisting institutions in their efforts to be more accountable and responsive to Native communities (www.liveoaknative.com). She recently served as the Anne Ray Fellow at the School for Advanced Research where she revised her dissertation manuscript, "Subverting the Master Narrative" which examines distorted representations of Native cultures and histories in the Franciscan Missions and other public history sites in California. She earned her MA in Archaeology and PhD in Cultural Anthropology with an emphasis in Museum Studies from the University of Oregon (go Ducks!). She then served as Curator of Native American Ethnology at the Burke Museum and American Indian Studies faculty at the University of Washington from 2008-2011, and from 2011-2017 as the Curator of Native American Art at the Portland Art Museum. Dartt lives in Cottage Grove, Oregon with her daughter, Allukoy.

Nina Sanders, (she/her), independent First Nations GLAM professional

Nina Sanders (Apsáalooke) is a curator of historic and contemporary Native American art, as well as a writer and beadwork artist. She has worked with numerous institutions and is a contributing writer for First American Art Magazine, Native American Art Magazine, and several other publications. She has served as a curator for documenta14 and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, and is the author and editor of several books.

In 2019-2020, Ms Sanders was a Visiting Fellow at the Neubauer Collegium where she curated the exhibition Apsáalooke Women and Warriors in collaboration with Neubauer Collegium Curator Dieter Roelstraete. The Neubauer Collegium exhibition functions as a mirror image, in part, of the Field Museum exhibition, also titled Apsáalooke Women and Warriors. Ms Sanders’ curation critically engages with the discipline of anthropology, museum studies and Indigenous studies; her approaches reflects her deep cultural commitment to her community, her Ancestors and her rich heritage.

Nathan Sentence, (he/him) and Jodie Dowd, (she/her), independent First Nations GLAM professionals

Jodie Dowd is a Noongar (Wangai, Gitja, Menang) weaver, curator and consultant. Jodie is passionate about promoting First Nations agency in the care, access and interpretation of cultural collections through cross-cultural knowledge exchanges with community, national and international cultural institutions.

Nathan “mudyi” Sentance is a Wiradjuri librarian and museum educator who grew up on Darkinjung Country. Nathan currently works at the Australian Museum as the Digital Program manager and writes about critical librarianship and critical museology from a First Nations perspective. His writing has been previously published in the Guardian, Cordite Poetry, the Lifted Brow and Sydney Review of Books and on own his own blog The Archival Decolonist

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The discipline of anthropology has a legacy of documents, genealogies, photographs, and written accounts with which First Nations researchers and artists engage. Anthropology has created a massive record in the over 100 years of activities – some of these records are readily available while some are kept behind embargos and secrecy. These records represent the many faces of anthropology. From its early colonial associations to its more recent applied work, the anthropological record is a fascinating and also troubling arena in which First Nations peoples explore, connect and debate. This plenary explores these engagements through firsthand accounts of how the anthropological record has been examined and used. How are these records valued today? In what way are they used to create new understandings? In what ways are they used to challenge old misconceptions? This plenary explores the significant of the anthropological record and its continuing legacy among First Nations peoples.

Keynote speaker:

Michael Aird, (he/him), Director of the University of Queensland’s Anthropology Museum

Mr Aird is the Director of the UQ Anthropology Museum and ARC Research Fellow. He has worked in the area of Aboriginal arts and cultural heritage since 1985, maintaining an interest in documenting aspects of urban Aboriginal history and culture. He has curated over 30 exhibitions including; Portraits of Our Elders (1993) a Queensland Museum travelling exhibition, Transforming Tindale (2012) at the State Library of Queensland, Captured: Early Brisbane Photographers and Their Aboriginal Subjects (2014) at the Museum of Brisbane. In 1996 he established Keeaira Press as an independent publishing house, producing over 35 books.

Photography has been central to his career, both as a researcher of Aboriginal photographs and as a photographer. His work is held in numerous collections, including the National Gallery of Australia, the Queensland State Library, the Queensland Museum and the Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art.

Panel speakers:

Savannah Martin, M.A. (she/her) Ph.D. Candidate at Washington University in St. Louis and Sapsik’wałá/UOTeach M.Ed. Candidate at the University of Oregon

Savannah Martin is an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians of Oregon and a Ph.D. candidate in biological anthropology at Washington University in St. Louis. Her ongoing doctoral research focuses on health disparities in Native American communities and how cultural identity moderates the relationship between exposure to psychosocial stressors and the incidence of stress-related diseases. Through her work as an Indigenous anthropologist, Savannah aims to demonstrate the value of integrating Indigenous epistemologies and Western science research, and to improve relationships between anthropological and Indigenous communities.

