McDonald Room, Menzies Library, ANU

The Name Game: settler colonialism and indigenous names in Australia and New Zealand

Dr Samuel Furphy and Dr Kynan Gentry, School of History, ANU
 

In recent decades a host of new research has emerged exploring the use and abuse of indigenous names in settler-colonial societies. Heavily influenced by post-modern and post-colonial ideas around power and hegemony, this work has significantly enriched our understanding of the underlying politics of the colonial endeavour and the nature of settler society. Yet the dominance of these views, we argue in this paper, has resulted in a focus on sweeping theories at the expense of empirical evidence, and has failed to acknowledge the complexities and at times contradictions within the empirical evidence.
 

Exploring the use and abuse of indigenous names in colonial Australia and New Zealand—two societies who on the surface viewed their country’s indigenous peoples and cultures in strikingly different ways—this paper will examine the limitations of theoretically dominated approaches to colonial naming practices, and will ultimately make the case for greater consideration of ‘history’ in such analyses. 

Samuel Furphy is a Research Fellow in the National Centre of Biography, School of History (RSSS). His new book, Edward M. Curr and the Tide of History, will be published by Aboriginal History (ANU E Press) early next year. He is currently researching a collective biography of Aboriginal protectors in nineteenth century Australia and will soon begin work on a large collaborative ARC linkage project on Aboriginal war service. He has previously published on Aboriginal place names and settler Australian identity.

Kynan Gentry is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the School of History, where he is currently undertaking a history of historic preservation and interest in the historical landscape in Australia. His most recent book, History, Heritage and Colonialism, is being published by Manchester University Press in 2013.

ALL WELCOME
Please direct enquiries to Kynan.Gentry@anu.edu.au