The Great Exhibitions and their Lost Indigenous Objects

This project will conduct the first systematic study of the Indigenous objects sent overseas for international exhibitions in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. These rare collections constituted vital forms of cultural, political and economic diplomacy and imperial communication. Using rich archival, textual and photographic sources, it will investigate the Indigenous makers, the collectors, and the representations of Aboriginal people at such exhibitions. By identifying the objects still in collections and those sent but now lost, the project will provide a vital form of knowledge repatriation and remake connections between objects and communities. It will generate new narratives and exhibition possibilities created by and for First Nations people, and bring contemporary Indigenous messages to museums and a global audience.