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Manuscript on Aboriginal identity wins 2013 Stanner Award by John Paul Janke 1 August 2013
A
n Indigenous academic writer’s manuscript on the way Aboriginal people understand and live out their Aboriginality has been named as the winner of the 2013 Stanner Award. Dr Bronwyn Carlson was presented with the Stanner Award by AIATSIS Chairperson Professor Mick Dodson AM in a special ceremony at AIATSIS in Canberra today. Dr Carlson is a senior lecturer in the Indigenous Studies Unit in the Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts at the University of Wollongong. Her manuscript ‘The politics of identity: Who counts as Aboriginal today’ uses a range of historical and research literature as well as interviews, surveys and a range of social networking sites to explore this complex and timely subject. Dr Carlson said it was an honour for her to receive the Stanner Award as it caps off a very successful year. Dr Carlson was awarded the University of Wollongong’s first ARC Indigenous Discovery grant based on her doctoral research that will explore Aboriginal identity and community
AIATSIS Principal Russell Taylor; AIATSIS Chairperson Professor Mick Dodson AM; Patricia Stanner (wife of the late Emer. Professor WEH (Bill) Stanner); Dr Bronwyn Carlson and Dr Tom Calma, Deputy Chancellor of the University of Canberra. Image supplied
in online social media spaces. “I’m very excited about the award, and very humbled to be acknowledged by my peers. The Stanner Award gives me the opportunity to disseminate my research more widely. “One of the findings of my research shows that Aboriginal people are active social media participants, and engage online to communicate their identity and community. The growth of smart phones and tablets is a wonderful way to engage on issues of concern to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, particularly on issues such as health and education,” Dr Carlson said. The Stanner Award, sponsored by the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) in Canberra, was established in 1985 as part of the Institute’s support for Indigenous academic writers. Named in honour of the late Emer. Professor WEH (Bill) Stanner, the Award recognises the significance of his contribution to the establishment and development of the Institute. Professor Dodson said that Dr Carlson’s thesis raises important questions about Aboriginal identity in contemporary times and provides new foundations for engaging intellectual scholarship on the subject. The Institute’s publishing arm, Aboriginal Studies Press, has already published two outstanding books from the 2011 Award. Speaking at today’s ceremony, Dr Tom Calma,
Deputy Chancellor of the University of Canberra, highlighted the important ongoing contribution that the Stanner Award provides to national debates. “AIATSIS provides an invaluable service to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and the Stanner Award epitomises this because it recognises Indigenous scholars who write about our people through our eyes,” he said. The Stanner Award is open to all aspiring Indigenous authors of academic works and the author of this year’s winning submission receive $5000 in prize money, an inscribed glass eel trap sculpture and mentoring and editorial support to turn their manuscript into a publication.
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