Catherine Gay is a Hansen PhD Scholar in the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies at the University of Melbourne. Her research examines the lives of First Nations and settler girls in nineteenth-century Australia with a focus on the colony of Victoria. In 2021 she was awarded a National Library of Australia Summer Scholarship and the Lloyd Robson Memorial Award through the University of Melbourne. Passionate about museums, material culture and public history, Catherine is a research associate at Museums Victoria.

Funding acknowledgment: I am grateful for the support of the Hansen Trust PhD Scholarship in History through the University of Melbourne.

Author email: gayc@student.unimelb.edu.au