Max Quanchi

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Max Quanchi is an Australian academic whose research specialisations have been the South Pacific nations and the role of photography in recording and transmitting its cultures and histories. [1]

Contents

Biography

Quanchi was born in Victoria on 20 June 1945, third and youngest son to parents Grace and Harry, who moved the family through a series of country towns. He completed High School at Wonthaggi, in South Gippsland. He qualified as a primary teacher and taught a year in a one-teacher remote rural school. Conscripted into National Service, he spent 1966‐1967 in Wewak, Papua New Guinea in the 2PIR Moem Barracks. His five "Nasho Chalkie" (National servicemen/teacher) companions remained close friends and collaborated later on a memoir. Moem Barracks were significant in housing a battalion newly recruited in PNG's expansion of its army during preparations for self-government and independence.

Education

Quanchi undertook an Honours and MA degree in History at Monash University and subsequently lecturing at universities in Melbourne, Brisbane, Suva in Fiji, and at the University of Papua New Guinea. For his PhD he researched the history of photography in PNG. [2]

Research

Quanchi embarked on research into the history of Gippsland in the early 1980s, publishing books on the subject, but by 1983 had turned his attention to the Pacific region. He has visited PNG regularly over more than forty years to conduct History Teacher workshops, and was a Guest Speaker for P&O Cruises. He concentrated his academic research to focus on Pacific Islands history and the history of photography. Since 1996 he has convened sessions on photography at Pacific History Association conferences, and for AAAPS (Association for the Advancement of Pacific Studies in Australia, now AAPS) for which he was its first secretary.

Quanchi has written and published frequently in his specialised field of research, notably his 2007 monograph Photographing Papua: Representation, Colonial Encounters and Imaging in the Public Domain focused on the colonial frontier in Papua New Guinea.  His contribution of articles on photography appear in The Oxford Companion to the Photograph (2005), Berg Encyclopaedia of Fashion and Dress (2009), Coast to Coast (2010) and in the journals History of Photography , History Focus, Pacific Arts, Journal of Pacific Studies, Agora, Australian Historical Studies , Journal of Australian Studies and Journal of Pacific History. He is on the editorial board  of the latter and also of the Journal of New Zealand and Pacific Studies, for which he has been guest editor for special issues of several.

Reception

Miriam Kahn of the University of Washington in her review of Quanchi's Postcards from Oceania as "accessible," and "a clear and concise text that is highly descriptive in nature," noting that "There is a wealth of scholarly literature about Oceania and colonialism but very little exists that focuses specifically on postcards and their important link to colonialism," [3] though in a separate review, noting Quanchi and Shekleton's extensive bibliography on the subject, Jacqueline Leckie indicates that Quanchi has been in the vanguard of what is now a "a shift within Pacific history towards centring the visual (including postcards) as a valuable and insightful source."

Carol E. Mayer of the University of British Columbia in reviewing his major work Photographing Papua: representation, colonial encounters and imaging in the public domain introduces as an

"idea fundamental to his work; that late-19th and early-20th century photography in the area known as Papua was the product of the convergence of three phenomena: new technology (the camera), new science (anthropology) and the arrival of an entourage of Europeans (missionaries, traders, government officials, travellers). Quanchi's theoretical underpinnings are dispersed in origin, and he admits to assembling his analysis from a range of academic methodologies and approaches. It can certainly be argued that, historically, anthropology as a discipline paid little attention to the value of photography as an analytical tool." [4]

Mitchell Rolls in Travelling Home, Walkabout Magazine and Mid-Twentieth-Century Australia frequently cites as valuable Quanchi's prior research into articles on, and images of, Papua New Guinea in Walkabout, though contesting Quanchi's assertion that "Walkabout with its heavily illustrated, topical, mass circulation was read by many Australians, who often ignored the text and merely passed the time skipping through the photographs". [5] [6]

Contributions in education

From 1995‐2001 Quanchi devised and presented a regional Professional Development Program for teachers (TTPF), [7]   and over 2011‐2015 led the Moana Project, a regional research network.  He introduced and taught the first BA degree course on "Australia and the Pacific" at QUT from 1990 to 2009.

Public speaking

Quanchi has contributed to discussions on ABC radio and as an expert consultant; [8] [9] [10] appeared in video presentations; [11] presented at museums; [12] has been a speaker at the Sydney Ideas Festival in 2014; on WWI Memorials in the Pacific at the University of the South Pacific/French Embassy symposia in 2015; and as a commentator [13] and reviewer. [14] [15] [16] [17]

He is now retired and lives in Brisbane.

