Roslyn Poignant

Roslyn Betty Poignant (12 May 1927 – 7 November 2019) was an Australian photographic anthropologist who collaboratively published, interpreted, and repatriated her husband Axel Poignant's photos of indigenous peoples from Arnhem Land, Papua New Guinea, and Tahiti. Poignant was involved in photographing and writing about museum collections of the material culture of Polynesia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Australia. Poignant is known for her finding, researching and repatriating an 1885 photograph taken in Paris by anthropological photographer Roland Bonaparte of three Queensland indigenous persons taken to form part of an international touring troupe, for P. T. Barnum's circus. These were people presumed lost to the Manbarra of Palm Island They visited Britain in 1956 and ended up emigrating joining other ex-pats in England. She found photos of indigenous Australians that Bonaparte had taken in 1885 in Paris. She found these in the 1970s in the Royal Anthropological Institute and she was particularly interested in one of Bonaparte's photographs of three Australian aboriginals who she found out were named Billy, Jenny and Toby. These investigations were included in her 2004 book.

Works include Oceanic Mythology: The Myths of Polynesia, Micronesia, Melanesia, Australia 1967 Kaleku 1972 with Axel Poignant The Dancing Boy: A Story of the First Australians 1975 Children of Oropiro 1976 with Axel Poignant Discovery Under the Southern Cross 1976 The First and Last Frontier 1988 Encounter at Nagalarramba 1996 (with Axel Poignant) Professional Savages: Captive Lives and Western Spectacle 2004