Professor Katie Holmes, Drought, flooding rains and futures: environmental history in the Murray Darling Basin.
Thursday 14 November, State Library of Victoria (Entry 3, La Trobe Street) | 6pm
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The cycle of drought and flooding rains provides a dramatic stage for the history of environmental change in the Murray Darling Basin. It is also the backdrop for much of the social, cultural and political history of the Basin. And it is around such histories that storytellers gather, shaping narratives that tell of nature and place, love of Country, conflict, climate, community, family history and survival, technological change, and the contentious topic of water.
This talk draws on recently conducted oral history interviews in the Murray Darling Basin to explore the kinds of stories people tell about environmental change and environmental justice; marginalised narratives of resistance and empowerment; and the ways experiences of the past and present shape imaginings of the future. And I ask: what are the stories historians might tell that can move us forward and frame our futures with imagination, compassion and hope?
Professor Katie Holmes is Professor of History and Director of the Centre for the Study of the Inland at La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia. She lives on unceded Wurundjeri country. Her work integrates environmental, gender, oral and cultural history and she has a particular interest in the interplay between an individual, their culture and environment. Her recent research is on the cultures of drought in regional Victoria, and water cultures and conflicts in Australia’s Murray Darling Basin. Her books include Spaces in Her Day: Women’s diaries of the 1920s-1930s (1995), Between the Leaves: Stories of women, writing and gardens (2011), and the co-authored Reading the Garden: the Settlement of Australia (2008), Mallee Country: land, people, history (2020) and Failed Ambitions: Kew Cottages and Changing Ideas of Intellectual Disability (2023). Katie is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Science Australia, and was the Gough Whitlam and Malcolm Fraser Visiting Chair in Australian Studies, Harvard, 2023-24.
This lecture will be preceded by the award of two major annual prizes.
The Jane Hansen Prize for History Advocacy was established in 2020 to recognise the efforts of a group or individual that has advocated for the value of history, the work of historians and/or the importance of an education in history, and is named in honour of Ms Jane Hansen AO whose passion for history and its advocacy is widely acknowledged.
The Lynette Russell Prize for First Peoples' History in Schools was established by Professor Lynette Russell AM to encourage the creative engagement and deeper knowledge of a wider number of primary and secondary school students in this area.
Each year, the History Council of Victoria presents a public lecture that shares fresh thinking and new evidence on an historical topic.
In 2023, Professor Susie Protschky presented on Colonial Pasts and Image Wars.
In 2022, Associate Professor Catherine Kovesi presented on Beauty in Response to Plague: the city of Venice.
In 2021, Dr Carolyn Holbrook explored power and sentiment in the Australian Federation, with a lecture entitled:
‘I don’t hold a hose, mate’: Power and sentiment in the Australian Federation
Click HERE to read about the previous lectures presented since 2004 by the History Council of Victoria.