{{Short description|Australian anthropologist and historian (1927–2019)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox person | name = Roslyn Poignant | image = Roslyn Poignant.jpg | birth_name = Roslyn Betty Izatt | birth_date = 12 May 1927 | birth_place = [[Sydney]] | death_date = {{death-date and age|7 November 2019|12 May 1927}} | death_place = | death_cause = | other_names = | known_for = | education = [[University of Sydney]] | employer = | occupation = photographic anthropologist | spouse = [[Axel Poignant]] | parents = | relatives = | signature = | website = | footnotes = }}
'''Roslyn Betty Poignant''' (12 May 1927 – 7 November 2019) was an Australian photographic [[anthropologist]] who collaboratively published, interpreted, and [[Repatriation|repatriated]] her husband [[Axel Poignant]]'s photos of [[indigenous peoples]] from [[Arnhem Land]], [[Papua New Guinea]], and [[Tahiti]]. Poignant was involved in photographing and writing about museum collections of the [[material culture]] of [[Polynesia]], [[Melanesia]], [[Micronesia]], and Australia. Poignant is known for her finding, researching and repatriating an 1885 photograph taken in [[Paris]] by anthropological photographer [[Roland Bonaparte]] of three [[Queensland]] [[Indigenous Australians|indigenous]] persons taken to form part of an international touring troupe, for [[P. T. Barnum]]'s [[Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus|circus]]. These were people presumed lost to the [[Manbarra]] of [[Aboriginal Shire of Palm Island|Palm Island]]<ref name=grun/><ref name="CaptiveLives"/>
==Personal life== Poignant was born in Marouba ([[Sydney]]) in 1927 as Roslyn Betty Izatt. She credited her parents, Miriam (born Audet) and David Izatt, as being responsible for her deep sense of social justice.<ref name=grun/>
Poignant was educated at [[Sydney Girls High School]] and then went on take history and anthropology at the [[University of Sydney]]. She began studying pictures of indigenous Australians in her first job working with linguist [[Ted Strehlow]] who had recorded some of their ceremonies. They were working for the Australian government's film unit and colleagues introduced her to the photographer [[Axel Poignant]]. She was to be both his work partner and his third wife. They met in 1950 but they did not marry until 1953 after the death of his second wife.<ref name=grun>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/dec/16/roslyn-poignant-obituary|title=Roslyn Poignant obituary|last=Thomas|first=Martin|date=2019-12-16|work=The Guardian|access-date=2019-12-29|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077}}</ref> They visited Britain in 1956 and ended up emigrating joining other ex-pats in England.<ref name=ou/>
==Professional achievements==
[[File:Three Aboriginal Australians from 1885 in Paris.jpg|left|thumb|Three Aboriginal Australians from 1885 in Paris by Bonaparte]] [[File:Prof Natives April 1884.jpg|thumb|R. A. Cunningham's Australian Aboriginal international touring company, Crystal Palace, London, April 1884]] Poignant was known for investigating old photographs after she discovered a photo by the French photographer and investigator [[Roland Bonaparte]].<ref name=ou>{{Cite web|url=http://oa.anu.edu.au/obituary/poignant-roslyn-betty-30009|title=Obituary - Roslyn Betty Poignant - Obituaries Australia|website=oa.anu.edu.au|access-date=2019-12-29}}</ref> She found photos of indigenous Australians that Bonaparte had taken in 1885 in Paris. She found these in the 1970s in the [[Royal Anthropological Institute]] and she was particularly interested in one of Bonaparte's photographs of three Australian aboriginals who she found out were named Billy, Jenny and Toby.<ref name=ou/> [[file:Tambo-Kukamunburraa (cropped).jpg|thumb|This is believed to be Kukamunburraa]] Her investigations found that these were people who had been taken/persuaded to Europe as curiosities. Most died and never returned home to Queensland.<ref name=ou/> They were part of two captures by [[Robert A. Cunningham]] who had sent them originally to answer a call by [[P T Barnum]] for examples of "uncivilised natives". The people captured were exhibited as "cannibals" in Europe and the US and they were photographed by anthropologists like Bonaparte.<ref name=tanbo/>
