PUBLIC TALK: Defining Humanity: Photography, humanitarianism and empire

Wesfarmers and The University of Western Australia proudly present the inaugural Wesfarmers Chair in Australian History Oration by Winthrop Professor Jane Lydon.

In 1905 HG Wells wrote that photographs ‘send out a ray of special resemblance and remind one more strongly of this friend or that, than they do of their own kind.’ Wells’ comments were penned during the weeks that scandal raged over the findings of the Royal Commission inquiry into Aboriginal administration in Western Australia, headed by Walter Edmund Roth. The Roth report documented terrible conditions for Indigenous people that many in Australia and England termed ‘slavery’. Wells’ 1905 discussion went on to challenge crude notions of biological race. Wells’ work on the Sankey Declaration and its subsequent revisions was ultimately adopted as part of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations.

In this talk, Professor Lydon will draw upon recent histories of humanitarianism and human rights that focus on the relationship between the extension of concern for distant strangers and the expansion of Western empires. Aesthetic experience was a crucial element of this story, creating a sense of proximity between peoples across the globe, and generating notions of a shared humanity.

In the dialogue between Western metropole and colonial experience, photography shaped ideas about race and difference, and at the same time, helped to argue for human rights. In 1905, the defence of national independence and honour existed in tension with imperial interests, as support for colonial independence struggled with the need to uphold the moral legitimacy of the British Empire. Colonial experience became integral to transnational debates about race, evolution, and humanity.

Cost: free, but RSVP required via http://www.ias.uwa.edu.au/lectures/lydon