The End of Deep History? The Finale
To mark the closure of the Research Centre for Deep History and the completion of the seven-year Laureate program, we ran a day-long event entitled The End of Deep History? On the 19th February 2025, we had plenty of time to ponder the value of ‘deep history’, where we’ve been as a team, and whether deep history had a future.
The group was warmly welcomed by Aunty Dr Matilda House, Ngunnawal, Ngambri and Wiradjuri elder. Matilda had launched the Centre in 2019 at the same venue, China and the World Centre. She explained how she was right behind us, supporting the team’s work, and that she would always be here for us.
This memorable Welcome was followed by a launch address by Professor Bron Parry, Dean of the College of Arts and Social Sciences. Professor Parry was highly complementary of the many achievements of the Laureate Program and the Centre. She praised Ann McGrath’s leadership and especially her role in enabling the five postdoctoral fellows to gain expansive opportunities. She noted that they had each gone on to excellent academic jobs and prestigious fellowships, as well as noting some of Ann’s personal achievements. Bron lauded the importance of the Centre’s outreach programs, which included the Marking Country site and the Indigenous Family History workshops.
We were honoured to hear Professor Jackie Huggins, the Senior Advisor to the Marking Country project, outline the work she had done in Carnarvon Gorge with elder Uncle Fred. She also reflected upon the absence of Aboriginal history in her school experience, how this made her want to study history, which she did, and she ended up writing several pathbreaking books.
It was a gathering of many people who have been supportive of the project and others who took up its challenges. Advisory Committee members Professors Lynette Russell, Alison Bashford and Jakelin Troy were all present, and they were thanked for being so supportive over the past seven years. All three of the Centre’s Research Associate/Project Managers Julie Rickwood, Jen Bird and Eri Kashima attended, and hopefully they enjoyed an opportunity to reflect on the fruits of their labour. Eri wasn’t able to sit back and observe however, having organised all the logistics of the event, she kindly ensured everything ran smoothly. Frank Bongiorno, a former Head of School who generously supported the Centre, and Brenda Croft, one of our outstanding and talented Collaborating Scholars, also attended, as well as Kim Rubenstein and many other friends and colleagues.
Ann McGrath provided an overview presentation of some of the program’s highlights, including fieldtrips, symposia, and various gatherings, and commented on the outstanding contributions and leadership of the team members, Collaborating Scholars and many others – a presentation that Commentator Alison Bashford described as akin to a family slideshow.
The five Laureate postdoctoral fellows gave detailed papers that reflected their collaborative fieldwork with Indigenous knowledge holders. Ben Silverstein revealed stories of fishing with Yawuru elders, who explained the importance of speaking to fish, the tides and deep relations to Country; Mike spoke about Thangoo station, pastoralism, the tamarind tree, and the digital mapping project. Laura Rademaker gave an intriguing paper tracking the history of western scholarly approaches to Indigenous religion and later to spirituality. Beth spoke about Indigenous family history education, the history curriculum and collaborations with Ngarrngga at University of Melbourne. Amy Way talked about the history of antiquity in Australia, and how doing field work with Jackie and Uncle Fred had expanded her ideas about Country and History and about rock art as an archive.
Emphasising the owl story, Doctoral student Neil Brougham discussed the definition of myth and the range and historical spread of myths in the Pilbara and neighbouring regions. Jackie Huggins reflected on her long history of advocacy, and especially her work towards truth-telling and a treaty initiatives, the recent political challenges after the Voice Referendum, and how she had now turned to an academic space to advance truth-telling for healing. Both Jackie and Amy spoke about learning from Uncle Fred, the way he listened to Country and the way the birds talked to him. Jakelin Troy then made various comments on her involvement in the project, including the significance of deep history for telling her snow stories, of thinking about bird travel techniques up alpine chairlifts, and material objects such as rocks and looms as deep history.
Professor Maria Nugent, the Head of the History School, introduced the final Roundtable event of the day, which saw a full house. She and others commented on the Laureate team’s research as demonstrating strong ethical principles. Professor Christian Barry, the Director of the Research School of Social Sciences, commented on how difficult it was to be awarded a Laureate, intimating that most were in the Sciences. He noted how team-work was vital but not always a strongpoint of humanities scholars. He emphasised the calibre of the postdoctoral Laureate fellows, explaining that they were vital colleagues, injecting energy into the Research School. He commented on how unusual it was to be in a room with 3 Laureate Fellows! One of these, Professor Lynette Russell, gave a polished performance convening the Roundtable. Having taken copious notes throughout the day’s proceedings, she posed many provocative questions to put to the group, as well as offering an amazing bird story about the power of human-more-human nexus and Country as provider. Question time with the audience led to discussion of new ways to expand thinking about oral history – including ‘paying attention’ and ‘deep listening’.
It was a very positive way to end the seven years. The catering was excellent. When one of their staff commented that the event seemed different from the usual ones they attended, they were asked why, responding that it was because everyone looked relaxed and like they were having fun. Best event review ever!
We’d like to thank you all for joining us on this extraordinary journey over the past seven years, and here’s to the future of the deep past.
This article was originally published by the Research Centre for Deep History, here.