[Anthropgrad] Work-in-Progress Seminar - 31 July - Louise Hamby

[Sharon Komidar]

The Research School of Humanities presents,
 Work-in-Progress Seminar Series 

1- 2.30 pm, Friday 31 July, Theatrette, Old Canberra House

Baskets Reveal History in the 1948 AASEAL Expedition 

Dr Louise Hamby, Post-doctoral Fellow, Research School of Humanities,
ANU

 


Departing from Adelaide in March 1948 the historic American-Australian
Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land (AASEAL) was led by the South
Australian Museum's honorary associate ethnologist, Charles P.
Mountford. Many items were collected during the expedition, in
particular bark paintings, one of Mountford's great passions. As a
result, other items collected, such as fibre baskets and bags were not
given as much consideration. 

 

This seminar aims to try and bring together this dispersed group of
fibre objects, currently being held in the Australian Museum, the South
Australian Museum, the National Museum and the National Museum of
Natural History. An analysis of the collected group will provide a
snapshot of styles and forms that were being made in the mid twentieth
century in Arnhem Land, keeping in mind that these items were purchased
by team members and may not have been totally representative of objects
in the everyday and ceremonial life of the communities. In order to give
some perspective to this historical trajectory fibre works from
Milingimbi will be given a closer examination. Perspectives from
Milingimbi artists currently producing fibre work and others familiar
with objects from sixty years ago will also be discussed 

 

Louise Hamby is a Postdoctoral Fellow, lecturing in the Museums and
Collections Graduate Program at the Research School of Humanities, ANU.
She is currently working on an ARC Discovery Grant: Contexts of
Collection- a dialogic approach to understanding the making of the
material record of Yolngu cultures (2008-2011). Her research interests
include historic and contemporary material culture from Arnhem Land

 

Please note that entry to OCH is via the fenced walkway starting from
Lennox Crossing (the Stanner Bld entrance), across the lawn in front of
the tennis court and through the terrace

Convenors: Ken Taylor and Stephen Foster
For general enquiries please contact: 
Phone: 6125 2434
Email: administration.rsh at anu.edu.au 
Web: http://rsh.anu.edu.au/
All Welcome