Australian Indigenous Archaeology

Tutchener and Claudie’s article is a timely reconsideration of the term ‘contact’ and its place in Australian First Peoples archaeology. Tutchener and Claudie argue that the concept of ‘contact’, used to describe early, cross-cultural interactions between the First Peoples of Australia and Europeans, has become ‘outdated and requires revisiting’. Two elements of their argument are considered here: that the term ‘contact’ continues to be used widely in Australia, and that it ‘does not recognise and respect the persistence of Indigenous culture’. Here, it is argued that reasons for the continued use of 'contact' in Australian First Peoples archaeology warrant further consideration, and that, for some Traditional Custodians, the concept of ‘contact’ assists with identifying cultural resilience in their community. The question that follows is, can we practicably avoid using the term ‘contact’ in Australian archaeology?

The Lake George Basin is a small, closed basin about 50km NE from Canberra, Australia’s capital city.
The basin is a very distinct landscape unit, and for many generations it has been a natural meeting place for several Aboriginal groups. There is evidence of at least 6000 years old human artefacts on the shores of the lake, and a currently ongoing PhD project is adding detail to our understanding of the human occupation of this area. There are also known mega-fauna fossil finds, including of the extinct kangaroo genus Procoptodon from deposits originally dated to between 21,000 and 26,000 years BP, but now considered to be older.
The site for Canberra was chosen in 1908, resolving a long running debate about where the National Capital should be located. The main rivals were Sydney and Melbourne, and the diplomatic compromise was to establish a new capital midway between the two. Lake George had been a substantial body of water until 1900, and the Lake George Basin had been considered as a possible site for the new capital. Luckily, another nearby site was chosen because lake levels fell during several years of drought and the lake was dry from 1901 to 1915 and on several occasions since.
Currently the lake is dry again, giving access for a large interdisciplinary team to study the landscape, its tectonic, sedimentary and hydrogeological evolution, as well as the paleontological and archaeological history of the area.
The Lake George Fault, elevated 200 metres above the western shores, is a 75 km long major north-south tectonic feature. The lake bed is filled with up to 165 metres of sediments, providing the longest known continuous Quaternary and Pliocene sedimentary record of any lake in Australia, encompassing approximately 4 million years.
Today the land around the lake is privately owned, while the lake bed is Crown Land. The landscape elements are defining features in current land use, planning and development. Our research aims to create new knowledge that will advance the protection and sharing of the landscape without hampering its development.
Our project is “work in progress”, with funding for another two years. Funding is provided from the Australian Research Council (LP140100911). We acknowledge the First People of Australia as the traditional owners of the land on which we live and work.

SUMMARY: Chapter 13, in Renfrew & Bahn's textbook (Archaeology: Theories, Methods, and Practice), provides five case studies to aid student comprehension of the preceding 12 chapters and approaches to understanding and interpreting past societies.
(a). Oaxaca Projects (Central America);
(b). The Calusa of Florida (Southeast U.S.);
(c). Australia hunter-gatherers;
(d). Khok Phanom Di (Southeast Asia);
(e). York/Jorvik Viking settlement (U.K.).

In my view, this is one of the best college textbooks available, and is invaluable for students, archaeologists, and the public in general, to obtain a top notch overview of approaching and interpreting the archaeological record. UPDATED April 2021.

HUNDREDS of indigenous artefacts have been uncovered in areas of the Boyne Valley as part of a cultural heritage project.
Archaeologist Dr Alice Gorman said excavation works were being carried out in the various creek areas expected to be inundated with water after the Lake Awoonga wall-raising project.

