Professor Martin Thomas
Areas of expertise
- Aboriginal And Torres Strait Islander History 210301
- Historical Studies 2103
Research interests
perception and representation of landscape; history and philosophy of place; cross-cultural histories in Australia; Aboriginal studies; legacy of the Australian anthropologist R.H. Mathews; Visual and auditory culture; The American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land in 1948.
Biography
I joined the School of History as a Future Fellow in 2010. In my last position, I was Research Fellow in the Department of History at the University of Sydney, the department where I first studied as an undergraduate. I came to full-time academia in 2001 (as an ARC Postdoctoral Fellow) after working for many years as an independent writer, critic and editor, and then as Research Historian for the National Parks & Wildlife Service of New South Wales. I was in New York during the first Gulf War where I had the opportunity to record oral histories with homeless people, including a number of Vietnam Veterans. These recordings became a radio documentary, Home Front Manhattan (broadcast on the ABC and on American Public Radio). It marked the beginning of an enduring interest in radio documentary-making and sound recording. Upon returning to Sydney, I took up editorship of the journal Photofile, wrote art reviews and essays, and taught in Art History and Theory at the College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales. Most of my recent work has been in the field of Australian and trans-national cultural history, as revealed through perceptions of place, representations of landscape and narratives of cross-cultural encounter. I explored these intersecting concerns in a long-term study of the Blue Mountains west of Sydney, a place I have known since childhood. The research became a doctoral thesis and then a book, published as The Artificial Horizon: Imagining the Blue Mountains (2003). Concurrently, I began to research historic sound recordings and made two radio documentaries about Jimmie Barker (1900-72), the Muruwari storyteller from northwest New South Wales who autonomously produced a vast tape archive, aimed at linguistic and cultural preservation. Recent research concerns Australian anthropology of the Federation era and its relevance today. A longstanding interest in the life and publications of the surveyor and self-taught anthropologist, R. H. Mathews (1841-1918), inspired a speculative biography, The Search for R. H. Mathews. Recent work includes study of expeditions as a cultural form and an ARC Discovery Project on the history of the magic lantern.
Researcher's projects
Expedition to Arnhem Land in 1948: Intercultural Inquiry in a Trans-National context
The research is funded by two grants from the Australian Research Council. An award under the Future Fellowships program supports my position (FT0992291) and a five-year Discovery Project (DP1096897 for commencement in 2010), held in collaboration with University of Sydney ethnomusicologists Linda Barwick and Allan Marett, funds other expenses and personnel (including a research associate and a doctoral student). The following description is adapted from our Discovery Project application.
The Arnhem Land project is motivated by five key questions:-
(1) How do Western and Indigenous knowledge systems interact and inform each other?
(2) How do histories of intercultural research affect contemporary cultures?
(3) What does it mean for the discipline of history if the conventional activity of excavating and elucidating a past epoch is informed by a research practice that uses ethnographic techniques to explore the relationship between anthropological archives and the people they document?
(4) In what ways has Indigenous knowledge shaped Australia's national image, its engagement with modernity and its international relationships?
(5) How might historical research strengthen the social fabric of Aboriginal communities?
We will address these questions by investigating the genealogy, preparations, activities and legacies of the event known as the 1948 American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land (AASEAL). This expedition, a significant (if neglected) episode in the US-Australia relationship and in cross-cultural history, has been selected as a case study for several reasons. (1) It resulted in the gathering of huge natural history and ethnological collections (extant in Australian and American institutions) including film, photographs and sound recordings that are of particular interest in Arnhem Land today. (2) The interdisciplinary nature of the expedition, occurring at a watershed moment, makes it highly significant to intellectual, cultural and political history. (3) The expedition was a collaboration between the Commonwealth of Australia, the Smithsonian Institution and the National Geographic Society. Studying it is a way of rekindling dialogue and collaboration between the original stakeholders, though now with the ambition of repatriating (rather than exporting) the intellectual property of Arnhem Land. (4) The expedition, coloured by the intrigues, politics, hubris and humour that are common themes in the history of Western exploration, is a remarkable story that deserves to be told and analysed, being highly pertinent to the present moment.
