Surveyor John Helder Wedge collected Indigenous artefacts at the close of the Van Diemen's Land 'Black War' and the first months of settlement in Port Phillip in 1835. They remain in Saffron Walden Museum in Essex. It has been suggested that Wedge sought the artefacts out of a rare ‘humanitarian’ interest in Indigenous people. Rebe Taylor finds, however, that while Wedge's rhetoric was compassionate, his actions and interests on the Tasmanian and Victorian frontiers were not always benevolent.

Rebe Taylor presents a detective-story account of her attempts to match artefacts to encounters framed within a broader exploration of the conundrum 'humane colonisation'. Rebe will also reflect on her research journey and experiences working with libraries, archives and museums in Britain and Australia.