Published ages of >50 ka for occupation at Madjedbebe (Malakunanja II) in Australia's north have kept the site prominent in discussions about the colonisation of Sahul. The site also contains one of the largest stone artefact assemblages in Sahul for this early period. However, the stone artefacts and other important archaeological components of the site have never been described in detail, leading to persistent doubts about its stratigraphic integrity. We report on our analysis of the stone artefacts and faunal and other materials recovered during the 1989 excavations, as well as the stratigraphy and depositional history recorded by the original excavators. We demonstrate that the technology and raw materials of the early assemblage are distinctive from those in the overlying layers. Silcrete and quartzite artefacts are common in the early assemblage, which also includes edge-ground axe fragments and ground haematite. The lower flaked stone assemblage is distinctive, comprising a mix of long convergent flakes, some radial flakes with faceted platforms, and many small thin silcrete flakes that we interpret as thinning flakes. Residue and use-wear analysis indicate occasional grinding of haematite and woodworking, as well as frequent abrading of platform edges on thinning flakes. We conclude that previous claims of extensive displacement of artefacts and post-depositional disturbance may have been overstated. The stone artefacts and stratigraphic details support previous claims for human occupation 50 e60 ka and show that human occupation during this time differed from later periods. We discuss the implications of these new data for understanding the first human colonisation of Sahul.

During the invention of Australia, British Imperialists used colonial linguistics to ‘Other’ the Indigenous communities who were the original inhabitants of the continent.  As the country was settled, language was used as a tool to break up culture, remove first languages and control the Aboriginal population.  This linguistic imperialism continues to the present day, aided by government legislation purporting to return dignity to Indigenous Australians, such as native title.  While there is a difference between the aim of native title, and the effect it wreaks on the community, this paper found that language can also be used to heal.  In communities where, native title processes have contributed to the further erasure of Indigenous identities, sociolinguistic concepts of language, culture and topography, can provide means to revitalise and re-assert indigeneity and assist with the resolution of intra-Indigenous disputes centring around identity, or who is entitled to claim what and where.  Intra-indigenous disputes far outweigh any other across native title claims, placing more strain on an overloaded system, while inflicting unnecessary pain and further confusion upon an already-traumatised community. This paper finds the system, in its current format, is not working because it is not compatible with Indigenous cultural norms, or practices of communication, but instead perpetuates the Othering (Errington, 2008) of these cultural acts, while confirming the dominance of white Australian culture.  Yet, there is a place for Indigenous voices and culturally appropriate input within the design of claims processes.  The person best qualified to speak to country, is one from that country, and the same can be said for native title praxis.  Australia’s First people are more than capable of speaking for themselves.  They are able to articulate how language and cultural differences in their communities act as evidence to prove social groups and traditional custodianship, more so than white Australia.  Further, they are able to identify ways in which the current system could be improved in a manner that incorporates culture-specific knowledge, and most importantly, stands to return dignity to first nations people.

Direct dating of stone-walled fishtraps has been a methodological challenge in archaeology and is generally considered insurmountable. Dating is usually associative, linking traps to local archaeological sites and geomorphological features of known age. Limited excavation of sediments burying the lower sections of stone-walled fishtrap features has been previously undertaken with limited success. Recent fine-grained excavation and comprehensive AMS dating and analysis of channel in-fill sediments associated with an elaborate freshwater fishtrap complex at Lake Condah, western Victoria, yields reliable insights into the phased construction and use of the feature. An early phase of basalt bedrock removal to create a bifurcated channel was subsequently in-filled with flood sediments incorporating stone artefacts and charcoal dated to c.6600 cal BP. After a hiatus, basalt blocks were added to the sides of the channel to create multi-tiered walls within the past 600e800 years. This site provides the first direct insights into the antiquity of the elaborate fishtrapping and aquaculture system developed by Aboriginal people in the Lake Condah region, and may represent one of the world's oldest known fishtraps.

Contrary to the opinion that the Aboriginal past was one of an unchanging way of life, the archaeological evidence reveals a wide variety of past lifestyles within Victoria. This paper will cover various reasons as to why archaeology is a good tool for understanding the past. The cultural aspect of anthropology (ethnography) (Kelly & Thomas 2012, p. 23), and historical records from an ethnographic perspective (ethnohistorical accounts), can assist to understand this variety, but in and of themselves they cannot provide a guide to Victoria's entire indigenous past. Without archaeology, the rich variations of the different indigenous peoples of south-eastern Australia would never have come to light. It is thus clear that archaeological data is the key to understanding Victoria's varied and changing indigenous past, with anthropological data being carefully used as an interpretive tool.

