Paper short abstract:

The historical displacement of Aboriginal people to missions and reserves is linked to ethnographic trade in museum artefacts. I argue that a political economy of displacement, circulation and emplacement of Aboriginal people and their material objects continues to produce inequalities today.

Paper long abstract:

The history of displacement of Indigenous Australians as a result of various government policies has been well documented. Going beyond this established literature, this paper explores connections between the removal of Djabugay and other Aboriginal people of the Wet Tropics of North Queensland to missions and reserves and a concurrent ethnographic trade in museum artefacts. I provide an analysis of how Aboriginal people and some of their material products were historically sent along different trajectories and the political agency informing various practices of re-connection and re-emplacement. The paper sheds new light on debates about the political and economic aspects of a history of displacement, circulation and emplacement that continues to produce inequalities today.