New eyes, new take on artefacts

Inaugural Charlie Perkins Scholarship holder Christian Thompson is pursuing his doctorate at Oxford

Oxford University’s prized Indigenous artefacts are about to get a going-over with eyes that see well beyond their ‘Imperial treasure’ value.

As a teenager, Christian Thompson was taken aside by Indigenous legend Charlie Perkins and told: "It doesn’t matter what people say: what matters is what’s in your heart."

Now Christian, 32, a proud Bidjarra man who calls Barcaldine ‘home’, is living in Oxford as one of two inaugural recipients of the Charlie Perkins Scholarships.

And he’s intent on continuing in the vein of his idol, giving commonly-held ideas of Australian Indigenous people and culture a real shake-up; in his case, in museums.

"I’ll be reviewing the Indigenous artefacts at Oxford’s Pitt Rivers Museum collection, providing an Indigenous perspective on their meaning and place, in a way not seen before," says Christian, a sculptor, photographer and performer.

"The items on show are not mere Imperialist trophies and we’re not the only ones to have suffered colonisation.

"There’s a global movement of Indigenous dispossessed people working to rewrite distorted stories of culture, as seen through colonialists’ eyes."

Christian hopes his research will influence the way museums throughout the world present Indigenous artefacts.

Christian, the first Australian to attain a Master’s of Theatre from Amsterdam School of Arts, has worked as a professional artist for 10 years and a lecturer in Fine Art at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Victorian College of Arts and Australian National University.

The Charlie Perkins Scholarships were set up to encourage development of more Indigenous academics.

The other 2010-2011 recipient is New South Wales’ psychologist Paul Gray.

About Charlie Perkins Scholarships

• Cover university and college fees, travel costs and living expenses (totalling up to $80,000 a year) for three years
• Open to tertiary-qualified applicants of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent who have been accepted into graduate degree programs at the University of Oxford
• More information at www.perkinstrust.com.au or call 02 9469 8102.