Dr Tiffany Shellam is  presenting her paper: ‘”The most callous object of all”, Phillip Parker King and the Worrora at Hanover Bay, 1821’

Date: 28 April, 2016

Time: 3 pm 

Location: Deakin Burwood Corporate Centre (BCC) and G ARTSED Mtg Room ic1.108

Tiffany Shellam is presenting a paper on an encounter that took place at Hanover Bay between the Worrorra people and the crew of Phillip Parker King’s hydrographic expedition in 1821.

The textual representations of this encounter by King and his crew, the subsequent history of the Aboriginal belongings that were seized during it and the circulation of both texts and material culture through networks in England are important reminders that ethnographic collection and study were key goals of Royal Navy expeditions in the early nineteenth century. In the event of Hanover Bay, the pillaging of Aboriginal weapons and tools was fuelled by a desire to punish the Worrorra for ‘treacherous’ conduct against the crew’s surgeon. Some of the weapons taken during this encounter became part of the British Museum’s collections in the mid-19thC, and are now on display at the National Museum of Australia’s exhibition, Encounters.