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Aboriginal Visual Histories: People and institutions

The project team

Chief investigators: Monash University

Researchers

sari braithwaite

Sari Braithwaite (Monash University, Victoria)

Sari graduated from the Australian National University with Honours in History in 2007. Since then she has worked as a research assistant in various aspects of Australian Indigenous history, holding positions at the Australian National University and The National Museum of Australia. Most of her research for AVH will be undertaken at the State Library of Victoria.

Lea Gardam (South Australian Museum, South Australia)

Lea Gardam is a northwest coast Tasmanian woman who has made her home in Adelaide. She began her career in 1998 as a trainee at the South Australian Museum with the Aboriginal Family History Unit. Lea moved into various departments within the Museum including researcher for the development of the $19.7 m Australian Aboriginal Cultures Gallery and the Indigenous Information Centre and Archives.

In 2004-2006, Lea was appointed to Blackfella Films as the Film and Stills Researcher for the SBS documentary series “First Australians”. In 2006 Lea studied film at the Adelaide Centre for the Arts with a focus on developing Indigenous screen content. She co-directed and edited her first short film titled Red, Yellow, Black, a four-minute documentary film based on the history of the Aboriginal flag.

Most recently, Lea was chosen to participate in the South Australian Aboriginal Women’s Leadership Program which bought together a dynamic group of women who focussed on effective leadership styles including networking, communication, lobbying and discussing issues around culturally supportive workplace environments. Lea’s current position is Archives Collection Manager and her role is to oversee the South Australian Museum’s extensive Archive Collections.

Donna Oxenham

Donna Oxenham (West Australia)

Donna Oxenham is a Yamajti woman and a descendant of the Malgana people of Shark Bay in the northwest of Western Australia. She also has extensive links into the Nyungar community through her grandfather, who was a Wardandi man from the Busselton area in the southwest of Western Australia. In 2006 Donna was a visiting Research Fellow at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies. Also in 2008 Donna was employed as a researcher involved with the Stolen Wages Project facilitated by the Department of Indigenous Affairs.

Donna has worked with Indigenous people, groups and organisations throughout Western Australia, and the broader Australian Indigenous community, particularly within the field of arts, history, cultural heritage and native title. In 2002-2003 Donna was the Cultural Heritage Officer at the Yamatji Marlpa Barna Baba Maaja Aboriginal Corporation. In 2004 Donna was a Policy Officer with the South West Aboriginal Land and Sea Council. Of particular significance, Donna was employed by the Berndt Museum of Anthropology from 2000-2002 to facilitate the digitization, restoration and repatriation of Indigenous photographic collections. Through her positions, tertiary studies and her research fellowship, Donna has gained considerable experience in undertaking a range of research and related tasks on Indigenous children, families and communities.

Sue Stanton

Sue Stanton (Northern Territory)

Dr Sue J Stanton is a Kungarakan-Gurindji woman, born in Larrakia Country (Darwin) Northern Territory, Australia. She is a Fulbright Scholar and a colonial historian interested in making contrasts and comparisons as well as contested approaches in relation to all matters that deal with western colonialism and other imperialist regimes that have over-run Indigenous and other non-white societies. Other scholarship includes analyses of the patterns of white superiority and white privilege; examinations of the narratives of justification of the factors and processes of colonialism – past and present; placing Aboriginal people back into Australian historical landscapes, especially in the Northern Territory.

Her first degree is in History (Double majors) – Australian, European, South East Asian, Northern Territory University (1995); graduate MA in American Indian Studies – Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy & International Indigenous Human Rights Law, University of Arizona (1997); PhD in History/Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Studies, Charles Darwin University (2007).

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