Redmond Barry Fellow 2014

Dr Michael Davis
The Greg Dening papers: using ethnographic history in writing about Aboriginal/European environmental encounters

Professor Greg Dening (1931-2008) was a Melbourne academic historian, anthropologist and prominent Pacific Studies scholar. His distinct approach was set out in his many books, including Islands and Beaches: Discourse on a Silent Land: Marquesas 1774-1880 (1988), The Death of William Gooch: A History's Anthropology (1991), Mr Bligh's Bad Language: Passion, Power and Theater on the Bounty (1992), and his collection of essays in Performances (1996). Professor Dening was one of the pioneers of what came to be called the 'Melbourne School' of ethnographic history. His unique intellectual approach was to develop innovative ways of understanding and interpreting cross-cultural encounters between Europeans and Indigenous Others. Dening's work remains highly influential in colonial and postcolonial studies and Pacific history scholarship.

Through the Redmond Barry Fellowship, Dr Davis proposes to engage closely with the large archive of Professor Dening's unpublished papers held at the State Library of Victoria, and at the University of Melbourne, to seek deeper insights into Dening's historical method, and to inquire into how his particular approach was developed, particularly through his correspondence, and journals and diaries. In addition, Dr Davis will also bring to bear the utility of Dening's approach to his own research and writing on histories of Australian Indigenous/European environmental encounters. Extending on his previous work, Dr Davis plans to use his study of Dening's papers to write a major piece on cross-cultural encounters and environmental history, and will also prepare some writing towards a biography of Dening's work.

Dr Michael Davis has recently completed a three year postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of History at Sydney University, and is now an Honorary Research Fellow in the recently-established Sydney Environment Institute at the University. He is writing on histories of 19th century Aboriginal/European environmental encounters in north-eastern Australia, is publishing journal articles, and is working on a book in this area. Before taking up his postdoctoral fellowship, Michael worked for many years as an independent historian and policy specialist, and for some projects worked with Aboriginal communities and organisations in various parts of Australia. His previous publications include Writing Heritage: The Depiction of Indigenous Heritage in European-Australian Writings (2007, Melbourne and Canberra: Australian Scholarly Publishing and National Museum of Australia Press).