Sector-first approach to Indigenous health research
Community members and top medical bodies across the Hunter and New England regions have joined forces in a powerful bid … Read more
Purai is an Awabakal word meaning “the world, earth”.
The Purai Global Indigenous History Centre is an exciting research initiative integrating global and transnational analytical perspectives and frameworks with research on Indigenous and diaspora histories and other related histories of race.
Drawing upon our extensive national and international connections throughout the world, Purai harnesses collaborations that lead to high-quality original research projects and the development of productive new knowledge networks.
By integrating Indigenous and transnational/transcolonial global historical scholarship with approaches from a range of disciplines, Purai aims to generate new and ground-breaking interdisciplinary research methodologies for the study of global Indigenous histories.
Hosted by the Purai Global Indigenous History Centre, held at the Newcastle NSW Conservatorium of Music, this conference started with a Welcome to Country and opening address by Dr Ray Kelly, discussing the meaning of Bayira. The People's Chorus sang Freedom, Weevils in the Flour (Wendy Lowenstein) and If I Were Free. Cooks Hill Youth Forum spoke about important Newcastle historical events, such as the first Aboriginal May Queen, the Possum Skin Cloak Project and personal identity. The drama group also sung performance pieces on The Voice Referendum.
Kerri Clarke, an Indigenous artist of Boon Wurrung descent who is known for her work with animal skins, and her son Mitch Mahoney talked about making possum skin cloaks, which involves cutting and sewing possum pelts together then etching designs into the skin with wood burning tools, sometimes adding colour with paint or beads. Kerri and Mitch also talked about their role in the Ngukurr to Newcastle project . Professor Kate Senior also talked about the Ngukurr to Newcastle project Dexter Daniels, and intercultural collaboration for Indigenous rights. “Bayira, meaning to stand up and to speak, was a people’s conference held to celebrate the history of Newcastle’s engagement with Indigenous rights,” Professor Senior said.
Later, in the evening a Paint and Yarn workshop was held by Mr Mahoney in the foyer where participants painted their own clapsticks. Carole Johnson, founder of NAISDA (National Aboriginal and Islander Skills Association) and Bangarra Dance Theatre, spoke about urban dance and activism. Then Dr Jean Harkins and Nicholas K Watson finished the evening with a conversation about Indigenous languages.
Youth forum: Crystal, Kayla, Kynan, Matilda & Lily (L-R)
Angelina Joshua Ngukurr community
Mitch Mahoney: Boon Wurrung & Barkindji man
Samantha Dagg: Hunter Workers
Nicholas K Watson & Dr Jean Harkins L-R
Dr Ray Kelly: Linguist and community researcher
Lily Vodic Senior
Bayira drama youth forum
In the school grounds of Cooks Hill Campus of Newcastle High School, on a chilly July morning in 2022, a fire bucket is burning. 36 possum skins are arranged on a decorated table. Earlier on, teachers had climbed up ladders to gather eucalyptus leaves for the traditional fire smoking ceremony. The whole school of about 250 students drift in, they are both wary and curious about the possum skins...
This project is part of a larger University of Newcastle project, Ngukurr to Newcastle, a collaboration with the Ngukurr community in Southeast Arnhem Land which celebrates the unexpected linkages between Ngukurr and Newcastle through the legacy of a largely forgotten Aboriginal activist, Dexter Daniels.
The Cooks Hill component involved the creation of a possum skin cloak as a vehicle for Australian high school students to learn about forgotten aspects of Indigenous history. As they worked from being novices in cloak-making to creators of a new possum skin cloak, they also learnt about the anthropological skills of being a participant observer. When the cloak was pieced together, each student was wrapped in the cloak and photographed.
During this process, the students also created art works combining their stories with images and sharing the resulting exhibition with the Newcastle community in a presentation for 2022 Social Science Week. Students talked to the public about their experiences and told the Dexter Daniels’ story and his connection to the town at a café opposite the old Trades Hall where Dexter Daniels met with the unions in the 1960s and 70s. The combination of their images, art works and stories all became part of a living archive.
Students from the Cooks Hill Campus at Newcastle High School gather together for a smoking ceremony marking the beginning of the possum skin cloak cloak-making project
Local Elder, Uncle Jimmy Wilson Miler, performs a smoking ceremony at Cooks Hill Campus thanking the possums for their sacrifice.
Smoking ceremony at Cooks Hill Campus thanking the possums for their sacrifice.
Smoking ceremony at Cooks Hill Campus thanking the possums for their sacrifice.
Possum skins at Cooks Hill Campus smoking ceremony
Cooks Hill Campus students sorting through possum pelts
Laying out the possum skin cloak
Laying out the possum skin cloak
Cook Hill Campus students cutting & stitching
Partly stitched possum skin
Blanket stitch used to stitch the skins together
Stitched piece of possum skin cloak
Burning designs into the skin
Designing the artwork for future exhibition
Reconstructed possum skin cloak ready for burning design stage
Wrapping Cook Hill Campus students in their possum skin cloak
Wrapping a Cook Hill Campus students in possum skin cloak
Indigenous cloak maker, Kerri Clarke & teacher, Sheri Bird wrap a student in possum skin cloak, Cooks Hill Campus
Indigenous cloak maker, Kerri Clarke & teacher, Sheri Bird wrap a student in possum skin cloak, Cooks Hill Campus
Indigenous cloak maker, Kerri Clarke & teacher, Sheri Bird wrap a student in possum skin cloak, Cooks Hill Campus
Indigenous cloak maker, Kerri Clarke & teacher, Sheri Bird wrap a student in possum skin cloak, Cooks Hill Campus
Cooks Hill Campus student tries on possum skin cloak.
