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(dis)Regarding the Savages: a short history of published images of Tasmanian Aborigines
Citation
Lehman, G, (dis)Regarding the Savages: a short history of published images of Tasmanian Aborigines, Graphic Encounters, 7 - 9 November 2018, Mebourne, Australia (2018) [Keynote Presentation]
Official URL: https://www.latrobe.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/...
Abstract
Images of colonial Australia by early artists such as Joseph Lycett are popular with
historians as a means of acknowledging Indigenous culture and relationships with land.
While some critical discussion may occur about the naivety of the artist’s understanding
of cultural complexity and diversity, these images are seldom adequately considered in
terms of the foundational role they played in the disempowerment and dispossession of
the First Nations that they depicted. Lycett’s images of Van Diemen’s Land in his Views of
Australia (1825) may appear as an innocuous record of colonial progress and aspiration
in the island colony, but betray a more sinister outlook for the Palawa people whose future
they accurately forecast. Greg Lehman will outline some of his recent research on the
representation of Tasmanian Aboriginal people by 19th century exploration and colonial
artists to reveal a dramatic shift in the visual archive; from celebration of noble savagery
by the engravers of Paris, to the proposition of terra nullius that emerged from London.
Item Details
Item Type: | Keynote Presentation |
---|---|
Keywords: | Aboriginal, Tasmania |
Research Division: | Indigenous Studies |
Research Group: | Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, society and community |
Research Field: | Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander sociology |
Objective Division: | Culture and Society |
Objective Group: | Understanding past societies |
Objective Field: | Understanding Australia's past |
UTAS Author: | Lehman, G (Professor Gregory Lehman) |
ID Code: | 145890 |
Year Published: | 2018 |
Deposited By: | Aboriginal Engagement |
Deposited On: | 2021-08-10 |
Last Modified: | 2021-08-10 |
Downloads: | 0 |
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