Codes of practice: Indigenous subjects and Indigenous photographers

This panel discussion, chaired by Stephen Gilchrist, will consider the ethical and cultural codes of practice when working with Indigenous subjects and photographers, the representation of Indigenous communities, the legacy of images of deceased people, the politics of witness and our responsibilities as curators and audience.

In part, this discussion is inspired by Lisa Bellear’s Proposed code of ethics – photographing Indigenous Australians which was compiled for her unfinished PhD thesis and published in the catalogue for Closer to you: The Lisa Bellear Picture Show at the Koorie Heritage Trust in 2016. Speakers include Lisa Hilli, Kirsten Lyttle, Léuli Eshrāghi, Kimberley Moulton and Maree Clarke.

Chair
Stephen Gilchrist
Belonging to the Yamatji people of northwest Western Australia, Stephen Gilchrist is Associate Lecturer of Indigenous Art in the Department of Art History at the University of Sydney where he is also a PhD candidate. He is a lecturer, writer and curator who has held curatorial appointments within the Indigenous Art Departments of the National Gallery of Australia and the National Gallery of Victoria. He has held Curatorial Fellowships at the British Museum (2008), the Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College (2011-2013) and was the Visiting Australian Studies Curator at the Harvard Art Museums, Harvard University (2013-2016).

Speakers

Lisa Hilli
Lisa Hilli is a contemporary artist living in Narrm (Melbourne) Australia. Born in Rabaul, Lisa is a descendent of the Tolai or Gunantuna people of Papua New Guinea. She completed a MFA by Research degree at RMIT University. Her work has been presented nationally and internationally in Brussels, Amsterdam and Yogyakarta. She has been an artist in residence at the Australian Tapestry Workshop and was awarded a photographic prize for the Centre for Contemporary Photography Salon exhibition in 2016. Lisa is currently undertaking a research project within Australian museums and archives through a Museums Victoria 1854 Scholarship.
Kirsten Lyttle
Kirsten Lyttle is a Māori-Australian artist, academic and doctoral candidate (completing in 2018). Her Iwi (tribe) is Waikato, tribal affiliation is Ngāti Tahinga, Tainui A Whiro. Trained as a photographer (Fine Art) at RMIT University, in 2013 she was awarded a Master of Fine Art (RMIT University). She is currently completing her PhD at Deakin University and teaching photography in the School of Community and Creative Arts, Deakin University.
Kirsten has exhibited widely in Australia and internationally including, Indonesian Contemporary Art Network Yogyakarta (Indonesia), Galleria 291 Est. Rome (Italy), and Oedipus Rex Gallery Auckland (New Zealand). In 2016 was a finalist in the 2016 Bowness Photography Prize (Monash Gallery of Art). She was the 2015 indigenous artist in residence as part of the _RMIT/University of Lethbridge, Indigenous Residency Gushul Studio, _Blairmore, Canada.

Léuli Eshrāghi
Léuli Māzyār Lunaʻi Eshrāghi (Sāmoan, Persian and other ancestries) is an uninvited guest in Narrm in unceded Kulin Nation territory, and a PhD candidate at Monash University Art Design Architecture (MADA). His work centers on ceremonial-political renewal, languages, embodied futures, diasporic and local indigeneities. He serves on the board of Aboriginal Curatorial Collective | Collectif des commissaires autochtones (Canada), editorial advisory panel for Broadsheet (Australia), and Pacific Advisory Group for Melbourne Museum.

Kimberley Moulton
Kimberley Moulton is a Yorta-Yorta woman, curator and writer and is the Senior Curator of South Eastern Aboriginal Collections for Museums Victoria. Her practice looks at the intersection of contemporary First Peoples art and cultural material in museums with a focus on community access and collections. Kimberley has an independent curatorial practice and her most recent co-curated show is _Next Matriarch, _with TARNATHI Festival and ACE Open Adelaide.
Kimberley is an alumni of National Gallery Australia Wesfarmers Indigenous Leadership Program, the 2016 NGA International curatorial fellow USA, and alumni of British Council Accelerate Program UK. Kimberley was a Victorian curator for the First Nations Exchange Program Venice Biennale 2017.