This project considers Indigenous people's contemporary roles in shaping private and public collections, and the influence of historical circumstances and ideas of communal ownership and responsibility. It therefore subverts the dominant emphasis upon Europeans as collectors and appropriators of indigenous objects. By considering Indigenous people as collectors, curators and presenters of beloved objects, this project will offer major new perspectives on Australian Indigenous history and museology. By exploring the power of material objects in cultural identity and historical consciousness, this project disrupts the stereotype of Indigenous people as purely ‘museum victims’.

ARC Linkage project

Chief Investigators:
Ann McGrath, ACIH, Tom Griffiths, History Program, RSSS, Margo Neale, National Museum of Australia

APA(I) Scholar: Christine Hansen