History Lab

Bennelong, a Wangal man of the Eora nation, was among the first Aboriginal people to travel to Europe and return. As a crucial interlocutor between his people and the British colonists, he navigated two worlds but the way he was depicted in colonial portraits raises complex questions. In one, he appears in traditional body paint. In another, years later, he is dressed in European clothing, his identity seemingly reshaped for a colonial gaze. Do these portraits tell us more about Bennelong or the people who painted him?

Portraiture has long been a tool of empire, used to categorize, control, and mythologize. But can these images also reveal Indigenous agency? In this first episode, historians Kate Fullagar and Michael McDonnell visit the National Portrait Gallery to examine Bennelong’s likeness and trace a broader history of representation. They are joined by Anishinaabe writer Gordon Henry, who reflects on 17th-century depictions of Indigenous North Americans, and Cherokee scholar Joseph Pierce, who challenges the sanitized portrait of Cherokee diplomat Ostenaco.

Who really controls the stories that portraits tell? And how do these images continue to shape our understanding of Indigenous identity today? Join us on Unsettling Portraits to find out.

Episode Images

Bennelong

Drawing 41 from the Watling Collection titled 'Native name Ben-nel-long, as painted when angry after Botany Bay Colebee was wounded.’ By Thomas Watling c 1790. Courtesy Natural History Museum London.

Portrait of a Famous One-eyed Man

By Louis Nicolas, 1675. Codex Canadensis, page 14. Courtesy Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Oklahoma USA.

Portrait of Syacust Ukah, Cherokee Chief

By Joshua Reynolds, 1762. Courtesy Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Oklahoma USA.

Hosts

Kate Fullagar, professor of history at the Australian Catholic University and Vice President of the Australian Historical Association, specializes in eighteenth-century world history, particularly the British Empire and Indigenous resistance. In her role at the AHA, she advocates for truth-telling in Australian historiography, working to integrate Indigenous perspectives and confront colonial legacies. Through works like Bennelong & Phillip, she engages both academic and general audiences, challenging traditional narratives.

Michael McDonnell, professor of Early American History at the University of Sydney, is currently working on several research projects with collaborators, including studies on comparative Indigenous experiences of empire, the American Revolution’s role in Black American life, and memoirs of lower-class Revolutionary War veterans. His work highlights the value of history in fostering diverse perspectives and uncovering new insights about both the past and present.

Guests

Gordon Henry is a member of the White Earth Anishinaabe Nation in Minnesota, USA and was professor of English at Michigan State University for 29 years. A widely published essayist, poet and fiction writer, he won the American Book Award for is novel The Light People. His creative work focuses on American Indian survival and adaptability, offering different Indigenous ways of relating to American history.

Joseph Pierce is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation and associate professor in the department of Hispanic Languages and Literature at Stony Brook University. His research focuses on the intersections of kinship, gender, sexuality, and race in Latin America, as well as culture, queer and Indigenous studies. Along with SJ Norman (Koori, Wiradjuri descent) he is co-curator of the performance series and indigenous-led gathering space Knowledge of Wounds.

Credits

Producers: Catherine Freyne and Helene Thomas.

Story Editor: Siobhan McHugh

Sound Engineer: Martin Peralta

Production support: Jane Curtis, Britta Jorgensen and Celine Teo-Blockey

Additional tile design and podcast artwork: Alexandra Morris

Executive Producer: Sarah Gilbert

History Lab is an Impact Studios podcast.

To cite this episode

Fullagar, K (researcher and host), Freyne, C (producer), McDonnell, M (researcher and host), Thomas, H (producer) (2025), 'Unsettling Portraits' Episode 1. In History Lab by Impact Studios, https://impactstudios.edu.au/podcasts/history-lab/s6/ and 10.5281/zenodo.15086322

Can colonial depictions of Indigenous people tell us anything useful about the past?   

How do Indigenous people today feel about these enduring images?    

Unsettling Portraits is a three-part series exploring the history of portraiture and colonialism, alongside contemporary First Nations responses. 

Indigenous artists and historians in Australia, the Pacific and North America discuss the practice of colonial portraiture, including Daniel Browning, Jo Rey, Alice Te Punga Somerville, Gordon Henry and Joseph Pierce. 

And you'll hear about the ways in which contemporary artists like Daniel Boyd, Michel Tuffery and the late Destiny Deacon have turned back the gaze on settlers with their art. 

Join acclaimed historians Kate Fullagar and Mike McDonnell as they and their collaborators wrestle with the portraits of our colonial past in History Lab Season 6: Unsettling Portraits.

Credits

History Lab is a UTS Impact Studios production.

