‘They live on in the photos’: the ontologies of difference when recognition is given to descendant family and kin concern for, and responsibility toward, Aboriginal ancestors in photographs

Abstract

This paper considers the ontologies of relational repatriation, cultural reclamation and reorientation from past to present of ancestor photos by Aboriginal Elders, knowledge holders and their families. It leans into questions about cultural custodianship rights and the renewal of family kinship responsibilities to ancestors and kin, pictorially confined to repository collections of 19th and early 20th Century photographs. It engages with dialectical approaches to heritage reclamation and attends to the dialogic ethics and morals of an intimate social relatedness that does not separate history from meaningful experience, cultural authority from emotions. This paper explores cultural perceptions of identity and belonging animated by descendant family members when experiencing ancestors and kin pictured in photographs. Closely examined are the complexities of these interrelationships and the energetic social and political desire of Elders, knowledge holders, and their families to make something happen as part of contemporary knowledge practices, and for the continuity of collective memory and legacy – knowing the self through remembering ancestors and kin in relationship to country, each other, and the acknowledged power of oral narratives throughout time.

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

[1] Noongar identifies Aboriginal people from Western Australia and describes related languages spoken by Aboriginal families. The Great Southern of Western Australia Noongar region refers to the families that culturally belong to the Ganeang, Goreng and Minang cultural groups. The Great Southern area of Western Australia is approximately 52,000 square kilometres and includes the Stirling Range National Park. There are different spellings of Noongar, including Nyungar, Nyoongar and Nyungah.

[2] The Royal Western Australian Historical Society holds in its collection a photograph by Alfred Stone of Anne Camfield and Bessy Flowers pictured together. The reverse side of this photograph identifies by name Anne and Bessy. It is this information that identifies Bessy in her portrait kept as a digital copy in the picture collections of the J. S. Battye Library in Perth. The whereabouts of Bessy’s original portrait by Stone is unknown. In recent years I have consulted with the Library as well as Stone’s great-granddaughter in an effort to locate the first print, which I had initially thought to be part of Stone’s ‘Hampton’ family album held at the J.S. Battye Library.

[3] Koori identifies Aboriginal people from Victoria and the southern region of New South Wales. The term describes different languages, cultures and social family groups belonging to this region. In records from the 1800s and onwards different spellings include Koori, Koorie, Kuri and Coori. An ever-changing group identity, Koorie with an ‘e’ represents the Koorie Heritage Trust Culture Centre founded by Gunditjmara Elder, Jim Berg. Jim says Koorie (with an ‘e’) means ‘we are one’ and respects Elders from the Framlingham Aboriginal Mission in Western Victoria. The Bryant family descendants of Bessy prefer Koori (without an ‘e’) as an acknowledgement to families from the Lake Tyers Aboriginal Trust.

[4] The Central Board for the Protection for Aborigines was established in 1859. Following the Central Board was the Board for the Protection of the Aborigines (1869–1957) and the Aborigines Welfare Board (1957–1967). The Aborigines Protection Act 1869 granted statutory powers for authorities to govern the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The Act prescribed where people lived and restricted care, custody, and education of children. Other provisions empowered by the Act included inspection of homes without notice and on a regular basis; the requirement for residents to seek written permission to leave the mission, station or reserve; the payment of low wages or no wages, and the threat of being expelled from the mission for misconduct and breach of mission rules.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sharon Huebner

Sharon Huebner is a Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne’s Indigenous Studies Unit, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry, and Health Sciences and an Honorary Research Fellow, Monash Indigenous Studies Centre, Faculty of Arts, and a Visiting Research Fellow at the Australian National University. She holds a PhD from Monash University, Melbourne Australia. Sharon has collaborated with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families for the past two decades, protecting and preserving intergenerational rights to cultural heritage, including the digital return of material culture from archives, libraries and museums throughout Australia. Essential to this engagement has been the advocacy of Indigenous Cultural Intellectual Property rights and recognition of cultural decision-making practices, ethics, and protocols. She has been the recipient of a Creative Fellowship at the State Library Victoria (2014) and a Hugh Williamson Fellowship at the University of Melbourne Archives (2015). The fellowships supported the co-developed scripting of the short film, ‘No–Longer a Wandering Spirit – Imaginaries of Bessy Flowers’ (2016).

John Bradley

John Bradley has worked for 40 years in the south west Gulf of Carpentaria. He is a speaker of Yanyuwa, Garrwa and Kriol Indigenous languages. Working with Yanyuwa elders, he has produced a two volume Yanyuwa encyclopediac dictionary as well as a Yanyuwa altas and the award-winning Singing Saltwater Country. He has been the senior anthropologist on a number of land claims in the south west Gulf of Carpentaria and more recently engaged in Native Title and issues associated with compensation. He works with local Indigenous ranger groups in respect to acknowledging Indigenous histories, language and cultural revitalisation. He is the founder of Wunungu Awara: Animating Indigenous Knowledges that is a part of the Monash Indigenous Studies Centre. Wunungu Awara works Australia wide using high end animation to help preserve endangered languages, their stories and song and knowledges for future generations.