Staff profile

Dr John Morton

Honorary

Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

School of Social Sciences

MB 484, Melbourne (Bundoora)

 

Qualifications

PhD (ANU).

Membership of professional Associations

The Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies. Survival International. The Australian & American Anthropological Society’s.

Area of study

Australian Studies
Anthropology
Aboriginal Studies

Brief Profile

I studied geography at the University of Sussex, where I received a BA, and anthropology at Oxford University and the Australian National University, where I received my postgraduate qualifications. I was initially interested in the cultures of the tropical forest region of South America and originally published in that field, but my ethnographic focus changed to Aboriginal Australia when I migrated to Australia from London in 1980. Between 1980 and 2000 I was involved in a number of research projects in central Australia, primarily working with Arrernte people in and around Alice Springs. These projects were in the fields of religion and land rights/native title, although I also worked as a curator at Museum Victoria between 1997 and 2000 assisting with the creation of the first Aboriginal exhibits in the newly built Melbourne Museum in Carlton Gardens. After 2000 I shifted my focus somewhat to look more intensively at Aboriginal societies in 'settled' (south-eastern) Australia. I first taught anthropology at Macquarie University in Sydney, but moved to Melbourne to teach Anthropology and Aboriginal studies at La Trobe in 1990. I will retire from La Trobe at the end of 2011. John is also a member of The European Society for Oceanists, the Royal Anthropological Institute and the journal Anthropological Forum.

Research interests

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander History

- Indigenous Australia

Religion and Society

- Symbolism and religion

Social and Cultural Anthropology

- Anthropology of non-indigenous Australia

- Post-structuralism and psychoanalysis in anthropology

Teaching Units

ANT2/3ABA - Aboriginal Australia. ANT2/3CIA - Core Issues in Anthropology.  

Recent Publications

  • Morton, J 2008, 'Poofters Taking The Piss Out Of Anzacs: The (Un-)Australian Wit of Sydney's Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras', Anthropological Forum, 18(3): 219-234.
  • Morton, J 2007, 'Sansom, Sutton and Sackville: Three Expert Anthropologists?', Anthropological Forum, 17(2): 170-173.
  • Boulden, K and Morton, J 2007, 'Don't Crash the Ambulance', in J Altman and M Hinkson (eds), Coercive Reconciliation: Stabilise, Normalise, Exit Aboriginal Australia, pp 163-170.
  • Morton, J 2006, ‘Seeing Eye To Eye: Photography and The Return of The Native in Aboriginal Australia’, Arena Journal, 27: 47-59.
  • Morton, J 2006, ‘The Race Taboo’, in Peter Beilharz and Robert Manne (eds), Reflected Light: La Trobe Essays, pp 242-254, Black Inc, Melbourne.
  • Morton, J 2006, ‘Tiddalik’s Travels: The Making and Remaking of an Aboriginal Flood Myth’, in Aldo Poiani (ed.), Floods: Environmental, Social and Historical Perspectives, pp 139-158, Elsevier, New York.
  • Morton, J 2005, ‘Aboriginal Religion Today’, in Max Charlesworth, Francoise Dussart and Howard Morphy (eds), Aboriginal Religions in Australia: an Anthology of Recent Writings, pp 195-203, Ashgate, Aldershot.
  • Morton, J 2005, Bandjalang People # 1 NC96/16 (NG6034/98) Native Title Determination Application: Third Anthropologist’s Report, Sydney, New South Wales Native Title Services. (Submission to the Federal Court of Australia.)
  • Morton, J, Batty, P and Allen, L (eds) 2005, The Photographs of Baldwin Spencer, Miegunyah, Melbourne.
  • Morton, J (with Lindy Allen, Joanne Bach, Michael Pickering and Gaye Sculthorpe) 2000, Bunjilaka: the Aboriginal Centre at Melbourne Museum, Museum Victoria, Melbourne.

Research projects

  • Totems, moieties and gender in south-eastern Aboriginal Australia
  • Bandjalang Native Title: Post Yorta-Yorta Developments
  • A History of Arrernte Myth