Planning Voyages: Cargo, Culture, and Concepts, By Lynette Russell
November 22, 2024, 10:00 AM Central European Time. Online via MS Teams.
From Norse sagas to Polynesian origin tales, to Bugis songs of Makassan voyages to North Australia, which they knew as Marege, narratives of mapping, exploring, discovering, settling, trading, and returning are told across many maritime cultures. Closely reading these sources shows that even the most mythic of stories can contain surprisingly specific details. What can these grand, sweeping epic stories of heroes and heroines tell us about maritime travel and its history? In this talk, I consider how we might use these records of exploration to determine what is needed to undertake maritime travel. Consideration will be given to the prosaic and pragmatic ‘how to prevent a canoe from sinking’ to the philosophical ‘what rituals are required for safe passage’. Finally, the paper will offer a theoretical discussion concerning how we might use the models developed here to reflect on travel in the deep past when Australia was first encountered some seventy millennia ago.
Professor Lynette RUSSELL AM FASSA FAHA (Sir John Monash Distinguished Professor and ARC Kathleen Fitzpatrick Laureate Professor at Monash University’s Indigenous Studies Centre) is a leading Australian historian. Her award-winning books have explored a range of historical periods and locations. She has collaborated with scholars in archaeology, anthropology, zoology, and environmental studies, and she has worked in various Aboriginal organisations. She holds or has held positions on committees and reference groups pertaining to the Melbourne Museum, the State Library and the Collections Council of Australia, and is a former president of the Australian Historical Association. She is an elected member of AIATSIS, and in 2023, she was elected an International Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
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