Recovering Indigenous Agencies in Ethnographic Visual Archives: Activating Gregory Bateson, Reo Fortune and Margaret Mead's photographs
Lead Research Organisation:
University of East Anglia
Department Name: Art, Media and American Studies
Abstract
This project will study visual archives deriving from the fieldwork of three anthropologists in Papua New Guinea in the 1930s. These photographic archives are currently understudied but have the potential to shed new light on Indigenous agencies in colonial photographic archives. Considering them as social assemblages, I will particularly focus on historical and relational processes as well as on the contexts of creation of these archives. Through different methodologies, my aim is to interrogate the photographic act in which photographed subjects are seen but silenced, and thereby recover Indigenous voices and agencies. By doing so, the research will activate the potential of these archives to reconnect past and present Indigenous agencies and bring new perspectives into current and important discussions on decolonising archives.
This project proposes to study photographic archives made in the East Sepik Province of Papua New Guinea held in the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Cambridge (UK) and the Library of Congress in Washington DC (USA). This rich material represents a unique testimony of Sepik ceremonial life and cultures during an important period of the colonisation of the region. The photographs were made by three anthropologists (Gregory Bateson, Reo Fortune and Margaret Mead) during their trips to the Sepik Region between 1929 and 1938. Their work is of importance as they were the first anthropologists to study the region in-depth. While the anthropological knowledge and theories extracted from these fieldworks have been discussed, the visual archives remain largely ignored. With this project, I aim to re-evaluate this collection as material heritage in its own right and as vivid traces of social encounters. I will provide new perspectives on photographic archives in light of the processes and contexts through which the photographs were created. I will pay close attention to the different layers of relations between anthropologists and colonial officials, but also Sepik people during this period. By following the social lives of these photographs from their production to their afterlives, I can highlight their relevance and significance: first and foremost for contemporary Sepik people but also as contributions to contemporary debates on colonial archives. Through the recovering of Indigenous perspectives and agencies, the project provides means for the de-classification, re-contextualization and re-humanization of colonial representations of Pacific cultures in archives. By doing so, I will examine practical outcomes of the contemporary decolonisation of colonial archives and highlight the importance of a case-by-case approach. I will provide theoretical and practical tools for better custodianship of these archives based on Sepik perspectives.
This project draws on the decolonial study of photographs as colonial archival records. The camera played an important role as an archiving machine creating archival objects, the study of which is therefore entangled in theoretical discussion of representation, especially in colonial contexts. The study of these visual archives requires addressing the particular agencies of the ethnographers and the persons they encountered against the backdrop of the colonial asymmetrical power relations at the origin of these archival representations. However, the aim is to challenge the asymmetrical interpretative potential of a photograph in which the photographer is not seen but heard whereas the photographed subjects are visible but silent. Through a cross-reading of written and visual archives, it is possible to delve into what was not intended to be seen nor heard. Focusing on the unseen part of a photograph implies considering the relationships between the different agents inside and outside the frame of the image. This original methodological approach brings a different perspective on the visual analysis and materiality of the archives.
This project proposes to study photographic archives made in the East Sepik Province of Papua New Guinea held in the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Cambridge (UK) and the Library of Congress in Washington DC (USA). This rich material represents a unique testimony of Sepik ceremonial life and cultures during an important period of the colonisation of the region. The photographs were made by three anthropologists (Gregory Bateson, Reo Fortune and Margaret Mead) during their trips to the Sepik Region between 1929 and 1938. Their work is of importance as they were the first anthropologists to study the region in-depth. While the anthropological knowledge and theories extracted from these fieldworks have been discussed, the visual archives remain largely ignored. With this project, I aim to re-evaluate this collection as material heritage in its own right and as vivid traces of social encounters. I will provide new perspectives on photographic archives in light of the processes and contexts through which the photographs were created. I will pay close attention to the different layers of relations between anthropologists and colonial officials, but also Sepik people during this period. By following the social lives of these photographs from their production to their afterlives, I can highlight their relevance and significance: first and foremost for contemporary Sepik people but also as contributions to contemporary debates on colonial archives. Through the recovering of Indigenous perspectives and agencies, the project provides means for the de-classification, re-contextualization and re-humanization of colonial representations of Pacific cultures in archives. By doing so, I will examine practical outcomes of the contemporary decolonisation of colonial archives and highlight the importance of a case-by-case approach. I will provide theoretical and practical tools for better custodianship of these archives based on Sepik perspectives.
This project draws on the decolonial study of photographs as colonial archival records. The camera played an important role as an archiving machine creating archival objects, the study of which is therefore entangled in theoretical discussion of representation, especially in colonial contexts. The study of these visual archives requires addressing the particular agencies of the ethnographers and the persons they encountered against the backdrop of the colonial asymmetrical power relations at the origin of these archival representations. However, the aim is to challenge the asymmetrical interpretative potential of a photograph in which the photographer is not seen but heard whereas the photographed subjects are visible but silent. Through a cross-reading of written and visual archives, it is possible to delve into what was not intended to be seen nor heard. Focusing on the unseen part of a photograph implies considering the relationships between the different agents inside and outside the frame of the image. This original methodological approach brings a different perspective on the visual analysis and materiality of the archives.
