Exhibition contributors

Pamela See (Xue Mei-Ling) is an Australian artist who practices a contemporary form of papercutting.

Born from a Cantonese mother and Hokkien father, this dual heritage reflects patterns of 19th century immigration from China. The aesthetics she engages also borrow from papercutting traditions specific to Guandong and Fujian provinces.

See has been exhibiting artwork about migration since the 1990s. However, she began explicitly investigating Chinese Australian history during her PhD at the Queensland College of Art and Design.

This research was undertaken under the guidance of curators from the Museum of Chinese Australian History and the National Portrait Gallery.

Examples of her papercuts are held by several institutional collections including The Huaxia Papercutting Museum in Changsha, The National Gallery of Australia in Canberra, and the Art Gallery of South Australia.

Dr Hilda Maclean is a professional historian, genealogist, and archival researcher with over twenty years’ experience researching north and central Queensland family and pastoral histories.

Since 2012, Hilda has been casually engaged by the University of Queensland Culture and Heritage Unit to conduct genealogical and historical research including Indigenous/Chinese families of the Gulf of Carpentaria, Queensland while completing her PhD in colonial era burial practices.

Hilda regularly presents workshops on genealogical and archival research methodology and has presented at international conferences on allied topics. She is the Local Studies Specialist with the Logan City Council.

She gained her PhD from the University of Queensland and holds a Diploma in Family History Studies, in addition to other qualifications.

Hilda is past president of the Friends of Toowong Cemetery Association and is a life member of the Queensland Women's Historical Association, the Association of Gravestone Studies, and the Queensland Family History Society.