Last month I shared my experiences and insights of my creative research for the Australian War Memorial commissioned artwork F.M.I. Sisters of Vunapope for a Pacific Biography workshop hosted by the Oceania Working Party for the Australian Dictionary of Biography.
As a member of the Oceania Working Party, I was super pleased to share my methods of working to an intimate group of members and the public. Of the 31,000 listed entries in the Australian Dictionary of Biography, only 31 biographies are of Pacific people, 2 of these are of Pacific women. My research and highlighting of the incredible 45 F.M.I. Sisters was noted by the workshop organisers as “the perfect blend of creative, public facing and historically informed scholarship that pushes the boundaries of biography as a discipline.”
My Pacific Biography workshop keynote lecture was recorded and presented via online video and includes a Q&A with Papua New Guinean inter-disciplinary storyteller Wendy Mocke – a rare public conversation between two Papua Niuginian women talking about PNG women’s histories in World War 2.
If you’re limited on time you can read a review of my keynote lecture on the New Outrigger blog , which has short video excerpts of key lecture themes.
Ngala boina tuna na bikpela tenkyu tru to Katerina Teaiwa, Talei Luscia Mangioni and Nick Hoare, School of Culture, History and Language, College of Asia and the Pacific, Australian National University for the opportunity to share my creative research process.
Em tasol.
Lisa Hilli 