CDU Researcher Profile

School for Social and Policy Research
Institute of Advanced Studies
Charles Darwin University
11 St Georges Parade
Wentworth Falls
NSW 2782 Australia

• Research interests
• Publications
• Current projects
• Recent completions supervised

Research Interests

Ute's research interests include:

• Psychoanalytic Anthropology
• Social Theory
• Philosophy
• Social Transition
• Life-stages Psychology
• Child Development
• Play
• Art and Aesthetics
• Imagination
• Therapeutics
• Australian Indigenous Societies

Recent Publications

Books

1. (2001) Pitjantjatjara women’s art at Ernabella: genesis and transformations. Ph.D.diss. Microfiche Publication, Heidelberg University.
2. (1999)“Don’t Ask For Stories.” The Women from Ernabella and their Art - “Tjukurpa tjapintja wiya.” Minyma Anapalanya Ngurara Tjutangku Warka Palyantja Craftroomangka. Aboriginal Studies Press, The Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Studies: Canberra.

Book chapters and conference proceedings

1. Eickelkamp, U 2006, ‘Inscribing Freud: A Critical Review of Celia Brickmans' Aboriginal populations in the Mind’, The Australian Journal of Anthropology, Vol. 17, no. 1, pp86-104.

2. (2005) “We make lines, follow this direction, then I look and go the other way”. Excerpts from an ethnography of the aesthetic imagination of the Pitjantjatjara. In Heyd, T. /J. Clegg (eds), Rock Art and Aesthetics. Ashgate: London; chapter 10.
3. (Accepted for publication in 2001) On the meaning of form in Pitjantjatjara women’s art. In Waters A., C. McNamee, L. Steinbrenner, C. Clooney, G. McCafferty (eds), The 2000 Chacmool Conference Proceedings: An Odyssey of Space. The Chacmool Archaeological Association, Department of Archaeology, University of Calgary.
4. (1999) Anapalaku walka - Ernabella Design: a women’s art movement, South Australia. In Taylor, L. (Ed.), Painting the Land Story. Pp. 77-94. National Museum of Australia: Canberra.

Articles, reference entries, reviews, major research reports

1. (2006) 'Inscribing Freud'. A critical review of Celia Brickmans Aboriginal Populations in the Mind. TAJA 17 (1): 86-104.
2. (2005) Review of N. Sheppard, 2004, Sojourn on Another Planet. Gillingham Printers, Adelaide. In Australian Aboriginal Studies 1: 104-106.
3. (2005) Mapping culture: kin, country and making art at Ernabella. Research report to AIATSIS, Canberra.
4. (2005) Linking Sandplay and the Tiwi Life Promotion Project: A preliminary account. Research report to the School for Social and Policy Research, Charles Darwin University.
5. (2005) Australian Indigenous Religions: Mythic Themes [Further Perspectives]. L. Jones (Editor in Chief), The Encyclopedia of Religion Second Edition. Pp. 666-670. Macmillan Reference: New York.
6. (2004) Review of W. Schroeder, 2002. Ich reiste wie ein Buschmann. (Zum Leben und Wirken des Australienforschers Erhard Eylmann) (Life and Scientific Work of the Pioneer of Australian Culture Erhard Eylmann). WP Druck & Verlag Darmstadt. TAJA 15 (3).
7. (2004) Egos and ogres. Aspects of psychosexual development and cannibalistic demons in Central Australia. Oceania 74 (3): 161-89.
8. (2003) MAPITJAKUNA – Shall I go away from myself towards you? Being-with and looking-at across cultural divides. The Australian Journal of Anthropology 14 (3): 315-35.
9. (2000) Ernabella Arts Inc. In Kleinert, S. and M. Neale (eds), The Oxford Companion to Aboriginal Art and Culture. Pp. 581-2. Oxford University Press: Melbourne.
10. (1999) Review of Sam D. Gill, 1998. Storytracking. Texts, Stories, and Histories in Central Australia. Oxford University Press: New York, Oxford. Oceania 69 (4): 301-4.

