Independent scholar, researcher, curator, valuer of Australian Indigenous cultural heritage collections & art, & undertake consultancy work incl. community engagement, repatriation, provenance research, museum development, significance assessments, etc. University of Melbourne Honorary Fellow, Research Associate at Museums Victoria, Listed Provider under Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protector Act 1984, & Expert Examiner for Protection of Cultural Heritage Act 1987. Over 40 years curatorial experience: Museums Victoria (1989-2018), University of Queensland's Anthropology Museum (1978-1989). Museum & field based research on material culture, collections & collecting (including with Indigenous scholars & communities). Partner Investigator on Australian Research Council Linkage Projects 'How Meston’s "Wild Australia Show" Shaped Australian Aboriginal History' & 'The Legacy of 50 Years Collecting at Milingimbi'; initiated the Milingimbi Makaratta Forum in 2016; curated 30+ major exhibitions; co-edited "The Makers and Making of Indigenous Australian Museum Collections" & "The Photographs of Baldwin Spencer" (MUP); published numerous book chapters, journal articles, essays/entries in exhibition catalogues. Broader research focus on visual anthropology; institutional & other collection histories; history of Indigenous art; Indigenous agency & representation in museums, collections & collecting; history, distribution & use of glass beads by Indigenous Australians.

Contemporary Indigenous Art, Cultural Heritage, Museums, Textiles / Fibre Arts, Visual Anthropology, Material Culture, Indigenous/non-Indigenous Relations, Cultural Technology, Applied Anthropology, Agency

Anthropology

Australian Anthropological Society (AAS)
European Society for Oceanists (ESfO)

Australia (area)

The Colonial time
20th century
21st century
Precolonial Australia