In exploring the legacy of this expedition we will integrate methods and ideas developed in Thomas' work on landscape, anthropological and oral history and the long experience of Marett and Barwick as ethnomusicologists, fieldworkers and digital archivists. Relating the detail of what happened in Arnhem Land in 1948 is of course a major objective, but it is not an end in itself. We will situate the expedition in terms of its epoch by investigating the interrelated histories of the individuals and communities associated with it over a period of some 30 years, spotlighting the period 1935-64. This starting date is chosen because the expedition was unwittingly conceived that year, when expedition leader Charles P. Mountford made a formative journey to Central Australia. Movie footage shot there resulted in documentaries which in 1945-6 he screened in the US on lecture tours promoting Australia. Negotiations in Washington resulted in the National Geographic funding that seeded the expedition. 1964 marks the terminus of the AASEAL period because in that year the final report was published, and the project officially closed. The periodisation is conceived loosely but it has an inherent logic, being the time frame of a generation.
Working from this time-frame, the research will examine how aspects of Indigenous knowledge were incorporated into the national self-image that Australia presented to the world, and how elements from which this image was wrought can assume a new life in the making of contemporary cultures. Our intention is to initiate a collaborative research process in Arnhem Land that will constitute an intergenerational dialogue, based on the comparison and synthesis of two streams of data. The first stream is the archival evidence that we will excavate and return to its locality of origin in digital form. The second will be derived from consultative, community-based research that has been employed by all investigators in a variety of situations. We will work primarily in the communities where AASEAL conducted research: Groote Eylandt, Yirrkala, Oenpelli and Milingimbi. Prior to going to Arnhem Land, the Expedition studied briefly at Belyuen, so some research will occur in that community where Marett and Barwick have a long history of research. Owing to the subsequent movement and dispersal of people, it will be often necessary to work in areas outside the locations where the original data were recorded. For example, an important strand of the research will occur on Croker Island and Cobourg Peninsula, where Iwaidja people with connections to Cape Don and Oenpelli at the time of the Expeditions visit are now resident.
The project will have a range of outcomes including book and journal articles, productions for radio, a documentary film, and web-based resources such as interactive databases. Small audio or film projects, or shorter publications, designed to meet the internal needs of community stakeholders, will also be developed
Publications
- Thomas, M 2018, 'Anthropology and the Expeditionary Imaginary: An Introduction to the Volume', in Martin Thomas and Amanda Harris (ed.), Expeditionary Anthropology: Teamwork, Travel and the ''Science of Man'', Berghahn Books Inc., New York, pp. 1-34.
- Thomas, M & Harris, A, eds, 2018, Expeditionary Anthropology : Teamwork, Travel and the 'Science of Man', Berghahn Books Inc., New York.
- Thomas, M & Bijon, B 2018, Etched in Bone (documentary film), Red Lily Productions. Directed, written and produced by Martin Thomas; co-directed and produced by Béatrice Bijon.
- Thomas, M 2017, Oral History interview with Carmen Callil.
- Thomas, M 2017, Oral History interview with Michael Blakemore.
- Thomas, M 2016, Oral History interview with Howard Morphy.
- Thomas, M 2016, 'Mathews, Janet Elizabeth (1914-1992)', Australian Dictionary of Biography (Online), vol. online.
- Thomas, M 2016, 'Peter Monteath and Valerie Munt, Red Professor: The Cold War Life of Fred Rose', Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society, vol. 102, no. 1, pp. 112-114pp..
- Thomas, M 2016, Oral History interview with Roelof Smilde, libertarian and social activist.
- Thomas, M 2015, 'What Is an Expedition? an Introduction', in Martin Thomas (ed.), Expedition into empire: exploratory journeys and the making of the modern world, Routledge, New York, USA and Abingdon, UK, pp. 1-24pp.
- Thomas, M 2015, 'Bones as a Bridge between Worlds: Responding with Ceremony to the Repatriation of Aboriginal Human Remains from the United States to Australia', in Kate Darian-Smith and Penelope Edmonds (ed.), Conciliation on Colonial Frontiers: Conflict, Performance and Commemoration in Australia and the Pacific Rim, Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, New York and Abingdon, pp. 150-168.
- Thomas, M 2015, 'Book Review - Indifferent inclusion: Aboriginal people and the Australian national by Russell McGregor', Australian Aboriginal Studies, vol. 1, no. 2015, pp. 123-124.
- Thomas, M, ed., 2015, Expedition into Empire: Exploratory Journeys and the Making of the Modern World, Routledge, New York, USA and Abingdon, UK.
- Thomas, M 2015, 'The Expedition as a Cultural Form: On the Structure of Exploratory Journeys as Revealed by the Australian Explorations of Ludwig Leichhardt', in Martin Thomas (ed.), Expedition into empire: exploratory journeys and the making of the modern world, Routledge, New York, USA and Abingdon, UK, pp. 65-87pp.
