Recognising Aborigines: From Objects of Science to First Australians

The proposed research program will explore two very different ways of seeing and photographing Indigenous Australians: that is, as objects of science, and as citizens with rights. By explaining the emergence and persistence of many enduring ideas about Aboriginal people through visual media, it will contribute to understanding our colonial past and its legacies in the present. It will initiate and investigate the 'repatriation' of visual media to Australia, contributing to a new global concern with decolonizing frameworks and methodologies, and through collaboration with four key European cultural institutions, will provide a significant heritage resource for descendants.