Blog
The AIATSIS blog is our space to showcase our expertise, and for you to discover the stories behind the work we do and the items we are working on.
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The AFL's Aboriginal Origins
Contention about the origins of Australian Rules Football has given rise to the ‘Football History Wars’. What are the arguments about and how does a new recent discovery change everything…?
Family History Unit at the Queanbeyan Heritage Festival
Family historyStolen GenerationsSorry Day
22 May 2017 Erin Vink, Family History UnitOn April 21st, the AIATSIS Family History Unit ran a ‘finding your family’ workshop as part of the Queanbeyan Heritage Festival offering basic family history training, information and support.
Protecting Country, Serving Nation
War ServiceCeremoniesFrontier conflictNew ZealandANZAC DayBlack Diggers
5 May 2017 Rita MetzenrathAIATSIS reflects on the first ANZAC Day march led by Indigenous Australian veterans in 2017
Beginning to heal; the National Sorry Day Committee working papers
National ApologyNational Sorry Day CommitteeSorry DayCollectionDigitisation
1 May 2017 Fiona BlackburnReverend John Brown’s donation of his National Sorry Day Committee working papers is available for use at AIATSIS. The Committee worked tirelessly from the release of the Bringing them home report in 1997, to 2008, to coordinate Sorry Day activities and so start a journey of healing for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. The papers convey the work that, in Reverend Brown’s experience, became totally consuming.
My Brown Skin Baby: The first anthem of the Stolen Generation
MusicMusiciansStolen Generations
4 Apr 2017 Dr Blake SingleyBob Randall was one of the thousands of Aboriginal children throughout Australia that were subjected to the official government policy of forcibly separating Aboriginal children from their families and placing them in institutions or with European families. These experiences led him to write what is widely regarded as the first song to chronicle the events and impacts of the Stolen Generation.
Images from AIATSIS Collection projected for Enlighten
ActivistsPhotographyHuman rights
3 Mar 2017 Dr Blake SingleyPictures from the AIATSIS photographic collection feature in the Museum of Australian Democracy’s contribution to this year’s Enlighten Festival.
AIATSIS digitisation specialists visit New Zealand
Cultural heritageDigitisationNew ZealandTe PapaDigital
24 Feb 2017 Daniel WaldingSenior Digitisation Technicians, Daniel Walding & Daryl Ciubal, recently travelled to Wellington to participate in the National Digital Forum (NDF2016) and visited the digitisation programs at Te Papa Tongarewa and the National Library of New Zealand.
Capturing the AIATSIS Possum Skin Cloak
CeremoniesCultural heritageArt
6 Feb 2017 Andrew TurnerAIATSIS’ story will soon be etched on to its own possum skin cloak by renowned Yorta Yorta artist and cloakmaker, Lee Darroch. AIATSIS multimedia officer, Andrew Turner, went to visit Lee at her home studio to document its creation.
Aboriginal Art Market success!
This year we invited four remote Aboriginal community art centres to take part in our largest Aboriginal Art Market yet.
My internship at the National Museum of the American Indian
Earlier this year Jodie Dowd undertook an internship at the National Museum of the American Indian which is a part of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C.