Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, 1962-1998

Component identifier:

Series 9

Content Summary:

The Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies (AIAS) commenced in 1961 with an Interim Council, and was given statutory authority in 1964. The Institute was established with the primary function of sponsoring and fostering scientific and anthropological research on the history and culture of Australian Aborigines. Mulvaney was a member of the Institute's Council from 1964 to 1980, Acting Principal in 1971, and then Chairman from 1982 to 1984. In 1990 the Institute became the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS).

This series includes correspondence, minutes, grant applications, administrative papers, reports, notes, newspaper clippings and other papers. The files document the major role Mulvaney played in the establishment of the Institute, together with his activities as Council member and then Chairman. Many of these papers relate to Mulvaney's membership of the Advisory Panel on Prehistory and Material Culture, which discussed research priorities and advised on research funding applications. There are also papers concerning the appointment of staff and the election of members, reviews of the Institute and the development of policies on such issues as the treatment of secret/sacred material, the protection of sites, objects and ethnographic collections, the use of carbon dating and the effects of uranium mining.

Among the major correspondents are J.A. Barnes, Ronald M. Berndt, Neville Bonner, Sandra Bowdler, Dermot Casey, I.M. Crawford, R.M. Crawford, Warwick Dix, John Dymock, Robert Edwards, Derek Freeman, W.R. Geddes, Sylvia Hallam, Paul Hasluck, Les Hiatt, Clyde Holding, Glynn Isaac, Rhys Jones, N.W.G. Macintosh, Isabel McBryde, F.D. McCarthy, Charles P. Mountford, Marcia Langton, Henry Polach, W.D.L. Ride, Frederick Rose, Susan Ryan, V.A. Shepherd, D.R. Sheppard, Peter Sims, W.E.H. Stanner, P.J. Ucko, Margaret Valadian, Keith Vallance, W.J. Webster, W.C. Wentworth, Eric Willmot and R.V.S. Wright.

Papers relating to Mulvaney's membership of the AIAS Museum Planning Committee are found in Series 11.

Please note: Series 9 Files 9-11, Files 44-45, File 47 and File 60 are not available for research.

Immediate source of acquisition:

The original instalment of this collection (MS 9615) was donated by Professor Mulvaney under the Cultural Gifts Program in September 1999. Further instalments were received in 2013 and 2017.

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