Use-wear and residue analyses of stone artefacts are widely used to better understand the behaviour and resource utilization of past peoples. There are numerous ethnographic reports describing the processing of animal parts, but identification of collagen, the principle component of animal protein, can be difficult because of the similarity in appearance to other non-collagenous residues (e.g. Lombard and Wadley, 2007). Additionally, damage to collagen structure caused by processing and taphonomic factors can alter collagen's microscopic morphological features and further prevent microscopic identification. This paper describes the trialling, blind testing and application of a modified Picro-Sirius Red (PSR) staining protocol not reliant on intact morphology which can be used to identify archaeological collagenous residues. The protocol allows for differentiation of Types I, II and III collagen and can detect the minuscule amounts in archaeological samples. The application of this staining protocol to ten grindstones from arid and semi-arid regions in south and central Australia supports the view that lack of collagen heretofore reported in residue studies is more likely the result of under-detection than its absence (see Monnier et al., 2012). The staining protocol represents an inexpensive, efficient and reliable process which can be added to contemporary use-wear and residue analyses. This addition allows more inclusive assessments of past function and promotes wider understandings of the behaviour of past peoples.

The functional study of ground stone artefacts and the analysis of charred plant remains together demonstrate that plant foods played a significant role in the diets of Aboriginal Australians through all occupation phases at the Pleistocene-aged archaeological site of Madjedbebe. Here we report studies of three sandstone grinding stones from the Holocene levels of the site, one associated with a radiocarbon age of 690 cal. BP, and the others with an age of 8320 cal. BP. The functional analyses involved technological studies combined with brightfield microscopy, starch grain analysis, biochemical testing and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). All three tools had usewear consistent with plant processing, with two having abrasive smoothing and polish characteristics typical of seed-grinding. Significant quantities of starch were recovered from each artefact and demonstrate the early Holocene processing of waterlily (Nymphaea violacea) and possibly kapok bush root (Cochlospermum fraseri), cheeky yam (Amorphopallus galbra) and long yam (Dioscorea transversa). In addition to starchy plant foods, one of the tools was used for processing animal tissue, as indicated by biochemical testing and GC-MS analysis, inferring a multi-functional use.

Qualitative discrimination criteria are employed commonly to distinguish cultural shell middens from natural shell deposits. Quantitative discrimination criteria remain less developed beyond an assumption that natural shell beds tend to contain a wider range of shell sizes compared to cultural shell middens. This study further tests this assumption and provides the first comparative quantitative analysis of shell sizes from cultural mid-dens, bird middens, and beach shell beds. Size distributions of opercula of the marine gastropod Turbo undulatus within two modern Pacific Gull (Larus pacificus) middens are compared with two Aboriginal middens (early and late Holocene) and two modern beach deposits from southeast Australia. Results reveal statistically significant differences between bird middens and other types of shell deposits, and that opercula size distributions are useful to distinguish Aboriginal middens from bird middens but not from beach deposits. Supplementary qualitative analysis of taphonomic alteration of opercula reveal similar opercula breakage patterns in human and bird mid-dens, and further support previously recognised criteria to distinguished beach deposits (water rolling and bioerosion) and human middens (burning). Although Pacific Gulls are geographically restricted to southern Australia, the known capacity of gulls (Larus spp.) in other coastal contexts around the world to accumulate shell deposits indicates the broader methodological relevance of our study.

