[csaa-forum] FW: National Museum Symposium

Sun Mar 9 10:10:00 CST 2008

Conference Announcement

Barks Birds & Billabongs:

 The 1948 American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land Remembered.

AN INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM TO CELEBRATE THE 60TH ANNIVERSITY OF THIS HISTORIC EXPEDITION

25 to  27 May 2009 (dates to be confirmed)

National Museum of Australia (Canberra)

Call for Expressions of Interest

The 60th anniversary of the 1948 American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land is a fitting time for celebration, re-evaluation, and renewed collaboration between the individuals, institutions, and countries touched by this formative research venture. In 2009 the Centre for Historical Research at the National Museum of Australia will commemorate this anniversary by hosting 'Barks Birds & Billabongs: The 1948 American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land Remembered' (working title), a symposium that will investigate the expedition's significant, and often controversial, legacy. This conference will be based around four core themes: Histories, Legacies, Research and Collections, and Indigenous Perspectives.

Led by the photographer and self-taught ethnologist, Charles P. Mountford, the 1948 Arnhem Land Expedition is one of the most significant scientific expeditions ever mounted in Australia-and also one of the least understood. Ten researchers and seven support staff were involved in the seven-month odyssey. From varying disciplinary perspectives, they investigated the people and the environment of Arnhem Land. In addition to ethnologists, archaeologists, photographers and film-makers, the expedition included a botanist, a mammalogist, an ichthyologist, an ornithologist and a team of nutritional scientists. Their first base was Groote Eylandt in the Gulf of Carpentaria. They later moved to Yirrkala on the Gove Peninsula and then to Oenpelli (now Gunbalanya) in west Arnhem Land. The journey involved the collaboration of vastly different sponsors and partners (among them the National Geographic Society, the Smithsonian Institution and various agencies of the Commonwealth Government of Australia). The team included both established and emerging scientists from Australia and the United States of America. In the wake of the expedition came volumes of scientific publications, kilometres of film, thousands of photographs, tens of thousands of scientific specimens, and a vast array of Aboriginal artefacts and paintings from across Arnhem Land. The legacy of the 1948 Arnhem Land Expedition is vast, complex and at times contentious.

Inevitably, the symposium will reflect the interdisciplinary makeup of the expedition itself. We are looking for a diverse range of speakers who can present their research and ideas in such a way that they are fully accessible to scholars outside their own field of specialisation-and to the general audience who is expected to attend. We are aiming for presentations that are:

*    informative but scholarly

*    engaging

*    visually stimulating

*    innovative

*    new research

Some presentations may take the form of:

 *   a traditional conference paper or poster
 *   panel discussions
 *   live interviews
 *   performances
 *   films or audiovisual sessions

Where appropriate, written versions of peer-reviewed papers will be published on the National Museum web site.  Audio streaming facilities will allow recordings of presentations to be made available on line. We expect representation from the Aboriginal communities of Arnhem Land who take considerable interest in how their forebears interacted with the visiting researchers. We hope that a substantial book will eventually result from this symposium.

A conference steering committee has been formed for the three-day symposium. Other related activities will take place at the National Museum of Australia and other selected locations across the country.  We anticipate that a day of workshops or master classes, targeted at Indigenous researchers or postgraduates specializing in cross-cultural research, will be held on the day following the symposium. This will allow access to the Museum's substantial holdings of 1948 material. We would welcome suggestions regarding these workshops, and will endeavour to tailor the program to meet the needs of participants.

We welcome expressions of interest from individuals and organisations with links to the 1948 expedition and from scholars who wish to present new research relating to this important expedition and its collections. Initial expressions of interest-at this stage a short email outlining your ideas-must be received by 30 March 2008. The precise contributions of accepted speakers will be developed in liaison with the conference organizers. We would also welcome responses from people wishing to be added to a mailing list for information about the conference.

Please feel free to distribute this information widely. Further information will be available from the conference website which will be regularly updated from April/May 2008.

Contact:

Dr. Sally K. May (sallykmay at live.com.au) & Dr. Martin Thomas (martin.thomas at arts.usyd.edu.au)

Conference Steering Committee

Adjunct Professor Margo Neale, National Museum of Australia

Dr. Peter Stanley, Centre for Historical Research, National Museum of Australia

Dr. Sally K. May, Centre for Public Culture and Ideas, Griffith University

Dr. Martin Thomas, Department of History, University of Sydney

Please note this is a preliminary notice and more formal notices will follow with confirmed dates and other relevant details.

>From early indications we expect that the program will be quickly finalised.

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