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Anna Haebich Anna Haebich i(A114506 works by)
Gender: Female
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BiographyHistory

' A scholar of international repute, Anna Haebich is known for her multi-disciplinary and cross-cultural approaches to her research. Her appointment as UNESCO Orbicom Chair for Griffith University and Advisor to the Brisbane Ideas Festival are acknowledgements of her contributions.

'Anna's research interests include Indigenous history, Indigenous art, contemporary visual arts, museology and social justice issues. Anna brings to her research her personal experiences of Aboriginal community life through marriage and work. Anna is now writing on histories of migration. Reflections on her own family's experiences were published in Griffith Review's 'Our Global Face Inside the Australian Diaspora'. Her career combines university teaching and research with museum curatorship, visual art practice and working with Indigenous organisations. Anna's contributions can be found in a wide range of academic and non-academic sites: scholarly books and articles, media commentaries, writers festivals, museum exhibitions, videos, CDs, websites and works of art.

'Her multi-award winning book, Broken Circles: Fragmenting Indigenous Families 1800-2000 (Fremantle Arts Centre Press, 2000), is Australia's first national history of the Stolen Generations and For Their Own Good: Aborigines and Government in the South West of Western Australia (University of Western Australia Press, 1992) is a seminal work on the impact of Australia's discriminatory policies and laws. These varied interests and approaches are drawn together in Anna's present ARC Fellowship project, titled Imagining Assimilation. This will produce the first comprehensive cultural history of assimilation in Australia and will generate new historical readings of assimilation linked to broader issues of public debate today.' (Source: The Australian Academy of the Humanities website)

Most Referenced Works

Awards for Works

y separately published work icon Dancing in Shadows : Histories of Nyungar Performance Crawley : UWA Publishing , 2018 12947541 2018 multi chapter work criticism

'Dancing in Shadows explores the power of Indigenous performance pitted against the forces of settler colonisation. Historian Anna Haebich documents how the Nyungar people of Western Australia strategically and courageously adapted their rich performance culture to survive the catastrophe that engulfed them, and generously share their culture, history, and language in theatre. 

'In public corroborees they performed their sovereignty to the colonists and in community-only gatherings they danced and sang to bring forth resilience and spiritual healing. Pushed away by the colonists and denied their culture and lands they continued to live and perform in the shadows over the years, in combinations of the old and the new, including indigenised settler songs and dances. Nyungar people survived, and they now number around 40,000 people and constitute the largest Aboriginal nation in the Australian settler state. The ancient family lineages live in city suburbs and country towns and they continue to perform to celebrate their ancestors and to strengthen community wellbeing by being together.

Dancing in Shadows sheds light on a little-known history of Nyungar performance.' (Publication summary)

2019 shortlisted Prime Minister's Literary Awards The Prime Minister's Prize for Australian History
y separately published work icon Murdering Stepmothers : The Execution of Martha Rendell Crawley : UWA Publishing , 2010 Z1696240 2010 single work biography

'Sensational rumours of the murder of three small children by their stepmother ignite the passions of Perth citizens in 1909.

Shocked by horrific descriptions of how she poisoned the children, they demand her execution as one voice. But did she do it? Or was she a victim of the prejudices of her persecutors?

Anna Haebich brings to life the people of Perth and the entangled mesh of self-righteous bigotry, slander and unbridled revenge they invoke to propel the trial of Martha Rendell to its inevitable end.

We see the accused woman's downward spiral from her dreams of a new beginning with her lover to a life of domestic drudgery and deceits; then her final days on the edge of the abyss - becoming the last woman in the state to be hanged.

Based on a true story and meticulously researched, this compelling novel is driven by passion, imagination and an eerie conjuring up of the past.' (From the publisher's website.)

2011 winner Margaret Medcalf Award
y separately published work icon Spinning the Dream : Assimilation in Australia 1950-1970 North Fremantle : Fremantle Press , 2008 Z1573773 2008 single work criticism (taught in 3 units)

'In Spinning the Dream, the author re-evaluates the experience of Assimilation in Australia, providing a meticulously researched and masterfully written assessment of its implications for Australia's Indigenous and ethnic minorities and for immigration and refugee policy'. (Source: Fremantle Press website)

2009 shortlisted New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards Multicultural NSW Award
Last amended 22 Jun 2015 14:38:38
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