Cars, museums, collecting: objects and the nature of heritage

Research output: Chapter in Book/Conference paperConference paperpeer-review

Abstract

Photographic images of heritage signifi cance to the Lamalama people of Cape York Peninsula are contained within the Donald Thomson Ethnographic Collection held by Museum Victoria, and record daily life at a time before motor vehicles were ubiquitous. Everyday life for their descendants on their country in the Port Stewart/Yintjingga region is similar to that observed and recorded by Thomson, involving activities such as fi shing and other forms of resource extraction. Like other Indigenous peoples, today the Lamalama access their country and places within it through a range of technologies including four wheel drive vehicles, dinghies with outboard motors and mobile phones. These technologies allow them to continue cultural practices of long tradition and importance, but also to extend their presence within their country in the changed circumstances of the present. It allows them now to formalise their cultural responsibilities through the implementation of a Ranger program, which depends on such modernist technologies in order to effectively carry out its programs. The Lamalama Ranger program has also drawn on the Thomson materials to conduct natural resource and cultural heritage management. At the same time, the remote location and attendant socioeconomic conditions faced by the Lamalama necessitate the careful husbanding of resources, including technological ones. The paper questions whether there is a point at which such resources can be regarded as heritage materials worthy of preservation in museums, given the appropriations of form that are at times involved. It can appear these appropriations have been transformative, imbuing common objects with new meanings, but the paper asks whose meanings these might be. It draws on a previous research project that brought museum objects from the Thomson collection to the Lamalama at home on their country to ask how we understand and value the varied evidence of culture, and at what point and in which contexts do we and source communities see it as having heritage value. Given their central importance to current practice, is it likely common objects of modern technological origin will be regarded as having heritage significance by future generations, as the ordinary objects collected by Thomson some 80 years ago have become?
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationCulture and context in a material world: Australian Anthropological Society Conference 2012
Place of PublicationSt Lucia, Qld, Australia
PublisherThe Australian Anthropological Society
Pages115-116
Number of pages2
Publication statusPublished - 2012
Externally publishedYes
EventAnnual Conference of the Australian-Anthropological-Society -
Duration: 1 Jan 2011 → …

Conference

ConferenceAnnual Conference of the Australian-Anthropological-Society
Period1/01/11 → …

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Cars, museums, collecting: objects and the nature of heritage'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this