Person

Brown, Thomas Austen (Tom) ( - 2009)

Died
2009
Occupation
Anthropological collector and Solicitor

Summary

Tom Brown was a solicitor in Broken Hill, New South Wales, who made a substantial collection of Aboriginal artefacts. He was encouraged by archaeologist Richard Wright to study for a degree in anthropology so that he might understand the necessity for context in collecting. Having graduated in archaeology in 1974, Brown went on to earn a Masters degree in anthropology from the Washington State University, in the United States. Much of Brown's collection was acquired by the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies in 2002 under the Cultural Gifts Program. In 2011 the University of Sydney used his substantial bequest to establish both the Tom Austen Brown Chair in Australian Anthropology, the first such chair at an Australian university, and the publication series Tom Austen Brown Studies in Australasian Archaeology.

Related Corporate Bodies

Published resources

Books

  • Peter Arnold Pty Ltd, The library of Tom Austen Brown on the Australian Aborigines: to be sold at auction, Melbourne 25-26 June 2002 (Prahran, Vic.: Peter Arnold Pty Ltd, 2002), 131 pp. Details

Journal Articles

  • Anon, 'Tom Austen Brown Collection: a comprehensive milestone', Australian Aboriginal Studies, 2002 (1) (2002), 103-4. Details

Helen Cohn

EOAS ID: biogs/P006136b.htm

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"... the rengitj, as a visible mark or imprint on the land, is characterised as a place of origin, the repository of all names, as well as a kind of mapped visual expression of the connection between people and places which is to be carried out in the temporal sequence of the journey." Fanca Tamisari (1998) 'Body, Vision and Movement: In the footprints of the ancestors'. Oceania 68(4) p260