MACMILLAN The Royal Navy in Indigenous Australia, 1795–1855: Maritime Encounters and British Museum Collections (Palgrave Studies in Pacific History)

This book offers the first in-depth enquiry into the origins of 135 Indigenous Australian objects acquired by the Royal Navy between 1795 and 1855 and held now by the British Museum. In response to increasing calls for the ‘decolonisation’ of museums and the restitution of ethnographic collections, the book seeks to return knowledge of the moments, methods, and motivations whereby Indigenous Australian objects were first collected and sent to Britain. By structuring its discussion in terms of three key ‘stages’ of a typical naval voyage to Australia―departure from British shores, arrival on the continent’s coasts, and eventual return to port―the book offers a nuanced and multifaceted understanding of the pathways followed by these 135 objects into the British Museum. The book offers important new understandings of Indigenous Australian peoples’ reactions to naval visitors, and contains a wealth of original research on the provenance and meaning of some of the world’s oldest extant Indigenous Australian object collections. Review “This book bristles with new insights into cross-cultural encounters, ethnographic collecting and the making of British museum collections. With a focus on just 135 objects in the British Museum, the study demonstrates the rewards of a thoroughly material history, particularly its attention to the radically different and subtly changing cultural and political contexts through which these objects moved. Cleverly structured and well-written, the book takes the reader on an eye-opening journey that retraces some naval expeditions’ own trajectories: from preparation and departure to exploration and encounter to collection-making and remaking. And like all good journeys, we come away from it transformed." ―Maria Nugent, Australian National University, Australia  “Daniel Simpson's imaginatively researched book draws attention to previously unexplored records and archives vital to the understanding of ethnographic collecting from Australia in the nineteenth century. This book will be of great interest to all those interested in comparative histories of collecting and material culture, and a key resource for Australian researchers now engaged in tracing Indigenous artefacts in British collections.” ―Nicholas Thomas, University of Cambridge, UK “Daniel Simpson’s history of Indigenous objects collected by British naval expeditions around the coast of Australia is genuinely eye-opening. His focus on the scientific, governmental and spatial contexts of expeditionary collecting provides a foundation for future scholarship in the field. And his achievement in tracing the circulation of museum objects through institutional and personal networks adds substantially to our understanding of their provenance. This is a major work of direct relevance to historical and contemporary debates over museum collections.” ―Felix Driver, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK   From the Back Cover This book offers the first in-depth enquiry into the origins of the 135 Indigenous Australian objects acquired by the Royal Navy between 1795 and 1855, and held now by the British Museum. In response to increasing calls for the ‘decolonisation’ of museums, and the restitution of ethnographic collections, the book seeks to return knowledge of the moments, methods, and motivations whereby Indigenous Australian objects were first collected, and sent to Britain. By structuring its discussion in terms of the three main ‘stages’ of a typical naval voyage to Australia – departure from British shores, arrival on the continent’s coasts, and final return to port – the book offers a composite and complete understanding of the pathways first followed by these 135 objects. The book explores numerous new understandings of Indigenous Australian peoples’ reactions to British visitors, and furthermore contributes a series of important and original insights into the provenance and meaning of many of