An exhibition of rare archival photographs taken by Japanese researchers around 50 years ago will travel from The National Museum of Ethnology in Japan to Canberra. The exhibition will be accompanied by a number of events held at ANU. The exhibition is open to the public from 13 June 2025.
When: Friday 13 Jun 2025-Sun 22 Jun 2025; 11am-4:00 pm
Location: The Gallery, Lowitja O’Donoghue Cultural Centre (Kambri, ANU)
Contact: Julie Lahn Send email
Nikkei Australia member Julie Lahn is part of the research team – The ANU Japan Zenadth Kes (Torres Strait) Project, which curated this exhibition. GOTAT | GUTHATH | 時代の潮目 | TIDES will showcase never-before-exhibited photographs in a celebration of bilateral relationships and friendships spanning borders, cultures and time.
ANU Japan Zenadth Kes Project (JZK) reconnects contemporary Zenadth Kes (Torres Strait) communities with archival scholarship created by the Torres Strait Kenkyukai, a group of Japanese researchers who documented community life in the Torres Strait in the 1970s and produced a 700-page book and thousands of photographs, maps, and also recorded music.
‘On display for the first time in Australia this exhibition of archival photographs captures a momentous era in Zenadth Kes (then Torres Strait) history—the 1970s—a period marked by profound political, social, and economic change, and of remarkable strength, resilience, and creativity by communities.
Photographs are from the George Ohshima Collection at the National Museum of Ethnology (Minpaku), Japan. Professor Ohshima was a pioneering figure in Japanese Pacific Studies with connections to scholars world-wide including Australia and the ANU. His collection comprises over 10,000 images taken across Asia and the Pacific – of these, more than 2,000 were taken in Zenadth Kes offering a rare and vivid window into everyday life 50 years ago.
Professor George Ohshima and nine other Japanese researchers—the Torres Strait Kenkyūkai (study group)—visited every community in the region of Zenadth Kes. This exhibition commemorates the 50th anniversary since the Kenkyūkai began its field research in 1975. The exhibition also features photographs from the personal archives of other notable researchers in the Kenkyūkai: Dr Hironobu Kitaoji, Professor Hiroyuki Matsumoto and Dr Michiya Hata.’
Exhibition, open daily, 13-22 June 2025, 11am – 4pm
International Panel Discussion, 13 June 2025, 12 pm-1pm
Speakers include Dr Annick Thomassin, Mr Ned David, Professor Norio Niwa, Dr Hiroko Cockerill, Dr Sara Kitaoji, Michael Passi. Panel Chair: Dr Julie Lahn.
Zenadth Kes style Weaving Workshops, 13, 14, 15 June 2025.
With master weaver Mr Niki Mackie. Registrations via Humanitix.
Digital Story (StoryMaps) https://arcg.is/0Cn8Xe
ANU JZK Project team members are Kinau Akiba, Abba Babia, Jacinta Baragud, Emily Beckley, Samantha Faulkner, Neville Johnston, Will Kepa, Julie Lahn, Yessie Mosby, Michael Passi, Annick Thomassin.
The JZK Project is supported by an Australia Japan Foundation grant, ‘Rekindling Japanese-Torres Strait Connections: Celebrating fifty years’; the Return of Cultural Heritage Unit at The Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS), and an Australian Research Council Discovery Project grant: ‘Valuing Torres Strait Knowledge through Sustainable Digital Returns’.
Image: Brian Robinson, Waru Kazi III, 2015
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