Join us at the ANU Archives annual lecture for 2024 – ‘Islands, Archives and Ancestors’ with Professor Katerina Teaiwa

About the lecture

Professor Katerina Teaiwa will reflect on her process of exploring several archives and collections connected to Australia’s long history of phosphate mining in the central Pacific. Over two decades she used creative methods to transform her research into textual, choreographic, visual and material forms that challenged colonial and extractive histories and narratives. Her interdisciplinary methods and activism are focused on repairing and safeguarding her ancestral island of Banaba in what is now Kiribati. 22 million tonnes of Banaban phosphate was extracted over 80 years for Australian and New Zealand fertiliser production and farming transforming the island into an industrial wasteland. 

About the speaker

Professor Katerina Teaiwa is an interdisciplinary scholar, artist and award-winning teacher of Banaban, I-Kiribati and African American heritage born and raised in Fiji. She is Professor of Pacific Studies in the School of Culture, History and Language (CHL), College of Asia and the Pacific at ANU.

Katerina was founder and convener of the first Pacific Studies teaching program at ANU. She is currently Vice President of the Australian Association for Pacific Studies, Co-chair of the Oceania Working Party of the Australian Dictionary of Biography and Editor of The Contemporary Pacific journal. She has led CHL's Flagship project on Decolonial Possibilities combining workshops, film production, education resources, and early career researcher support.

Her research-based exhibition Project Banaba focuses on the environmental, political and cultural impacts of historical phosphate mining and has been shown in Australia, New Zealand and the United States.

Additional details

You will be able to ask questions at the end of the lecture.

The lecture will be recorded and made available online after the event.

Contact

ANU Archives, +61 2 6125 2219, archives@anu.edu.au