Reuniting cargoes: Underwater Cultural Heritage of the Maritime Silk Route. Beginning in the mid 1400s the Maritime Silk Route witnessed the largest known expansion of global trade. But the legacy of artefacts retrieved from this time has not been appropriately understood because the objects were mostly salvaged and dispersed without recording the archaeological details of their find-spots. Our multilateral consortium aims to discover the cultural value of the largest Southeast Asian ceramic col ....Reuniting cargoes: Underwater Cultural Heritage of the Maritime Silk Route. Beginning in the mid 1400s the Maritime Silk Route witnessed the largest known expansion of global trade. But the legacy of artefacts retrieved from this time has not been appropriately understood because the objects were mostly salvaged and dispersed without recording the archaeological details of their find-spots. Our multilateral consortium aims to discover the cultural value of the largest Southeast Asian ceramic collections in Indonesia and Australia with archaeological science. By employing and enhancing international conventions, the project will generate new knowledge about this decisive epoch in world history and build capacity to preserve the underwater cultural heritage of our region for future generations.Read moreRead less
The peopling of East Asia and Australasia. This project aims to recover DNA sequences from ancient human remains from Australia and Asia some dating back 45,000 years. The project will use this information to identify the geographic origin of these people and to determine their genetic histories.
Investigating Holocene India - Australia Connections using Ancient Genomics. A number of studies of human migration suggest that after initial colonisation of Australia around 45,000 years ago, these people remained largely isolated until the arrival of Europeans. In contrast recent studies have suggested that a wave of migration from India into Australia occurred approximately 4,230 years ago. However, a major drawback of these recent studies is that sequence data used was from modern indigenou ....Investigating Holocene India - Australia Connections using Ancient Genomics. A number of studies of human migration suggest that after initial colonisation of Australia around 45,000 years ago, these people remained largely isolated until the arrival of Europeans. In contrast recent studies have suggested that a wave of migration from India into Australia occurred approximately 4,230 years ago. However, a major drawback of these recent studies is that sequence data used was from modern indigenous Australians who were potentially admixed with Europeans. To address this issue we will sequence complete genomes from sub-fossil bones of ancient Indian and Indigenous Australian people and directly investigate this possible India-Australia connection.Read moreRead less
Unlocking Australia’s Chinese archive: the political organisation and social experience of the Chinese Australian community, 1909-1939. Australia's social and economic fabric will be strengthened by incorporating the organisations and experiences of the inter-war Chinese Australian community into Australia's history of citizenship and civic participation. This will foster the Chinese community's sense of inclusion in the national story and will make that story available to non-Chinese Australian ....Unlocking Australia’s Chinese archive: the political organisation and social experience of the Chinese Australian community, 1909-1939. Australia's social and economic fabric will be strengthened by incorporating the organisations and experiences of the inter-war Chinese Australian community into Australia's history of citizenship and civic participation. This will foster the Chinese community's sense of inclusion in the national story and will make that story available to non-Chinese Australians, thus contributing to the social cohesion in multicultural Australia. It will also illuminate the impact of the White Australia Policy on a significant minority group which will benefit Australia as it responds to the legacy of this policy. It will also strengthen Australia's understanding of its historical engagement with the regional Chinese diaspora and with China.Read moreRead less
Southeast Asia's global economy, climate and the impact of natural hazards from the 10th to 21st centuries. This project's scope is uniquely broad and multidisciplinary, comprising collaborations between historians, archaeologists, seismologists and others. The aim is to analyse the development of south east Asia's vast and sophisticated economic system within the context of human-environment interactions, over a scale and time period which has been inadequately investigated.
Transforming visualisation in museums: deep mapping for narrative coherence. This project aims to evaluate the use of interactive virtual environments in the museum context. This project plans to create the world's first narrative-driven multi-user ‘deep mapping data browser’ to produce a visualisation of cultural heritage. The project intends to conduct user evaluation across three museum sites — in Australia, Hong Kong and China. Intended outcomes are innovation in museum interpretation and tr ....Transforming visualisation in museums: deep mapping for narrative coherence. This project aims to evaluate the use of interactive virtual environments in the museum context. This project plans to create the world's first narrative-driven multi-user ‘deep mapping data browser’ to produce a visualisation of cultural heritage. The project intends to conduct user evaluation across three museum sites — in Australia, Hong Kong and China. Intended outcomes are innovation in museum interpretation and transformation of public access to digital archives.Read moreRead less