About this Event
HMAS Perth and USS Houston were sunk by Japanese forces in the Sunda Strait in March 1942, with the loss of more than 1,000 Allied sailors. These were more than just wreck sites: they were also underwater graves, sites of legal ambiguity, repositories of memory, and focal points for moral obligation and sovereign claim.
Drawing on archival records, interviews, and published accounts, this presentation traces the hidden histories of all four bells associated with the two ships. As touchstone objects, the bells were deeply meaningful to those who served and held strong commemorative capacity for the flag States. But their symbolic value—combined with their portability—also made them vulnerable to illicit salvage.
Recovered from the seabed in the post‑war years, the bells moved through formal and informal channels, drawing in diplomats, presidents, commemorative institutions, the private sector and small‑scale divers operating in legal and ethical grey zones. By following their trajectories, the presentation shows how norms of non‑interference with sovereign wrecks coexisted uneasily with pragmatic decision‑making about loss, preservation and commemoration. As it proposes, touchstone objects can open pathways for engagement and cooperation, thus reframing sunken warships not only as sites of loss but as potential places of collaboration.
About the Speaker
Dr Natali Pearson is a DECRA Fellow (2025-2027) and Senior Lecturer in Heritage Studies in the Discipline of Archaeology at the University of Sydney, where she teaches into the postgraduate Museum and Heritage Studies Program. Natali’s research fellowship focuses on sunken warships and maritime heritage diplomacy in Southeast Asia. Natali’s first book, Belitung: The Afterlives of a Shipwreck, is published by University of Hawai‘i Press and National University of Singapore Press. She is President of the Indonesia Council, a member of ICOMOS and a Councillor of the Australasian Institute for Maritime Archaeology. Prior to joining academia, she worked for the Australian Government’s Department of Defence in Canberra.
Dr Pearson is the recipient of an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Award (DE250100827) funded by the Australian Government.
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
The Theatre, Australian National Maritime Museum, 2 Murray Street, Sydney, Australia
AUD 10.00
