Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Grant - Indigenous PhD scholarship – ‘The Great Exhibitions and their Lost Indigenous Objects’

We are seeking an outstanding candidate for an Indigenous PhD scholarship for an ARC Indigenous Discovery Project titled ‘The Great Exhibitions and their Lost Indigenous Objects’. This exciting project is a based on a partnership between researchers at Deakin University (as the lead organisation), Flinders University, the Australian National University, the University of Tasmania and the University of Queensland. Overseas research partners include the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Cambridge and the Musee du Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac in Paris.

We are seeking to appoint an Australian Indigenous candidate for this position.

This Indigenous PhD scholarship will be based at Flinders University, Adelaide, working with Principal supervisor Prof. Penny Edmonds and another member of the Flinders staff. Associate supervision will be provided by one or more other members of the research team located within Australia.

The candidate will work with the project team to locate Australian Indigenous objects and representations from South Australia and the Northern Territory sent to Australian and intercolonial exhibitions up to 1939.

The larger ARC Research Project aims to rediscover the Australian Indigenous objects sent overseas to the Great Exhibitions of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Such objects acted as powerful forms of cultural, political, and economic display, and a form of imperial and colonial projection. The project will excavate the hidden histories of Indigenous people involved in these events and the many objects lost to Australia. Through collaborative work at community dialogues, the project will repatriate knowledge and remake connections between objects, museums, and Indigenous people. In doing so, it will bring contemporary Indigenous perspectives to global attention, generate new exhibition possibilities and influence international museum practice.

The candidate will have the opportunity to research relevant objects in museum collections and archives in several states of Australia and also engage with cultural representatives of the places researched. Overall, it will contribute to finding significant objects in collections and telling new stories of Australia and its near neighbours.

The scholarship includes:

• An Indigenous PhD stipend valued at 50k per annum (2024 rate) tax free
• The scholarship will be awarded for 4 years
• A Research Training Program Fee Offset Scholarship to cover tuition fees for Australian Citizens, NZ Citizens and Permanent Residents.

To be eligible for the award of this scholarship a student must:

We are seeking to appoint an Australian Indigenous candidate for this position. Applicants must:

• Be of Australian Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent; and   
• identify as an Australian Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander; and  
• be accepted as an Australian Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander by the community in which they lived; and 
• be currently admitted, or be eligible for admission and have applied for admission, to a higher degree by research at Flinders University.
• be an Australian citizen; or New Zealand citizen; or have been granted permanent resident status;
• meet PhD admission requirements including: have an Australian Honours degree Class 1 or 2A or equivalent qualification (at least AQF Level 8), including a research component of at least 6 months’ full-time study achieving Distinction (75%) OR including evidence of equivalent research experience, such as a substantial first-author refereed publication or track record as an investigator on a competitive grant; and
• be available to commence as a full-time PhD student at Flinders University in semester 1, 2025.
• A background in Indigenous Studies, heritage and history, or museums and material culture studies or similar is desirable.