NCIG Documentary History Collection

Brief description

The NCIG Documentary History Collection consists of field notes, correspondence, photographs, manuscripts, serology results, tribal indexes, kinship systems and other documents that relate to biospecimens collected. The biospecimens were collected from the 1960s until the early 1990s from approximately 7000 people from Indigenous communities across northern and western Australia. The collection arose out of an ambitious world-wide project, the International Biological Programme – Human Adaptability section which aimed to enhance our understanding of humans living in the major environmental zones of earth.

However changing political, social and ethical settings emerging in Australia resulted in the Australian National University (ANU) placing a moratorium in the late 1990s on research using the collection and the collection was placed in long-term storage. The documentary material has arisen out of the research of Robert Kirk and Susan Sarjeantson. Documentary material continues to be added under the directorship of Simon Easteal.