Enaction Plan: Reassembling the past with Julie Gough, National Library of Australia, February 2026
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are advised that this resource contains a range of material which may be considered culturally sensitive, including the images and records of people who have passed away.
Some material in our collections contains terms that reflect author’s views, or those of the period in which the item was written or recorded but may not be considered appropriate today. These views are not necessarily the views of the National Library of Australia. While the information may not reflect current understanding, it is provided in an historical context.
Julie Gough will discuss her recent Fellowship research focusing on colonial collections and their role in shaping Tasmanian Aboriginal histories.
Attend in person
Entry to this event is free but bookings are essential.
Watch online
The presentation will also be available online. Please make a booking and we will send you a direct link to the livestream event via email. Or you can join anytime through the Library’s YouTube channel .
About Julie Gough’s Fellowship research
The Enaction Plan is a parallel process that maps a pathway of using the Library’s collections to strategically seek and resurface material aspects between 1800 – 1850, that most impacted Tasmanian Aboriginal people. The project involves developing artwork responses to this journey to access and reconstruct history.
The Enaction Plan consists of two interconnected actions. The primary focus is creating new artworks as direct responses to the Library’s collections that informs the impact of British colonisation on First Peoples of Lutruwita/Tasmania from 1800 – 1850. In addition, historic material – particularly maps, images and manuscripts will be reviewed for information, with the process documented on a dedicated website. This process involves seeking, auditing and recovering relevant material within the Library’s collections relating to Tasmanian Aboriginal people, from the wreck of the Sydney Cove in Bass Strait in 1797 to the closure of Wybalenna Aboriginal Establishment on Flinders Island in late 1847.
This tracking of collections to identify material relevant to Aboriginal history, within records produced by and for colonists, will also serve as a case study of how repositories can facilitate First Peoples’ truth-telling.
Julie Gough is a 2025 National Library of Australia Creative Arts Fellow.
Learn more about National Library Fellowships
About Julie Gough
Julie Gough is an artist, writer and curator at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery. Gough’s multi-media artworks reveal and re-present conflicting and subsumed histories, and the legacies and impacts of colonization, sometimes referring to her family’s experiences as Tasmanian Aboriginal people.
Gough has exhibited in more than 200 exhibitions since 1994, including 65,000 years (2025), Shadow Spirit (2023), Biennale of Sydney (2022, 2006), Tarnanthi (2021, 2017), Adelaide Biennial (2018, 1998), Eucalyptusdom, Tense Past, Defying Empire, The National, With Secrecy and Despatch, Undisclosed; Clemenger Award, Liverpool Biennial, UK (2001) and Perspecta (1995).