Paper short abstract:

Focusing on the photographs made by van der Leeden in the 1960s in Arnhem Land, this paper will explore (1) his photographs as a research tool, (2) the challenges connected to providing access to a deteriorating material and (3) the Indigenous meanings attached to these fifty-year old photographs.

Paper long abstract:

During exactly one year, from 29 January 1964 until 29 January 1965, Alex van der Leeden conducted fieldwork among the Nunggubuyu people in the Rose River area of Arnhem Land, where he assembled a collection comprising photographs, as well as objects and sound recordings, now held at the National Museum of Ethnology in Leiden, the Netherlands. This paper focuses on the photographs made by Alex van der Leeden. Firstly I will explore to what extent van der Leeden considered photographs as a research and documentation tool, complementing his structuralist investigations into the societal structure of the Nunggubuyu. I will then look at the limitations and possibilities for increasing accessibility of the deteriorating negatives by storing and digitising them appropriately. Finally, I will examine how access by indigenous members of the public shapes the significance these fifty-year old images have for the descendants of the people represented in the photographs. Are these images experienced as a record of genealogy, local history and heritage or do they go beyond these aspects actually making things happen today and for future generations?