Ms Frances Morphy
Areas of expertise
- Studies Of Aboriginal And Torres Strait Islander Society 169902
- Language In Culture And Society (Sociolinguistics) 200405
- Natural Resource Management 050209
- Social And Cultural Anthropology 160104
- Aboriginal And Torres Strait Islander Cultural Studies 200201
- Public Policy 160510
- Aboriginal And Torres Strait Islander Law 180101
- Family And Household Studies 160301
- Law And Society 180119
- Aboriginal And Torres Strait Islander Languages 200319
- Social And Cultural Geography 160403
- Aboriginal And Torres Strait Islander Policy 160501
- Linguistic Anthropology 160103
- Population Trends And Policies 160305
Research interests
The anthropological demography of Australian Aboriginal populations, population structure and dynamics in remote Aboriginal Australia, and the representation of Aboriginal people in the national census. The anthropology and linguistics of the Yolngu-speaking peoples of north east Arnhem Land. Social, cultural and economic aspects of the encapsulation of Aboriginal Australians within the Australian state, in particular the homelands movement, land rights and native title, the governance of Aboriginal community organisations, the impact of colonisation on Indigenous social systems and languages, and problems of cross-cultural 'translation'.
With CAEPR colleague Bill Arthur, Frances is the co-editor of the award-winning Macquarie Atlas of Indigenous Australia (2nd edn published 2019). In an earlier stage of her career she was a commissioning editor at Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Publications
- Morphy, F & Morphy, H 2020, ''Locating "mind" (and "soul") cross-culturally', in Helen Bromhead, Zhengdao Ye (ed.), Meaning, Life and Culture: In conversation with Anna Wierzbicka, ANU Press, Canberra, Australia, pp. 249-271.
- Morphy, F, Morphy, H, Faulkner, P et al. 2020, 'Toponyms from 3000 years ago? Implications for the history and structure of the Yolngu social formation in north-east Arnhem Land', Archaeology in Oceania, vol. 55, no. 3, pp. 153-67..
- Morphy, F & Mahood, K 2019, 'Representations of space and place', in Bill Arthur & Frances Morphy (ed.), Macquarie Atlas of Indigenous Australia (Second Edition), Macquarie Dictionary Publishers, Sydney, pp. 10-21.
- Arthur, W, Dreise, A, Yu, E et al. 2019, 'Evolving patterns of research', in Bill Arthur & Frances Morphy (ed.), Macquarie Atlas of Indigenous Australia (Second Edition), Macquarie Dictionary Publishers, Sydney.
- Arthur, W & Morphy, F 2019, Macquarie Atlas of Indigenous Australia (Second Edition), Macquarie Dictionary Publishers, Sydney.
- Morphy, F & Crawford, H 2019, 'Social and Cultural Life', in Bill Arthur & Frances Morphy (ed.), Macquarie Atlas of Indigenous Australia (Second Edition), Macquarie Dictionary Publishers, Sydney, pp. 86-103.
- Morphy, F, Arthur, W & Green, D 2019, 'Environment, ecology and country', in Bill Arthur & Frances Morphy (ed.), Macquarie Atlas of Indigenous Australia (Second Edition), Macquarie Dictionary Publishers, Sydney.
- Arthur, W & Morphy, F 2019, 'Navigating the Atlas', in Bill Arthur & Frances Morphy (ed.), Macquarie Atlas of Indigenous Australia (Second Edition), Macquarie Dictionary Publishers, Sydney, pp. 2-7.
- Markham, F, Marshall, V & Morphy, F 2019, 'Land and water ownership and use', in Bill Arthur & Frances Morphy (ed.), Macquarie Atlas of Indigenous Australia (Second Edition), Macquarie Dictionary Publishers, Sydney, pp. 142-157.
- Arthur, W & Morphy, F, eds, 2019, Macquarie Atlas of Indigenous Australia (Second Edition), Macquarie Dictionary Publishers, Sydney.
- Morphy, H, Morphy, F & G. Iseger-Pilkington, G 2019, 'The visual arts', in Bill Arthur & Frances Morphy (ed.), Macquarie Atlas of Indigenous Australia (Second Edition), Macquarie Dictionary Publishers, Sydney, pp. 110-123.
- Morphy, F & Morphy, H 2017, 'Relative Autonomy, Sociocultural Trajectories and the Emergence of Something New', Insights, vol. 10, no. 9, pp. 1-11pp.
- Morphy, F 2017, 'Australia's Indigenous Protected Areas: Resistance, Articulation and Entanglement in the Context of Natural Resource Management', in Francoise Dussart and Sylvie Poirier (ed.), Entangled Territorialities: Negotiating Indigenous Lands in australia and Canada, University of Toronto Press, Canada, pp. 70-90.
- Morphy, F 2016, 'Indigenising demographic categories: a prolegomenon to indigenous data sovereignty', in Tahu Kukutai, John Taylor (ed.), Indigenous data sovereignty: toward an agenda, ANU Press, Australia, pp. 99 - 115.
