What is the work of truth-telling? How is evidence collected? What happens next?

What role should schools play in teaching Australia’s full history?

Australia has completed its first, formal truth-telling process — the Yoorrook Justice Commission of Victoria.

We joined Commissioner Travis Lovett on his 500-kilometre Walk for Truth from Portland on Gunditjmara Country, to Parliament House on Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Country in Melbourne, to hear firsthand of the Commission's work.

Along the way, you'll hear testimonies from Elders and Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan, reflections from researcher Dr Matthew Keynes, and insights into how truth-telling can transform education, policy, and our shared future.

Travis Lovett is a proud Kerrupmara/Gunditjmara man and Traditional Owner and the Deputy Chair and Commissioner of the Yoorrook Justice Commission.

Dr Matthew Keynes is a non-Indigenous scholar working on unceded and sovereign Wurundjeri land. His research investigates the ways that education contributes to justice, peace, and social transformation by repairing historical injustices and legacies of violence.

Links

• Yoorrook Justice Commission Truth Archive
• Yoorrook Justice Commission Reports and Recommendations
• We have always been here by Dr Matthew Keynes
• National Indigenous Youth Education Coalition
• Truth-telling in early education by Gowrie Victoria
• Day Break by Amy McQuire
• How do you prepare your child for truth-telling? by Shelly Ware
• Teaching truth-telling: Children's Ground panel on YouTube

• Produced on Gadigal and Gunditjmara Country by Jane Curtis.
• Sound engineering by Jollyvolume.
• Production assistance from Alexandra Morris.
• Hosted by Tamson Pietsch.
• History Lab is produced by the Australian Centre for Public History at UTS and UTS Impact Studios.
• Impact Studios' executive producer is Sarah Gilbert.

This episode was made possible by Dusseldorp Forum, a family foundation committed to a just and equitable Australia, one that is caring, ethical and honours our First Peoples.

Special thanks to Rachel Fyfe and the Yoorrook team.

This special episode from our archives speaks to this year’s NAIDOC Week themes of strength, vision and legacy.

Fishing for Answers explores the sophistication of the fishing practices of Eora women in Sydney Harbour, and asks, How can we hear from the women themselves and find out what their world sounded like?

Content warning: If you are an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person this episode may contain the names of people who have died.

• Producers: Tom Allinson and Ninah Kopel
• Collaborators: Anna Clark, Nathan Sentance, Tim Ella and Maddison Lyn Collier
• Executive Producer: Emma Lancaster
• Associate Producer: Anna Clark
• Sound Design: Joe Koning
• Host: Tamson Pietsch
• Voice Actor: Steve Ahern
• Additional production assistance: Ellen Leabeater and Miles Herbert
• Marketing and communications: Andy Huang

Thanks to Les Bursill OAM for his advice on the Darug language, and Grace Karskens and Renee Cawthorne.

This episode was made on Gadigal Country.

Colonial portraits have long dictated how Indigenous people were seen. But Indigenous artists continue to challenge that power. Through satire, reinterpretation, and resistance, they’re using art to question history—and reshape the future.

In this episode, historians Kate Fullagar and Mike McDonnell speak with contemporary Indigenous artists who are confronting the legacy of empire. Michel Tuffery, a New Zealand-based artist of Samoan, Tahitian, and Cook Islander heritage, reimagines Captain Cook through the eyes of those he encountered. Daniel Boyd, one of Australia’s most celebrated contemporary artists, subverts colonial iconography, turning figures like Cook into symbols of piracy and exploitation. Daniel Browning, an Aboriginal journalist and art critic, reflects on the power—and the lies—embedded in colonial paintings.

Can art break the cycle of representation, or does it always carry the weight of its past? Join us on this final episode of Unsettling Portraits to find out.

Episode images

Cookie in the Islands

This representation of Captain James Cook belongs to a narrative series titled ‘First Contact’. The series retells the story of James Cook’s Pacific voyages from a Polynesian perspective, focusing on the profound way in which Cook himself was altered through his experiences in the Pacific. His identity is altered, as marked by hibiscus flowers, hei-tiki around his neck and his Polynesian features. The name Cookie is not only a more familiar name for Captain Cook but it is also a nickname for a Cook Islander. (Curator's comments)

By Michel Tuffery. 2009. British Museum.

