Dr Samuel Furphy, National Centre of Biography, ANU, will present a seminar discussing a paper on Edward M. Curr (1820-1889), best known for his nostalgic memoir Recollections of Squatting in Victoria (1883) and his four-volume ethnography The Australian Race (1886-87). The paper will question the established and persistent view of Curr as “atypically sympathetic” towards Aboriginal people, and draw links between his repressively paternalistic Aboriginal policy and his ethnological endeavours.

The seminar will commence in Seminar Room A of the Coombs building on Wednesday 16 March 2011 from 4:15pm.