This essay investigates chronologically, the agency of two significant inter-related forces which shaped and impacted the self-determination of Indigenous art and culture from the postcolonial period in Australia. Firstly, is the work of German cultural historian Ulli Beier who in the recommendations he provided in his Report on the mission art business for Dr. H.E. Coombs in 1969 outlined progressive ideas for the setting of future indigenous cultural policy frameworks for the Australian Government. These initiatives were based on his years of experience in Africa and New Guinea promoting the self-determination of indigenous voice within their nation’s culture. They would inform the making of indigenous arts policy across all indigenous sectors within Australia, including the Aboriginal Arts Board AAB of the Australia Council, the second influential force to be investigated within this history. The AAB was established as an independent, government-funded, all-indigenous governed organisation, whose innovative operations would establish the art centres in remote Australia, many cultural bodies and promote the fine arts profile of Indigenous art within Australia, and importantly, internationally. The cumulative impact of the forces set in motion by the AAB initiatives were instrumental in ensuring the promotion of indigenous cultural agendas that would lay important foundations which would lead to significant changes to discourses of the nation’s high art and the acceptance of indigenous art as contemporary within global art discourses.

For more than 50,000 years, Indigenous Australians have incorporated celestial events into their oral traditions and used the motions of celestial bodies for navigation, time-keeping, food economics, and social structure. In this paper, we explore the ways in which Aboriginal people made careful observations of the sky, measurements of celestial bodies, and incorporated astronomical events into complex oral traditions by searching for written records of time-keeping using celestial bodies, the use of rising and setting stars as indicators of special events, recorded observations of variable stars, the solar cycle, and lunar phases (including ocean tides and eclipses) in oral tradition, as well as astronomical measurements of the equinox, solstice, and cardinal points.

A Record in Stone is a descriptive presentation of stone-tool types from the continent of Australia, which combines Australian prehistory with lithic typology from a tutorial perspective. A unique and welcome feature is a supplemental compact disc (CD-ROM) which stores color images of the black and white illustrations in the text. The CD contains nearly 500 images of various stone tools, data tables, and images of flintknapping. The images are high-quality and include both JPEG and HTML formats; in many of the photographs, diagnostic morphological features are labeled. Such a visual format in books about prehistory is rare; it provides the reader with a quick-reference source for color images that often are too expensive to print in the text. A CD is a suitable alternative and should be considered by other authors in paleoanthropology and related disciplines.

Anatomically Modern Humans (AMHs) dispersed rapidly through island southeast Asia (Sunda and Wallacea) and into Sahul (Australia, New Guinea and the Aru Islands), before 50,000 years ago. Multiple routes have been proposed for this dispersal and all involve at least one multi-day maritime voyage approaching 100 km. Here we use new regional-scale bathymetry data, palaeoenvironmental reconstruction, an assessment of vertical land movements and drift modeling to assess the potential for an initial entry into northwest Australia from southern Wallacea (Timor-Roti). From ∼70,000 until ∼10,000 years ago, a chain of habitable, resource-rich islands were emergent off the coast of northwest Australia (now mostly submerged). These were visible from high points close to the coast on Timor-Roti and as close as 87 km. Drift models suggest the probability of accidental arrival on these islands from Timor-Roti was low at any time. However, purposeful voyages in the summer monsoon season were very ...

a controlled burn in a gully housing a large rockshelter in southern arnhem land permitted the observation of heat and smoke behaviour within the shelter and its inferred impact on rock art and other Aboriginal cultural heritage. It was found that, due to air currents created by the fire, that heat was unlikely to be a major agent in the deterioration of the rock art unless burning vegetation was in contact with or very close proximity to the art panel. Smoke contamination of the pigments was possible but considered to be minor at most. Similarly, other items of cultural heritage, including the floor deposits, are unlikely to be effected by bushfires unless they are in contact with burning vegetation (including tree roots).

