Skye Krichauff

Skye Krichauff

School of Humanities

Faculty of Arts, Business, Law and Economics

Eligible to supervise Masters and PhD - email supervisor to discuss availability.


Skye Krichauff is an ethno-historian who combines the methodologies of history and anthropology. She is interested in colonial cross-cultural relations, the relationship between history and memory, and how societies live with historical injustices (in particular how Australians live with the enduring legacies of colonialism). She has convened courses on Australian history, colonial history and Aboriginal-settler history at Flinders University, worked as a history researcher for an Aboriginal Community organisation and as an expert ethnohistorian for South Australian Native Title Services.

Skye is currently employed as an ARC Research Fellow on the linkage project 'Reconciling with the Frontier'. She is also the President of the South Australian History Council, co-editor of Studies in Oral History (the journal of the Australian Oral History Association) and employed as an oral historian for the Indigenous Oral Health Unit (based in the University of Adelaide's School of Dentistry). She was awarded the University of Adelaide's School of Humanities Early Career Researcher Prize for 2020.

Her article 'Recognising Country: tracing stories of wounded spaces in mid-northern South Australia' won the Australian Historical Association's inaugural Ann Curthoy's prize and was published in History Australia in 2020. Her first book Nharangga Wargunni Bugi-Buggillu: A journey through Narungga History (Wakefield Press, 2011) examines cross-cultural relations on nineteenth century Yorke Peninsula, South Australia. Her second book Memory, Place and Aboriginal‒Settler History (Anthem Press, 2017) is a place centred ethnography which investigates the absence of Aboriginal people in settler descendants’ historical consciousness.

Skye Krichauff is an ethno-historian who combines the methodologies of history and anthropology. She is interested in colonial cross-cultural relations, the relationship between history and memory, and how societies live with historical injustices (in particular how Australians live with the enduring legacies of colonialism). In addition to teaching courses on Australian history, colonial history and Aboriginal-settler history at the tertiary level, Skye has worked as a history researcher for Aboriginal Community organisations, an oral historian for the Indigenous Oral Health Unit at the University of Adelaide, and as an expert ethnohistorian for South Australian Native Title Services.

Skye is currently employed as a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Historical and Classical Studies at the University of Adelaide. She has recently been Project Managing, researching archival material and oral histories, and helping develop a website and digital story map for the ARC linkage project 'Reconciling with the Frontier'. She co-edits Studies in Oral History (the journal of the Australian Oral History Association).

Skye's article 'Recognising Country: tracing stories of wounded spaces in mid-northern South Australia' won the Australian Historical Association's inaugural Ann Curthoy's prize and was published in History Australia in 2020. Her first book Nharangga Wargunni Bugi-Buggillu: A journey through Narungga History (Wakefield Press, 2011) examines cross-cultural relations on nineteenth century Yorke Peninsula, South Australia. Her second book Memory, Place and Aboriginal‒Settler History (Anthem Press, 2017) is a place-centred ethnography which investigates the absence of Aboriginal people in settler descendants’ historical consciousness.

  • Journals

    Year Citation
    2021 Krichauff, S. (2021). Mullawirraburka and Kadlitpinna: how and why influential individuals facilitated amicable cross-cultural relations in the Adelaide district, 1836‒1840. History Australia, 18(2), 342-362.
    DOI
    2021 Krichauff, S. (2021). Book Review: Stuart Rintoul, Lowitja: the authorised biography of Lowitja O'Donaghue. Journal of the Historical Society of South Australia, 49, 144-145.
    2020 Krichauff, S. (2020). Abandoning oral history interviews during COVID-19 restrictions. Studies in Oral History, 42, 177-179.
    2020 Krichauff, S. (2020). Abandoning oral history interviews during COVID-19 restrictions. Studies in Oral History, 42, 177-179.
    2020 Krichauff, S. (2020). Book Review: A Stolen Life: The Bruce Trevorrow case by Antonio Buti. Journal of the Historical Society of South Australia, 48, 140-142.
    2020 Krichauff, S., Hedges, J., & Jamieson, L. (2020). ‘There’s a wall there—and that wall is higher from our side’: drawing on qualitative interviews to improve Indigenous Australians’ experiences of dental health services. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(18), 6496-1-64969.
    DOI Scopus15 WoS10 Europe PMC9
    2020 Krichauff, S. (2020). Recognising Country: tracing stories of wounded spaces in mid-northern South Australia. History Australia, 17(3), 26 pages.
    DOI Scopus2
    2020 Krichauff, S. (2020). Eyre peninsula aboriginal people’s connections with poonindie, 1850-1894. Journal of the Anthropological Society of South Australia, 44, 1-38.
    2020 Krichauff, S. (2020). 'They seem much pleased with us and very friendly': explaining cordial relations between the people of the Adelaide Plains and the early colonists, 1836-1839. Journal of the Historical Society of South Australia, 48, 5-23.
    2019 Krichauff, S. M. (2019). A Boomerang, Porridge in the Pocket and Other Stories of “the Blacks’ Camp”. Journal of Australian Studies, 43(3), 1-19.
    DOI
    2018 Krichauff, S. (2018). Book Reviews: Australia: Friedrich Gerstacker: A German Traveller in the Age of Gold. Journal of the Historical Society of South Australia, 46, 136-138.
    2017 Krichauff, S. (2017). The Murder of Melaityappa and How Judge Mann Made "The Administration of Justice Palatable" to South Australian Colonists in 1849. Aboriginal History Journal, 41, 23-45.
    2015 Krichauff, S. M. J. (2015). Native constable Jim Crack and "Wild White Men". Journal of Australian Indigenous Issues, 37(1), 7-23.
    2013 Krichauff, S. (2013). Narungga, the townspeople and julius kuhn: The establishment and origins of the point Pearce Mission, south Australia. Journal of the Anthropological Society of South Australia, 37, 57-72.
    Scopus3
  • Books