Savannah is an M.Ed. candidate through UOTeach at the University of Oregon, where she is also scholar with the Sapsik’wałá Teacher Education program. The Sapsik’wałá program focuses on supporting the development of skilled Indigenous educators, enabling them to teach within their communities and thereby strengthening educational resources and supports for historically underserved Indigenous students. She will be pursuing her teaching license in high school biology and will be teaching in a Native-serving school following the successful completion of her program in June 2022.

Savannah is an avid proponent of equity, inclusion, and accessibility in science and academia, and her #scicomm endeavors can be followed on Twitter, @SavvyOlogy.

Robert ‘Tommy’ Pau, (he/him), arts instructor, Cairns TAFE

Tommy is a descendant of the people of the Eastern Torres Strait Islands, Australian Aboriginal, Papua New Guinea, Pacific Islander and Asia. He speaks Torres Strait Creole and Australian English. He was taught about the need to keep culture strong through cultural practice by his father, has a strong commitment to keeping old traditions alive, and believes that culture must remain true to the past and move with time to exist in the future. Tommy has considerable experience in the arts and his art forms of choice include printmaking, painting and sculpture.

He completed a Bachelor of Education and currently completing a BA in New Media at James Cook University, Cairns. He was a semi-finalist in the 2017 Telstra Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award and was the winner of the Works on Paper section of 2016 The Telstra Art Award. His works are in major public and private collections in Australia. He is passionate in representing Indigenous arts and artists in general and the protection and true representation of Torres Strait Islander arts and culture.

Julie Gough, (she/her), Curator, First People’s Art and Culture, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart

Julie Gough is a Trawlwoolway (Tasmanian Aboriginal) artist, writer and a curator of First People’s Art and Culture at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (TMAG). Her Briggs-Johnson-Gower-Vincent family have lived in the Latrobe region of North West Tasmania since the 1840s, with Tebrikunna in far north eastern Lutruwita (Tasmania) their Traditional Country. Gough’s art and research practice often involves uncovering and re-presenting conflicting and subsumed histories, many referring to her family's experiences as Tasmanian Aboriginal people. Since 1994 Julie has exhibited in more than 130 exhibitions including: TENSE PAST, solo survey exhibition, TMAG, 2019; Divided Worlds, Adelaide Biennial, 2018; Defying Empire, National Gallery of Australia (NGA), 2017; THE NATIONAL, MCA, Sydney, 2017; With Secrecy and Despatch, Campbelltown Arts Centre, 2016; UNDISCLOSED, NGA, 2012; Clemenger Award, National Gallery of Victoria, 2010; Biennial of Sydney, 2006; Liverpool Biennial, UK, 2001; Perspecta, AGNSW, 1995. Gough holds a PhD from the University of Tasmania (Visual Arts, 2001), a Masters degree (Visual Arts) University of London, Goldsmiths College (1998), Bachelor degrees in Visual Arts (Curtin University), Prehistory/English literature (UWA). In 2018, her monograph Fugitive History was published (UWA Press). Gough’s artwork is held in most Australian state and national gallery collections.

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Anthropological research is diverse and varied but how does being First Nations influence the ways in which research is conducted? This plenary explores how First Nations researchers approach social science projects and includes an examination of the values, ethics and methodologies employed when doing research within our own communities. How is research within anthropology considered, designed and implemented by First Nations researchers? What is it like to research your own? Through critiques of the Colonial Project, to autoethnographic writing and through discussions of kinship and the development of social narratives, this plenary illustrates the diversity of Indigenous anthropological research.

Keynote speaker:

Professor Sandy O’Sullivan (they/them/guwiiny), Professor of Indigenous Studies, 2020-2024 ARC Future Fellow, Macquarie University

Sandy is a Wiradjuri transgender/non-binary person and Professor of Indigenous Studies in the Centre for Global Indigenous Futures at Macquarie University, where they are a 2020-2024 ARC Future Fellow, with a project titled Saving Lives: Mapping the influence of Indigenous LGBTIQ+ creative artists. The project explores the unique contribution of queer artists to understand how modelling complex identities contributes to the wellbeing of all First Nations' peoples.

