Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
The Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, established as the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies in 1964, is an independent Australian Government statutory authority. It is a collecting, publishing, and research institute and is considered to be Australia's premier resource for information about the cultures and societies of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
The institute is a leader in ethical research and the handling of culturally sensitive material. The collection at AIATSIS has been built through over 50 years of research and engagement with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and is now a source of language and culture revitalisation, native title research, and Indigenous family and community history. AIATSIS is located on Acton Peninsula in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory.
History
The proposal and interim council (1959–1964)
In the late 1950s, there was an increasing focus on the global need for anthropological research into 'disappearing cultures'. This trend was also emerging in Australia in the work of researchers of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, leading to a proposal by W.C. Wentworth MP for the conception of an Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies in 1959.The proposal was made as a submission to Cabinet, and argued for a more comprehensive approach by the Australian Government to the recording of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and cultures.
In 1960, a Cabinet sub-committee assessed the proposal and formed a working party at the Australian National University to consider the viability of the proposal. One of their first actions was to appoint W.E.H. Stanner to organise a conference on the state of Aboriginal Studies in Australia, to be held in 1961 at the ANU.
Academics and anthropologists in the field of Aboriginal Studies attended the conference, and contributed research papers published in a conference report in 1963. No Aboriginal people were present at the conference.
The Prime Minister at the time, Robert Menzies, appointed an Interim Council in 1961. The role of the Interim Council was to plan for a national Aboriginal research organisation and establish how this organisation would interact with existing research and scientific bodies. The Interim Council was also tasked with immediately developing a programme that would identify and address urgent research needs.
The Interim Council consisted of 16 members and was chaired by Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the ANU, Professor A. D. Trendall, officially recognised as the first chair of the institute now known as AIATSIS.
In August 1962, a draft constitution for the institute was submitted to the Menzies government, and rejected. The Interim Council completed a revised constitution in July 1963. Amendments to the document included the change from the title 'director' to 'principal' of the institute.
This version of the constitution would go on to form the basis for the creation of the new Australian Institute for Aboriginal Studies the following year.
AIAS early years (1964–1970)
The Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies was established as a statutory authority under an Act of Parliament in June 1964. The mission of the Institute at that time has been described as "to record language, song, art, material culture, ceremonial life and social structure before those traditions perished in the face of European ways".This notion is also reflected in the Institute's official functions, as recorded in the Reading of the Bill in Parliament. These were:
AIAS had a twenty-two member Council, composed mainly of academics, and had a foundation membership of one hundred. The founding Principal of the newly formed institute was Frederick McCarthy, a professional anthropologist and graduate of Sydney University who had spent nearly 30 years working in the field.
The creation of the AIAS provided an opportunity for greater cross-discipline interaction in fields relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander studies in Australia.
The Institute's founding principal, Fred McCarthy, was an advocate of film as an important part of research methodology as early as his tenure as curator of anthropology at the Australian Museum in Sydney in the 1940s. This was evident in the contributions he made during his involvement in establishing the AIAS and also as its principal, in continuing to support the development of the AIAS Film Unit and championing ethnographic film in global forums.
In the early years of the AIAS, the Film Unit largely outsourced early filmmaking work to other companies, or worked in collaboration with the Commonwealth Film Unit. But over the next 30 years, the Film Unit would go on to produce "one of the largest assembly of ethnographic films created in the world".
In keeping with the AIAS official function "to publish and to support the publication of the results of research", a publishing arm of the institute was established in 1964. Publishing under the name Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, the publishing arm released a range of papers and research findings, including in the fields of linguistics, demography, physical anthropology, history and musicology.
The early work of the AIAS is credited with increasing interaction between academics in different fields, as well as establishing the foundations for the extensive collections AIATSIS holds today. But before 1970, there had never been an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander member on the AIAS Council.
Self-determination and the Institute (1970–1989)
"Money and other resources are in short supply for Aboriginal control of their livelihood, but not, it seems, for discussing it." – Eaglehawk and Crow letter, 29 March 1974The 1970s marked a period of change for the AIAS. This began with the appointment of the first Aboriginal member of the AIAS Council in 1970. Phillip Roberts, an Alawa man, served on the council from September 1970 until June 1972.
This was followed in 1971 with a second Aboriginal Council member, Senator Neville Bonner, who served on Council until 1974 and for a second term in the late 1970s. And again in 1972, with the appointment of Dick Roughsey to replace Phillip Roberts at the end of his term.
The appointment of Phillip Roberts to the Council reflected a growing pressure for an increase in Aboriginal representation within the institute. But the move did not allay the belief held by some Aboriginal activists that the AIAS was engaging in 'tokenism' in the extent to which Aboriginal people were involved in the administration of Aboriginal Studies.
The changes to the Institute that would take place in the following decade were also influenced by the shifting social and political landscape in Australia. The Aboriginal rights movement was growing and Aboriginal people were demanding a voice on Council, consultation with communities and an increased focus on projects relevant to the needs of Indigenous people.