Public lectures, conference and seminar papers

1. (2006) Meaning in the Making: A Study of Sand Stories by Anangu girls in Central Australia. Conference paper presented at Sand & Psyche: The First Australian Sandplay Conference. ANSZJA CGJI (Australian and New Zealand Society for Jungian Analysts/CG Jung Institute), Sydney.
2. (2006) Milpatjunanyi: Learning outside the classroom. Conference paper and workshop co-presented with Katrina Tjitayi at the 2006 Anangu Teachers Conference, Alice Springs.
3. (2006) It's for thinking in your head: Children's sand storytelling at Ernabella. Conference paper presented at the 2006 AAS (Australian Anthropological Society) Conference, Cairns.
4. (2006) Aliveness in Play: Developmental Perspectives on Sand Storytelling in Central Australia. Seminar presentation at the Postgraduate Seminar for Personality Dynamics, Department of Psychology, Sydney University.
5. (2006) Playing for Life: A Case Study of Childhood, Culture and Transition. Methodology of a basic research project. Seminar Presentation at the School for Social and Policy Research, Charles Darwin University.
6. (2005) The Artifice of Play. Conference presentation at the Charles Darwin Symposium Imagining Childhood: Children, Culture and Community, Araluen Centre, Alice Springs.
7. (2005) Researching Children’s Symbolic Play in Central Australia: Outline of methodology. Seminar presentation at Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education (BIITE), Darwin.
8. (2005) ‘I just start somewhere and keep going.’ On children’s art and communicating culture: an example from Central Australia. Public lecture given at the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, U.S.A.
9. (2005) Representing experience: symbolisation in Aboriginal children’s play stories. Seminar paper presented at the Child Development Institute, Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville, New York.
10. (2005) Symbols in the sand: a comparison of Australian Aboriginal children’s play in two settings. Seminar paper presented at the Department of Anthropology, University of Oslo, Norway.
11. (2005) Between myth and deed: forms of cannibalism in the Eastern Western Desert of Australia. Paper presented at the Scientific Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Art, Llubljana, Slovenia; (2004) at the In-house Seminar, School for Social and Policy Research, Charles Darwin University, and (2003) at the Staff Seminar, Department of Anthropology, Macquarie University.
12. (2004) Space in symbolic sandplay: comparing picture stories from a Western Desert community and Bathurst Island. Paper presented at the 2004 Annual Conference of the Australian Anthropological Society, Melbourne and at the Postgraduate Seminar for Personality Dynamics, Department of Psychology, Sydney University.
13. (2004) Exploring Sandplay with Aboriginal children. Paper presented at the conference Minding the Child by the Society for Psychoanalysis and Literature, Sydney.
14. (2004) Art as experience, art as history: a case study from Australia’s Western Desert. Anthropology Public Seminar Presentation, Charles Darwin University.
15. (2003) Poor, hungry and sick – and fast as lightning: anthropological notes on petrol sniffing in a Western Desert Aboriginal community. Macquarie Health Studies Public Lecture. http://www.chiro.mq.edu.au/HealthStudies/8.2003-PublicLectureSeries.htm.
16. (2003) Playing for life in Australia’s Western Desert. Paper presented at the research seminar, Department of Psychology, Macquarie University.
17. (2002) The meaning of style in a Western Desert Aboriginal art form. Paper presented at the staff seminar, Department of Anthropology, Macquarie University.
18. (2002) Aspects of ego development in an Australian Aboriginal culture. Paper presented at the staff seminar, Department of Anthropology, Melbourne University, 2002; an earlier version was presented at the postgraduate seminar on personality dynamics, Department of Psychology, Sydney University, 2001. 
19. (2001) The organismic-developmental approach to symbol formation by Heinz Werner and Bernard Kaplan. Paper presented in the postgraduate seminar on personality dynamics, Department of Psychology, Sydney University.
20. (1999) From children’s free drawings to a contemporary graphic style. Processes of design construction in Pitjantjatjara art. Staff seminar paper presented in the Department of Anthropology, Sydney University.
21. (1998) “Entering the field.” Ethnographic notes from Ernabella 1995 and 1940. Staff seminar paper presented in the Department of Anthropology, Sydney University.

Current Projects

Playing for Life: A Case Study in Childhood, Culture and Transition

Project Team: Ute Eickelkamp

Funding: Australian Research Council Discovery-Project Scheme

In July 2005 I began the anthropological research, Playing for Life, an exploration of children's inner world and social understanding through their imaginative play. Field site is the remote Anangu community Ernabella in Central Australia, where children’s relationships with their family and peers and their experiential meanings are investigated through the prism of a traditional sand storytelling game played by girls. The study seeks to contribute to basic knowledge on contemporary Indigenous childhood and towards establishing a methodology for this new research field. I also draw comparatively on psychotherapeutic research with Tiwi children in a northern island community, specifically with regard to the auto-therapeutic effect of play and the dynamics of transference. The project has led to collaborative work with Anangu organizations, including the production of tertiary teaching material, guest lectures for tertiary students at Ernabella, and an Anangu teachers conference co-presentation.

Duration: 2005-2008

Recent Completions Supervised