Since 1991 they have taught and researched across gender and sexuality, museums, the body, performance, design and First Nations’ identity. Sandy was the inaugural director of the Centre for Collaborative First Nations’ Research at Batchelor Institute. They recently completed an internationally focused ARC program examining the representation and engagement of First Nations’ Peoples across 470 museums and Keeping Places. In 2020 they completed an ARC Linkage mapping creative practice across the Barkly Region of the Northern Territory (Creative Barkly). Sandy works across both industry and the academy, and recently completed a national review of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander dance and theatre makers for the Australia Council for the Arts.

In addition to their academic work, Sandy has been a musician, performer and sound artist since 1982 holding national and international arts residencies.

Panel speakers:

Dr Jilda Andrews, (she/her), Australian National University, National Museum of Australia

Dr Andrews is an Indigenous cultural practitioner and museum anthropologist based in Canberra, Australia. Currently a Research Fellow with the Australian National University and the National Museum of Australia, Dr Andrews draws from her Yuwaalaraay heritage to investigate the connectedness of land, story and culture in museum collections. Jilda is interested in the dialogue between historical ethnography and contemporary cultural expression, and how these conversations can shine new light on contemporary museum work. Her approach seeks to push the definition of custodianship, from one which is focused on the collection and preservation of objects, to one which strives to maintain connections between objects and the systems which produce them. Publications include ‘Traditional Ecological Knowledges in textile designs of Northern Australia’, in Aboriginal Screen Printed Textiles from Australia’s Top End (Fowler Museum, UCLA, 2021) and the forthcoming chapters ‘String ecologies: Indigenous country and pastoral empires’ in Ancestors, Artefacts, Empire: Indigenous Australia in British and Irish museums (British Museum Press, 2021) and ‘Value creation and Museums from an Indigenous Perspective’ in Museums, Societies and the Creation of Value (Routledge 2021). Museum projects include concept development and producer of the National Museum of Australia’s permanent environmental history gallery ‘Great Southern Land’ (forthcoming, 2021).

Dr Jennifer Caruso, (she/her), Adjunct Lecturer University of Adelaide

Dr Caruso is an Eastern Arrente woman whose research, writing and speaking focuses on Aboriginal history across the 20th Century. Dr Caruso’s work crosses the breadth of that history.

As with many Indigenous peoples, Dr Caruso’s academic career has followed its own pattern, gaining her undergraduate and honours levels as a mature age student while lecturing in Indigenous Cultures and History at the University of Adelaide. The foundations underpinning Jenni’s approach in History is that understanding Aboriginal experiences since the time of colonisation is an imperative in education for all but more so for the empowerment of Aboriginal people. Jenni states that through her writing and speaking, in which she utilises both an Aboriginal knowledge position as well as an academic history approach, she “engages in political activism” drawing audiences into a paradigm shift bringing them to a ‘new’ and more accurate comprehension of the ongoing impacts of colonisation for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Jenni graduated in 2018 with her Doctoral thesis titled "Dream Phantasy of a Utopia" which uncovered the interactions between church, state, and academia (particularly anthropology) in the setting up of the Methodist Overseas Half-Caste Children’s Mission of Croker Island.

Jenni is also the recipient of the prestigious Gladys Elphick Quiet Achiever Award (2017), the 2018 South Australian NAIDOC Lifetime Achievement Award, shortlisted for the 2019 Premier’s NAIDOC Award, and most recently included in the South Australian Women’s Honour Roll.

Dr Gretchen Stolte (she/her), University of Western Australia

Dr Stolte is a Nimi’ipuu (Nez Perce) Native American and has degrees in art history and anthropology focusing on the material culture of First Nations peoples both in North America and Australia. Dr Stolte’s research areas focus on the relationship between cultural objects and identity and has published extensively about practice-based research, cultural protocols and the responsibility of western institutions in Indigenous cultural spaces. Her curatorial practices include two major exhibitions: Old Masters: Australia’s Great Bark Artists at the National Museum of Australia and Queensland Aboriginal Creations: Agency and Legacy at the Anthropology Museum at the University of Queensland. Dr Stolte is currently a lecturer at the School of Social Sciences at the University of Western Australia, specialising in research design and the ethics of research.