Simon Farley
@sighmonger
Followers
1,273
Following
1,307
Media
367
Statuses
5,554
Historian, among other things | Likes, retweets, follows may or may not be endorsements | My pronouns are ze/zir or they/them
Wurundjeri country
Joined February 2020
Don't wanna be here?
Send us removal request.
Explore trending content on Musk Viewer
Cheney
• 316130 Tweets
Eagles
• 174959 Tweets
Uruguay
• 60662 Tweets
Suárez
• 51307 Tweets
श्री गणेश
• 48849 Tweets
#SmackDown
• 48519 Tweets
Saquon
• 44968 Tweets
Peacock
• 40904 Tweets
Giants
• 40803 Tweets
गणपति बप्पा
• 39104 Tweets
1 Day Left For Avataran Diwas
• 38793 Tweets
Jalen
• 37034 Tweets
Green Bay
• 32218 Tweets
Paraguay
• 28232 Tweets
Philly
• 27990 Tweets
#GaneshChaturthi
• 26876 Tweets
#GBvsPHI
• 26122 Tweets
#GoPackGo
• 16078 Tweets
Lord Ganesha
• 13754 Tweets
#二度と撮れない画像を貼れ
• 13025 Tweets
Jayden Reed
• 11662 Tweets
Fritz
• 11579 Tweets
Jordan Love
• 11108 Tweets
Tiafoe
• 10864 Tweets
BOSSNOEUL Q5 TBNW
• 10783 Tweets
Lucho
• 10740 Tweets
Lynx
• 10416 Tweets
Wisdom & Prosperity
• 10020 Tweets
Pinned Tweet
Tonight, the first volume of "Dhoombak Goobgoowana: A History of Indigenous Australia and the University of Melbourne" was launched. This is the first work of its kind in Australia. The whole ebook can be downloaded for free at this link:
1
48
110
@BirdRespecter
Tossing the gun away like that makes my skin crawl (all blame going to the parent/s, of course)
4
4
3K
This is Professor Alfred James Ewart. In 1906, he became the first professor of botany at the University of Melbourne - indeed, the first chair of botany anywhere in Australasia. He was also a terrible person. A thread. 1/
54
276
1K
Awe-inspiring. The only other issue I can think of that's fired up young people to this extent is climate change. Who could have imagined this two months ago?
School strike for Palestine - huge numbers holding space in Melbourne Central.
84
634
2K
68
139
699
I just can't stop thinking about how the wording of the referendum was announced the same day an Aboriginal senator got thrown to the ground by a police officer.
8
87
376
Big chunks of the new "student precinct" at Unimelb are just... gravel? The monotony only relieved by some cheap café seating and a few tiny trees in huge concrete pots. Who is this for? *What* is this for?
43
19
314
If you would like to know more about Ewart's utter bastardy, you can read my chapter in Dhoombak Goobgoowana, 'Flora and Failure', as well as Kate Auty's chapter, 'Professor Ewart and ‘Mr Murnane’'. 14/14
18
37
317
Too much of Melbourne's "parkland" is just footy ovals, playgrounds, barbecue areas and dog parks. These are all good and important things in themselves, but we need more urban bushland in which one can relax, wander aimlessly, smell things, frolic among hordes of wild echidnas,
16
20
266
In some ways this is most galling of all: he scorned Indigenous botanical knowledge. When he had the opportunity to learn from people who could draw on millennia's worth of hard-won plant wisdom, he dismissed them. You can see why I really hate this guy. 9/
6
24
265
And let me be clear: this was bad even by the woeful standards of the 1920s. It's not just that racism was a basic presumption most scientists at the time shared - Ewart was committed to this public denigration of Aboriginal people. He went above and beyond. 8/
1
8
240
Ewart's views are deeply disturbing, and given the hundreds of students he taught over the years, not to mention the hundreds of people who read his work, one wonders about the legacy of his influence. Here's a little something I wrote. Anyway. Postera crescam laude, I guess. 13/
3
11
213
Here are a just a couple of excerpts from a newspaper column he wrote in 1927. It is worth remembering that Ewart was a respected scientist - when settlers who knew no Aboriginal people read something like this, they were likely to receive it as strictly factual. 7/
4
14
208
It gets worse. As you can read in these excerpts, Ewart was also an apologist for frontier violence. He endorsed segregation and opposed miscegenation. He didn't even believe Aboriginal people should receive Western education. (There's bonus anti-Chinese racism here too). 10/
5
10
209
This is the first time I've ever wished harm upon a bear
The cheers in Windsor Gardens are so loud, Mr. Brown says he’s sure the
@Lionesses
will hear them all the way from Australia.
