In:Land and Language in Cape York Peninsula and the Gulf Country
Edited by Jean-Christophe Verstraete and Diane Hafner
[Culture and Language Use 18] 2016
► pp. 435–454
On the edges of their memories
Reassembling the Lamalama cultural record from museum collections
Published online: 18 February 2016
https://doi.org/10.1075/clu.18.20all
https://doi.org/10.1075/clu.18.20all
This chapter explores the nature of current research models relating to Indigenous collections held by cultural institutions. I present insights into how two museum collections have been pivotal to the aspirations of Lamalama people – those of Herbert Hale and Norman Tindale (South Australian Museum, Adelaide); and of Donald Thomson, whose field material from Port Stewart in 1928 through to 1932 is on loan to Museum Victoria, Melbourne. In this chapter I reveal the value of applying a cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary research framework that brings together academic, curatorial and Indigenous interests, all of which are connected through the long standing relationships and close friendships between anthropologists and key Lamalama elders, many now passed away.
References (43)
Allen, Lindy. 2003. Regular hunting grounds: A history of collecting Indigenous artefacts in North Queensland. In Story Place: Indigenous Art of Cape York and the Rainforest. Brisbane: Queensland Art Gallery. 30–37.
. 2005. A photographer of brilliance. In Bruce Rigsby & Nicolas Peterson, eds. Donald Thomson: The Man and Scholar. Canberra: Academy of Social Sciences. 45–62.
. 2008. Tons and tons of valuable material: The Donald Thomson collection. In Nicolas Peterson, Lindy Allen & Louise Hamby, eds. The Makers and Making of Australian Indigenous Collections. Melbourne: Melbourne University Publishing. 387–418.
Allen, Lindy & Diane Hafner. 2008. The Lamalama and their heritage material in European museums. Museums Australia Magazine 16: 8–9.
Allen, Lindy & Louise Hamby. 2010. Pathways to knowledge: Research, agency and power relations in the context of collaborations between museums and source communities. In Rodney Harrison, Robin Torrence, Sarah Byrne a Annie Clark, eds. Unpacking the Collections: Networks of Material and Social Agency in the Museum. New York: Springer. 209–230.
Bassani, Sunlight. 1990. Letter to Ross Rolfe, Director of Aboriginal Affairs, Brisbane. 15 January.
Bolton, Lissant. 2003. The object in view: Aborigines, melanesians and museums. In Laura Peers & Alison Brown, eds. Museums and Source Communities. London: Routledge. 42–54.
Bottoms, Timothy. 2013. Conspiracy of Silence: Queensland’s Frontier Killing Times. Sydney: Allen and Unwin.
Edwards, Robert & Jenny Stewart, eds. 1980. Preserving Indigenous Cultures: A New Role for Museums. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service.
Erckenbrecht, Corinna. 2010. Auf der Suche nach den Ursprüngen - Die Australienreise des Anthropologen und Sammlers Hermann Klaatsch 1904 – 1907 (The Australian journey (1904 - 1907) of the German Anthropologist and Collector Hermann Klaatsch). Cologne: Wienand-Verlag.
Fienup-Riordin, Ann, ed. 2005. Yup’ik Elders at the Ethnologisches Museum Berlin: Fieldwork Turned on Its Head. Seattle: University of Washington Press.
Hafner, Diane. 2005. Images of Port Stewart: Possible interpretations. In Bruce Rigsby & Nicolas Peterson, eds. Donald Thomson: The Man and Scholar. Canberra: Academy of Social Sciences. 211–230.
. 2008. The past, present: Lamalama interactions with memory and technology. In Bianca Pirana & Ivan Varga, eds. The New Boundaries Between Bodies and Technologies. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. 250–267.
. 2012. Lamalama people and objects: The location and sustainability of indigenous geritage. International Journal of Sustainability and Development 2: 17–28.
Hafner, Diane, Bruce Rigsby & Lindy Allen. 2007. Museums and memory as agents of social change. The International Journal of the Humanities 5: 87 -94.
