UQ anthropologist appointed to protect Australia’s heritage

An anthropologist from The University of Queensland has been welcomed as one of six new Australians to the National Cultural Heritage Committee.

Dr Graeme Were from UQ’s School of Social Science was recently appointed as the Universities Australia member of the committee by Arts Minister Senator George Brandis, and will play a key role in the protection of Australia’s movable cultural heritage.

The committee makes recommendations to the Arts Minister on the granting of export permits for Australian protected objects and on applications for funding assistance from the National Cultural Heritage Account.

The committee aims to streamline its operations so it can take a more strategic focus on the critical national and international issues that impact the sector.

As senior lecturer and convenor of UQ’s Museum Studies postgraduate program, Dr Were brings a broad range of expertise to this role, particularly in relation to liaising with Indigenous communities.

In 2012 he was awarded The University of Queensland Foundation Research Excellence Award for his research into how people access, use and apply digital images, focusing on Melanesia’s social and political economy.

He has worked to make museum collections accessible to a wide audience, including through remote, online channels and led the Mobile Museum project to produce 3D digital scans of objects from the UQ Anthropology Museum and the Queensland Museum collection selected by the community of origin in the Pacific.

Dr Were said he was delighted to be elected to the National Cultural Heritage Committee.

“I will be able to draw on my experience working first-hand on issues of repatriation, policy development and cultural property debates in an international context,” he said.

Associate Dean (Academic) of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Associate Professor Julie Duck acknowledged the importance of Dr Were’s appointment.

“This is wonderful recognition of Dr Were’s research and expertise and I know he will contribute significantly to the work of this committee,” she said.

Dr Were’s research interests include material culture and Pacific anthropology, ethnographic museums and collections, and materials and design in Melanesia.

Media: Dr Graeme Were – (T) 3365 2167, (E) g.were@uq.edu.au or Kristen Johnston (HASS Communications) T – 3346 1633 or (E) k.johnston@uq.edu.au