32
165
3K
2
3
199
One thing I realised this past week is that a lot of folks (even highly educated historians!) think the whole Melbourne metro area is Wurundjeri country. Not the case! Like any map of Indigenous lands, this is flawed, but it will help.
10
27
201
@littlewordier
It is truly appalling. People who were considered pillars of society were saying this stuff. That's where we come from. In many ways, that's where we still are now - stuck.
3
8
185
Botany had been taught at the University since its foundation in the 1850s but largely as a component of medical degrees. Despite the presence of a herbarium and botanic garden on campus, botany took up a small part of general biology curricula. 2/
1
3
183
As you can see here, Ewart was well aware that many white settlers in Australia's south were sympathetic towards Aboriginal people. Not everyone was fine with massacres and dispossession. He actively tried to discredit and undermine those who opposed frontier violence. 11/
1
11
182
Unimelb only recruited a botanist because, urged by the state government, they had founded a faculty of agriculture in 1905. Victoria was desperate to boost agricultural production, and in accordance with the 'progressive' spirit of the age, a scientific approach was demanded. 3/
1
5
174
In 1924 and again in 1927, he embarked on expeditions into Australia's centre and north, chiefly to investigate livestock poisonings. It is because of these trips that Ewart's attitudes towards Indigenous people are well documented. Warning: this gets very unpleasant. 6/
2
4
167
His first lecture was attended by six students. By the end of the 1920s, the botany cohort had grown to over 200, many of them studying botany for its own sake. The botany building he personally designed opened in 1929 and remains one of the most beautiful buildings on campus. 5/
1
4
166
Moreover, Ewart proudly worked with and publicly defended the veterinary scientist Daniel Murnane, who was involved in the massacre of eleven Aboriginal people near Wyndham in 1926. 12/
1
8
165
Ewart - an Oxford-educated plant physiologist with plentiful teaching experience - was the solution. He was simultaneously appointed as Victoria's government botanist. The workload was immense. But, as a teacher at least, Ewart thrived. 4/
1
3
156
Muting this now - the response has been overwhelmingly constructive but there are a few too many genocidaires in the replies for my liking. To reiterate: we must be honest about our collective past, about how deep the rot goes, before we stand a chance of fixing our present.
0
7
139
It's impossible to over-state the importance of
@TroveAustralia
to my work and the work of so many others - if it is forced to close, not just our country but our whole world will be much poorer for it.
#savetrove
4
45
133
Contender for greatest tweet of all time
0
13
112
Feeling so many things rn... I'll save the real sentimental posting for when I graduate but... goddamn...
30
0
113
Pretty chuffed to let you all know that my first-ever academic article has been published online through
@aus_journal
! It's about brumbies and the people who love them and the ways in which the people who love brumbies are sometimes a bit cooked.
12
14
111
There's only one long-term solution to the issues plaguing tertiary education and, conceptually, it's quite simple: universities should be run by the people who actually work in them.
1
17
104
Who wants to form an invasive species-themed hardcore band called Myna Threat?
10
8
87
As I'm sure these photos illustrate,
@ruby_ekkel
and I are thrilled to be the new
@AustHistAssoc
postgraduate representatives!
@Joshua_Black97
has left some very big shoes to fill!
7
4
81
People get riled up by Lidia Thorpe bc she's an outspoken, left-wing, Aboriginal woman - yes, of course. But also bc she riles them up on purpose - and that's a good thing! The left needs more shit-stirrers. We need less compromise and apology and fear of the man on the street.
2
4
65
Sorry for earnestposting but I had the pleasure and privilege of hearing and chatting with so many generous, brilliant historians this week and I just want to say I love historians! They're good!!
1
1
60
I'm always telling people: you need to have a third thing. You've got (1) your family and friends, (2) your job, but your life isn't really complete until you have a hobby, a spiritual community, a sporting club, a reading group - whatever, just something else to belong to.
genuinely fascinating that being a member of literally any community anything made you more likely to support a yes vote
10
94
547
3
7
57
People are always referring to "the little one" in boygenius and I hate it! Her name is Julien Baker and in February 2016 she bit me unprovoked outside a high-end Mexican restaurant in San Francisco!!!!