- Morphy, H & Morphy, F 2016, 'Thwarted aspirations: The political economy of a Yolngu outstation, 1972 to the present', in Nicolas Peterson, Fred Myers (ed.), Experiments in Self-Determination : Histories of the outstation movement in Australia, ANU Press, Canberra, pp. 301-321.
- Morphy, F 2014, 'Making Them Fit: The Australian National Census and Aboriginal Family Forms', in Gillian Calder, Lori G. Beaman (ed.), Polygamy's Rights and Wrongs: Perspectives on Harm, Family, and Law, UBC Press, United States, pp. 170-195.
- Morphy, F & Morphy, H 2013, 'Anthropological theory and government policy in Australia's Northern Territory: The hegemony of the "mainstream"', American Anthropologist, vol. 115, no. 2, pp. 174-187.
- Morphy, F 2013, 'Book Review: Per Axelsson and Peter Skold (eds), Indigenous People and Demography: The Complex Relation Between Identity and Statistics', Journal of Population Research, vol. 30, no. 2, pp. 193-196.
- Morphy, F & Morphy, H 2013, 'Relative autonomy revisited: Reply to Francesca Merlan', American Anthropologist, vol. 115, no. 4, pp. 639-641.
- Morphy, F & Morphy, H 2012, 'Soon we will be spending all our time at funerals: Yolngu mortuary rituals in an epoch of constant change', in S. Howell and A. Talle (ed.), Returns to the Field: Multitemporal Research and Contemporary Anthropology, Indiana University Press, Bloomington Indiana, pp. 49-72.
- Morphy, H & Morphy, F 2012, 'New cases, new technologies: applying anthropological research in changing times', in Mark Finnane and Ian Donaldson (ed.), Taking Stock: The Humanities in Australian Life Since 1968, UWA Publishing, Perth Australia, pp. 288-300.
- Morphy, F 2012, 'The Yolngu in place: Designing a population survey for north east Arnhem Land', ATNS Working Paper Series (Agreements, Treaties and Negotiated Settlements), no. 3, p. 36.
- Morphy, F 2010, '(Im)mobility: Regional population structures in Aboriginal Australia', Australian Journal of Social Issues, vol. 45, no. 3, pp. 363-382.
- Morphy, F & Morphy, H 2009, 'The Blue Mud Bay Case: Refractions through saltwater country', Dialogue (Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia), vol. 28, no. 1, pp. 15-25.
- Morphy, F & Morphy, H 2008, 'Afterword: Demography and destiny', in K. Glaskin, M. Tonkinson, Y. Musharbash and V. Burbank (ed.), Mortality, Mourning and Mortuary Practices in Indigenous Australia, Routledge, London, pp. 209-214.
- Morphy, F 2008, 'Whose governance for whose good? The Laynhapuy Homelands Association and the neo-assimilationist turn in Indigenous policy', in J. Hunt, D.E. Smith, S. Garling, and W. Sanders (ed.), Contested Governance: Culture, Power and Institutions in Indigenous Australia, ANU ePress, Canberra Australia, pp. 113-151.
- Morphy, F 2008, 'Redefining viability: Aboriginal homelands communities in north-east Arnhem Land', Australian Journal of Social Issues, vol. 43, no. 3, pp. 381-396.
- Morphy, F 2008, 'Enacting sovereignty in a colonized space: The Yolngu of Blue Mud Bay meet the native title process', in D. Fay and D. James (ed.), The Rights and Wrongs of Land Restitution: 'Restoring What Was Ours', Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, Abingdon UK, pp. 99-122.
- Morphy, F 2007, 'After the count and after the fact: At the Darwin Census Management Unit', in F. Morphy (ed.), Agency, Contingency and Census Process: Observations of the 2006 Indigenous Enumeration Strategy in Remote Aboriginal Australia, ANU ePress, Canberra Australia, pp. 85-97.
- Morphy, F 2007, 'Mobility and its consequences: The 2006 enumeration in the north-east Arnhem Land region', in F. Morphy (ed.), Agency, Contingency and Census Process: Observations of the 2006 Indigenous Enumeration Strategy in Remote Aboriginal Australia, ANU ePress, Canberra Australia, pp. 31-52.
- Morphy, F 2007, 'The transformation of input into output: At the Melbourne Data Processing Centre', in F. Morphy (ed.), Agency, Contingency and Census Process: Observations of the 2006 Indigenous Enumeration Strategy in Remote Aboriginal Australia, ANU ePress, Canberra Australia, pp. 99-110.
- Morphy, F 2007, 'Performing law: The Yolngu of Blue Mud Bay meet the native title process', in BR Smith and F Morphy (ed.), The Social Effects of Native Title: Recognition, Translation, Coexistence, ANU ePress, Canberra Australia, pp. 31-57.
- Morphy, F 2007, 'The Language of Governance in a Cross-cultural Cultural Context: What can and can't be translated', Ngiya: Talk the Law, vol. 1, no. June, pp. 93-102.
