Historiography of Aboriginal Queensland Nurses and Midwives 1890s-1950s (ARC Special Research Initiatives grant administered by University of Southern Queensland) (2021-2024)

This project aims to investigate the histories of Aboriginal Queensland women who trained as nurses or midwives from the 1890s - 1950s, countering existing assumptions that First Nations women could not access education and employment and were 'just domestics'. Anticipated outcomes of this project include the generation of new knowledge in the field of Australian history, and the creation of cross-cultural, inter-disciplinary and community capacity to research innovative histories of Aboriginal women in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Australia. For Aboriginal communities and the nation, a significant benefit expected from the project is a new understanding of Aboriginal women¿s participation in the educated, paid workforce.