In 1972, the Whitlam government was elected. Their policy of Self-determination for Aboriginal people echoed calls for greater Aboriginal involvement in the administration and functions of the AIAS. The new government was also responsible for a significant boost to AIAS funding.
The appointment of Peter Ucko in 1972 as Principal of the AIAS has since been described as the beginning of an increase in involvement of Aboriginal people in the workings of the institute.
In his time as Principal, Ucko was responsible for implementing a policy later labelled "Aboriginalisation", which was aimed at opening up the institute to Aboriginal involvement and representation. This policy was influenced by a document circulated in 1974, called the Eaglehawk and Crow letter, which criticised the current model of academic research. The letter asserted that anthropologists "should not pretend that their studies are objective when the overwhelming factor in the lives of Aborigines is our oppression by the society of which the anthropologist is, to a greater or lesser extent, a part of." Its authors called for increased participation of Aboriginal people in the running of the Institute and for greater control over commissioning and funding of research into their cultures.
The policy and structural changes to the Institute continued throughout the 1970s.
The Aboriginal Advisory Committee was established in 1975, and consisted of the six Aboriginal members of the AIAS Council. Early recommendations including increased representation of Aboriginal people on committees and the AIAS Council as well as employment at the institute. The committee was renamed in 1978, to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Advisory Committee.
In 1975–1976, a category of research grants for Aboriginal researchers was introduced. The emergence of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people filling the role of 'cultural practitioner', travelling to the AIAS to provide advice on projects and research being undertaken, was also documented from around 1976 onwards.
The time Peter Ucko spent as Principal of the AIAS saw a phase of "rapid expansion" for the institute.
The AIAS Film Unit that had operated in Sydney until 1973 was re-established in Canberra in 1975. Prominent American-born ethnographic filmmaker David MacDougall was appointed the Director of this new AIAS Film Unit. With his wife and filmmaking partner Judith MacDougall and Kim McKenzie, the Film Unit operated until 1988 when its functions were absorbed back into the institute.
During the MacDougall/McKenzie era, a new style of ethnographic film was explored. One that moved away from film as a scientific record in favour of telling the story of individuals lives. The filmmakers also practised a more collaborative approach to their films, and chose to use translations and subtitles to give direct access to the subjects voice and thoughts rather than the dominant 'voice of god' narration style.
One of the most notable films produced towards the end of this period was Waiting for Harry, a prize-winning film directed by Kim McKenzie with anthropologist Les Hiatt and now considered to exemplify the "style of collaborative filmmaking" the Film Unit favoured in their work.
The power of film to "influence opinion" was becoming increasingly recognised and with this, the lack of representation of Aboriginal people telling their own stories. In 1978, a meeting chaired by prominent activist and academic Marcia Langton expressed these concerns, arguing for greater access to film and video in Aboriginal communities, and training in film production by the AIAS.
By the following year, the AIAS Film Unit had begun to implement a training program and had started employing trainee Aboriginal filmmakers on productions by the early 1980s.
The AIAS began presenting a biennial Wentworth Lecture in 1978, named as a tribute to W.C. Wentworth for his role in establishing the institute. The lecture is presented by prominent person with knowledge or experience relating to issues affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Australia today.
The expansion of the Institute continued into the 1980s. The Aboriginal Studies Press began publishing the Australian Aboriginal Studies Journal in 1983, a peer-reviewed journal aimed at "promoting high-quality research in Australian Indigenous studies".
In 1982, the AIAS established a task force that identified the prevailing need for further 'Aboriginalisation' of the Institute's workforce. At the time, there were four Aboriginal staff members, making up around 7% of the total staff. This was followed in 1985 with the creation of the role of Aboriginal Studies Coordination Officer within the AIAS, whose responsibilities involved improving access for Aboriginal people to the research and resources of the institute.
The After 200 Years project was launched in 1985, aiming to fill some of the gaps in the AIAS photographic collection; particularly images of daily life in the southern, urban parts of Australia. Aboriginal involvement in selecting subject matter, photographing and documenting the collection was a major part of the project. The three-year project culminated in the publication of a book containing hundreds of photographs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and selected by them to represent their community.
The Rock Art Protection Program commenced in 1986 following a request for such an initiative by the then Minister of Aboriginal Affairs Clyde Holding. The aim of the RAPP was to protect Australian Indigenous rock art. Grants were approved by the institute to fund various projects related to rock art protection.
The collections were also expanding, and by 1987 the AIATSIS library encompassed the print collections, a special Bibliographic Section and the Resource Centre.
Between 1987 and 1989, the survival of the AIAS as an independent statutory body was tied to a proposal for a new statutory commission that would take over all aspects of the Aboriginal Affairs portfolio. This commission would become the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission, conceived in an Act of Parliament in 1989. The AIAS would not be folded into this commission; instead it would be recreated under a new Act with a new name.