• Producers: Catherine Freyne and Helene Thomas.  
• 
  
• Story Consultant: Siobhan McHugh 
• 
  
• Sound Engineer: Martin Peralta  
• 
  
• Production support: Jane Curtis, Britta Jorgensen and Celine Teo-Blockey 
• 
  
• Additional tile design and podcast artwork: Alexandra Morris 
• 
  
• Executive Producer: Sarah Gilbert 

If you're an old friend, hello and thank you for hitting play. If you're a new listener, welcome.

History Lab, as many of you will know, was Australia’s first investigative history podcast. 

We've made five seasons so far, and our tagline is exploring the gaps between us and the past.

And while you notice that from season to season our storytelling style changes, we're still always asking questions that provoke curiosity, that are attentive to sources and their limits, and that challenge us to think about how we live in the present.

Things have been a bit quiet on the History Lab feed lately, so we want share two bits of exciting news, and preview what's coming up in 2025!

History Lab season 5 won an international Signal award for the Red Light Green Light episode of Listen to Darlinghurst. 

And, History Lab had a baby! It’s called Hey History!, and it’s an Australian history podcast for kids and their adults. Each episode explores a different topic, from first meetings at Kamay Botany Bay, to the Gold Rush.

This year, there’s three new seasons of History Lab coming your way. 

First up is Unsettling Portraits, a series that looks closely at the history of portraiture, colonialism, and First Nations responses.  You’ll hear historians Kate Fullagar and Mike McDonnell speaking with Indigenous scholars, critics and artists about what these pictures mean today. 

Ancestral Echoes is a second History Lab season hosted by researcher, producer and historical novelist Sienna Brown.  

Brown hails from Jamaica, and across three episodes, she explores the stories of some significant but little-known Caribbean Australians.

In unearthing these stories, she’s looking for a connection with the past that will help her feel more at home here.  

And in a third History Lab series, historian Leigh Boucher explores the untold histories of the HIV epidemic in Sydney in the 80s and 90s.

The series tells the story from a new perspective, focusing in on the very tight but by no means homogenous 'gaybourhood' of Darlinghurst. 

History isn’t the only thing we do here at Impact Studios, of course. 

You can hit play on the three-part narrative podcast Sink or Swim, where host Angelica Ojinnaka Psillakis learns to swim as an adult and works out how to survive in our ever hotter suburbs. 

And for lovers of books and as well as history, check out Fully Lit - a new podcast about Australian books. The trailer's out and episodes release soon.

A special History Lab episode with a soundwork that explores the history of Sydney's South Head, followed by an interview with the maker Sinead Roarty and Director of the Australian Centre for Public History at UTS, Tamson Pietsch.

About the soundwork: On the Edge

The Gap at South Head in Sydney's eastern suburbs is a place of extreme beauty. It is also famous for being Australia's most well-known suicide destination.

On the Edge is a long-form binaural/VR soundwork exploring South Head’s spatial history and its varied conflicting narratives. The work addresses multiple levels of ‘silencing’ from the time of colonial contact and uses sound to give a voice to the unheard. South Head's ruptured history has shaped the perception of it in the past and this soundwork suggests a way to reanimate it in the present.

The thirteen-minute soundwork is best experienced at the Don Ritchie Grove, located a few minutes’ walk from The Gap lookout and can be accessed on a mobile phone from the website https://www.ontheedge.space/

On the Edge was created as part of a non-traditional PhD at the University of Technology Sydney. The PhD was subsequently recognised as the best doctoral thesis from the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences in 2023 and was included on The Chancellor's List, which recognises ‘exceptional scholarly achievement in PhD research’.

On the Edge transcript

• Word doc transcript
• PDF transcript

On the Edge Credits

• Writer/Director: Dr Sinead Roarty
• Primary Supervisor: Dr Delia Falconer
• Alternate Supervisor: Assoc Professor Debra Adelaide
• Sound Studio: MassiveMusic
• For all credits see https://www.ontheedge.space/

Episode credits

Sound engineering: Simon Branthwaite

Episode image photo by Sinead Roarty.

History Lab is a production of UTS Impact Studios.

We've got a new history podcast for you and the kids in your life, called Hey History! 

With immersive, sound rich storytelling and Australia's top historians and experts, dive into key events in our history.

Find out...

• How did First Nations people learn on Country? How does learning happen today?
• 
  
• What really when Captain Cook and First Nations people met at Kamay Botany Bay?
• What was life like as a convict kid? How did you remember your loved ones?
• How did everyone get along in the Gold Rush? 

In each episode, kids from around Australia share questions, ideas and reflections on our history. Hey History! aligns with the upper primary curriculum,  so teachers can use it in class.

The Bonus episode answers your questions on how to talk with kids about Australian history, and answer curly questions. 

Hey History! is made by Professor Anna Clark, a previous guest on the History Lab, Professor Clare Wright OAM, and the team at UTS Impact Studios. 

Subscribe, get Learning Materials and more on the Hey History website http://heyhistory.net or in your podcast app.

