Paper short abstract:

In 1972 in Australia, Yolngu leaders presented ten objects to Mr Justice Woodward, of the Aboriginal Land Rights Commission of Inquiry. Their meanings concern the ownership of Yolngu estates and their historical context: dispossession and despoliation of Yolngu estates by mining.

Paper long abstract:

In 1972 in northeast Arnhem Land, Yolngu clan leaders presented ten objects to Mr Justice Woodward of the Aboriginal Land Rights Commission of Inquiry. The meanings of each gift expressed in the designs concern the ownership of Yolngu estates. They are sacred objects that emblematise the life and history, the sacred narratives and land and sea estates of the respective clans whose elders created them. They are not innocent of the historical context from which they emerged: dispossession and despoliation of Yolngu estates by a mining company. The designs and images on the objects and their meanings are matters of Yolngu law. In 2003, Mr Woodward gifted the collection to The University of Melbourne, where they are managed by the Ian Potter Museum. What is their status now, so many years after the ceremony at Yirrkala in 1973 acknowledging the work of Sir Edward Woodward? They constitute a special case of the Aboriginal work of art as gift and legacy. Yolngu people visited The University of Melbourne to view and discuss these historic objects and other collections. During the visit it became clear that they continued to hold great significance for these Yolngu. They were inspired to consider the use of digital technology to enable access by the descendants of the clan leaders who made them and the wider Yolngu community to see artwork by older generations to inform their art and ritual practices.

Paper short abstract:

Since 2015, Jessie Lloyd has visited public collections and Indigenous communities across Australia researching forgotten and orphaned songs of the Mission Era (1901–1967), an intensive period of forced legislative removals of many Indigenous Australians from their homelands and families onto colonial mission and government settlements.

Paper long abstract:

Supported by the National Library of Australia and State Library of Victoria, to date, she has found some 30 songs that carry unique historical perspectives of Indigenous Australians who lived through the Mission Era, and convey personal stories of loss, hope and resilience that are rarely recorded in official histories. These songs now form the basis of the Mission Songs Project which, under Lloyd’s direction, has since generated concert tours in Australia, Canada, Mexico, Finland and the Czech Republic, a song book, and a 13-track CD and CD single. In this presentation, we will explore the notion of song as archive and the integral role of music heritage in sustaining suppressed Indigenous histories that challenge the colonial narratives often retained in official histories. We will examine how the songs of the Mission Songs Project interrogate legacy colonial narratives about Indigenous Australians, and recreate first-hand accounts and remembrances that represent the past as it was experienced within Indigenous families and communities. While representations of Indigenous Australia in anthropological discourses, archives and museums often focus on tangible heritage objects, we will further demonstrate how the medium of song has long been central to curating and transmitting Australian Indigenous histories and knowledges, and remains integral to sustaining genuine Indigenous perspectives into the future.

Paper short abstract:

The paper analyses the recording enterprises of Dr William Crocker. Crocker began field research with the Canela in 1957 and continued to do so until 2011. Until now, these recordings have been largely unexamined.Today, Crocker's collection is an important aspect of Canela collective past.

Paper long abstract:

This paper analyses the anthropology of Dr. William Crocker and his recording enterprise

Crocker began field research with the Canela in 1957 and continued to do so intermittently until 2011. The archive contains more than 54 years of the anthropologist's fieldwork among the Canela Indians of Brazil and it forms one of the largest visual collections of research concerning the native people of South-America. Until now, these recordings have been largely unexamined and academically undervalued. Crocker's visual collection brings alive the interior space of family interactions; the physical space of the Canela intimate life becomes increasingly important. Many of the crucial events depicted in his photos take place indoors, in the female space of the Canela rooms. Before the second half of the 20th century, anthropological interviews of women were limited. If in the 1950s, Crocker's main research assistants, as he called them, were Canela men, Crocker's photos show his understanding that the role of women within the family setting was very important to maintain a high level of social cohesion. They also speak to the dangers and pleasures of falling in love. By communicating visually, the range of relationships that we all are likely to encounter in ordinary life, Crocker introduced something closer to what I call the 'ordinary morality of life'. Today, Crocker's collection is an important aspect of Canela collective past, and these records are an invaluable resource for researchers working with the Canela, for Visual Anthropology students, and for the Canela themselves.

Paper short abstract:

The material culture and archival records of Indigenous peoples can "speak" and communicate - it is just a matter of "listening". Even when sitting in a museum collection or vault separated from their home community - there is still a connection to stories from the land, stories of home and family.

Paper long abstract:

The presentation will focus on concepts of Indigenous knowledge and Indigenous museum practice. Through a Canadian context, I have been exploring this idea of reconciliation and healing in museum spaces; with a focus on Anishinaabe communities and the need of reconnecting to land, time and place. I hypothesize, that one of the reasons for the land disconnect is that we (Anishinaabe people) forgot how to make objects. Our hands forgot what they could do.

Making objects was not just about assembling or stitching materials together. But also, included the whole process of gathering materials, spending time on the land and being in a relationship with the land. The material culture of the Anishinaabe, such as birch bark containers, clothing and woven bags, they were all made of resources that came from the land. Even the earlier beadwork tells of the relationship with land and place.

So, today these ancestors sit in museum cabinets, on shelves, and in glass cases; being disconnected from their communities and their makers'. BUT - the memories and stories are still contained within them. Even after being separated from the community for a long time (to the point of being forgotten in some cases), there is still some kind of a connection that remains - they still contain stories from their land, from their home. The work that I do, and my discussion will explore the question - why is it important to connect ancestors/ objects in museums back to their community?

Paper short abstract:

In this paper, we provide examples from our work on material culture in Inuit Nunangat and oral history in unceded Algonquin territory, in what is now Canada, to illustrate our attempts to recognize and disrupt colonial power dynamics inherent in human geography and anthropological archaeology.

Paper long abstract:

Indigenous lifeways, including material culture and oral forms of history, have long been the subject of academic studies largely undertaken by agents of colonial structures (museums, schools, universities). Narratives produced from this work tend to be presented as truth or fact; however, they are often a better reflection of the 'settler lens'. Value and meaning tend to be ascribed to Indigenous culture and heritage by those outside of Indigenous communities whose ways of understanding the world undermine those that they study. Though colonial narratives still dominate discussions of Indigenous lifeways in the classroom, scholarly publications, and popular culture, with Indigenous resurgence and greater awareness of the impacts of colonial processes, scholars now have a greater appreciation for Indigenous voices and knowledge and the power structures in which we operate.

As two settler academics focusing on Indigenous lifeways within what is now Canada, in this paper we confront the colonial disciplines in which we work, human geography and anthropological archaeology. We do so in an effort to move towards a more ethical approach to knowledge and practice. In our individual domains we move to recognize and disrupt the power dynamics inherent to these encounters and discuss some of the stumbling blocks we have faced. We present examples of recovering - or leaving be - archaeological material from Inuit Nunangat; and seeking to understand processes of oral history on unceded Algonquin territory in Ontario, that attempt more wholistic understanding of Indigenous lifeways and illustrate our efforts to meld different ways of knowing.