I s l a n d s s h o u l d be an e x c e l l e n t t h e a t r e i n which t o s t u d y e v o l u t i o n (~a c A r t h u r and Wilson 1967: 152) ISLAND BIOGEOGRAPHY AND ARCHAEOLOGY I s l a n d s i n g e n e r a l t e n d t o be i s o l a t e d o r s e m i -i s o l a t e d ; t h e y o f t e n t e n d e s t r a t e g i e s t h a t a r i s e i n r e s p o n s e t o l i m i t a t i o n s i n r e s o u r c e s and s o on. T h e r e a r e numerous o t h e r t h e o r e t i c a l and p r a c t i c a l a t t r a c t i o n s i n s t u d y i n g i s l a n d s ( s e e f o r example Fosberg 1963 and MacArthur and W i l s o n 1967) and t h e s e p r o v i d e t h e b a s i s f o r my r e s e a r c h i n t o t h e A b o r i g i n a l p r e h i s t o r y o f t h e Keppel I s l a n d s . THE KEPPEL ISLANDS The Keppel I s l a n d s , s i t u a t e d o f f t h e Queensland c o a s t n e a r Rockhampton, p r o v i d e f o r an i n t r i g u i n g s t u d y o f p r e h i s t o r i c o c c u p a t i o n and a d a p t a t i o n . There a r e i n t h e g r o u p a number of i s l a n d s o f v a r i o u s s i z e s ; t h e y v a r y i n d i s t a n c e from t h e mainland and v a r y i n t h e i r r e s o u r c e b a s e ( T a b l e 1). It s h o u l d be p o s s i b l e among o t h e r t h i n g s t o d e t e c t p o p u l a t i o n t h r e s h o l d s , d e t e r m i n a n t s o f s e t t l e m e n t ( e s p e c i a l l y a p e r m a n e n t / s e a s o n a l dichotomy) and a d a p t i v e s t r a t e g i e s r e l a t e d t o p a r t i c u l a r e n v i r o n m e n t a l c o n t e x t s .

Four stars in the night sky have been formally recognised by their Australian Aboriginal names. The names include three from the Wardaman people of the Northern Territory and one from the Boorong people of western Victoria. The Wardaman star names are Larawag, Wurren and Ginan in the Western constellations Scorpius, Phoenix and Crux (the Southern Cross). The Boorong star name is Unurgunite in Canis Majoris (the Great Dog). They are among 86 new star names drawn from Chinese, Coptic, Hindu, Mayan, Polynesian, South African, and Aboriginal Australian cultures.

In recent decades, archaeologists have responded to internal dialogues and external critiques by facilitating greater involvement of descendant peoples and other source communities in many aspects of archaeology. Although significant changes have occurred, substantial ethical challenges remain. While most archaeologists are nominally in favor of a more equitable archaeology, in reality they still hold the power in terms of the actual production and interpretation of archaeological knowledge, access to or use of data, and the capital derived from these processes. The very idea of sharing power appears threatening to some because it means a radical revisioning of ethical responsibilities and research paradigms and altering deep-seated notions about scholarly privilege, intellectual property, and control over the production of knowledge... On the other hand, members of descendant communities,  who understandably experience their own anxieties over losses of cultural knowledge, have challenged the relevance of archaeology to their needs and beliefs, sometimes seeking to amend historical power imbalances through exclusionary practices, restrictions on access to sites or the information derived from them. At the same time, archaeology often occupies an ambivalent or subordinate position in relation to political and economic interests (Hamilakis 1999; Schmidt 2005). ...

This paper explores whether Aboriginal people have used graffiti to display resistance to the Northern Territory National
Emergency Response Act 2007. One of the first studies of graffiti in a remote Aboriginal community, this research
was undertaken on Jawoyn lands in the Northern Territory, Australia. It encompasses the Aboriginal communities
of Barunga, Manyallaluk and Beswick, where graffiti was recorded at 277 road signs along the Central Arnhem
Road and Manyallaluk Road, and at three roadside shelters. This study shows that graffiti in Jawoyn communities
primarily serves the intragroup purpose of reinforcing relationships between community members, in contrast to the
use of graffiti by non-Indigenous people to propagate political and social messages between different social groups. It
also provides material insights into a fear of government. Contrary to our expectations, graffiti in Jawoyn Country
is not a mode of resistance to government intervention. Instead, the near absence of graffiti on Northern Territory
Emergency Response signs in areas where surrounding signs have high densities of graffiti provides unique
and materially-based insights into a fear of the Australian government that is felt by Aboriginal people in remote
communities. The analysis suggests that Aboriginal people nurture community relationships partly to deal with
alienation from government and, to some extent, the wider Australian community.

