Research Staff Professor Lynette Russell
Director and Deputy Dean, Faculty of Arts
Centre for Australian Indigenous Studies (CAIS)
Room 215
990 54207
lynette.russell@arts.monash.edu.au
I trained as an archaeologist before turning to historical and Indigenous studies and the application of post-colonial theory. Consquently I have published widely in the areas of Archaeological theory, Aboriginal History, post-colonialism and representation of race. Savage Imaginings explored authorised historical and contemporary constructions of Australian Indigeneity however A Little Bird Told Me presented a more personal account of Aboriginality based on the life of a Wotjabaluk woman imprisoned in a series of mental institutions in the early part of the 20th century. I have edited Colonial Frontiers: Indigenous-European Interactions in Settler Colonies and co-edited Constructions of Colonialism: Perspectives on Eliza Fraser's Shipwreck and recently completed a book with Dr Ian McNiven on the colonial underpinnings of archaeology as practiced in settler societies entitled Appropriated Pasts: Indigenous Peoples and the Colonial Culture of Archaeology (AltaMira Press). In 2005 Boundary Writing: An Exploration of Race, Culture, and Gender Binaries in Contemporary Australia,(University of Hawaii Press) was published. I am currently working on a new book on Indigenous workers in the early sealing industry.
The driving force in all of my research is an exploration of the sociology (and socio-politics) of knowledge. In short I aspire to understand not merely the past but how we come to know the past, how we describe, categorise, interpret and analyse it.
Teaching
I co-teach honours coursework units.
Postgraduate Supervision
I am very serious about the importance of supervision and the postgraduate research process. I currently supervise a number of PhD and masters students in a range of areas. These include: Indigenous knowledge systems, Aboriginal History, Torres Strait islands settlement history, Australian archaeology and ethics of research and Indigenous education.
As a guiding principal I believe that it is a privilege to be allowed to work with ATSI people and materials. It is for that reason that I believe it is important to disseminate information in both the popular and academic arenas. I am also committed to the production of non-jargon research reports for Aboriginal communities
ARC Project
Title:
Food, Traditional Aboriginal Knowledge and the Expansion of the Settler Economy
Description:
Aboriginal people have lived on the Australian continent for tens of thousands of years during which time they developed deep and sophisticated ecological knowledge. Some of this knowledge, particularly as it applies to food procurement was passed onto settler Australians who were often uncertain how to obtain food or grow crops in the harsh Australian environment. This project examines the ways that Aboriginal knowledge was transferred to the newcomers and how it was used over 175 years (1788-1963). Today as we face significant environmental challenges this project asks what lessons can we learn from Australia’s deep traditional Aboriginal food knowledge.
Chief Investigators:
Professor Lynette Russell (Director Centre for Australian Indigenous Studies, and Deputy Dean, Faculty of Arts)
Professor Marcia Langton (Chair of Australian Indigenous Studies, University of Melbourne) http://www.chs.unimelb.edu.au/about/staff/professor_marcia_langton
Dr Zane Ma Rhea (Faculty of Education, Monash University) http://www.education.monash.edu.au/profiles/zmarhea
Relevant Links:
Indigenous Education in a Changing World
http://www.education.monash.edu.au/indigenous-ed/
For further information please email Indigenous.Food@arts.monash.edu.au
Project Date: 2008-2010
Research Publications
Monographs
Appropriated Pasts: Indigenous Peoples and the Colonial Culture of
Archaeology, AltaMira Press with Ian McNiven
http://www.altamirapress.com
Boundary Writing: An Exploration of Race, Culture, and Gender Binaries in Contemporary Australia (edited), University of Hawaii Press.
A Little Bird Told Me, Allen and Unwin, 2002.
Colonial Frontiers: Cross-cultural interactions in Settler Colonies, Studies in Imperialism, Manchester University Press, March 2001.
Savage Imaginings: historical and contemporary representations of Australian Aboriginalities, Australian Scholarly Publications 2001.
Constructions of Colonialism: Perspectives on Eliza Fraser's shipwreck,(Edited with Ian McNiven and Kay Schaffer), Leicester University Press. 1998
Chapters in Books
The Undecided in Boundary Writing: living across the boundaries of race, sex and gender University of Hawaii Press.