Hale, Herbert. 1926-1927. Diary (unpublished), Herbert Hale Archive, State Library of South Australia, Adelaide.
. 1927. A museum quest. Naturalists in tropical Queensland. By Herbert Hale, Zoologist, South Australian Museum. Quotes from copies of newspaper articles (May 11, 12, 13). Album, Herbert Hale Archive, State Library of South Australia.
Hale, Herbert & Norman Tindale. 1933. Aborigines of Princess Charlotte Bay, North Queensland. Part 1. Records of the South Australian Museum 5: 64–116.
. 1934. Aborigines of Princess Charlotte Bay, North Queensland. Part 2. Records of the South Australian Museum 5: 117–172.
Jones, Philip. 2008. The “idea behind the artefact”: Norman Tindale’s early years as a salvage ethnographer. In Nicolas Peterson, Lindy Allen & Louise Hamby, eds. The Makers and Making of Australian Indigenous Collections. Melbourne: Melbourne University Publishing. 315–354.
Khan, Kate. 2004. Catalogue of the Roth Collection of Aboriginal Artefacts from North Queensland, Volumes 1–4. Sydney: Australian Museum.
Memmott, Paul & Shaneen Fantin. 2005. The study of indigenous ethno-architecture in Australia. In Bruce Rigsby & Nicolas Peterson, eds. Donald Thomson. The Man and Scholar. Canberra: Academy of Social Sciences. 185–210.
Museums Australia. 1993, revised 2005. Continuous Cultures, Ongoing Responsibilities - Principles and guidelines for Australian museums working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural heritage. Electronic document, [URL]
Rigsby, Bruce & Nicolas Peterson, eds. Donald Thomson: The Man and Scholar. Canberra: Academy of Social Sciences. 185–210.
Rigsby, Bruce. 1989. Unpublished manuscript (incomplete). Copy in possession of author (pages 19-22 only).
. 4 July 1989. Letter to Lindy Allen, Museum Victoria, 2 pages.
. 1990. Letter to Ross Rolfe, Department of Aboriginal Affairs, Brisbane, 29 January, 5 pages.
Rigsby, Bruce & Lesley Jolly. 1994. Liddy, H. In David Horton, ed. The Encyclopedia of Aboriginal Australia. Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press. 618–619.
Rigsby, Bruce 1999. Genealogies, kinship and local group composition: Old Yintjingga (Port Stewart) in the late 1920s. In Julie Finlayson, Bruce Rigsby & Hilary Bek, eds. Connections in Native Title: Genealogies, Kinship and Groups. Canberra: Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research, Australian National University. 192–218.
. 2005. The languages of Eastern Cape York peninsula and linguistic anthropology. In Bruce Rigsby & Nicolas Peterson, eds. Donald Thomson: The Man and Scholar. Canberra: Academy of Social Sciences. 129–142.
Rigsby, Bruce & Athol Chase. 1998. The sandbeach people and dugong hunters of Eastern Cape York Peninsula: Property in land and sea country. In Nicolas Peterson & Bruce Rigsby, eds. Customary Marine Tenure in Australia. Sydney: University of Sydney. 192–218.
Rigsby, Bruce & Noelene Cole, eds. 2006. Lamalama Country. Our Country. Our Culture-Way. Paddy Bassani & Albert Lakefield with Tom Popp. Brisbane: Akito Pty Ltd with Queensland Government.
Sutton, Peter. 2005. Science and sensibility on a foul frontier: Flinders Island, 1935. In Bruce Rigsby & Nicolas Peterson, eds. Donald Thomson: The Man and Scholar. Canberra: Academy of Social Sciences. 143–158.
Thomson, Donald. 1928a. Journal entry, October 4. Unpublished manuscript, Donald Thomson Collection, Museum Victoria.
. 1928b. Unpublished field notes, Donald Thomson Collection, Museum Victoria.
. 1933. The hero cult, initiation and totemism on Cape York. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 63: 453–537.
. 1934. The dugong hunters of Cape York. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 64: 237–266.
Cited by (1)
Cited by one other publication
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 8 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.