- Thomas, M 2015, 'Book Review 'View finders - A new lens to understand Namatjira'. A review of Battarbee and Namatjira by Martin Edmond', Australian Book Review, vol. 368, pp. 8-9.
- Thomas, M 2015, 'Because it's Your Country: Death and its Meanings in West Arnhem Land', Life Writing, vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 203-223.
- Thomas, M 2014, Oral History interview with Neilma Gantner.
- Thomas, M 2014, 'Turning Subjects into Objects and Objects into Subjects: Collecting Human Remains on the 1948 Arnhem Land Expedition', in Amanda Harris (ed.), Circulating Cultures: Exchanges of Australian Indigenous Music, Dance and Media, ANU E Press, Canberra, pp. 129-169pp.
- Thomas, M 2014, 'Myths of Discovery and Settler Identity: Probing the 'first' Crossing of the Blue Mountains after 200 years', Journal of Australian Colonial History, vol. 16, pp. 226-243.
- Thomas, M 2014, Oral History interview with Margaret Reynolds..
- Thomas, M 2013, Oral History interview with Ian McIntosh, anthropologist.
- Thomas, M 2013, 'Calibre Prize 2013 - 'Because it's your country' Bringing back the bones to west Arnhem Land', Australian Book Review, no. April 2013, pp. 26-37.
- Thomas, M 2013, 'Book Review: Leichhardt on the mind', Australian Book Review, vol. 354, pp. 19-21.
- Thomas, M 2013, 'Anthropology and the British Empire', in Robert Aldrich and Kirsten McKenzie (ed.), The Routledge History of Western Empires, Routledge, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom, pp. 255-269.
- Thomas, M 2012, 'The removal and return of human remains from West Arnhem Land', in (ed.), Writing/Righting the Wrongs of History, Independent Scholars Association of Australia Inc, Canberra, pp. 7-33.
- Thomas, M 2012, 'Book Review - The People of the Paroo River: Frederick Bonney's Photographs by Jeanette Hope and Robert Lindsay', Aboriginal History, vol. 36, pp. 197-198.
- Thomas, M 2012, Oral History interview with Bill Ivory.
- Thomas, M 2012, Oral History interview with Margaret Fink (b.1933), film producer in Sydney.
- Thomas, M 2011, Oral History interview with Jimmy Namarnyilk Gallaria.
- Thomas, M & Neale, M, eds, 2011, Exploring the Legacy of the 1948 Arnhem Land Expedition, ANU ePress, Canberra.
- Thomas, M 2011, 'Expedition as Time Capsule: Introducing the American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land', in Martin Thomas and Margo Neale (ed.), Exploring the Legacy of the 1948 Arnhem Land Expedition, ANU ePress, Canberra, pp. 1-30.
- Thomas, M 2011, 'Unpacking the Testimony of Gerald Blitner: Cross-cultural brokerage and the Arnhem Land Expedition', in Martin Thomas and Margo Neale (ed.), Exploring the Legacy of the 1948 Arnhem Land Expedition, ANU ePress, Canberra, pp. 377-401.
- Thomas, M 2011, Oral History interview with Charles Campbell Macknight.
- Thomas, M 2011, Oral History interviews with Jacob Nayinggul.
- Thomas, M 2011, Oral History interview with Ronald Croxford.
- Thomas, M 2011, The Many Worlds of R.H. Mathews: In search of an Australian anthropologist, Allen & Unwin, Sydney.
- Thomas, M, Neale, M & May, S.K., 2011, Prologue, in Martin Thomas and Margo Neale (ed.), Exploring the Legacy of the 1948 Arnhem Land Expedition, ANU ePress, Canberra.
- Thomas, M 2010, Oral History interviews with Peter Worsley.
- Thomas, M 2010, 'A short history of the 1948 Arnhem Land Expedition', Aboriginal History, vol. 34, pp. 143-170.
- Thomas, M 2010, 'The Crackle of the Wire: Media, Digitization, and the Voicing of Aboriginal Languages', in Norie Neumark, Ross Gibson and Theo van Leeuwen (ed.), Voice: Vocal Aesthetics in Digital Arts and Media, MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, pp. 71-90.
- Thomas, M 2008, In the Wake of the Arnhem Land Expedition, pp. 9-11.
- Thomas, M 2008, 'Word Territory: Recording Aboriginal language with R. H. Mathews', History Australia, vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 37.1-37.18.
- Thomas, M 2008, Oral history interview with Michael Taussig.
