Roy Gibson and Bård Aaberge at Mossman Gorge. Photographer unknown.

Full name: Bård Rydland Aaberge

Position: PhD Candidate, Anthropology

Role in the project: PhD student. Thesis topic: Kuku Yalanji traditional knowledge and artefacts in the past and the present

Brief background bio: Bård Aaberge has worked with Kuku Yalanji people since 2002 when he did ten months’ fieldwork for his Master of Arts thesis on Yalanji bush skills and how these link with Dreaming stories. This work has continued into his current PhD project, which investigates the links and dynamic between existing Dreaming stories and contemporary dreams of Kuku Yalanji elder Roy Gibson. A part of this work has been to film Roy retelling his dreams at the locations where his dreams occurred.

Bård’s research also entails documenting collected Yalanji artefacts, historical documents and photographs held in museums, and making these available for Yalanji artists and tour guides. By using film in his research approach and output, new artefacts, new “collection” procedures and new collaborations are co-created in digital format with an ongoing relationship to stories and collections of the past, present and the future.