Erin Matthews

Title: Come back to country: The Return of Native Title and Research Materials to the Pama of Lockhart River

Summary: I will conduct collaborative research with the Indigenous language groups of Lockhart River and institutions such as Cape York Land Council to establish the return of research materials collected during the Cape York United native title claims.

As part of every native title claim, a multitude of materials from precolonial times to now are created and collected by anthropologists, linguists, land councils, and numerous other parties. The community of Lockhart River has recently received their native title consent determination and now their genealogies, reports, maps, photos, visual and audio recordings, and field notes will be returned.

My project aims to create a living archive of these materials that members of the Lockhart River community can access with ease to discover knowledges from their past ancestors. These materials can be used in classrooms and out on Country for people to connect with their families, stories, songs, dances, bush medicine, and other ways of knowing.