Paper short abstract:

This paper seeks to explore the representation of Indigenous peoples and question the way that Australian statehood is contextualised and embedded within photographs. It also discusses how collaborative research provides way in which Adnyamathanha people may express their identity and kinship.

Paper long abstract:

New and experimental art-making and curatorial processes are reshaping relationships between Indigenous artists, anthropologists, major public cultural institutions, patrons and audiences in Australia. Using a mixture of media art, archival imagery and documentary interviews, this paper seeks to explore the representation of Indigenous peoples and question the way that Australian statehood is contextualised and embedded within this realm. It will also discuss how to create a space with Adnyamathanha people to express relationships with the photographs and their identity and kinship significance.

This paper discusses my PhD which is about re-thinking Adnyamathanha histories via critical engagement with the State Library of South Australia and South Australian Museum, relating the immediacy of photography to the layers of the colonial archive. This PhD is using workshops to create an exhibition of contemporary Adnyamathanha responses to historical photographs.

I will create the exhibition by conducting workshops with Adnyamathanha people. The workshops are to prepare contemporary Adnyamathanha artistic interpretations and responses to the photographic collections and how they relate to modern identity and relationships with land, kin and culture. I am then planning to write up the workshops as a part of my PhD exegesis on the exhibition.

I explore Mountford's collections in the South Australian Museum and the State Library of South Australia, and use Tindale's collections comparatively to contextualise Mountford's work. This paper also points towards significant other photographic archives which I may display in conjunction with the Mountford photographs including those from missionaries who were working in the Flinders Ranges.