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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-05-27 Daily Xml
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Ministerial Statement

Repatriation of Gillen Photographs

The Hon. V.A. CHAPMAN (Bragg—Deputy Premier, Attorney-General, Minister for Planning and Local Government) (14:01): I seek leave to make a ministerial statement.

Leave granted.

The Hon. V.A. CHAPMAN: I rise today to inform the house about my trip to Alice Springs last week and the government's repatriation of some 300 important photographs to the Arrernte and other Aboriginal communities of Central Australia, which are to be housed in the Strehlow Research Centre. I acknowledge at the outset Strehlow Chair, Michael Liddle, and Director, Marcus Schutenko, for their work with South Australian State Records and our common commitment to preserving the Indigenous history of Central Australia.

The photographs within the repatriated album were taken during the 1901-1902 expedition of Francis (Frank) James Gillen and his fieldwork partner, Walter Baldwin Spencer. On this expedition, Gillen and Spencer, with two Aboriginal men as helpers and a police trooper, journeyed across the continent from Adelaide to the Gulf of Carpentaria.

Gillen was well known in Central Australia at this time and trusted within the Arrente community. He had been the post and telegraph stationmaster at Alice Springs for the previous 10 years. Through his roles as magistrate and Sub-Protector of Aborigines, Gillen demonstrated a keen sense of justice and was the first person in Australia to charge a police officer with murder of two Aboriginal men, which happened at Tempe Downs Station.

Through his connections with the Arrente community and other groups, Gillen was given privileged access to cultural and ceremonial life. While with communities, Gillen and Spencer collected examples of cultural and ceremonial objects and made detailed ethnographic records, including photographs, film and sound recordings. These photographs are a significant record for the people of Central Australia today and may be the only images that have survived from this time. Where needed, it is hoped that the album can be used to restore any parts of cultural or ceremonial life that may have been lost.

Over 100 years later, this album returns to where its photographs were captured and enters a repository where it can be used alongside other records from Gillen's fieldwork. The significance of Gillen's album was first recognised by State Records staff member, Bruce Hammond, and in 1991 the Senior Aboriginal Access Officer at State Records, Andrew Wilson, sought further information from elders of the groups represented in the album. This enabled the identification of photographs containing secret, sacred and additional contextual information. Individuals were identified in the photographs, as some of the elders were able to recognise people who had been known to them when they were young.

Ms Amanda Osborne, the Manager of State Records, joined me at the repatriation ceremony. Bruce and Andrew were also present to witness this event 30 years after their work began, alongside local Aboriginal elders. I acknowledge and thank Simon Froude, the Director of State Records, for his commitment to seeing these photographs returned to where they belong. I am pleased to have had the Premier's support in this endeavour, whose keen interest in Aboriginal art, culture and history is well known to us all.

Through the repatriation to the Strehlow Research Centre, already a hub of specialist Indigenous research and artefacts, it is our government's wish to meet the needs of communities in Central Australia, where the photographs can be accessed and used by the descendants of the people depicted in them. By repatriating this album, we continue the South Australian government's commitment to reconciliation and acknowledge the importance of records in the process of healing and maintaining cultural life.

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