Part of the La Trobe University Archaeology Seminar Series 2022, and presented by Associate Professor Michael Morrison, University of New England.
This seminar explores the ways in which the investigation of foodways can help to elicit deeper and more nuanced understandings of the histories and experiences of First Nations Peoples in colonial settings. I present results of ongoing research as part of the ARC-funded ‘Indigenous Foodways in Colonial Cape York Peninsula’ project which investigates these themes in partnership with a range of Aboriginal families and community organisations from central and western Cape York Peninsula, north-eastern Australia. I first briefly describe the context, genesis and direction of our study, before presenting results of our work at a number of key localities, including the former Weipa Mission within the homelands of Anathangayth Custodians. In doing so, my aim is to illustrate the role of Aboriginal foodways, labour and knowledge of Country in the political economy of mission settlement, and in the early histories of other settlements in the region.
About the speaker:
Associate Professor Michael Morrison is an archaeologist with a career-long focus on the heritage and histories of Aboriginal Custodians and their homelands in western and central Cape York Peninsula. This research has explored themes including coastal occupation and land-use during the late Holocene, cross-cultural entanglements and political economies in the colonial period, issues in cultural heritage management, and, in recent years, Aboriginal foodways, labour and power dynamics during the colonial period (~1865-1939). Dr Morrison is currently co-direct an ongoing joint ARC and community- funded research project investigating this latter theme. He is based at the University of New England where he teaches in digital humanities, archaeology and cultural heritage.
When: 3pm AEST, Thursday 19 May 2022
Where: Online via Zoom
To register: https://latrobe.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_oMO3D_1tQZ6TOtcRZtLSEg
For more information: contact Phillip Edwards, p.edwards@latrobe.edu.au