Portrait of Captain James Cook RN

By John Webber, 1782. National Portrait Gallery Australia

Captain No Beard

By Daniel Boyd, Kudjla/Gangalu/Kuku Yalanji/Jagara/Wangerriburra/Bandjalung peoples, 2005. National Gallery of Australia.

Nannultera, a young Poonindie cricketer

By J.M. Crossland, 1854. National Gallery of Australia.

Portrait - Eva Johnson, writer

By Destiny Deacon, 1994. Queensland Art Gallery.

Guests

Michel Tuffery, a New Zealand-based artist of Samoan, Rarotongan, and Ma’ohi Tahitian heritage, creates work that bridges environmental, cultural, and historical divides. Known for his role as a connector between people and places, he engages communities through exhibitions, research, and residencies across the Pacific and beyond. A passionate educator, he shares his kaupapa and knowledge with young people through workshops in New Zealand and abroad. Appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2008 for his contributions to art, he continues to enrich communities through his creative practice.

Daniel Boyd, one of Australia’s leading artists, is a Kudjala, Ghungalu, Wangerriburra, Wakka Wakka, Gubbi Gubbi, Kuku Yalanji, Bundjalung, and Yuggera man with ni-Vanuatu heritage. Based on Gadigal/Wangal Country, his work reinterprets...

In this episode, historians Kate Fullagar and Mike McDonnell revisit Bennelong’s portraits to examine how colonial art encountered Indigenous identity. Indigenous scholar Jo Rey, a Dharug woman, challenges these depictions, questioning their accuracy and impact.

The conversation then expands to the Pacific, where Māori scholar Alice Te Punga Somerville discusses the story of Tupaia, a Polynesian navigator and artist who traveled with Captain Cook. His illustrations of first contact tell a different story—one of Indigenous agency, not just European discovery.

What do we see when we look at these portraits today? And more importantly, what do they obscure? Join us on Unsettling Portraits to find out.

Episode images

Ben-nel-long

By the Port Jackson Painter, c. 1790. Watling, Thomas. Courtesy of the Natural History Museum, London.

Ben-nil-long

By James Neagle, 1798. Courtesy National Library of Australia.

Australian Aborigines paddling bark canoes and spear fishing

DRAWINGS, in Indian ink, illustrative of Capt. Cook's first voyage, 1768 -1770.

This may record the fishing party observed by Joseph Banks at Botany Bay on 26 April 1770.

By A. Buchan, John F. Miller, and others. Courtesy British Library.

A Maori bartering a crayfish with an English naval officer

DRAWINGS, in Indian ink, illustrative of Capt. Cook's first voyage, 1768 -1770, chiefly relating to Otaheite and New Zealand.

By A. Buchan, John F. Miller, and others. Courtesy British Library.

Guests

Jo Rey is a Dharug scholar and Macquarie University Fellow for Indigenous Researchers in the Department of Indigenous Studies. Her research focuses on Dharug Ngurra/Country, which spans much of the Sydney metropolitan area, examining key cultural sites, including Shaw’s Creek Aboriginal Place and the Blacktown Native Institution. Building on her doctoral research on Dharug cultural continuity, her post-doctoral work explores Indigenous cultural agency through the concept of ‘Living Law’—a framework of sustainable relationality based on Recognition, Respect, Rights, Responsibility, and Reciprocity.

Alice Te Punga Somerville (Māori – Te Āti Awa, Taranaki) , professor of English Language and Literatures at the University of British Columbia, is a poet, scholar, and irredentist whose work explores Indigenous connections, colonial histories, and the power of language. She is the author of Once Were Pacific: Māori Connections to Oceania, 250 Ways to Write an Essay about Captain Cook, and the poetry collection Always Italicise: How to Write While Colonised, each challenging dominant narratives and centering Indigenous perspectives.

Credits

Producers: Catherine Freyne and Helene Thomas.

Story Editor: Siobhan McHugh

Sound Engineer: Martin Peralta

Additional production and editorial support: Jane Curtis, Britta Jorgensen and Celine Teo-Blockey

Additional tile design and podcast artwork: Alexandra Morris

Executive Producer: Sarah Gilbert

To cite this episode

Fullagar, K (researcher and host), Freyne, C (producer), McDonnell, M (researcher and host), Thomas, H (producer) (2025), 'Unsettling Portraits' Episode 2. In History Lab by Impact Studios,

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...

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.