2
4
52
This is doing me in. I cannot believe the Romans had actual fucking pocket sundials. That's like something from an Asterix comic - some toga-clad merchant is like "oooh what's the time? I better check my wrist-sundial!" But it was real! That was an actual part of people's lives!
Roman portable sundial in the shape of a cured ham. The whimsical yet precision-crafted bronze timepiece was unearthed in Herculaneum in 1760 and quickly identified as a rare pocket sundial by its grid markings. The exact workings of the 'pork clock' have, however, only recently
99
1K
7K
2
7
50
The Simpsons' rumpus room is my greatest and darkest obsession. I believe it's seen in less than ten episodes total.
For those who are curious, in this scene, Homer is sitting in the rarely used Rumpus Room (honestly, I think we just forgot it existed most of the time. We did use it in "Lady Bouvier's Lover" I think.)
Seen here in Simpsons house blueprints from a super-early 1990 design book
62
339
3K
2
3
49
Such a thrill to have presented my first ever conference paper today! I almost - allllmost - feel like a real historian
#AHAUNSW
6
0
49
Honoured to be on this shortlist!
2023 Jill Roe Prize shortlist: Harrison Croft,
@sighmonger
and Paige Mahoney. Congratulations to these entrants!
1
0
12
9
1
50
Every time I think I've found the most racist possible article from an old Australian newspaper, I'm wrong
2
9
49
I don't want to sound over-dramatic but I'm genuinely unsure if I can bear another La Niña summer
8
0
47
@frankiebcatt
He really says the quiet part loud here - there's no pretence of compassion at all, he just wants to further expand settler colonialism. For Ewart, agriculture was the only worthy use of the land - white people the only worthy inhabitants.
1
3
48
This is a good read. Union House was an ugly, asbestos-ridden behemoth, fit only for cockroaches and mice - but it did, at least in parts, feel like *ours*. Hopefully, one day, the new student precinct will feel lived-in in a similar way.
3
3
47
What an exhausting, amazing, life-affirming
#OzHA2024
! In awe of the energy, patience and dedication of my fellow historians, particularly the conference organisers and even more particularly
@sandroantonello
2
3
46
I met some lovely new historians just starting their PhDs tonight, and they should be looking forward to long and rich careers at institutions that treat them with respect - not precarity and exploitation.
0
2
46
Earlier tonight my friend said I should have done a PhD in "looking like someone from the '80s"
4
0
45
@wtb_Michael
1. Noisy miner
2. Noisy miner
3. Noisy miner
4. Noisy miner
5. Noisy miner
6. Noisy miner
7. Noisy miner
8. Noisy miner
9. Noisy miner
10. Noisy miner
11. Bell miner
12. Noisy miner
13. Noisy miner
14. Noisy miner
15. Noisy miner
3
0
45
Unfortunately drinking several beers and eating hot chips for dinner resulted in me getting covid lmao
If the past weekend taught me anything, it's that in these troubled times, it's more important than ever to drink several beers and eat hot chips for dinner.
0
0
23
11
3
44
I'm helping to get this thing off the ground! The concept is: get a bunch of historians together at the pub. That's it! Come along!
A chance to get together with historians from outside your own institution in a relaxed setting. All Melbourne-based (and Melbourne-visiting!) historians are warmly welcomed - postgraduate students and ECRs especially!
2
19
31
1
3
42
I only have to cut 23,000 more words out of my thesis :') I've been doing this for over a month now :') :') :')
7
0
42
@Marilynrules1
Yes - he knew that rumours and anecdotes of poisonings were widespread in the south and tried to counter them. We can say with certainty now that several poisonings and attempted poisonings of Indigenous people did occur.
5
6
42
Where are all the Australian historians going to go (online) if/when Twitter dies? Will we have to start a message board like it's 2004?
10
2
41
100,000 words of my thesis really just boils down to this
1
5
40
I haven't been able to attend the first couple of days of picketing at
#UnimelbStrikes
, so I just donated to the strike fund to show solidarity/assuage my guilt. You can too! Here's the link:
4
18
40
Pals at
#OzHA2022
, I would love to see some of you tomorrow morning when I present my paper! I'll be talking about "New Australians" hunting native birds in the late 1940s and early 1950s and the unhinged ways in which established Anglo Australians reacted to this.
7
1
39
So it seems I've been awarded the Wyselaskie Scholarship for History at the university I don't wish to tag here! It's for 'the student who achieves the most outstanding overall performance in the first year of the History PhD programme'. I'm pretty shocked but pretty chuffed too!
