Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies - History

History

W.C. Wentworth MP proposed the idea of an Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies (AIAS) in 1959. The proposal was considered by a sub-committee of Cabinet in 1960. A working party was formed at the Australian National University (ANU) to look into the possibility of setting up this organisation. The working party asked W.E.H. Stanner to organise a conference on Aboriginal Studies, to be held in 1961 at the ANU. The report on the conference indicated agreement that an Institute was needed.

The Prime Minister, Robert Menzies appointed an Interim Council in 1961. The role of the interim Council was to plan for a national Aboriginal research organisation. The Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies was established under an Act of Parliament in 1964. At the time, its mission was "to record language, song, art, material culture, ceremonial life and social structure before those traditions perished in the face of European ways."

AIAS had a twenty-two member Council and a foundation membership of one hundred and its work increased cross disciplinary interaction leading to 'Aboriginal studies' beginning.

Major changes occurred early in the 1970s. Aboriginal people were demanding a voice on Council, consultation with communities and projects relevant to the needs of Indigenous people. From then on Council has had Aboriginal membership.

Aboriginal Studies Press is the publishing arm of the Institute and was established in 1964, initially for white academics to publish works about Aboriginal people. It took until 1977 for the press to publish the first book written by an Aboriginal. That book was The two world of Jimmie Barker : the life of an Australian Aboriginal, 1900-1972.

The AIAS Film Unit had its beginnings in Sydney. The unit was moved to Canberra in 1975 with David and Judith MacDougall, ethnographic film makers heading up the team. Films produced by the unit include: Waiting for Harry directed by Kim McKenzie with anthropologist Les Hiatt, a prizewinning film and the most popular to be produced by the unit. Waiting for Harry starts out as a documentary of a funeral ceremony, capturing the mortuary rituals of the Burarra people. The film ends up as a record of the complexities surrounding both the rituals and the cultural processes which must take place in their own time and order. The unit was disbanded in 1991.

The Wentworth lecture has been presented since 1978 as a tribute to W. C. Wentworth for his role in establishing the Institute. Every two years, a lecture is presented by a prominent person in Aboriginal studies. A number of these have been given by Aboriginal people.

The Rock Art Protection Program (RAPP) commenced in 1986 following a request for such an initiative by the then Minister of Aboriginal Affairs Clyde Holding. The aim of the RAPP was to protect Australian Indigenous rock art. Grants were approved by the Institute to fund various projects related to rock art protection.

The library, the bibliographic section and the resource centre (which looked after audiovisual material) were separate sections of the Institute up until 1980. By 1987 all three sections were combined under the Library. The Audiovisual Archives split from the library to become its own section in 1997.

The After 200 years project aimed to fill some of the gaps in the AIATS photographic collection. Aboriginal involvement in photographing and documenting the collection was a major part of the project. The project culminated in the publication of a book containing hundreds of photographs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Many of the photos in the book were taken and selected by Indigenous people. The book is arranged in groupings of photos by communities. This emphasises the diversity of the people and their ways of living in Indigenous communities.

The AIAS Act was replaced by the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Act in 1989. This new Act created a Research Advisory Committee and reduced the size of the Council to nine members.