AustLit logo

AustLit

Joanna Sassoon Joanna Sassoon i(A80207 works by)
Gender: Female
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

Works By

Preview all
1 ‘The White-man Calls Me Jack’ : The Many Names and Claims for Jackey Jackey of the Lower Logan River, South-east Queensland, Australia Michael Aird , Joanna Sassoon , David Trigger , 2022 single work criticism
— Appears in: Aboriginal History Journal , April no. 45 2022; 'Genealogies that demonstrate a continuous historical lineage play a critical role for native title evidence as well as contemporary negotiations concerning Indigenous identity. The complexities of this genealogical research are compounded in regions with lengthy histories of disruption from traditional lands and contestation concerning the forebears of Indigenous individuals, families and wider groups. This article presents a case study that introduces a forensic methodology to demonstrate challenges facing researchers and family members investigating Indigenous histories. It explores a history of the renaming of an Aboriginal man photographed wearing a breastplate inscribed with a name, Jackey Jackey. In this review of the extant historical data, we outline our genealogy of names that have been attached to Jackey Jackey. We suggest that two men named Jackey from different parts of the Logan Valley region, south-east Queensland, have been conflated into a single person’s identity and then renamed firstly as Bilinba and then as Bilin Bilin. We explore what these symbolic acts of renaming mean for the first wave of Indigenous descendants researching their family history, pose questions about the significance of this renaming, and identify the consequential issues for those now seeking legal recognition of traditional rights in land.' 

(Publication abstract)
1 1 y separately published work icon Agents of Empire : How E.L. Mitchell’s Photographs Shaped Australia Joanna Sassoon , North Melbourne : Australian Scholarly Publishing , 2017 11666012 2017 multi chapter work criticism

'For nearly 100 years, E.L. Mitchell’s emblematic photographs have shaped ideas about Australia. But who was Mitchell and why did he succeed above his competitors?

'With unprecedented access to private collections and showcasing his extraordinary photographs, Agents of Empire charts Mitchell’s rise from his struggles as a migrant in New South Wales and Queensland to significant image-maker in Western Australia. It then follows the journeys of individual photographs across the world, and traces the stories behind the survival and destruction of parts of his archive.

'Agents of Empire breaks new ground in showing ways that photographs can be used as historical evidence and how archives can shape our understanding of the past.' (Publication summary)
1 Mining the Archive Joanna Sassoon , 2010 single work biography
— Appears in: An Everyday Transience : The Urban Imaginary of Goldfields Photographer John Joseph Dwyer 2010;
1 And Here Be .... Joanna Sassoon , 2002 single work review
— Appears in: The Australian Library Journal , May vol. 51 no. 2 2002; (p. 193-194)
— Review of Bunyips : Australia's Folklore of Fear Robert Holden , Nicholas Holden , 2001 single work criticism
X