Dr. Elena Govor

Elena Govor was born in Russia and now lives in Australia, where she completed her doctorate in history at the Australian National University in 1996. Her research focuses on cross-cultural contacts between Russians and the peoples of the Pacific and Australia, in publications including: ‘Speckled Bodies: Russian Voyagers and Nuku Hivans, 1804’ in Nicholas Thomas et al., Tattoo: Bodies, Art and Exchange in the Pacific and the West (Reaktion Books, 2005); Twelve Days at Nuku Hiva: Russian Encounters and Mutiny in the South Pacific (UHP, 2010), chapters about South Pacific collections in Russian museums in Pacific Presences: Oceanic Art & European Museums, and Tiki: Marquesan Art and the Krusenstern Expedition.

In affiliation with the Australian National University, she has collaborated on the international projects: ‘Tatau/tattoo: Embodied art and cultural exchange’ (Getty Grant Program); ‘Artefacts of encounter’ and ‘Pacific Presences: Oceanic art and European museums’ (Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology); and ‘The collective biography of archaeology in the Pacific – a hidden history’ (ANU).

In 2003 she visited Nuku Hiva in the footsteps of the Krusenstern expedition; and conducted fieldwork in 2010, 2011 and 2014 in New Guinea and New Caledonia. She is currently working with Chris Ballard (ANU) on a long-term project researching Nikolai Miklouho-Maclay’s exploration, encounters and drawings in Oceania.