Objects, agency and context

Australian Aboriginal expressions of connection in relation to museum artefacts

Bibliographic Data

ID2391024
AuthorsDiane Hafner (The University of Queensland, corresponding author)
Year2013
Volume18
Issue4
Pages347-366
Publication date2013-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Material Culture (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1359-1835 • E-ISSN: 1460-3586
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/1359183513502262
OpenAlexW2070033443
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited12

This article discusses the interactions of a group of Australian Aboriginal people with museum-based artefacts and photographic images, and their re-connection to these materials inside and outside the museum setting. Themes of connection and agency relating to these materials were invoked in the process. The complex social biographies of some objects mean they are at times discussed as having agency, or interpreted as being culturally perceived as such. In the case detailed here, the affect expressed in responses to a variety of objects indicates different interpretations. The discussion therefore considers the logic of connection expressed in Aboriginal ontologies to argue against ideas of the agency of objects. It is instead suggested that the meaning invested in them is related more to their material qualities and the contexts in which they are perceived. This consideration is grounded in a discussion of a collaborative project between researchers and Aboriginal people in which these matters arose

Aesthetics · Agency (philosophy · Archaeology · Art · Connection (principal bundle · Context (archaeology · Epistemology · Meaning (existential · Relation (database · Social science · Sociology · Variety (cybernetics · Computer Science · Cultural Heritage Management and Preservation · Engineering · Geographies of human-animal interactions · History · Museums and Cultural Heritage