THIS IS THE LAST LESSON OF THE COURSE
Archaeology of Death E-learning

Dear Colleagues,
As the Covid-19 safety measures are limiting our communication, please use the following web link to download presentation of the Archaeology of Death course.
https://cuni.academia.edu/JanTurek/Teaching-Documents
Since the lesson 4, that we have already missed I include much more texts and references, so you can use it as e-learning material.
Let’s hope we are going to have chance to catch up with the lectures later the spring term.
Meanwhile stay safe
and
Good luck!

Sincerely
Jan Turek
Center for Theoretical Study

Archaeology of Death

Syllabus by Jan Turek

The lecture provides a basic overview of the theory and methodology of the study of funerary areas, burial contexts and social and symbolic perception of death in prehistoric societies. Through the archaeological evidence of funerary rituals will be presented not only prehistoric people's attitudes toward death and the afterlife but also their culture, social organization, symbolic systems and cosmology. The focus on archaeology of personhood will be targeted mainly on the analysis of age and gender categories. Introductory topics summarize the methodology of field and laboratory research of funerary data in archaeology including application of scientific methods, spatial analysis of burial data and palaeodemography. In the interpretation section of the course an attention is also paid to the social and ritual significance of death and the transformation of human understanding of mortality. We are going to focus on case studies from different periods and locations throughout the world from Palaeolithic to the rise of historical societies. Case studies will further shed light on the social interpretation of burial data and their use in reconstructing social relationships, and will present significant discoveries. The end of the course is devoted to the ethics of the archaeological research of funerary and the political and ethical controversies surrounding human remains. This lecture is designed for audience among archaeologists, anthropologists, historians, and others who have a professional interest in funerary evidence, or general curiosity about past death and burial.

1. Introduction to burial archaeology.
Forms of burial in prehistory, hierarchy of burial sites and monuments.
2. Human understanding of death and the beginnings of funerary practices.
Death and perception of time, regeneration, reincarnation, immortality. The earliest evidence of funerary behaviour. The question of cannibalism.
3. Basics of field methodology of burial contexts and funerary areas.
Survey and excavation methods. Taphonomy, geochemical and geophysical methods.
4. Scientific methods of analysis - Burial contexts and human remains.
Paleoanthropology and Palaeopathology.
4.2 Scientific methods of analysis - Burial contexts and human remains.
Palaeopathology and Paleoparasitology.
5. Population Processes, DNA and Demography
Population processes. Palaeodemography and methods of molecular biology
6. Stable Isotopes & Mobility Studies; Diet reconstruction
Methods used for reconstruction of individual mobility and diet.
7. GIS & Spatial analysis of funerary areas: An Introduction
8. Shamanism and burials in the Palaeolithic period.
9. Burial rites as the source for reconstruction of prehistoric society
Death at the beginning of agriculture. Genealogy, Power, wealth, Cult of Death; Feasting with ancestors.
10. Age and Gender reconstruction
Gender categories, children in pre-industrial societies.
11. Death and monuments in the landscape
Burial sites, burial monuments and settlement structure, What is a ritual landscape?
Death in the living space. Houses of dead – genesis of barrows. Human sacrifices and ancestral worship. Barrows….
12. Archaeology of violence, warfare, disease, magic and sacrifice
13. Mummies; preservation of soft tissue. Body decoration & face reconstruction
Eternity, mumification and natural environment.
14. Ethics of funerary archaeology
Political and ethical treatment issues of human remains and their analysis. Scientific sampling, exhibiting human remains, repatriation and reburial.

Since the 1970s the site of Emo (aka 'Samoa', 'OAC') in the Gulf Province of Papua New Guinea has been cited as one of the earliest-known ceramic sites from the southern Papuan lowlands. This site has long been seen as holding c.2000 year old evidence of ...

