Centre for Contemporary Photography Free Lectures
Penny Edmonds & Jane Lydon
Date: Wednesday 15 September 6.15pm
Centre for Contemporary Photography, 404 George Street, Fitzroy, Australia
Further information: email: info@ccp.org.au Tel. 61 3 9417 1549
In their papers Penny Edmonds and Jane Lydon will address issues of Indigenous sovereignty and rights through colonial photography and performances.
Chaired by Kate Darian-Smith.
Penny Edmonds - ‘The Waitangi Treaty Photographic Tableau and the Idea of the ‘Maori Magna Carta”
In 1923 a set of photographic tableaux illustrating key historical moments between settlers and Maori peoples in Aotearoa New Zealand was produced. Penny explores this series, in particular Signing the Waitangi Treaty. In this tableau vivant we see how the Treaty was performed as the ‘Maori Magna Carta’, portraying the apparent transference of English liberties and rights to Maori peoples.
Dr Penny Edmonds is a historian at The University of Melbourne, with research interests in colonial histories, Australian and Pacific-region contact history, and visual culture. Penny is the author of Urbanizing Frontiers: Indigenous Peoples and Settlers in Nineteenth-Century Pacific Rim Cities (UBC Press, 2010).
Jane Lydon - ‘Bullets, Teeth and Photographs’
In 1927 an inquiry into the Forrest River massacre sent shockwaves across Australia. Photographic evidence was tendered to the inquiry: how were these images seen at the time? How should we look at them now? The horrified public preferred to look at more eloquent images of Indigenous suffering. This talk reviews these parallel ways of seeing Aboriginal people and the role of photography in arguing for Indigenous rights.
Dr Jane Lydon is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Australian Indigenous Studies at Monash University. Her books include Eye Contact: Photographing Indigenous Australians (Duke University Press, 2005) and Fantastic Dreaming: The Archaeology of an Aboriginal Mission (Altamira Press, 2009).
No bookings. Seats strictly limited. Gold coin donations gratefully accepted.
