How long have you been working at Biosis?

I started with Biosis on 1 December 2021. I moved house that same week - it was a memorable one to say the least!

What do you enjoy most about your work as a historian?

I really like watching people interact with historical records and histories. These “dead” artefacts are breathed life when we pick them up, read them, run our (gloved) hands over them, stew over them, but our relationship with them changes over time as individuals and as communities.

This is the same for historians, and this is why it’s so important we regularly revisit, revise, and reinvent histories. What I enjoy most then about my work is understanding what those shifts reveal about people.

Tell us about ‘Finding Fanny Finch’

Finding Fanny Finch is a stage-play co-written by Sue Gore, Bill Garner, Alice Garner and myself. It’s based on my PhD research which follows the life of Fanny Finch. Fanny Finch was a woman of the African diaspora who lived and worked on Dja Dja Wurrung Country (in Castlemaine) during the goldrush period (1851 – 1863).

She was a formidable woman who ran a business as a single mother of four. She wrote letters to the local paper speaking out against corruption rife in the local police force and also made several public stands against violence.

She is most celebrated however because in 1856 she cast a vote at a local Council election. An African Australian woman voted in 1856! It still blows my mind. The play uses our individual discoveries of her to explore secrets in family, local and national histories, as well as race in Australia.  Oh, did I mention Bill and Alice are also historians and Fanny’s descendants?

What do you like most about working at Biosis?

I have two kids, live in Central Victoria, am doing a PhD, and continue to work sporadically within the Arts sector as a freelance historian. What I like most about working at Biosis is that they’re with me through all of it. Their flexibility while I be and do all those things is unique.

IMAGE: Kacey Sinclair performing in 'Finding Fanny Finch'. Credit: Brendan McCarthy