This Western Australian Museum (WAM) Collections and Research Fellowship will enable us to work with WAM curators in Maritime Archaeology, Anthropology, History and Aquatic Zoology and relevant community representatives to undertake focused collections-based histories and research on the Western Australian Museum’s collections and museum stories. Our emphasis will be on drawing out histories of collections and collecting across the Southern Ocean frontiers to support new forms of interpretation and community engagement, unearthing stories to feed into the forthcoming Bicentenary of Albany in 2026. There is an opportunity to reflect on new ways of understanding the histories of the city and its region as part of broader networks of people, objects, and ideas across the Southern Ocean.  The Southern Ocean frontier in the early-mid 19th century was a mobile cross-cultural frontier network operating across the sites of Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania), Bass Strait, the Recherche Archipelago and Albany, and involved Indigenous people, sealers, whalers, and colonists, and facilitated the exchange of people, ideas and objects throughout the region. We will extend and develop approaches to understanding the histories of collections and collecting practices through the Southern Oceans and work towards outcomes for the 2026 Bicentenary to develop further connections between Deakin University and WAM.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Project Funding

This project is funded by the Foundation for the WA Museum Collections.