Ian McNiven

Aboriginal marine subsistence foraging flexibility in a dynamic estuarine environment: The late development of Tin Can Inlet (southeast Queensland) middens revisited

Publisher: James Cook University

Date: 16-01-2019

DOI: 10.25120/QAR.22.2019.3670

Abstract: Although the sea arrived in southeast Queensland around 8000 years ago, most estuarine middens date to the past 1000 years. An ex le is midden deposits dating to the past 400 years forming the upper levels of Sites 62 and 75b from Tin Can Inlet located immediately south of the Fraser Island (K’gari) World Heritage Area. Both sites were excavated and analysed in the 1980s. This paper revisits these results following a detailed re-analysis of midden materials and new insights on regional sea level changes. Taking an historical ecology approach, species-specific habitat requirements and associated substrate sediment dynamics help explain similarities and differences between the two midden shell assemblages. Environmental factors and the location of both sites on landforms that formed following sea level fall over the past 2000 years help explain why the basal levels of both sites are probably –1500 years old. Documenting pre-2000-year-old Aboriginal use of Tin Can Inlet will need to target more elevated inland dune deposits ( m ASL) fronting the mid-Holocene sea level highstand palaeoshoreline.

Indigenous oyster fisheries persisted for millennia and should inform future management

Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC

Date: 03-05-2022

DOI: 10.1038/S41467-022-29818-Z

Abstract: Historical ecology has revolutionized our understanding of fisheries and cultural landscapes, demonstrating the value of historical data for evaluating the past, present, and future of Earth’s ecosystems. Despite several important studies, Indigenous fisheries generally receive less attention from scholars and managers than the 17th–20th century capitalist commercial fisheries that decimated many keystone species, including oysters. We investigate Indigenous oyster harvest through time in North America and Australia, placing these data in the context of sea level histories and historical catch records. Indigenous oyster fisheries were pervasive across space and through time, persisting for 5000–10,000 years or more. Oysters were likely managed and sometimes “farmed,” and are woven into broader cultural, ritual, and social traditions. Effective stewardship of oyster reefs and other marine fisheries around the world must center Indigenous histories and include Indigenous community members to co-develop more inclusive, just, and successful strategies for restoration, harvest, and management.

Recording Kastom: Alfred Haddon’s Journals from the Torres Strait and New Guinea, 1888 and 1898

Publisher: Informa UK Limited

Date: 02-09-2021

DOI: 10.1080/03122417.2021.1966877

Assessing the Reliability of a Small-Scale Legacy Radiocarbon Dataset Using Chronometric Transparency Approaches: Torres Strait Radiocarbon Database

Publisher: Ubiquity Press, Ltd.

Date: 2023

DOI: 10.5334/JOAD.95

Stylistic analysis of stone arrangements supports regional cultural interactions along the northern Great Barrier Reef, Queensland

Publisher: Informa UK Limited

Date: 04-05-2018

DOI: 10.1080/03122417.2018.1507807

Bandwagons and bathwater

Publisher: Informa UK Limited

Date: 02-09-2021

DOI: 10.1080/03122417.2021.1991436

The Presence of Absence: Why Does the Post-contact Rock Art of Torres Strait (Northeastern Australia) Not Include Paintings of European Ships?

Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)

Date: 06-07-2022

DOI: 10.1017/S0959774321000354

Abstract: Studies into the presence and absence of post-European contact rock art within Indigenous communities are particularly relevant to questions of colonial impact and influence. However, it is the presence of post-contact motifs and introduced subject matter that typically takes precedence in these studies. In this paper, we focus on the absence of post-contact paintings of European ships in Torres Strait (northeastern Australia) rock art. This absence is curious, given that Torres Strait peoples first encountered European ships over 400 years ago, yet the only paintings of watercraft are of their own double outrigger canoes. Furthermore, ethnographic information suggests many painted canoes were spirit canoes used by spirits of the dead, and European mariners were considered spirits of the dead who travelled in ‘ghost ships’. Despite apparent epistemological and ontological congruence between Islander and Kaurareg canoes and European ships, we argue the latter were conceptually and metaphysically different to spirit canoes and thus fell outside of the representational (rock art) genre of watercraft that was limited to spirit canoes. The lack of Torres Strait post-contact rock art reveals that reasons for the inclusion of introduced subject matter in post-contact rock art are likely to extend beyond simple exposure to, and familiarity with, so-called new subject matter.