In 1887 there were no less than 22 hotels in Darlinghurst. Over the next century and a half, the character, culture and clientele of Darlinghurst pubs evolved. This story explores the impact on Darlinghurst of two episodes of liquor licensing restrictions in NSW: six o’clock closing and the Sydney lockout laws.

Image: Royal Sovereign Hotel, corner Darlinghurst Rd and Liverpool St, 1921 (City of Sydney Archives)

Credits

This audio story is a production of the Australian Centre for Public History in partnership with the Paul Ramsay Foundation.

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Producer: Catherine Freyne

Sound engineer: Judy Rapley

Music:

• Blue Dot Sessions
• When Paris is Singing by Dazie Mae licensed under CC by NC-SA 3.0 US

Archival: ABC Content Sales

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Featuring:

• Paul Solomon, publican’s son and grandson
• Max Burns-McRuvie, owner of Journeywalks
• Tyson Koh, founder of Keep Sydney Open

Terraces, flats, squats, bedsits, mansions, towers, camps and hostels: in Darlinghurst, housing is a mixed bag. This audio story explores the range of lifestyles afforded by Darlinghurst’s dense diversity of dwellings.

Voices

• Jan Cornall, former resident of Darlinghurst squats
• Paul Solomon, publican’s son and grandson
• Phillip Adams, former owner of Stoneleigh
• Shannon Dalton, former Assistant Manager of the Darlo Bar

Credits

This audio story was made on Gadigal land. It is a production of Impact Studios, with the Australian Centre for Public History and in partnership with the Paul Ramsay Foundation. ‍

Producer: Catherine Freyne

Sound engineer: Judy Rapley

Music

• Blue Dot Sessions
• Sum of My Fears, When Paris is Singing and A New Love Affair by Dazie Maelicensed under CC by NC-SA 3.0 US
• Garage by Monplaisir licensed under CC by CC0 1.0
• Korobushka by the Rosen Sisters licensed under CC by NC-ND 4.0

Image: Pad with a View, Kings Cross 1970-71 (Photographer: Rennie Ellis © Rennie Ellis Photographic Archive)

At St Vincent's Hospital, the Sisters of Charity have been delivering care to the people of Darlinghurst since 1857. This audio story visits St Vincent’s during three historic public health emergencies: the Spanish Flu, the HIV/AIDS crisis and COVID-19.

Image: Sister and nurse with home visitation car, St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney (Courtesy of the Congregational Archives of the Sisters of Charity of Australia)

Credits

This audio story is a production of the Australian Centre for Public History in partnership with the Paul Ramsay Foundation.

‍

Producer: Catherine Freyne

Sound engineer: Judy Rapley

Music: Blue Dot Sessions; The Tudor Consort licensed under CC by 3.0

Archival: ABC Content Sales

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Featuring:

• David Polson, former patient at Ward 17 South at St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney.
• Erin Longbottom, Nursing Unit Manager, Homeless Health Outreach Service, St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney.
• An excerpt from St Vincent’s Hospital Annual Report 1919 read by Marie Freyne.

In the rapidly gentrifying Darlinghurst of the 1980s, a turf war raged over one of its earliest trades. In this story, we visit the street corners and safe houses where sex workers competed for customers, looked out for each other and stood their ground. Along the way, veterans of the street-based trade describe a changing industry, sharing stories from the frontline of the fight for law reform and workers’ rights.

Image: Woods Lane 1968 (Tribune negative; Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales courtesy SEARCH Foundation)

Credits

This audio story is a production of the Australian Centre for Public History in partnership with the Paul Ramsay Foundation.

‍

Producer: Catherine Freyne

Sound engineer: Judy Rapley

Music: Blue Dot Sessions

Archival: ABC Library Sales

‍

Featuring:

• Julie Bates, veteran sex worker activist; Principal of Urban Realists Planning and Health Consultants.
• Chantell Martin, veteran sex worker; Co-CEO of Sex Workers Outreach Project.

Darlinghurst has always been a magnet and a haven for exiles and misfits. With writer and Darlo-phile Sunil Badami as guide, this audio story celebrates a handful of local characters and eccentrics, reflecting on the material conditions that enable unconventional people to thrive.

Image: Hare Krishna, Kings Cross 1970-71 (Photographer: Rennie Ellis © Rennie Ellis Photographic Archive)

Credits

This audio story is a production of the Australian Centre for Public History in partnership with the Paul Ramsay Foundation.

Producer: Catherine Freyne

Sound engineer: Judy Rapley

Music:

• Blue Dot Sessions
• I Love Her, She Loves Me by Atlantic City Orchestra licensed under a Public Domain / Sound Recording Common Law Protection License
• Eyes Getting Louder and Hope Its Today by Mod Fun licensed under CC by NC 4.0

Featuring:

• Sunil Badami, writer and raconteur