Collecting Australia: colonial consumption and the display of Australia in Scotland during the long nineteenth century
School: School of Social Science
Supervisors: Prof Alison Brown (University of Aberdeen), Dr Rachel Smith (University of Aberdeen), Dr Alison Clark (National Museums Scotland)
Keywords: Decolonial, Indigenising, First Nations Australia, Museums
About Niamh’s Research:
The long 19th century was a period of intense colonial activity and expansion, reflected in museum practices of collecting and classification. This CDA investigates what the National Museums Scotland’s early First Australians collection, consisting of approximately 3,900 objects, reveals about the role of Scots in Australian colonialism and Scottish understandings of the legal falsity of ‘Terra Nullius.’ The project also considers how the display and interpretation the early First Australians collection has shaped, and continues to shape, Scottish understandings of Australia.
Crucially, this research covers the formation and transformation of the national museum from an Industrial Museum, into a Museum of Science and Art, and the separation of once-conjoined collections in disciplinary, curatorial and institutional terms.
CONNECT WITH NIAMH
E-mail: r01nf25@abdn.ac.uk
LinkedIn: Niamh Formosa