11
0
39
I have a 107-word-long sentence in my thesis and I won't be cutting it :)
8
0
37
The wedding should be broadcast live and we should get a public holiday to watch it. It's the only way to heal the nation.
4
2
36
This is ancien regime stuff. Reprehensible.
Australian vice-chancellors are the new aristocracy. At Monash Uni, Margaret Gardner's going-away party at the NGV cost $127k, and featured Kate Ceberano and the unveiling of a portrait painting.
88
401
1K
2
3
38
Couldn't leave the Berra without getting a selfie with one of these icons
3
0
36
I'm late to this pile-on, I know, but Don Bradman was a world-class sook, bitter for no reason, too personally insecure to appreciate his many privileges and successes, and in these ways, I think he's a great representative of the average white Australian man.
2
2
36
Seldom has a 48-second video been more worth your time
4
5
35
Abbott's post-prime ministerial career has exposed him as something worse than a myopic buffoon: a lackwit, a fascist, an all-time grub, an utter waste of a Jesuit education. May he get rained on every time he goes to the beach; may fish bite his toes and birds shit on his head.
Abbott has joined hard right Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán-sponsored Danube Institute as a guest speaker... Orbán is best known for ultra-right prototypical bare-chested nationalism and hostility to press freedom, the LGBTI community & immigrants🫠
60
71
163
5
7
34
The backlash against trans people is also a backlash against the gains that feminists, gays and lesbians have made over the last 10-15 (or 50?) years. It's about reasserting the centrality of the gender binary and the heterosexual nuclear family to capitalism in the West.
You cannot “ban” transgender people. What you can do is police gender. Force dress codes around what men are women are “supposed” to wear. These kinds of laws existed in the near past and will in the near future. That future will be violent against gender nonconformity.
94
1K
8K
0
2
35
Maybe a hot take but this is good actually!
There's a new flag flying outside the offices of the Victorian Government.
Because we'll always respect you.
And we'll always have your back.
5K
2K
21K
4
1
34
I was talking about cassowaries (among other things) a couple of hours ago at ANU and now I'm in the Botanical Gardens and this one comes up and starts beefing with me
2
0
33
Really proud of all my fellow historians who put their names to this letter. The state of Israel is not just destroying Palestinians' present and future, but their past too. Myriads of publications and documents - not to mention embodied and emplaced memories - are gone forever.
0
4
34
@EvComrade
Yeah, although it's interesting bc a lot of my friends and I grew up with similar levels of wealth and privilege, but the outcomes of that have been really divergent class-wise. Maybe in another ten years we'll reconverge?
1
0
34
My thesis is due very very soon but I still had to get to the State Library today to show solidarity with the people of Palestine, who, like all of us, deserve safety and liberty. Unconditionally!
0
0
33
Hear me out: Scott Pilgrim is a definitive story for our times, bc it shows how, once a man perceives himself as nerdy and downtrodden, he can easily give himself licence to be a total creep and jerk to everyone around him, all the while still seeing himself as harmless.
3
3
30
I truly believe Marx and Engels would be so stoked to know their prose was still inspiring bathroom graffiti in the year 2022
2
2
31
Can we redefine "civilisation" so as to celebrate non-hierarchical, pluralistic communities ? David Wengrow makes an interesting case
0
10
31
Alongside Rohan Howitt, Kate Stevens,
@ruthamorgan
and
@ruby_ekkel
, I'm helping put together an animal history workshop to be held in Melbourne this July. I'm really excited! Abstracts are due March 31 - more info here:
3
10
32
Unbelievably excited to be speaking at this event at ANU in October! (Rest assured, this will not be the last time I plug this.)
2
0
31
This tweet is about me :3
there is a not-insignificant subset of scholars who are "rawdogging" citations — no reference manager, no giant ever-expanding .bib file, just writing in citations manually by hand (bonus points if you do the bibliography this way too)
106
71
2K
9
0
32
1
1
32
Coordinated simultaneous strike across all the universities in Melbourne when???
2
2
31
Two notions I strongly believe:
1. Academic history is limited in the kinds of stories it is able to tell.
2. Academic history is neither the only nor (universally) the best way of telling true stories about the past.
5
2
30
It's been genuinely inspiring to watch these weekly protests grow over the last month, from "pretty big" to "enormous". The crowds are diverse, fiery, and overwhelmingly positive. If you haven't yet been, it's not at all too late to start next Sunday.
I had to duck out early, but it felt good to stand in solidarity with Palestinians and all colonised peoples at the State Library today
2
0
21
1
2
30