Indigenous researcher awarded top archivist honour
Dr Joe Gumbula, from the College of Arts and Social Sciences, has been awarded the Mander Jones Award for his book on Milingimbi, Mali’ Buku-Rungamaram: Images of Milingimbi and Surrounds, 1926–1948.
The accolade is awarded by the Australian Society of Archivists to the best publication that uses, features or interprets Australian archives by an individual and honours librarian and archivist Phyllis Mander Jones.
Dr Joe Gumbula receives his Honorary Doctor of Music from the University of Sydney. Also pictured are Dr Aaron Corn, Brian Garawirrtja and Michael Gaykamangu (seated), and Richard Gumbula, Ian Gumbula and Dr Louise Hamby (behind). Photo by R Conroy, 2007.
Dr Aaron Corn, from the School of Music, who has worked with Dr Gumbula since 1997 and who accepted the award on Dr Gumbula’s behalf, said the Australian Research Council (ARC) Fellow was deserving of the recognition.
“This is work of world heritage significance led by a senior Yolngu elder, and I'm so very proud that we are now supporting it at the ANU and within the College of Arts and Social Sciences."
Dr Gumbula is an Indigenous Australian Elder of Yolngu ancestry who is descended from a long line of prominent Yolngu leaders. His parents were key figures in local government and bilingual education at Milingimbi from the 1950s to the 1980s.
He is an authority on collected materials from Arnhem Land due to his knowledge and ability as a Yolngu Elder to identify, interpret and re-assess the archives within traditional frames of reference. His award-winning book started life as an ARC-funded digital repatriation project of rare photographs of Arnhem Land.
Dr Corn, who also collaborated with Dr Gumbula on the ARC-funded project that led to the book, added that: “Dr Gumbula has always been a greatly enthusiastic student and teacher of Yolngu culture, whose collections research truly informs the way he approaches his role as a ceremonial leader charged with heavy responsibility of sustaining Yolngu traditions into the future.”
Dr Gumbula joined the ANU this year, and is now working with Professor Howard Morphy and Dr Louise Hamby from the Research School of Humanities and the Arts on his third ARC-funded project.
He presents and writes extensively on intellectual exchanges between Yolngu and European traditions. Dr Gumbula has also toured internationally as a master performer of traditional Yolngu song and dance, and has been a key figure in developing the ‘National Recording Project for Indigenous Performance in Australia’.