New bioarchaeological perspectives on pre-contact lifeways in Sahul . This project aims to establish a new bioarchaeology research program to study socio-economic changes in the Australia-New Guinea continent Sahul and provide new insights into the complexity of societies from diverse environments. Bioarchaeology provides a unique lens for interpreting the past, however research of this nature has largely been inactive due to the sensitivity of studying ancestral remains of Indigenous people. H ....New bioarchaeological perspectives on pre-contact lifeways in Sahul . This project aims to establish a new bioarchaeology research program to study socio-economic changes in the Australia-New Guinea continent Sahul and provide new insights into the complexity of societies from diverse environments. Bioarchaeology provides a unique lens for interpreting the past, however research of this nature has largely been inactive due to the sensitivity of studying ancestral remains of Indigenous people. However, there is growing interest from Aboriginal groups in the narratives that can be reconstructed from their ancestors, and many Aboriginal communities now support research on skeletal remains. In collaboration with Aboriginal communities, the project will apply new developments in bioarchaeology to sensitively assess patterns of mobility and sedentism in three separate populations. This project is expected to initiate a new era of bioarchaeological research and redefine our understanding of the complexity of past Aboriginal and Papuan narratives.Read moreRead less
Objects of possession: artefact transactions in the wet tropics of North Queensland, 1870 -2013. The project's research into artefact collecting will provide Indigenous peoples, museum curators and other community members with important insights into the history of Indigenous cultures in the Wet Tropics region. Our project will contribute to the development of innovative ways of presenting Indigenous peoples' connections with their cultural heritage.
Constructing robust climate proxies to explore human and primate evolution. This project will build the requisite foundation to resolve whether variable climate change sparked the origins of humans and our great ape forebears. Scientists endeavor to recover ancient environmental records to examine this influential idea, but have lacked the means to do so at the scale of a human lifespan. This multidisciplinary effort will harness groundbreaking advances pioneered by our collaborative team to pro ....Constructing robust climate proxies to explore human and primate evolution. This project will build the requisite foundation to resolve whether variable climate change sparked the origins of humans and our great ape forebears. Scientists endeavor to recover ancient environmental records to examine this influential idea, but have lacked the means to do so at the scale of a human lifespan. This multidisciplinary effort will harness groundbreaking advances pioneered by our collaborative team to produce the first fine-scaled climate proxies from the teeth of humans’ closest living relatives. Documenting climate variation across diverse landscapes promises to transform studies of prehistoric ecosystems and past behaviour from omnipresent fossilised teeth, providing further insight into humanity’s unprecedented success.Read moreRead less
Place, pastoralism and Indigenous experience on Cape York Peninsula: a critical exploration of one hundred years of anthropological data collection. Using anthropological and archaeological techniques, this project addresses conceptualisations of place on Cape York Peninsula over the last hundred years, with particular reference to the pastoral industry. It will result in renewed understandings of the importance of place in cross-cultural experience in northern Australia.
Connecting Indigenous Community Photographies: a transnational case study. The project aims to conduct the first transnational comparison of Indigenous community-controlled photography, exploring Indigenous peoples’ ways of seeing and documenting their worlds. The project seeks to significantly advance Australian and global understanding of Indigenous vernacular photography through investigating formerly unexplored private collections of images created by Indigenous photographers during the mid ....Connecting Indigenous Community Photographies: a transnational case study. The project aims to conduct the first transnational comparison of Indigenous community-controlled photography, exploring Indigenous peoples’ ways of seeing and documenting their worlds. The project seeks to significantly advance Australian and global understanding of Indigenous vernacular photography through investigating formerly unexplored private collections of images created by Indigenous photographers during the mid 20th Century in four communities across three countries. One of the outcomes of the project is a nuanced visual history that cannot be excavated from other sources. The benefits of this project include public exhibitions, a book, symposiums, and a scholarly anthology that encourages the public’s connection with the past.Read moreRead less
The Nakanai Caves Cultural Heritage Project. This project aims to document and integrate the natural and cultural values of the Nakanai Caves in East New Britain, Papua New Guinea, in preparation for a cultural landscape World Heritage nomination. The project’s novel methodology incorporates community knowledge with archaeological and anthropological evidence to link natural and cultural values and define the landscape from local perspectives. Local input into the research will be prioritised. B ....The Nakanai Caves Cultural Heritage Project. This project aims to document and integrate the natural and cultural values of the Nakanai Caves in East New Britain, Papua New Guinea, in preparation for a cultural landscape World Heritage nomination. The project’s novel methodology incorporates community knowledge with archaeological and anthropological evidence to link natural and cultural values and define the landscape from local perspectives. Local input into the research will be prioritised. By emphasising local participation and management of World Heritage listing processes the project aims to address an identified gap in World Heritage methodologies. This project allows for a subtle, nuanced definition of cultural landscapes under the World Heritage Convention.Read moreRead less
The Illustrated Literature of Papunya and Strelley, 1979-1998. Literature Production Centres at Papunya and Strelley (WA) published hundreds of illustrated books during the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. They tell stories of the first contact, the Dreaming, bush plants, animals and life on pastoral stations, missions, government settlements and communities. This project will trace the histories of two key centres and the communities in which they were and are embedded, their authors and illustrators, t ....The Illustrated Literature of Papunya and Strelley, 1979-1998. Literature Production Centres at Papunya and Strelley (WA) published hundreds of illustrated books during the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. They tell stories of the first contact, the Dreaming, bush plants, animals and life on pastoral stations, missions, government settlements and communities. This project will trace the histories of two key centres and the communities in which they were and are embedded, their authors and illustrators, to build a dynamic picture of Indigenous Australia that contributes another dimension to the history of art and literature in Australia. It will produce scholarly papers, a monograph and an exhibition that brings this story to the Australian public.Read moreRead less