Cooks Hill Campus student proudly wears a possum skin cloak
Cooks Hill Campus student proudly wearing the completed cloak
It started with a yarn that was transformed into a poem and grew into a video documentary, a community exhibition with a one-act play, opera piece and travelling exhibition.
Led by Dr Lorina Barker from the University of New England (UNE), Looking Through Windows: Tablelands, the coast to outback NSW is an oral history, artistic and multimedia project exploring the removal, dispossession and ‘protection’ of Aboriginal people in New South Wales and parts of Queensland and South Australia.
Part of the exhibition included a tin humpy recreated in the gallery's grounds.
But the exhibition wasn't the only event planned, a talk and tour for Young Adults in the Hunter area's refugee cohort and a weaving workshop at Wollotuka Institute were also part of Dr Barker's and Michael Brogan's (Taragara Aboriginal Corporation) busy schedule that week.
Humpy: Looking Through Windows exhibition
Humpy interior: Looking Through Windows exhibition
Humpy in UoN Gallery grounds: Looking Through Windows
Humpy installed in UoN Gallery grounds: Looking Through Windows exhibition
Humpy in UoN Gallery gardens: Looking Through Windows exhibition
Simon Mellor stands in the door of the humpy he recreated for the Looking Through Windows exhibition.
Taragara Aboriginal Corporation: Looking Through Windows exhibition
Dr Lorina Barker talks to a member of the Hunter's refugee cohort: Looking Through Windows exhibition
Members of the Hunter's refugee cohort on their Looking Through Windows exhibition tour
Members of the Hunter's refugee young adult cohort listen to Dr Lorina Barker taking about the Looking Through Windows exhibition
Mr Louis Ndagijimana (L) CEEHE Program Co-ordinator, Ms Gillean Shaw (C) UoN Art Curator and Dr Lorina Barker (R) Exhibition curator, UNE
Dr Lorina Barker (UNE) talking to young adults from the Hunter's refugee cohort about the Looking Through Windows exhibition
Two young adults from the Hunter's refugee cohort: Looking Through Windows exhibition
Four young men from the Hunter's refugee cohort: Looking Through Windows exhibition
Two young men from the Hunter's refugee cohort: Looking Through Windows exhibition
Weaving workshop, Wollotuka Institute: Looking Through Windows exhibition
Weaving workshop, Wollotuka Institute: Looking Through Windows exhibition
Weaving workshop, Wollotuka Institute: Looking Through Windows exhibition
Weaving workshop, Wollotuka Institute: Looking through Windows exhibition
Weaving workshop, Wollotuka Institute: Looking Through Windows exhibition
Weaving workshop, Wollotuka Institute: Looking Through Windows exhibition
Weaving workshop, Wollotuka Institute: Looking Through Windows exhibition
Weaving workshop, Wollotuka Institute: Looking Through Windows exhibition
It was an evening that will be fondly remembered for many years to come with distinguished Professor Larissa Behrendt AO delivering the inaugural John Maynard Aboriginal History Lecture at University House to an on-line and face-to-face audience of over 180.
As part of the Purai Global Indigenous History Centre showcase, the event focused on the unconventional legacies of Emeritus Professor Maynard and launched a webisode introducing the stories of historical individuals who had inspired Professor Maynard’s research and writing.
Co-director of the Purai Indigenous Global History Centre, Professor Victoria Haskins, rounded off the evening by showing how the centre fosters collaborative transnational and comparative Indigenous research networks, the Ayahs and Amahs: Transcolonial Servants in Australia and Britain 1780-1945 project being the most current of these endeavours.
Purai Team: L-R Jason de Santola, Padraic Gibson, Cara Cross, Distinguished Professor Larissa Behrendt, Emeritus Professor John Maynard, Professor Victoria Haskins, Carole Johnston, Srishti Guha, Truman Smith, Sachiyo Tsukamoto, Jacqueline Wright
L-R: Loren Collyer, Rickelle Peris, Jade Nicholson & Tammy Small
L-R: John & Marie Ramsland, Associate Professor Kathleen Butler & daughter, Phoebe Butler
Wollotuka Students: Cara Cross and Truman Smith
L-R: Jason de Santola, Padraic Gibson, Emeritus Professor John Maynard, Distinguished Professor Larissa Behrendt & Associate Professor Pauline Clague
Mr Nathan Towney, Pro Vice-Chancellor. Office of Indigenous Strategy & Leadership
A captivated audience: John Maynard Aboriginal History Lecture and Purai Showcase
Distinguished Professor Larissa Behrendt delivers the inaugural John Maynard Aboriginal History Lecture
Associate Professor Pauline Clague
Professor Alex Zelinsky, Vice Chancellor, University of Newcastle
Professor Victoria Haskins, Purai Co-Director
L-R: Jason de Santola, Padraic Gibson, Emeritus Professor John Maynard
Jason de Santola & Emeritus Professor John Maynard
L-R: Jason de Santola, Amanda Kelly & Ray Kelly Senior
Invited guests: Lyndall Ryan (centre L) & Margot Ford (centre R)
Head of School, Wollotuka Institute: Associate Professor Kathleen Butler
Pro Vice-Chancellor Academic Excellence: Professor Jennifer Milam
Invited guests: Nick Saunders (L) & Michael Lavarch (R)
Purai Affiliate: Associate Professor Tamara Young (L), Nick Saunders (C) & Kevin McConkey
Emeritus Professor John Maynard (R) with invited guests
The University of Newcastle acknowledges the traditional custodians of the lands within our footprint areas: Awabakal, Darkinjung, Biripai, Worimi, Wonnarua, and Eora Nations. We also pay respect to the wisdom of our Elders past and present.