John Mulvaney Fellowship
Supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to undertake humanities research
Who can apply
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander early-career researchers and PhD students working in any area of the humanities can apply for up to $4,000 to undertake research or fieldwork.
How to apply
Applications are now open for 2023. All applications must be lodged electronically by 5pm AEST Friday 28 April 2023.
Background
This award honours the outstanding contribution to humanities scholarship, the Academy and the cultural life of the nation of one of our longest-serving Fellows and former Academy Secretary John Mulvaney AO CMG FBA FSA FRAI FAHA.
Fondly known as the Father of Australian Archaeology, John Mulvaney was acknowledged as a world leader in the field of hunter-gatherer archaeology. He was a passionate defender of Australia’s heritage and the rights of its Indigenous peoples. His legacy lives on through his work introducing Australian prehistory into the tertiary teaching curriculum and how he fundamentally changed the way archaeological fieldwork was practised in Australia.
Past recipients
Since 2019, the John Mulvaney Fellowship has acknowledged scholars with a deep commitment to Indigenous people and cultures.
Zac Roberts is currently a PhD candidate in the Department of Indigenous Studies at Macquarie University. His PhD explores the relationship between Aboriginal and Jewish communities in Australia since 1788. Combining archive work with a wide-scale oral history project, Roberts’ research highlights the history of interactions between and types of relations formed between Aboriginal and Jewish communities.
Tasmanian researcher Zoe Rimmer, who is documenting the removal and destruction of some of the earliest examples of rock art dating back 14,000 years, is the recipient of the 2021 Australian Academy of the Humanities’ John Mulvaney Fellowship.
A proud Pakana woman, Zoe Rimmer is currently completing her PhD on Tasmanian Aboriginal activism in cultural institutions.
The main objective of Zoe’s research is to investigate and document the Aboriginal community campaign in Tasmania for the repatriation of ancestral remains and cultural material from the 1970s until the present.
Dr Carol McGregor of Griffith University is the recipient of the 2020 John Mulvaney Fellowship. Dr McGregor is a Brisbane-based artist of Wathaurung (Kulin Nation) and Scottish descent, and is a possum skin cloak maker, painter, printmaker and sculptor. As an artist, she seeks to adapt and embrace new technologies to reclaim and connect to cultural expression, whilst revealing and exposing hidden histories within the landscape. Her research trip will further her work on possum cloaks. She will meet with Elders in the Bidjara community and visit the Gunggari people who are the Native Title holders of Mt Moffat (gained September 2019). See the full announcement.
Dr Harry Van Issum of Griffith University is the recipient of the Academy’s inaugural John Mulvaney Fellowship. Dr Van Issum is a Woppaburra man from the Darambal Language Group of Central Queensland. He will travel to the United Kingdom to assist in the repatriation of Woppaburra skeletal remains presently held in the collections of the Natural History Museum in London.