- Thomas, M 2008, Oral history interview with Roger James.
- Thomas, M 2008, oral history interview with Ken Done.
- Thomas, M 2007, Oral history interview with Gerald Blitner.
- Thomas, M 2007, 'Taking Them Back: Archival Media in Arnhem Land Today', Cultural Studies Review, vol. 13, no. 2, pp. 20-37.
- Thomas, M 2007, 'The Ethnomania of R. H. Mathews: Anthropology and the rage for collecting', in Gretchen Poiner, Sybil Jack (ed.), Limits of location: creating a colony, Sydney University Press, Sydney, NSW Australia, pp. 189-209.
- Thomas, M, Mathews, R, de Hauteclocque, M et al, eds, 2007, Culture in Translation: The Anthropological Legacy of R.H. Mathews, ANU ePress, Canberra AUSTRALIA.
- Thomas, M 2007, 'The Rush to Record: Transmitting the Sound of Aboriginal Culture', Journal of Australian Studies, vol. 90, no. Dawn Bennett (ed), Who Am I?, pp. 105-121.
- Thomas, M 2007, 'Kinship: Introduction', in Martin Thomas (ed.), Culture in translation: the anthropological legacy of R. H. Mathews, ANU ePress, Canberra AUSTRALIA, pp. 89-97.
- Thomas, M 2007, 'Language: Introduction', in Martin Thomas (ed.), Culture in translation: the anthropological legacy of R. H. Mathews, ANU ePress, Canberra AUSTRALIA, pp. 155-166.
- Thomas, M 2007, 'Mythology: Introduction', in Martin Thomas (ed.), Culture in translation: the anthropological legacy of R. H. Mathews, ANU ePress, Canberra AUSTRALIA, pp. 125-132.
- Thomas, M 2007, 'Rock Art and Daily Life: Introduction', in Martin Thomas (ed.), Culture in translation: the anthropological legacy of R. H. Mathews, ANU ePress, Canberra AUSTRALIA, pp. 43-49.
- Thomas, M 2007, '"Birrarak is the name given to me by the natives": Ethnological notes on R.H. Mathews', in Martin Thomas (ed.), Culture in translation: the anthropological legacy of R. H. Mathews, ANU ePress, Canberra AUSTRALIA, pp. 3-39.
- Thomas, M 2007, 'Ceremony: Introduction', in Martin Thomas (ed.), Culture in translation: the anthropological legacy of R. H. Mathews, ANU ePress, Canberra AUSTRALIA, pp. 189-198.
- Thomas, M 2007, 'Correspondence: Introduction', in Martin Thomas (ed.), Culture in translation: the anthropological legacy of R. H. Mathews, ANU ePress, Canberra AUSTRALIA, pp. 225-229.
- Thomas, M 2006, 'A Very Human Survey', Public History Review, vol. 12, pp. 12-26.
- Thomas, M & May, S 2006, Oral history interview with Peter Bassett-Smith.
- Thomas, M & May, S 2006, Oral history interview with Raymond Specht.
- Thomas, M 2005, Oral history interview with Peter Rushforth.
- Thomas, M 2005, Oral History interview with Abdul Muin Daeng Mile and Halilintar Lathief.
- Thomas, M 2005, Oral history interview with Joan Domicelj.
- Thomas, M 2004, 'R.H. Mathews and Anthropological Warfare: On writing the biography of a self-contained man', Aboriginal History, vol. 28, pp. 1-32.
- Thomas, M 2004, Oral History interview with Roslyn Poignant.
- Thomas, M 2004, Oral History interview with Michael Dark.
- Thomas, M 2004, Oral history interview with Isabel McBryde.
- Thomas, M 2003, Oral history interview with Joan Kerr.
- Thomas, M 2009, 'Book Review: Disciplining the Savages: Savaging the Disciplines', Aboriginal History, vol. 2009, no. 33, pp. 252-255.
Projects and Grants
Grants information is drawn from ARIES. To add or update Projects or Grants information please contact your College Research Office.
- Muruwari Ngulli Yaandibu (Muruwari we speak) (Secondary Investigator)
- Heritage in the limelight: the magic lantern in Australia and the world 1840-1940 (Secondary Investigator)
- Integrating Humanities Across National Boundaries (IGHERT) (Primary Investigator)
- Intercultural Inquiry in a Trans-National Context: Exploring the Legacy of the 1948 American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land (Secondary Investigator)
- Expedition to Arnhem Land: Intercultural inquiry in a trans-national context (Primary Investigator)