Louise Hamby a Research Fellow in the Digital Humanities Hub., was co-granted an ARC Discovery Grant:Contexts of Collection- a dialogic approach to understanding the making of the material record of Yolngu cultures (2008-2011). From 2001 Hamby was a Visiting Fellow and received her PhD in Anthropology from the ANU in 2001, and also holds an MFA in Fabric Design from the University of Georgia. In 2003, Hamby was a Postdoctoral Fellow - Industry working with Museum Victoria on the project, Anthropological and Aboriginal perspectives on the Donald Thomson Collection: material culture, collecting and identity.
Louise's PhD, Containers of Power was an ethnographic study of fibre container forms from northeastern Arnhem Land. This work investigated a complex set of relationships between the forms, mainly baskets, bags and mats, their makers and users, their functions, their morphology, their manufacture and history. The theoretical approach taken was one in which objects, the fibre ones, have cultural biographies.
Louise has a strong interest in historic and contemporary material culture from Arnhem Land. Her involvement with eastern Arnhem Land women lead to the development of the exhibition that she co-curated with Diana Young, Art on a String. Her most recent involvement in curation, research and writing is about Gapuwiyak in eastern Arnhem Land fibre. This resulted in the exhibition "Women with Clever Hands: Gapuwiyak Miyalkurrwurr Gong Djambatjmala" and the book Containers of Power:Women with Clever Hands. Her previous exhibition and book was Twined Together: Kunmadj Njalehnjaleken from western Arnhem Land. (Source: ANU website)