'Either, Or, Neither Nor' resisting the production of dichotomies; gender race and class in the pre-colonial period in Beyond Identities, edited by Eleonore Cassella and Chris Fowler, Plenum/ Kluwer Press. 2005
"Towards a postcolonial archaeology of Indigenous Australia", in H.D.G. Maschner and R. A. Bentley (eds) Handbook of Archaeology Theories, Altimira Press.
"Ritual response: Rock art, sorcery and ceremony on the Australian colonial frontier", in M. Wilson and B. David (eds) Constructed Landscapes; Rock-Art, Place and Identity. University of Hawaii Press. 2002 (with Ian McNiven)
"Dioramas at the Museum of Victoria", in C. Rasmussen (ed.) A History of the Museum of Victoria, Museum Victoria. 2002
"Archaeology and Star Trek: Exploring the past while investigating the future", in Miles Russell (ed) Archaeology and Science Fiction, pp 20-35.Bournemouth University Press. 2002
"Gone Walkabout: images of Aboriginal Australia in the 1950s", in Julie Marcus (ed) Picturing the Primitif, pp 195- 211, LBR Press. 2000
"The Wurundjeri of Melbourne and Port Philip", Encyclopaedia of World's Endangered Indigenous People, pp 220-245, Greenwood, New York. 2000
"Mere Trifles and Faint Representations: the representations of savage life offered by Eliza Fraser", in I. McNiven, L. Russell and K. Schaffer (ed)Constructions of Colonialism: Perspectives on Eliza Fraser's shipwreck, pp 51-63, Leicester University Press. 1998
"Focusing on the past: visual and textual images of Aboriginal Australia in museums and archaeology". In B. Molyneux (ed.) The Cultural Life of Images, pp 230-248, Routledge. 1997
Journal Articles
"Kangaroo Island Sealers and their descendants: ethnic and gender ambiguities in the archaeology of a creolised community", Australian Archaeology.
"Indigenous Community Aspirations-Heritage, Education and the Possibility of Self- Determination", The Artefact.
"Drinking from a pen holder: Can archaeology recover past intentions?"Cambridge Archaeological Journal 2004: 63-67.
"Public Records Private Life: The Story Of One Aboriginal Woman And Her Journey From Non-Citizen To Citizen". Australian Women in University's e-journal, 2003.
"The Instrument Brings on Voices: life story narratives and family history",Meanjin, pp 145-152, Vol (60)3, 2001.
"Bunjilaka Brooding", Meanjin Vol.60(4) pp.99-103. 2001.
"Where is the Past? Locating archaeological discourses and narratives in the Melbourne
Museum", The Artefact. Vol.23 pp.3-8. 2000.
"Those wonderful creatures that they had captured": reading the exhibition of the Australian Wild-children, Journal of Australian Studies, 2001, 70(1), 57-62.
"Beyond the Final Frontier: Star Trek, the Borg and the Post-colonial", in Intensities: Journal of cult studies, Vol 1(1) 2001, pp 10-24.
"Well nigh impossible to describe": dioramas, displays and representations of Australian Aborigines. Australian Aboriginal Studies. 1999 (2), pp25-34.
Monumental Colonialism: megaliths and the appropriation of Australia's Aboriginal past, Journal of Material Culture, Vol.3(3):283-301. (with Ian McNiven). 1998
A Question of Violence. Arena (37): 20. 1998
"Strange paintings" and "mystery races": Kimberley rock-art, diffusionism and colonialist constructions of Australia's Aboriginal past,Antiquity 71:801-809. (with Ian McNiven). 1997
Going Walkabout in the 1950's: Images of 'traditional' Aboriginal Australia, Olive Pink Society Bulletin, Vol 6(1): 5-8. 1995
Place With A Past: Reconciling Wilderness And The Aboriginal Past In World Heritage Areas, Royal Historical Society of QueenslandJournal, Vol 15(11): 505-519. (with I. McNiven). 1995
Australian Aborigines: New perceptions and altered states, Current Anthropology, Vol 35(2): 202-205. 1995
Institutions
I have been a visiting fellow at the following institutions:
- University of British Columbia
- Trent University
- Cambridge University
- Smithsonian Institution
- British Museum
- Klagenfurt University