Books

Book chapters

Journal articles

Related Research Articles

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References

  1. ↑ Quanchi, Max; Robson, John (2009). Historical dictionary of the discovery and exploration of the Pacific islands. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press. ISBN   978-0-8108-6528-0. OCLC   731152107.
  2. ↑ Quanchi, Max (1996). Photography, representation and cross-cultural encounters: seeking reality in Papua 1880-1930 (Thesis). OCLC   639288615.
  3. 1 2 Kahn, Miriam (2018-03-28). "Postcards from Oceania: Port Towns, Portraits and the Picturesque during the Colonial Era | By Max Quanchi, Max Shekleton". Pacific Affairs (UBC Journal). Retrieved 2022-06-19.
  4. 1 2 Mayer, Carol E. (2011). ""Photographing Papua: representation, colonial encounters and imaging in the public domain" by Max Quanchi (review)". The Journal of Pacific History. 46 (1): 139–140. doi:10.1080/00223344.2011.573647. S2CID   161526396.
  5. ↑ Johnston, Anna; Rolls, Mitchell (2019). Travelling home: 'Walkabout magazine' and mid-twentieth-century Australia. Anthem Press. pp. 7, 180, 184, 185. ISBN   978-1-78527-190-8. OCLC   1112384166.
  6. ↑ Quanchi, Max (2010). 'It's Our Turn to Give Orders'. Walkabout's View of a Nation in the Making. University of Papua New Guinea. pp. 110–116. OCLC   1160110126.
  7. ↑ Quanchi, Max; So'o, Asofou; Council of Presidents of Pacific Island History Associations (2003). Teaching history: a guide for teachers teaching history for the first time. Brisbane: Council of Presidents of Pacific Island History Associations. OCLC   225921975.
  8. ↑ "Rudd meets with Solomon Islands leader". ABC Radio National. 2008-01-25. Retrieved 2022-06-19.
  9. ↑ "The Sea". Radio National. 2002-10-16. Retrieved 2022-06-19.
  10. ↑ "In The Wake of The Caledonia". Radio National. 2004-05-06. Retrieved 2022-06-19.
  11. ↑ McCall, Grant Edwin (2000). "Niu History" (Catalogue record). doi: 10.26190/unsworks/464 . hdl: 1959.4/39469 .
  12. ↑ "National Museum of Australia: Appendix 6: Conferences, forums, seminars and lectures hosted by the National Museum of Australia 2007/2008, pp. no. 491 of 2008". Trove. 2008. Retrieved 2022-06-19.
  13. ↑ Quanchi, Max (1 March 1982). "Letters: Pacific-Caribbean ties stronger". Pacific Islands Monthly. 53 (3): 11.
  14. ↑ Quanchi, Max (1 November 1999). "In a savage land review". Pacific Islands Monthly. 69 (11): 57–58.
  15. ↑ Quanchi, Max (1 November 1980). "Australian dreams of Island empire - review of Australian Imperialism in the Pacific, By Roger C. Thompson. Melbourne University Press. ISBN 0 522 84207 0". Pacific Islands Monthly. 51 (11): 43–44.
  16. ↑ Max Quanchi. Review of "The Echo of Things: The Lives of Photographs in the Solomon Islands" by Christopher Wright. caa.reviews. August 2014. doi:10.3202/caa.reviews.2014.96
  17. ↑ Cruickshank, Joanna; Veracini, Lorenzo; Standfield, Rachel; Karskens, Grace; Martin, Susan K.; Eklund, Erik; Grosvenor, Ian; McKenna, Mark; Ginn, Geoff; Llewellyn, David; Jeppesen, Jennie (2011-09-01). "Books". Australian Historical Studies. 42 (3): 425–441. doi:10.1080/1031461X.2011.595899. ISSN   1031-461X. S2CID   218623986.
  18. 1 2 Leckie, Jacqueline (2021). ""An Ideal Colony and Epitome of Progress: Colonial Fiji in Picture Postcards." (review)". Journal of Pacific History. 56 (2): 212–13. doi:10.1080/00223344.2021.1893627. S2CID   233690422.
  19. ↑ Amaama, Safua Akeli. Review of Postcards from Oceania: Port Towns, Portraits and the Picturesque during the Colonial Era, by Max Quanchi and Max Shekleton. The Contemporary Pacific, vol. 30 no. 2, 2018, p. 557-559. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/cp.2018.0046.
  20. ↑ Kahn, Miriam (June 2017). "Review: Postcards From Oceania: Port Towns, Portraits and the Picturesque during the Colonial Era". Pacific Affairs. The University of British Columbia. 90 (2): 423–5.
  21. ↑ ""The A to Z of the discovery and exploration of the Pacific islands. (reprint, 2005)." , vol. 25, no. 1". Reference & Research Book News. 25 (1). February 2010.
  22. ↑ Hasselberg, Jan (2018). "The Visual Inheritance: Collections of Historical Photographs from Papua New Guinea". The Journal of Pacific History. 53 (3): 287–309. doi:10.1080/00223344.2018.1471781. S2CID   165250627.
  23. ↑ Hughes, H.G.A. (2014). "Review: Historical Dictionary of the Discovery and Exploration of the Pacific Islands Max Quanchi and John Robson". Reference Reviews. 20: 58–59.
  24. ↑ Juvik, James O.; Juvik, Sonia P. (2006). "Review of Atlas of the Pacific Islands, by Max Quanchi". The Contemporary Pacific . 18 (1): 196–97. hdl:10125/13934. ISSN   1043-898X.
  25. ↑ Werner, Edward K. (15 April 2003). "Quanchi, Max. Atlas of the Pacific Islands". Library Journal. 128 (7): 74.
  26. ↑ Review of Refined White, Queensland Museum, Brisbane, regional and interstate 2001-2002; and Embarquement pour le Queensland; Des Loyaltiens en terre australienne (Across the Coral sea: Loyalty islanders in Queensland) Bibliothque Bernheim, Noumea a. Carfax. 2002. doi:10.1080/00223340220139324. OCLC   828750278. S2CID   219618435.
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