Elder Assessments of Early Material Culture Collections from Arnhem Land and Contemporary Access Needs to Them among Their Source Communities

Over 2007 and 2008 the ARC Indigenous Fellowship holder Dr Joseph Neparrŋa Gumbula, his co-project recipient Dr Aaron Corn, and the University of Sydney Archives have worked together to on a significant project assessing some of the earliest photographs and other records materials from the north-eastern Arnhem Land communities of Miliŋinbi (Milingimbi) and Galiwin’ku.

Neparrŋa Gumbula and his brother Milaypuma Gaykamaŋu researching in the University of Sydney Archives – Photo by Aaron Corn 2007

The ARC project is the first research project of its kind to be led by a Liya-Ŋärra’mirri (Learned, Wise) Yolŋu Elder from Arnhem Land. Dr Gumbula is a leading authority on material culture from Arnhem Land and is able as a duly-appointed Yolŋu Elder, to identify, interpret and re-assess their holdings within Indigenous legal and intellectual frames of reference.

Project Aims

The first aim of this project has been to assess collections of material culture from Arnhem Land held in the University of Sydney Archives, in particular photographs of Miliŋinbi and surrounds taken by the anthropologist William Lloyd Warner in 1927-29, and the missionary T.T. Webb from 1926-1939, as well as records created by Professor AP Elkin and Dr Annie Margaret McArthur. Dr Gumbula has also explored collections of Warner and Webb materials worldwide to elicit the broadest perspectives possible on the early decades of the establishment of the Miliŋinbi community.

The second aim of the project has been to set out to consultatively determine the access needs of contemporary communities in Arnhem Land to these collections, considering how developing digital technologies can be deployed to facilitate remote regional access, and what new access protocols can be implemented in partnership by host institutions and source communities to ensure secure data transfers and protect against unauthorised uses.

To this end, the project team has visited Miliŋinbi and Galiwin’ku and met with key elders whose family are depicted in the images. The photographs are being categorised into garma, dhuni and ngarra access groups according to Yolngu way, and the information about the images is being entered into a database.

Project Team

Dr ‘Joe’ Neparrŋa Gumbula Koori Centre, The University of Sydney
Joseph Neparrŋa Gumbula is an eminent Yolŋu elder, artist and intellectual. He is descended from a long line of prominent Yolŋu leaders whose contributions to dialogue and understanding between Indigenous and other Australians date from the 1920s, and is a foremost authority on international collections of material culture from Arnhem Land. He frequently advises major state collection including Museum Victoria, and is a key figure in the development of Indigenous Knowledge Centres in remote Australia. As a leading authority on Yolŋu law, knowledge and culture, Neparrŋa contributes to numerous studies and cultural survival initiatives including the ‘National Recording Project for Indigenous Performance in Australia’. From 2003 to 2005, he worked as a Senior Fellow in Australian Indigenous Studies at the University of Melbourne. He currently works as an Indigenous Research Fellow in Curatorial Studies funded by the Australian Research Council at the University of Sydney, and his current ARC Discovery–Project investigates materials from Arnhem Land dating from the 1920s in the A. P. Elkin Personal Archives. He tours internationally as a director and lead performer with traditional companies such as the Gupapuyŋu Dancers, and was awarded the Doctor of Music honoris causa by the University of Sydney in 2007.
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Dr Aaron ‘Gananhdharr’ Corn School of Letters Art & Media, The University of Sydney
Aaron Corn is an Australian Post-Doctoral Fellow in Ethnomusicology at the University of Sydney. His current Australian Research Council Discovery–Project, ‘When the Waters Will Be One’, explores innovation in the transposition of Indigenous performance traditions from Arnhem Land into new media and socio-economic contexts. He is a founding contributor to the ‘National Recording Project for Indigenous Performance in Australia’, and serves as Mentor to the University of Sydney’s first Indigenous Research Fellow, Dr Neparrŋa Gumbula, in his investigation of historical materials from Arnhem Land in the A. P. Elkin Personal Archives. Aaron’s research and publications span Anthropology, Cultural Studies, Indigenous Studies, Australian Studies, Acoustics and Music. He has contributed to numerous Indigenous cultural survival initiatives in Arnhem Land over the past decade. Aaron convenes the annual Symposium on Indigenous Performance in Arnhem Land, and has developed immersive coursework programmes on Yolŋu culture for the University of Melbourne and the University of Sydney through which students attend the Garma Festival.

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Contact information

General enquiries about the project can be directed the University of Sydney Archives Reference Archivist.