IPinCH Fellow: April 2013-March 2015
PhD Candidate, Department of Archaeology, Flinders University, Australia
Julie Mitchell is an external PhD candidate in the Department of Archaeology, Flinders University, Australia. Her doctoral focus is on the role of materiality in both the construction and maintenance of memory, and as a means of accessing and transferring intangible cultural heritage.
Through the lens of the South Sea Islander indentured labour diaspora in colonial Australia, Julie’s research examines intersections of material culture and social memory, exploring how this event has manifested on the landscape and integrated community memory and identity via built heritage and commemorative material culture.
As an IPinCh fellow, Julie’s approach aims to provide the framework for collecting and disseminating otherwise invisible cultural heritage information for this liminal group whose marginal situation has resulted in the lack of identifiable material heritage in an archaeological context and omission from representation in the national narrative. Further, by positioning the event physically on the landscape, a supporting chronological connection and sense of heritage for the descendant and contemporary local communities will inform an inclusive shared history.
Julie Mitchell BA (hons) achieved her degree at Flinders University, majoring in History and Archaeology (2009). Her honours thesis (2010) is titled The Golden Child: Childhood on the Australian Goldfields 1851 – 61. Julie’s PhD supervisor is Associate Professor Heather Burke.