- Morphy, F, Sanders, W & Taylor, J 2007, 'Accommodating agency and contingency: Towards an extended strategy for engagement', in F. Morphy (ed.), Agency, Contingency and Census Process: Observations of the 2006 Indigenous Enumeration Strategy in Remote Aboriginal Australia, ANU ePress, Canberra Australia, pp. 111-24.
- Morphy, F 2007, 'Preparing for the 2006 enumeration at the Darwin Census Management Unit', in F. Morphy (ed.), Agency, Contingency and Census Process: Observations of the 2006 Indigenous Enumeration Strategy in Remote Aboriginal Australia, ANU ePress, Canberra Australia, pp. 9-18.
- Morphy, F, Sanders, W & Taylor, J 2007, 'Producing powerful numbers', in F. Morphy (ed.), Agency, Contingency and Census Process: Observations of the 2006 Indigenous Enumeration Strategy in Remote Aboriginal Australia, ANU ePress, Canberra Australia, pp. 1-8.
- Morphy, F, ed., 2007, Agency, Contingency and Census Process: Observations of the 2006 Indigenous Enumeration Strategy in Remote Aboriginal Australia, ANU ePress, Canberra Australia.
- Smith, B & Morphy, F 2007, 'The social effects of native title: Recognition, translation, coexistence', in BR Smith and F Morphy (ed.), The Social Effects of Native Title: Recognition, Translation, Coexistence, ANU ePress, Canberra Australia, pp. 1-29.
- Smith, B & Morphy, F, eds, 2007, The Social Effects of Native Title: Recognition, Translation, Coexistence, ANU ePress, Canberra Australia.
- Morphy, F 2007, 'Uncontained subjects: 'population' and 'household' in remote Aboriginal Australia', Journal of Population Research, vol. 24, no. 2, pp. 163-184.
- Morphy, H & Morphy, F 2006, 'Tasting the waters: Discriminating identities in the waters of Blue Mud Bay', Journal of Material Culture, vol. 11, no. 1/2, pp. 67-85.
- Morphy, F 2006, 'Lost in translation? Remote Indigenous households and definitions of the family', Family Matters, vol. 73, pp. 23-31.
- Kral, I & Morphy, F 2006, 'Language', Indigenous Socioeconomic Outcomes: Assessing Recent Evidence, ed. B.H. Hunter, ANU ePress, Canberra, pp. 279-289.
- Morphy, F 2006, Lost in translation? The language and concepts of governance, Community Governance, 2 (1).
- Barwick, L, Koch, G, Arthur, W et al 2005, 'Performing arts, sport and games', in Bill Arthur & Frances Morphy (ed.), Macquarie Atlas of Indigenous Australia, Pan Macmillan Publishers Australia, Sydney, Australia, pp. 126?171.
- Hunter, B, Arthur, W & Morphy, F 2005, 'Social justice', in Bill Arthur & Frances Morphy (ed.), Macquarie Atlas of Indigenous Australia, Pan Macmillan Publishers Australia, Sydney, Australia, pp. 230?241.
- Arthur, W & Morphy, F 2005, 'Navigating the atlas', in Bill Arthur & Frances Morphy (ed.), Macquarie Atlas of Indigenous Australia, Pan Macmillan Publishers Australia, Sydney, Australia, pp. 9?15.
- Arthur, W & Morphy, F 2005, 'Representations of space and place', in Bill Arthur & Frances Morphy (ed.), Macquarie Atlas of Indigenous Australia, Pan Macmillan Publishers Australia, Sydney, Australia, pp. 18?25.
- Arthur, W & Morphy, F 2005, 'The environment and its use', in Bill Arthur & Frances Morphy (ed.), Macquarie Atlas of Indigenous Australia, Pan Macmillan Publishers Australia, Sydney, Australia, pp. 26-37.
- Arthur, W & Morphy, F, eds, 2005, Macquarie Atlas of Indigenous Australia: Culture and Society Through Space and Time, Pan Macmillan Publishers Australia, Sydney, Australia.
- Peterson, N, McConvell, P, McDonald, H et al 2005, 'Social and cultural life', in Bill Arthur & Frances Morphy (ed.), Macquarie Atlas of Indigenous Australia, Macquarie University, Macquarie University, pp. 88?107.
- Martin, D, Morphy, F, Sanders, W et al 2002, Making Sense of the Census: Observations of the 2001 Enumeration in Remote Aboriginal Australia, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT.
- Morphy, H & Morphy, F 2002, 'The Spirit of the Plains Kangaroo', in Tim Bonyhady and Tom Griffiths (ed.), Words for Country: landscape and language in Australia, UNSW Press, Sydney, pp. 102-123.
- Morphy, F & Sanders, W, eds, 2001, The Indigenous Welfare Economy and the CDEP Scheme, Australian National University, Canberra.
Projects and Grants
Grants information is drawn from ARIES. To add or update Projects or Grants information please contact your College Research Office.
- Placenames and Personal Names in Yolngu Society and Country Through Time (Secondary Investigator)
- Yawuru community household survey (Secondary Investigator)
- North East Arnhem Land Project (Primary Investigator)
- Fitzroy Valley Population Project (Primary Investigator)