17 - 20 OCTOBER 2022 • CANBERRA / ONLINE
INTRODUCING OUR 2022 SPEAKERS
Keynote Speakers
Dr Kirsten Thorpe
Are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People Still 'Captives of the Archives'?
Dr Kirsten Thorpe (Worimi, Port Stephens) is a Senior Researcher at Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education & Research, University of Technology Sydney (UTS). Kirsten leads the Indigenous Archives and Data Stewardship Hub, which advocates for Indigenous rights in archives and data and develops research and engagement in relation to refiguring libraries and archives to support the culturally appropriate ownership, management and ongoing preservation of Indigenous knowledges. Kirsten has broad interests in research and engagement with Indigenous protocols and decolonising practices in the library and archive fields, and the broader GLAM sector. Kirsten advocates for the 'right of reply' to records and capacity building and support for the development of Living Indigenous Archives on Country.
In the three decades since Henrietta Fourmile’s seminal article Who Owns The Past?-Aborigines as captives of the archives (1989) was published, there has been significant awareness of the importance of the archives for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. However, the question remains, are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people still ‘Captives of the Archives’? In her keynote, Dr Thorpe will reflect on the calls to action asserted by Fourmile to consider the current support for Indigenous people's self-determination and recognition of sovereignty in the archives in Australia.
Rose Barrowcliffe
Loris Williams Memorial Lecture
Loris Williams is remembered for the path she forged for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the archival profession. She made a large impact in a short time because she brought her own experience as an Indigenous user of the archives to her career. Loris fought for the principal that access should not be part of the trauma that can result from archives. She campaigned for easy access for Stolen Generation families, higher employment of Indigenous people in archives and that archives be aware of the great joy and trauma that records can bring Indigenous people. Today, archives are going through a renaissance in regards to Indigenous rights. Loris work is seen as an exemplar, but Loris dreams for archives are far from being realised. In this Loris Williams Memorial lecture, Rose reflects on where we are now and how we as a profession measure up against contemporary understandings of Indigenous rights and Loris' hopes for the archival profession.
Rose Barrowcliffe is Butchulla and a doctoral candidate at the University of the Sunshine Coast. Rose’s research has led her to work with libraries and archives around the country. In 2021, she won the Mander Jones award for her blog post which focussed on archival practice through the lens of the 2020 Black Lives Matter uprising. That blog started conversations across Australia about how archival practice was measuring up against institutions’ statements of intent and reconciliation action plans. In 2021, Rose was appointed the inaugural First Nations Archives Advisor to the Queensland State Archives. This appointment coincided with the Queensland Government’s Path to Treaty. Rose’s work within QSA is helping to guide not just internal practice, but also various government agencies in how records can be used for Indigenous self-determination during the truth telling and Treaty process.
Dr Megan Evans
Natural Capital Accounting and Environmental Governance
Dr Megan Evans is a lecturer in Public Sector Management within the School of Business, UNSW Canberra, as part of the Public Service Research Group. She holds an Australian Research Council DECRA Fellowship which is examining the growth of private sector investment in biodiversity and natural capital.
Her research aims to understand how governments, businesses and other actors can more effectively protect and manage our natural environment. To do this, she uses theories and methods from the natural and social sciences to inform the design, implementation and evaluation of environmental laws, policies and tools. She has a diverse background, including undergraduate degrees in mathematics and ecology, a PhD in public policy, and direct experience with policymaking. She sits on the editorial boards of Conservation Letters.
In her keynote, Dr Evans will introduce us to governance in natural capital markets and explain some of the key issues around measuring and accounting. As the knowledge economy really takes hold, there will be more and more industries that are built on information - social media was one, environmental governance is shaping up to be another. This talk will reveal to us another new frontier where our skills and expertise in building integrity into information are relevant and vital.
Dr Richard Denniss
Panel: Value of collections+value of governance=value of archives?
Chief economist and former Executive Director of the Australia Institute, Dr Richard Denniss is a prominent Australian economist, author and public policy commentator, and has spent the last twenty years moving between policy-focused roles in academia, federal politics and think-tanks.
He was also a Lecturer in Economics at the university of Newcastle and former Associate Professor in the Crawford School of Public Policy at ANU. He is a regular contributor to The Monthly and the author of several books including: Econobabble, Curing Affluenza and Dead Right: How Neoliberalism Ate Itself and What Comes Next?
Professor Maggie Walter
Panel: Value of collections+value of governance=value of archives?
Professor Maggie Walter (PhD; FASSA) is Palawa, a member of the Tasmanian Aboriginal Briggs family. She holds the position of Distinguished Professor of Sociology (Emerita) at the University of Tasmania. A previous Pro-Vice Chancellor, Aboriginal Leadership (2014-2020), Professor Walter’s research centres on challenging, empirically and theoretically, standard explanations for Indigenous inequality. Maggie is a founding member of the Australian Indigenous Data Sovereignty Collective (Maiam nayri Wingara) and an executive member of the Global Indigenous Data Alliance (GIDA). In May 2021, Maggie was appointed as a Commissioner with the Victorian Yoo-rrook Justice Commission, inquiring into systemic injustices experienced by First Peoples since colonisation.
David Fricker
Panel: Value of collections+value of governance=value of archives?
David Fricker CdOAL, BA(Comp Studies), GAICD was appointed President of the ICA in October 2014, and will complete his second term in September 2022. Since 2015 he has been a Vice-Chair of the UNESCO Memory of the World International Advisory Committee.
He held the office of Director-General of the National Archives of Australia for ten years, from January 2012. In this role, his focus was the whole-of-government transition to ‘digital continuity’ in records and information management; expansion of preservation capability for paper, audio-visual and digital records; acceleration of the declassification of sensitive archival documents; and the exploitation of emerging technology to enhance the public’s access to archival resources. As the principal policy-maker for Federal government records and information management practices, David has been an outspoken and influential champion of public administration based on transparency, integrity and accountability.
He is a professional member of the Australian Society of Archivists, and a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. In 2015 he was made Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters (Chevalier dans l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres) by the Republic of France.
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The Australian Society of Archivists Inc. (ASA) is Australia’s peak professional body for archivists and recordkeepers. We advocate on behalf of archivists, and the archival and recordkeeping profession, and seek to promote the value of archives and records as well as support best practice standards and services.
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Crows Nest NSW 1585
P: +61 2 6190 7983
The Australian Society of Archivists would like to acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the Lands from across Australia and the surrounding seas and recognise their continuing connection to land, water, culture and community. We pay our respects to the Elders past and present. We honour your local community traditions of caring for archives and culture through Country, through songs and stories.