Paper short abstract:

This paper will focus on how the analyses of postcard series can unveil narratives capable of returning identity to the indigenous people represented in the images, identities that were taken from them during the manipulative moments of the heavy studio fabrications and of the caption’s ascription.

Paper long abstract:

This paper will focus on how the analyses of an apparently fragmented postcard series, produced in Sydney by Kerry & Co., can unveil narratives capable of returning identity to the indigenous people represented in the images, identities that were taken from them during the manipulative moments of the heavy studio fabrications and of the caption's ascription.

Taken alone, postcards are frequently understood as "raw objects" (Edwards) that seem impenetrable and superficial. However, when considered as a group of artefacts and in their dialectical relation to other presentational forms, postcards are revealed to be a rich resource and a valid starting point for the analysis of anthropological aspects usually neglected.

The relationship between content and form, which is often strained, should make us think of the way postcards and visual materials are perceived today in photographic archives. While indigenous people frequently approach visual material representing their ancestors with an obvious preference for the subject matter presented rather than the actual format, such as on a postcard, archiving practices still tend to differentiate between the various paper supports, as for their cataloguing and ideal preservation the focus is on their materiality. Within this material-related system there is a hierarchy that often considers photographs as "originals" and postcards as "reproductions", thereby affording photographs better archiving conditions than postcards. These different perceptions, which in turn lead to inconsistencies in the administration of, and access to, historical postcards of indigenous people, are a consequence of the multiple functions postcard can assume.