Rivers of Gold: The Legacy of Historical Gold Mining for Victoria's Rivers. By considering rivers as cultural artefacts, this project aims to evaluate how historical gold mining has shaped river systems in Victoria. Victoria’s historic mining industry led to extensive and long-lasting change to waterways across the state. The project plans to integrate approaches from landscape archaeology, physical geography, geomorphology and environmental chemistry to identify and map the extent of changes, i ....Rivers of Gold: The Legacy of Historical Gold Mining for Victoria's Rivers. By considering rivers as cultural artefacts, this project aims to evaluate how historical gold mining has shaped river systems in Victoria. Victoria’s historic mining industry led to extensive and long-lasting change to waterways across the state. The project plans to integrate approaches from landscape archaeology, physical geography, geomorphology and environmental chemistry to identify and map the extent of changes, including increased sedimentation, erosion, and chemical contamination. The project plans to demonstrate how historical mining continues to influence chemical and physical processes in Victorian streams and to develop understanding of the landscapes experienced by Victorians at the height of the mining boom. Project outcomes may provide improved context for catchment and reservoir management and counter prevailing impressions about causes of observed damage to rivers.Read moreRead less
From the Desert to the Sea: Managing Rock Art, Country and Culture. This Project will expand our understanding of Aboriginal settlement and land-use in north-west Australia by investigating how the mythological narratives of Australia’s deserts enable the transmission of knowledge in water-limited environments. Combining traditional ecological knowledge and novel scientific approaches (e.g. anthracology, remote sensing, oxygen-isotopes) will provide new insights into human behaviours at rock art ....From the Desert to the Sea: Managing Rock Art, Country and Culture. This Project will expand our understanding of Aboriginal settlement and land-use in north-west Australia by investigating how the mythological narratives of Australia’s deserts enable the transmission of knowledge in water-limited environments. Combining traditional ecological knowledge and novel scientific approaches (e.g. anthracology, remote sensing, oxygen-isotopes) will provide new insights into human behaviours at rock art site complexes. It will develop management regimes and formal certification for Indigenous rangers while building heritage capacity in these partner communities: enabling intergenerational, culturally appropriate knowledge transfer protocols are in place to ensure sustainable economic heritage futures.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE190100187
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$391,950.00
Summary
Ethnoarchaeological investigation of religious systems in Ancient Polynesia. This project aims to document and compare the long-term historical trajectories of Eastern Polynesian chiefdoms by developing a new perspective on ancient ritual practices and monuments. Using archaeological, historical and ethnographic material, the project expects to increase our knowledge of Polynesia’s archaeological history. Anticipated outcomes of this project include a better understanding of traditional religiou ....Ethnoarchaeological investigation of religious systems in Ancient Polynesia. This project aims to document and compare the long-term historical trajectories of Eastern Polynesian chiefdoms by developing a new perspective on ancient ritual practices and monuments. Using archaeological, historical and ethnographic material, the project expects to increase our knowledge of Polynesia’s archaeological history. Anticipated outcomes of this project include a better understanding of traditional religious systems in Polynesia, and the development of a theoretical and methodological framework for the study of ancient rituals. It should further create a new model of collaborative research with Pacific Islanders for whom their legacy of ritual monuments bear a critical cultural significance; it thus informs a better understanding of Australia’s role in Pacific studies.Read moreRead less
Before Cook: Contact, Negotiation and the Archaeology of the Tiwi Islands. The narrative of culture contact in Australia is dominated by British colonisation, yet Indigenous Australians in Northern Australia had a much earlier connection with global explorers and traders. We aim to conduct the first systematic maritime and terrestrial archaeological investigations of the Tiwi Islands, alongside the study of material culture, oral history and archival materials associated with early Dutch explore ....Before Cook: Contact, Negotiation and the Archaeology of the Tiwi Islands. The narrative of culture contact in Australia is dominated by British colonisation, yet Indigenous Australians in Northern Australia had a much earlier connection with global explorers and traders. We aim to conduct the first systematic maritime and terrestrial archaeological investigations of the Tiwi Islands, alongside the study of material culture, oral history and archival materials associated with early Dutch explorers, British colonists, and Macassans. This multi-disciplinary approach will broaden our understanding of long-term race relations in Australia, the past presence of foreign visitors to Northern Australia, develop cultural heritage public policy and consolidate Tiwi cultural identity and history into the historical record.Read moreRead less
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
