Dr Louise Hamby

Post-doctoral Fellow

T: ( 02 ) 6125 8986

F: ( 02 ) 612 52438
E: louise.hamby@anu.edu.au

Research School of Humanities
College of Arts and Social Sciences

Qualifications:

PhD, Anthropology, ANU
MFA, Fabric Design, University of Georgia

Short biography:

Louise Hamby is a Postdoctoral Fellow lecturing in the Museums and Collections Graduate Program. She has recently been co-granted an ARC Discovery Grant:Contexts of Collection- a dialogic approach to understanding the making of the material record of Yolngu cultures (2008-2011). Her last position was a Postdoctoral Fellow – Industry working with Museum Victoria on the project, Anthropological and Aboriginal perspectives on the Donald Thomson Collection: material culture, collecting and identity. She took up this position at the CCR in 2003. From 2001 she was a Visiting Fellow. She received her PhD in Anthropology from the ANU in 2001. She also holds an MFA in Fabric Design from the University of Georgia.

Louise's PhD, Containers of Power was an ethnographic study of fibre container forms from northeastern Arnhem Land. It investigated a complex set of relationships between the forms, mainly baskets, bags and mats, their makers and users, their functions, their morphology, their manufacture and history. The theoretical approach taken was one in which objects, the fibre ones, have cultural biographies.

Louise has a strong interest in historic and contemporary material culture from Arnhem Land. Her involvement with eastern Arnhem Land women lead to the development of the exhibition that she co-curated with Diana Young, Art on a String. Her most recent involvement in curation, research and writing is about western Arnhem Land fibre. This resulted in the exhibition and book called Twined Together: Kunmadj Njalehnjaleken.

Current Research Projects:

Fibre Container Forms from Gapuwiyak

Continuing research begun in the mid 1990s this project will look at generational change in the transmission of knowledge in fibre practice in Gapuwiyak. The influence of past makers and their styles will be investigated to highlight and encourage the involvement of younger women in the fibre practice. This practice has both economic and cultural benefits.

Body Ornament in the Donald Thomson Collection

Her most recent work is linked to the Donald Thomson Collection obtained in the mid 1930s and 1942, now housed in Museum Victoria. This collection includes around 5,000 artefacts of just about everything that Aboriginal people made and used at the time. It is far ranging; from bark paintings to spears to plant and animal specimens. As part of a larger project to examine objects to be worn on the body such as necklaces, headbands, armbands, headdresses, skirts, string harnesses and pubic covers this year's work has focused on armbands. This involves the historic pieces as well as fieldwork in Arnhem Land.

Previous Research Projects:

Art on a String: Threaded Objects from the Central Desert and Arnhem Land
This travelling exhibition is the first exhibition ever to be devoted entirely to the intricately coloured and patterned strings made into necklaces, bracelets, wall hangings, mats and fly curtains. It was co-curated by Louise Hamby and Diana Young, University College London. This exhibition draws attention to the work of individual artists whose work has been neglected in the past. The exhibition opened at Object, Centre for Contemporary Craft in Sydney in October 2001 and was at the ANU in June 2003 at the ANU School of Art Gallery. It has now completed its tour around Australia.

Twined Together:Kunmadj Njalehnjaleken
Twined Together is a traveling exhibition and reference book about western Arnhem Land fibre objects made by women. Louise has been working with the artists and the staff from Injalak Arts and Crafts Centre in Gunbalyana (Oenpelli) and its surrounding outstations to develop this project since 2002. The exhibition opened at Museum Victoria on May 12, 2005 and will continue to tour until 2008. This exhibition will give the women artists an opportunity to showcase their work and to demonstrate to the outside communities the long history of fibre production in their community.

Woven Forms: Contemporary Basket Making in Australia
Louise was part of the curatorium for Woven Forms: Contemporary Basket Making in Australia that was developed by Object – the Australian Centre for Craft and Design. This exhibition aimed to present a unique selection of outstanding selection of basket forms by practitioners from various cultural backgrounds in Australia. Louise researched and wrote mainly about the works from the Arnhem Land artists. The travelling show opened in September 2005 in Sydney.

Selected Publications:

Chapters in books

2005 ‘The First Biographer of Baskets’, in N. Peterson and B. Rigsby (eds), Donald Thomson: The Man and Scholar, Eds. The Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia, Canberra:171-84.

2000 co-authored with D. Mellor, 'Fibre tracks', in S. Kleinert and M. Neale (eds), The Oxford Companion to Aboriginal Art and Culture, Oxford University Press, South Melbourne: 370-7.

Journal articles

2004 co-authored with L. Allen, ‘Twined Together’, InSite. March-April:5.

2004 ‘Twined Together: Museum Victoria and Injalak Arts and Crafts’. Arts Backbone Vol 4 Issue3:3

2000 'Objects between cultures: Necklaces from Northeast Arnhem Land', Object 3: 28-31

1996 'Understanding Historic Twined Bags: A Prerequisite to Contemporary Textile Aesthetics'. COMA Bulletin # 27 1992 - Conference of Museum Anthropologists: 55-62.

Catalogues

2005 Twined Together: Kunmadj Njalehnjaleken., Injalak Arts and Crafts, Gunbalanya.

2001 co-authored with Diana Young, Art on a String Threaded Objects from the Central Desert and Arnhem Land, Object Centre for Contemporary Craft and the Centre for Cross-Cultural Research, Sydney, Canberra.

1994 Fibre Art from Elcho Island, University of New South Wales, Sydney.

Catalogue essays

2005 co-authored with L. Allen, ‘Links to the south’, in L. Hamby (ed.), Twined Together: Kunmadj Njalehnjaleken. Injalak Arts and Crafts, Gunbalanya: 59-65.

2005 ‘Colour and pattern: Kala dja miledahdadjmiken’, in L. Hamby (ed.), Twined Together: Kunmadj Njalehnjaleken. Injalak Arts and Crafts, Gunbalanya: 153-183.

2005 ‘Forms: Kunmadj’, in L. Hamby (ed.), Twined Together: Kunmadj Njalehnjaleken. Injalak Arts and Crafts, Gunbalanya: 109-152.

2005 ‘Kin Connections:Karribidyikarrmerren’, in L. Hamby (ed.), Twined Together: Kunmadj Njalehnjaleken. Injalak Arts and Crafts, Gunbalanya: 69-82.

2005 ‘Women Gathering and Making: Daluk Karrimang Dja Karrimarribun’, in L. Hamby (ed.), Twined Together: Kunmadj Njalehnjaleken. Injalak Arts and Crafts, Gunbalanya: 84-107.

2002 'Morning Star String', in Banumbirr: Elcho Island Artists and Bandigan Morning Star Collection, Elcho Island Art and Craft and Bandigan Aboriginal Art and Craft, Galiwin'ku and Sydney: 14-20.

1994 'Sacred Fibres and Celestial Strings', Fibre Art from Elcho Island, University of New South Wales, 16-36.

Other

2000 [Obituary] 'Tribute to Dorothy Njmanydjurra Madarrpa', Artlink 20 (2): 96.

2000 [Review] 'Review of Gong Wapitja by Gillian Hutcherson', Anthropological Forum 10 (1): 87-90.

Teaching:

Louise currently lectures in the Museums and Collections Graduate Program established by the ANU and National Museum of Australia. She previously lectured in the School of Design Studies, College of Fine Arts, at the University of New South Wales before taking up her ARC Fellowship.

Professional societies:

Honorary Associate of Museum Victoria
Fellow of Australian Anthropological Association
Advisory Board - A Journal of Modern Craft