I work as a curator and researcher in the field of Indigenous Australian and Pacific Islander art and cultural heritage. My areas of specialisation include museum studies; Australian and British colonial history in Papua New Guinea, Indigenous art and cross-cultural representation.

PhD, (in examination) Cross-Cultural Research, Australian National University (2013)
MPhil, Visual Anthropology, Oxford University (1996)
BA (Hons), Anthropology, Australian National University (1994)

2013. Lecturer, Museums and Collections Program, Australian National University.

2012. Lecturer (sessional), University of Canberra, Heritage, Museums and Conservation Program; Australian National University, Museums and Collections Program.

2004-2009. Senior Curator, Australian and Torres Strait Islander Program, National Museum of Australia.

2000-2004. Curator (Anthropology Department); Manager/Curator (MuseumLink Program), Western Australian Museum.

Recherche actuelle

My research examines the production, preservation, collection and display of Papuan Gulf ceremonial art during the British and Australian colonial periods. It presents a detailed art history of the Papuan Gulf from 1884 to 1940, and traces the varying impacts of British and Australian colonialism on art production in the Papuan Gulf. This work will serve as a bridge for Museum and Galleries such as the Musée du quai Branly to reconnect objects in their collections to actual people, places, dates and real-time events. An examination of Papuan Gulf Spirit Houses as indigenous keeping places, analysing their underlying structure, functions and organization, reveals the many ways Papuans have managed the creation, preservation and display of Papuan Gulf art from colonial PNG to the present day.
Recherche antérieure

My doctoral research examined a unique colonial collection assembled between 1907 and 1938 by government officers of the Australian administration of the Territory of Papua. Known as the ‘Papuan Official Collection’, it represented the first instance in the Anglophone world where a colonial government made ethnographic collecting a requisite duty of its field officers. This unusual turn of events came at the insistence of Papua’s first and longest serving Lieutenant-Governor, J.H.P. Murray, who administered the colony for over three decades. The story of how Murray came to establish an official government collection, and its subsequent formation, interpretation, and display over several decades, provided an exemplary case study for examining the complex intersection between colonialism, collecting and anthropology, during the first half of the twentieth century.

Edmundson, A. 2013. ‘Dreams of Empire: The Australian Territory of Papua in 1913’. In M. Hetherington (ed.) Glorious Days: Australia in 1913. National Museum of Australia Press: Canberra.

Edmundson, A. 2010. ‘Torres Strait Islander Dress’. In M. Maynard (ed.), Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress. Berg: London.

Message, K, Edmundson, A. and Frederick, U. 2009. ‘Compelling cultures: Representing cultural diversity and cohesion in multicultural Australia’, Humanities Research Vol XV. No. 2. 2009, pp.9-16

Edmundson, A. 2009. ‘But where are you really from? The ‘crisis’ of multiculturalism examined through the work of four Asian-Australian artists’, Humanities Research Vol XV. No. 2. 2009, pp.93-113.

Edmundson, A. 2008. ‘The Art of Missing Persons: Loss and Recovery in the Portraits of Julie Dowling’. In Nancy Sever and Caroline Turner (eds), Recovering Lives. Australian National University Press: Canberra.

Edmundson, A. and Neale, M. 2007. ‘Learning to be proppa: Aboriginal Artists' Collective, proppa NOW’. In C. Turner & D. Williams (eds), Thresholds of Tolerance: History, Human Rights, and Art. Australian National University Press: Canberra

Edmundson, A. 2005. 'The dramatist of Orokolo'. In G. Hansen (ed), Captivating & Curious: Celebrating the Collection of the National Museum of Australia. National Museum of Australia Press, Canberra.

Edmundson, A. 2004. ‘Making Representations: Museums in the post-colonial era’. Review Article in Anthropological Forum, Vol 14, No. 1, March, pp. 53-109. 

Edmundson, A. 2002, ‘Continuing Transformations: Manarapoh and the Lotud Kadazandusun of Sabah’. Sarawak Museum Journal, Vol LVII, No. 78 (New Series), December, 2002.

Edmundson, A. and O’Brien, S. 2001. Valerie Takao Binder, Frank Daniels Pty Ltd: Perth.

Edmundson, A. and Boylan, C. 1999. Adorned: Traditional Jewellery and Body Decoration from Australia and the Pacific. Macleay Museum Press, University of Sydney: Sydney.