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Dr John E. Stanton

Dr John Stanton is the Director of the Berndt Museum of Anthropology, and was its Founding Curator.

John Stanton has extensive experience and involvement in the area of Aboriginal arts, which he has developed primarily since his appointment in 1978 as Curator of the Anthropology Research Museum (later renamed the Berndt Museum of Anthropology).

In 1974 he transferred to Perth to commence a PhD programme focussing on aspects of social change in a small Aboriginal community (Mt Margaret Mission) on the fringe of the Western Desert bloc, W.A.

He has published a number of articles deriving from this research.

Since his Museum appointment, he collaborated in several publications with Ronald and Catherine Berndt and has mounted thirteen major exhibitions.

He has also maintained ongoing research programmes in the Kimberley region of North-West Western Australia, the Western Desert and the South-West of the State, and in north-eastern Arnhem Land, which have all focussed on assisting Aboriginal communities to establish local Keeping Places and Cultural Centres. These projects, initiated at the request of local communities, have involved the training of Aboriginal people in curatorial and exhibition techniques, oral history recording, etc. and complement the Museum’s focus on contemporary arts: they are central to the Museum’s outreach programme to Western Australian Aboriginal communities.

Several other projects are being developed in collaboration with members of other Aboriginal communities, involving both urban and remote groups, as part of the long-term research, teaching and public relations activities of the Berndt Museum of Anthropology at the University of Western Australia.

Qualifications:

B.A., M.A. (Auck.), Ph.D. (W. Aust.)

Selected publications (books only):

On Track: Contemporary Aboriginal art from Western Australia. Perth: The University of Western Australia Berndt Museum of Anthropology, Occasional Paper No. 6 (2004)
(with S. Hill) Aboriginal artists of the South-West: past and present. Perth: University of Western Australia Berndt Museum of Anthropology, Occasional paper No.5 (2000).
(with R.M. and C.H. Berndt ) Aboriginal Australian art. Sydney: New Holland (1998, originally published 1982 by Methuen Australia, reprinted 1988, 1992)
(with R.M. and C.H. Berndt) A world that was: the Yaraldi of the Murray River and The Lakes, South Australia. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press (1993)
(with K. Akerman) Riji and jakoli: Kimberley pearlshell in Aboriginal Australia. Darwin: Northern Territory Museum of Arts and Sciences, Monograph Series 4 (1993)
Nyungar Landscapes. Aboriginal artists of the South-West: the heritage of Carrolup, Western Australia. Occasional Paper No.3. Perth: University of Western Australia Berndt Museum of Anthropology. (1992)
Painting the country: contemporary Aboriginal art from the Kimberley region of Western Australia. Perth: University of Western Australia Press (1989)
Innovative Aboriginal art of Western Australia, Occasional Paper No.1. Perth: University of Western Australia Anthropology Research Museum (1988)
Images of Aboriginal Australia, Occasional Paper No.2. Perth: University of Western Australia Anthropology Research Museum (1988)
(with R.M. Berndt) Art of the Great Sandy Desert. Perth: Art Gallery of Western Australia (1986)

Contact Details

Dr John E. Stanton
Telephone: +61 8 6488 3854
Fax.: +61 8 6488 1165
Email: john.stanton@uwa.edu.au