The changing history of skeletal remains is a large part of my autobiography. In 1984, I was the first biological anthropologist in Australia to argue publicly for Indigenous control over their heritage, including the bodies of their ancestors. Twenty-five years later I act as the sexton of my discipline: almost the only biological research I conduct within Australia ensures that unprovenanced Aboriginal ancestors are reburied in their own country. What follows is therefore inevitably a personal account.

The practice of geophagy, in particular the consumption of clay and charcoal by humans, is global in its distribution, is of considerable antiquity and has a number of complex functions. One of these functions is the ability of clays and charcoals to adsorb toxins. This has been known anecdotally for some time and has more recently been scientifically demonstrated. This article reviews evidence that indicates that the adsorptive qualities of clays were well recognised by Indigenous Australians. This Indigenous knowledge therefore has significant implications for the timing and nature of adaptation to many of the toxic plants of Australia. It is proposed that knowledge of these adsorptive qualities arrived with the earliest colonisers and enabled them to adapt to toxic plants earlier and more easily than has usually been assumed.

This paper explores the potential of Indigenous rock art
scenes from western Arnhem Land (Australia) as visual media
in archaeological and ethnoarchaeological research into
Indigenous social organisation and practices. Traditionally,
the main visual media used to analyse Indigenous cultures
have been ethnographic or ethnohistoric reports and
photographs. Through three case studies from Injalak
Hill this paper illustrates how rock art scenes may elicit
complementary and alternative types of information and
provide a different means of understanding Indigenous social
behaviours and practices. Rock art scenes, as visual records
of Indigenous social organisation, should be considered a
key complement to photographs, since they provide crucial
information that is quite different from, or not necessarily
recorded in, photographs.

The notion of Indigenous epistemologies and “ways of knowing” continues to be undervalued within various academic disciplines, particularly those who continue to draw upon “scientific” approaches that colonise Indigenous peoples today. This paper will examine the politics of contested knowledge from the perspective of three Indigenous researchers who work within Yunggorendi First Nations Centre for Higher Education and Research at Flinders University in South Australia. In particular, the authors outline a collective process that has emerged from conversations regarding their research projects and responding to what Ladson-Billings and Donnor (2008, p. 371) refer to as the “call”. In developing an Indigenous standpoint specific to their own disciplines and their research context, the authors demonstrate how these collective conversations between each other and their communities in which they work have informed their research practices and provided a common framework which underpins their research methodologies.

The Holocene was a time of substantial environmental and cultural change across Australia, due to the combined effects of post-glacial sea level rise and climatic shifts. However, not all environmental changes were the product of climatic variation. In southwestern Australia, ethnographic and historical records indicate that at the time of European colonisation, Aboriginal people engaged in a range of targeted land management practices, many of which had a significant impact on plant and animal communities and can be viewed as a form of cultural niche construction. Fire was a

Despite sporadic archaeological work spanning five decades, the chronology of Aboriginal presence in the mountains of southeast Australia remains poorly understood. Characterised by steep slopes and rugged terrain, this region has possibly always been a marginal area for human habitation, and its occupation chronology can thus play an important role in assessing competing hypotheses regarding past population expansions and cultural responses to environmental change. To improve our understanding of Aboriginal high country chronology, several rockshelters in the Namadgi Ranges in the Australian Capital Territory were excavated. A series of radiocarbon dates from these excavations and a generalised chronostratigraphy of this area are described in this report. Cultural deposits dating to the early to mid-Holocene provide the first substantial evidence that people were active in the high country during the Holocene Optimum (ca 9,000–6,000 years BP). In combination with previously dated Namadgi sites, the new data also confirm an increase in activity at around 2,000 years BP. An apparent decrease in cultural evidence dating to between 4,500 and 2,000 years BP is in contrast to major cultural and population shifts seen in the southeast Australian archaeological record during this time, but whether this reflects an actual behavioural trend or results from external processes affecting cultural deposits is still unclear.