These people were all thought to be dead and buried until the mummified body of Kukamunburra (Tambo) was discovered in a funeral home in Cleveland, Ohio. Tambo's mummified body had been an exhibit in Drew's Dime Museum after his death aged 21 from pneumonia. Poignant was involved in identifying his story and repatriating his body to [[Palm Island, Queensland|Palm Island]] in Australia in February 1994.<ref name=grun/> His story was known to one of his descendants, Walter Palm Island Jnr.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7TXPpmQVlj4C&q=tambo+Kukamunburra&pg=PA142|title=Palm Island: Through a Long Lens|last=Watson|first=Joanne|date=2010|publisher=Aboriginal Studies Press|isbn=978-0-85575-703-8|language=en}}</ref> These investigations were included in her 2004 book.<ref name=tanbo>{{Cite book|title=Professional Savages: Captive Lives and Western Spectacle|id={{ASIN|030010247X|country=uk}}}}</ref>
==Works include== *''Oceanic Mythology: The Myths of Polynesia, Micronesia, Melanesia, Australia'' 1967<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8UPmyAEACAAJ&q=roslyn-poignant|title=Oceanic Mythology: The Myths of Polynesia, Micronesia, Melanesia, Australia|last=Poignant|first=Roslyn|date=1967|publisher=Hamlyn|isbn=978-7-130-01145-8|language=en}}</ref> *''Kaleku'' 1972 with Axel Poignant<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7diXAAAACAAJ&q=roslyn-poignant|title=Kaleku|last1=Poignant|first1=Axel|last2=Poignant|first2=Roslyn|date=1972|publisher=Angus and Robertson|isbn=978-0-207-95453-5|language=en}}</ref> *''The Dancing Boy: A Story of the First Australians'' 1975<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DD5VAQAACAAJ&q=roslyn-poignant|title=The Dancing Boy: A Story of the First Australians|last=Poignant|first=Roslyn|date=1975|language=en}}</ref> *''Children of Oropiro'' 1976 with Axel Poignant<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AGPmAAAACAAJ&q=roslyn-poignant|title=Children of Oropiro|last1=Poignant|first1=Axel|last2=Poignant|first2=Roslyn|date=1976|publisher=Angus & Robertson|isbn=978-0-207-95582-2|language=en}}</ref> *''Discovery Under the Southern Cross'' 1976<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gdrB8uIBdQcC&q=roslyn-poignant|title=Discovery Under the Southern Cross|last=Poignant|first=Roslyn|date=1976|publisher=Collins|isbn=978-0-00-100172-5|language=en}}</ref> *''The First and Last Frontier'' 1988<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Tm2MtAEACAAJ&q=roslyn-poignant|title=The First and Last Frontier|last=Poignant|first=Roslyn|date=1988|language=en}}</ref> *''Encounter at Nagalarramba'' 1996 (with Axel Poignant)<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_riBjoqcCowC&q=roslyn-poignant|title=Encounter at Nagalarramba|last1=Poignant|first1=Roslyn|last2=Poignant|first2=Axel|date=1996|publisher=National Library of Australia|isbn=978-0-642-10665-0|language=en}}</ref> *''Professional Savages: Captive Lives and Western Spectacle'' 2004<ref name="CaptiveLives">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DAbwF-b56b4C&q=R+A+Cunningham+anthropologist&pg=PA289|title=Professional Savages: Captive Lives and Western Spectacle|last=Poignant|first=Roslyn|date=2004|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=978-0-300-10247-5|language=en}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Poignant, Roslyn}} [[Category:1927 births]] [[Category:2019 deaths]] [[Category:Australian anthropologists]] [[Category:20th-century Australian women writers]] [[Category:20th-century Australian writers]] [[Category:21st-century Australian women writers]] [[Category:21st-century Australian writers]] [[Category:Australian women anthropologists]] [[Category:People educated at Sydney Girls High School]] [[Category:University of Sydney alumni]]