    Year Citation
    2018 Wistow and Bugle Ranges A Community History (2018). .
    2017 Krichauff, S. (2017). Memory, Place and Aboriginal-Settler History Understanding Australian's Consciousness of the Colonial Past. United Kingdom: Anthem Press.
    2011 Krichauff, S. M. J. (2011). Nharangga Wargunni Bugi-Buggillu: A Journey Through Narungga History. Adelaide: Wakefield Press.
  • Book Chapters

    Year Citation
    2023 Dalley, C., & Barnwell, A. (Eds.) (2023). Memory in Place: Locating colonial histories and commemoration. In . ANU Press.
    DOI
    2020 Krichauff, S. M. (2020). Protecting the protectors: evaluating the agency of missionary-protectors in the newly formed settlements of Adelaide and Melbourne, 1838-1840. In S. Furphy, & A. Nettelbeck (Eds.), Aboriginal Protection and its Intermediaries in Britain’s Antipodean Colonies (pp. 152-171). New York, NY; USA: Routledge.
    DOI
    2019 Krichauff, S. M. (2019). ‘Waiving' the green bough: Narungga encounters with Europeans in the pre-settlement era, 1802-1846. In G. Dooley, & D. Clode (Eds.), The First Wave: Exploring Early Coastal Contact History in Australia (pp. 4-22). Adelaide, South Australia: Wakefield Press.
    2019 Krichauff, S. (2019). Squatter-Cum-Pastoralist or Freeholder?: How Differences in Nineteenth-century Colonists' Experiences Affect Their Descendants' Historical Consciousness. In P. Payton, & A. Varnava (Eds.), Australia, Migration and Empire: Immigrants in a Globalised World (pp. 93-118). Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan.
    DOI
    2017 Krichauff, S. M. (2017). Yorke Peninsular: 'Rethinking Narungga responses to Europeans and colonialism'. In P. Brock, & T. Gara (Eds.), Colonialism and its aftermath: A history of Aboriginal South Australia (pp. 171-191). Adelaide: Wakefiled Press.
  • Conference Papers

    Year Citation
    2013 Krichauff, S. M. J. (2013). FEHW Krichauff and 1848. In H. Stock (Ed.), Leaving Home: Motives for the 19th Century Migration. Adelaide University.
  • Report for External Bodies

    Year Citation
    2021 Krichauff, S. (2021). Dr Skye Krichauff: Peer review report of the witness statement of Tom Gara (Gara Statement) with a focus on Gara's 'Timeline of Events and Places' (Attachment TG3) and 'Family Histories Report'.
    2019 Krichauff, S. M. (2019). Report on Nauo Apical Ancestors by Dr Skye Krichauff. Adelaide.
    2018 Krichauff, S. (2018). Dr Skye Krichauff's expert report in response to Casey and Lowe, 'Ravensworth Homestead Complex and Surrounds: Historical Archaeological Assessment Report September 2018.
    2017 Krichauff, S. M. (2017). Expert Report of Dr Skye Krichauff Dated 7 November 2017 (SAD 6001 of 2000).
    2017 Krichauff, S. M. (2017). Confidential Supplement to the expert report provided by Dr Skye Krichauff on 7 November 2017 (SAD 6001 of 2000).
  • Current Higher Degree by Research Supervision (University of Adelaide)

    Date Role Research Topic Program Degree Type Student Load Student Name
    2024 Principal Supervisor Critical historical biography of my great-great uncle Sir Thomas Elder, early South Australian pastoralist, parliamentarian and philanthropist. Master of Philosophy Master Full Time Ms Diana Elizabeth Prichard
    2024 Co-Supervisor The role of private charities in Adelaide during the Depression Decade 1927-37 Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Liam Michael Horwood
    2020 Co-Supervisor Conflicting Histories: The Memorialisation of Frontier Violence Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr David Charles Milazzo
  • Past Higher Degree by Research Supervision (University of Adelaide)

    Date Role Research Topic Program Degree Type Student Load Student Name
    2020 - 2023 Co-Supervisor ‘Your connections to Nappamerrie is as strong as ours’: Pastoralism, Paternalism and the Legacies of Settlement Master of Philosophy Master Full Time Miss Madeleine Paige Sallis

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