Tom Murray, one of RDHP’s Collaborating Scholars, was awarded an ARC Future Fellowship last week. His project aims to change our understanding of Australian pre-colonial isolation by demonstrating Indigenous Australia's connection to South-East Asian cultural and trading networks. This project, re-enacting and documenting profound and centuries-old relationships between Indigenous Australia and Indonesia, will produce a series of films that will demonstrate this trading connection as a cultural route of World Heritage Status akin to other major trading routes such as the ‘Silk Road’. The project will record a collaborative, cross-cultural, documentary history of Australia’s very first international trading relationship, and produce insights into regional history with significant implications for understanding our present.

Tom excels at presenting his research across different media. He is an academic and media producer based in the Department of Media, Music, Communication and Cultural Studies at Macquarie University. Much of his work has been in collaboration with Australian Indigenous communities. Tom’s documentaries have been selected for the world’s most prestigious film festivals. These works have won awards including the NSW Premier’s History Award and the Australian Directors Guild Award for best feature documentary.

The RDHP Team congratulate Tom on this outstanding achievement and look forward to continuing our ongoing collaborations through the newly launched Research Centre for Deep History.