Ritual Mutilation of Europeans on the Torres Strait Maritime Frontier

Publisher: Informa UK Limited

Date: 03-07-2018

DOI: 10.1080/00223344.2018.1499007

Beyond bridge and barrier: Reconceptualising Torres Strait as a co-constructed border zone in ethnographic object distributions between Queensland and New Guinea

Publisher: James Cook University

Date: 03-06-2022

DOI: 10.25120/QAR.25.2022.3885

Abstract: For over 200 years, Western scholarship has presented Torres Strait variously as a bridge and barrier to cultural influences between mainland New Guinea and Australia. An alternative approach is to see Torres Strait as neither a bridge (permeable boundary) nor a barrier (impervious boundary) but as a socially and culturally co-constructed border zone. Central to this new approach is conceptualisation of the Coral Sea Cultural Interaction Sphere (CSCIS) that centres on a series of ethnographically-known, canoe-based, long-distance maritime exchange networks that linked communities and information on objects over a distance of 2000 km along the south coast of Papua New Guinea and the northeast coast of Australia. The CSCIS emphasises Indigenous agency and the shared/selective uptake of objects and ideas by potential recipient communities across Torres Strait and their New Guinea neighbours to the north and mainland Australian neighbours to the south. Object distribution maps created using data derived from anthropological texts and museum online catalogues reveal continuities and discontinuities in the distribution of selected objects across the study area. These maps illustrate three forms of object uptake: (1) shared uptake of double-outrigger canoes and bamboo smoking pipes between New Guinea, Torres Strait and Australia (2) selective uptake of dog-tooth necklaces and cone shell armbands between New Guinea and Torres Strait and not Australia and (3) selective uptake of nautilus bead headbands and shell-handled spearthrowers between Australia and Torres Strait and not New Guinea. Archaeological evidence for temporal changes in the geographical spread of pottery indicates that the CSCIS was historically dynamic, with numerous reconfigurations over the past 3000 years. Enhanced understanding of the CSCIS requires the addition of contemporary Indigenous perspectives.

Changing use of Lizard Island over the past 4000 years and implications for understanding Indigenous offshore island use on the Great Barrier Reef

Publisher: James Cook University

Date: 13-12-2020

DOI: 10.25120/QAR.23.2020.3778

Abstract: Archaeological records documenting the timing and use of northern Great Barrier Reef offshore islands by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples throughout the Holocene are limited when compared to the central and southern extents of the region. Excavations on Lizard Island, located 33 km from Cape Flattery on the mainland, provide high resolution evidence for periodic, yet sustained offshore island use over the past 4000 years, with focused exploitation of erse marine resources and manufacture of quartz artefacts. An increase in island use occurs from around 2250 years ago, at a time when a hiatus or reduction in offshore island occupation has been documented for other Great Barrier Reef islands, but concurrent with demographic expansion across Torres Strait to the north. Archaeological evidence from Lizard Island provides a previously undocumented occupation pattern associated with Great Barrier Reef late Holocene island use. We suggest this trajectory of Lizard Island occupation was underwritten by its place within the Coral Sea Cultural Interaction Sphere, which may highlight its significance both locally and regionally across this vast seascape.

Monash University

Location: Australia

View Organisation

Discovery Projects - Grant ID: DP180102724

Start Date: 08-2018

End Date: 12-2024

Amount: $291,745.00

Funder: Australian Research Council

Linkage Projects - Grant ID: LP110200927

Start Date: 07-2011

End Date: 12-2015

Amount: $500,000.00

Funder: Australian Research Council

Discovery Projects - Grant ID: DP0344070

Start Date: 2003

End Date: 06-2008

Amount: $629,775.00

Funder: Australian Research Council

Discovery Projects - Grant ID: DP1093341

Start Date: 2010

End Date: 12-2014

Amount: $210,000.00

Funder: Australian Research Council

ARC Centres Of Excellence - Grant ID: CE170100015

Start Date: 06-2017

End Date: 12-2024

Amount: $33,750,000.00

Funder: Australian Research Council

ARC Centres Of Excellence - Grant ID: CE230100009

Start Date: 07-2024

End Date: 06-2031

Amount: $35,000,000.00

Funder: Australian Research Council