Curtin Indigenous Research Network Lecture Series – Heritage, Transculturality and Collections: New Research from Germany and the Kimberley, WA

Chair John Curtin Distinguished Professor Anna Haebich, Curtin University

Respondent Professor Erik Champion, UNESCO Professorial Chair in Cultural Heritage & Visualisation, Curtin University

Speakers The panel speakers are from Germany’s leading Transcultural Studies Centre at Ruprecht-Karls-University in Heidelberg. They are members of the Centre’s research project, ‘The Transcultural Heritage of Northwest Australia: Dynamics and Resistances’. Their research opens up new possibilities for collaborations between Germany and Australia.

Abstract The papers pose new questions about the unique transcultural heritage of the North West region of WA. How might its preservation and sustainable development be conceived of differently, as historical, cultural and ecological projects that take indigenous knowledge seriously? What can records of early German collectors contribute to models of cultural heritage embracing cultural, social and ecological values and human and non-human agency? Dr Carsten Wergin asks the big question for our times: if the Anthropocene teaches us “how to die”, could Indigenous knowledge, transculturality and multispecies theory inspire new models for a common future? Dr Corinna Erckenbrecht discusses the heritage legacy of the controversial anthropologist and collector Hermann Klaatsch who visited the Kimberley in the early 1900s. Sarah Yu, the curator of Lustre: Pearling & Australia, reflects on her study of Kimberley pearling cultures and the writings of anthropologist Helmut Petri.

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