Northern Institute
We need our own anthropologist
| Presenter | Sam Williams, Researcher, Northern Institue | |
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| Date/Time |
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| Contact person |
Northern Institute
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| Location | Level 4, Room 16 | |
| Open to | Public | |
About
This presentation starts with the observation that there may be more people employed as ‘professional anthropologists’ in the Northern Territory of Australia than anywhere else in the world. At least since the advent of the Aboriginal Land Rights (NT) Act 1976, members of many Indigenous polities in Arnhem Land and elsewhere in the Northern Territory have been entangled with these professional anthropologists in (among other things) evidencing and exercising ownership of land under western legislation, and recording information such that places of spiritual significance can become ‘registered sacred sites’.
In the course of my anthropological work, I have been engaged in some of these institutional procedures that require knowledge generated by professional anthropologists. At the same time, I have found myself part of a collaboration with a group of Elders in Maningrida that began with the explicit statement: “We need our own anthropologist”. In this presentation, I will recount stories of these disparate ‘professional anthropological’ roles – one enacting the procedures of modern legislated institutions, the other being authored as an Indigenous institution’s “own anthropologist” – to inquire into the institutional work of the professional anthropological figure in the Northern Territory. The practices and procedures of knowledge making across these different (modern and Indigenous) institutions are radically disparate, authoring the anthropologist’s function in diverse ways. I explore the discomfort of this multiplicity and ask what possibilities there may be for working across these institutions.
Presenter
Sam Williams is a PhD candidate and research associate at the Northern Institute with a background in anthropology. Prior to commencing his PhD, Sam worked for four years as an anthropologist at the Northern Land Council.
Sam is engaged in a collaborative research project with senior Indigenous elders living in Maningrida that aims to reinvigorate relationships with a host of significant named places on the coast of north-central Arnhem Land. As commissioned by these elders, Sam is supporting the creation of an archive of video materials recorded at and with these places. Sam’s research asks how affective relationships to ancestral land and sea are expressed and experienced in Maningrida, and explores the various forces and institutions mediating contemporary people-place relationships.
Registration
In-person: Please RSVP to attend in person.
Online: Once you register, you will receive an individual link from Zoom no-reply@zoom.us.
Each seminar is recorded and linked to our Seminars page.
Getting there
Room 16, Level 4
Danala Education and Community Precinct
54 Cavenagh Street, Darwin City, NT, 0800
Google Maps Location
Access: If you have any additional access or support requirements, please contact us. Level 1 is street level and has bathrooms, CDU student services and security available on this floor. Please note that there will be directional signs on the event day and that the underground car parking is not available yet so please use the surrounding street parking.
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