Position: PhD Student
School and/or Centres: School of History
Email: Kathryn.Wells@anu.edu.au
Phone: (02) 612 53157
Location: Level 5, RSSS Building, 146 Ellery Crescent
Qualification: BA WAust; MLitt ANU 1994; Advanced Computer Applications CIT, 1994<br />
Kathryn Wells grew up in Western Australia and Fiji, attending UWA and ANU, working for Aboriginal advocacy organisations in Katherine and Darwin, Northern Territory, and Charles Darwin University; then the Australian Museum, Sydney, National Museum, Australian War Memorial and National Library Australia, Canberra.
As well, Kathryn was a Ministerial advisor and consultant to the House of Representatives SCATSI. Variously, Kathryn managed the National Indigenous Visual Arts and Cultural Portal Programs, and a Myer Foundation project on Native Grasslands. In addition Kathryn provided public history writing and editorial services to the Australian Government Information Management Office and Craft Australia. Kathryn volunteers for the ACT Heritage and National Trust ACT Walks Program.
Australian culture and identity, craft and design, Indigenous history.
Thesis topics: "Aborigines Trading Artefacts with Europeans. South-eastern Australia 1860s-1920s" (MLitt, ANU, 1993); ANU PhD Thesis Topic: "Song, Swing and Survival: Indigenous musicians, global intersections and local rights 1921-1991"
Kathryn Wells, Review of Recirculating songs: revitalising the singing practices of Indigenous Australia by Jim Wafer and Myfany Turpin (eds), 2017 Hunter Press, Hamilton in Australian Aboriginal Studies Journal (2018/1): 80-83
Kathryn Wells (ed), Australia, Indigenous Visual Arts and Crafts Resources Directory (Canberra, Department of Communication IT and the Arts, 2006)
Kathryn Wells (ed), Crossing the Strait. Tasmania to the South Coast (Canberra, Continental Shift Association and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Commission, 2003)
Kathryn Wells, "The development of the Authenticity Trade Mark for Indigenous Artists", Alternative Law Journal, 21 no 1 (February 1996)
Kathryn Wells, "The Cosmic Irony of Intellectual Property", Culture and Policy, vol 7 no 3 (1996)
Producer and editor, Domestic Renewal (curator Rohan Nicol) at Craft ACT, Canberra, JAM Factory, Adelaide, Craft Vic, Melbourne 2012-14
Convenor, Science, Design and Innovation Program Ainslie School, 2012-14
Lead Commonwealth agency, Cape York Arts Initiative, 2003-05
Curator and Producer, Journeys Towards Knowledge - Indigenous Canoes and Maritime Knowledge across the Pacific, Novotel, Wollongong, 1999-2000
Producer, AWAS! Installations, sculpture from Indonesia, PCA Gallery, University of Wollongong 1999-2000
Curator, Utopia and Dystopia. Ricky Maynard, Destiny Deacon and Harri Higgs, PCA Gallery, University of Wollongong, 1999-2000
Curator, Crossing the Strait, City of Wollongong Gallery, 1999-2000
Co-Convenor, Indigenous Cultures in an Interconnected World. Fulbright Symposium, Darwin, 1997
Northern Territory History Colloquium Grant 2018
Australian Government Research Training Program Domestic Scholarship 2018 –
CSIRO – Inspiring Australia funding, 2013
Kalgoorlie-Western Desert Arts Initiative - Best Multi-Collaboration Initiative Western Australia across three jurisdictions 2004-05
Master of Letters Awarded with Merit 1994
Australian Historical Association (AHA)
Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS)
Australian Society for the Study of Labour History (ASSLH)
Musicological Society of Australia (MSA)
Oral History NSW Inc,
Member of Australian Institute of Company Directors (MAICD)
Research Fellow, (Digital Archive of Indigenous Arts and Knowledge) School of Fine Arts, Northern Territory University, 1997
Senior Lecturer, (Nurrinyeri Indigenous Curriculum Project) Ngunnawal Centre, University of Canberra, 1994-96