The seminar 'Interdisciplinary Indigenous History' was held in the Hedley Bull Building at the ANU on Wednesday, 22nd August, 2012. It was organised principally by Dr Shino Konishi of the Australian Centre for Indigenous History (ACIH), to bring together speakers with various disciplinary perspectives on the study of Indigenous histories. In the first session, chaired by Professor Ann McGrath, Director of the ACIH, we heard from Indigenous Post Doctoral Fellow in the ACIH Dr Jeanine Leanne, an award winning novelist, poet and historian, whose paper foreshadowed her research on published works by Indigenous historical novelists, comparing this genre with analogous treatments by non-Indigenous authors. Dr Jane Lydon from Monash University, who originally qualified and later worked as an archaeologist, spoke about her research into photographic imagery of people from the Kulin nation of Victoria. She was followed by Greg Lehman, an Indigenous Visiting Fellow at AIATSIS and doctoral candidate in the Tasmanian School of Art, who outlined his research into the portrayal of Tasmanian Aboriginal peoples by European artists and photographers.

After a tea break, Paul Irish, a doctoral candidate in the ACIH who also comes from the discipline of archaeology, described his research into Aboriginal camps in the Sydney region, in which he is utilising material from the archaeological record, as well as historical texts and images. The final paper was by Lea Lui-Chevizhe, a lecturer in the Koori Centre and doctoral candidate at the University of Sydney, discussed her research on nineteenth century ceremonial masks from her home island of Erub in the Torres Strait. Finally, Dr Maria Nugent led a discussion about the papers presented, and the broad interdisciplinary frames that have the potential to illuminate and considerably enliven research and writing on Indigenous histories.

The seminar was attended by about 50 people and was a stimulating occasion which also showcased the breadth of Indigenous historical research currently underway around the country, and the imaginative approaches researchers are using to illuminate their work.