Warratyi: Cultural Innovation in the Indigenous Settlement of Australia. This project aims to determine the role of cultural innovation in the Indigenous settlement of Australia's arid zone 50,000 years ago. Using innovative methods, it will produce new data on key technologies, symbolic behaviours and human interactions with animals and environment to identify the cultural innovations needed to overcome the challenges of Australia's deserts. Expected outcomes include new understandings of the s ....Warratyi: Cultural Innovation in the Indigenous Settlement of Australia. This project aims to determine the role of cultural innovation in the Indigenous settlement of Australia's arid zone 50,000 years ago. Using innovative methods, it will produce new data on key technologies, symbolic behaviours and human interactions with animals and environment to identify the cultural innovations needed to overcome the challenges of Australia's deserts. Expected outcomes include new understandings of the settlement of the arid zone to inform global debates relating to the dispersal, settlement and lifestyles of early humans in marginal environments. Expected benefits include new information for cultural tourism and education and to support South Australia’s World Heritage nomination for the Flinders Ranges.Read moreRead less
Special Research Initiatives - Grant ID: SR200200155
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$277,158.00
Summary
Aboriginal Involvement in the Early Development of Australian Archaeology. This project aims to interrogate the importance of Aboriginal knowledge in the development of Australian archaeology. Through a close study of archival and published archaeological literature, the project anticipates generating new knowledge and innovative interpretations of archaeology's history. Expected outcomes include a radical rewriting of a significant chapter of the nation’s history and enhancing the reinterpreta ....Aboriginal Involvement in the Early Development of Australian Archaeology. This project aims to interrogate the importance of Aboriginal knowledge in the development of Australian archaeology. Through a close study of archival and published archaeological literature, the project anticipates generating new knowledge and innovative interpretations of archaeology's history. Expected outcomes include a radical rewriting of a significant chapter of the nation’s history and enhancing the reinterpretation of museum displays and tourism presentation of heritage sites. This reclaiming of the contribution of the First Australians in the development of the current knowledge of 65,000 years of our history, seeks to benefit Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, and to contribute to ongoing reconciliation. Read moreRead less
Traditions, Transformations and Technology in Aboriginal Australia. This project aims to understand the development and spread of technological systems in pre-contact Aboriginal Australia and the connection between that diffusion process and the major expansion of Pama-Nyungan languages spoken over much of our country. Fundamental change occurred in Aboriginal societies over the last ten millennia, as new technologies and languages were adopted during a period of climatic shifts. Using archaeolo ....Traditions, Transformations and Technology in Aboriginal Australia. This project aims to understand the development and spread of technological systems in pre-contact Aboriginal Australia and the connection between that diffusion process and the major expansion of Pama-Nyungan languages spoken over much of our country. Fundamental change occurred in Aboriginal societies over the last ten millennia, as new technologies and languages were adopted during a period of climatic shifts. Using archaeological observations and statistical methods from evolutionary biology, the project plans to map the spread of ancient technologies across the continent and compare the direction and sequence of that expansion to the reconstructed pattern of language spread. The result is expected to be a new understanding of the evolution of Aboriginal cultural systems.Read moreRead less
Special Research Initiatives - Grant ID: SR200200157
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$263,414.00
Summary
Fugitive Traces: Reconstructing Yulluna experiences of the frontier. Focussing on oral histories held by a prominent Aboriginal family whose history is deeply enmeshed with the Qld Native Mounted Police, this project aims to consider family history in the broader context of colonial settlement and the complexities of frontier conflict. Through a collaboration of Indigenous peoples, archaeologists, historians, anthropologists, museum curators and educators, the expected outcome will be the first ....Fugitive Traces: Reconstructing Yulluna experiences of the frontier. Focussing on oral histories held by a prominent Aboriginal family whose history is deeply enmeshed with the Qld Native Mounted Police, this project aims to consider family history in the broader context of colonial settlement and the complexities of frontier conflict. Through a collaboration of Indigenous peoples, archaeologists, historians, anthropologists, museum curators and educators, the expected outcome will be the first sustained history of a hitherto elusive Aboriginal experience of the frontier. In doing so it will provide fresh insights into a contentious period in Australia’s past. Its chief benefit will be to contribute in a practical way to reconciliation.Read moreRead less
Waiet: Archaeology of a Torres Strait Islander ritual pathway. The project aims to provide a high-resolution archaeological record of ritual mobility by examining a Torres Strait Islander initiation pathway. The project is expected to generate new knowledge about human movement and improve public understanding of Indigenous peoples connection with country. Anticipated outcomes of the multi-disciplinary and community-led research include the first detailed record of ancient ritual mobility in nor ....Waiet: Archaeology of a Torres Strait Islander ritual pathway. The project aims to provide a high-resolution archaeological record of ritual mobility by examining a Torres Strait Islander initiation pathway. The project is expected to generate new knowledge about human movement and improve public understanding of Indigenous peoples connection with country. Anticipated outcomes of the multi-disciplinary and community-led research include the first detailed record of ancient ritual mobility in northern Australia and development of a web-based system to transfer archival information between cultural institutions and remote communities. This should provide significant benefits and assist Meriam people to engage with their cultural heritage and expand public knowledge about Indigenous forms of mobility.Read moreRead less