Marnda Gardairri: Facilitation of an Indigenous Ranger Rock Art Workshop

The Marnda Gardairri Indigenous Rangers Workshop was held from 3–5 October 2017 on the Burrup Peninsula in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. The event, which was hosted by the Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation (MAC), brought together rangers from across Australia to discuss rock art conservation and management. The workshop was given the title ‘Marnda Gardairri’ as this means rock scratching/engraving on the Burrup Peninsula. The workshop was developed by MAC in collaborative partnership with Rio Tinto Iron Ore-Pilbara Operations and the Nulungu Research Institute (The University of Notre Dame Australia). Rio Tinto and Woodside Petroleum funded the workshop, with Mel Marshall and Lynley Wallis of Nulungu engaged to coordinate and facilitate the event, assisted by Kate Golson.https://researchonline.nd.edu.au/nulungu_insights/1002/thumbnail.jp

Rewriting the History of the Native Mounted Police in Queensland

The Archaeology of the Native Mounted Police in Queensland project, jointly led by Nulungu research fellow Dr Lynley Wallis, is a long-overdue exploration into the nature of frontier invasion. Several of our team members have worked in Queensland for many decades and, in every Aboriginal community in which we’ve worked, stories are told about the ‘killing times’ or the ‘war’, as community members call the period when the Native Mounted Police (NMP, also referred to as the ‘Native Police’) were operating. Many community members have asked us over the years to record their stories about the massacres that took place, or have shown us places associated with the police camps or the massacre sites, and often told us that they would like to know more about what happened. These requests eventually led to the archaeologists on this project coming together, talking with key Aboriginal people and communities, and developing a research project to address their interests — the project described in this paper is the result.https://researchonline.nd.edu.au/nulungu_insights/1000/thumbnail.jp

The difficult, divisive and disruptive heritage of the Queensland Native Mounted Police

The colonial history of nineteenth-century Queensland was arguably dominated by the actions of the Native Mounted Police, Australia’s most punitive native policing force. The centrality of the Native Mounted Police to the sustained economic success of Queensland for over half a century, and their widespread, devastating effects on Aboriginal societies across the colony, have left a complex legacy. For non-Indigenous Queenslanders, a process of obscuring the Native Mounted Police began perhaps as soon as a detachment was removed from an area, reflected today in the minimisation of the Native Mounted Police in official histories and their omission from non-Indigenous heritage lists. In contrast, the Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Database preserves several elements of frontier conflict and Native Mounted Police presence, giving rise to parallel state-level narratives, neither of which map directly onto local and regional memory. This highlights potential issues for formal processes of truth-telling relating to frontier conflict that have recently been initiated by the Queensland and Federal Governments. Of particular concern is the form that such a process might adopt. Drawing on a 4-year project to document the workings of the Queensland Native Mounted Police through archival, archaeological and oral historical sources, we suggest that this conflicted and conflictual heritage can best be bridged through empathetic truth-telling, using Rothberg’s notion of the implicated subject to consider contemporary contexts of responsibility and connect present-day Queenslanders with this difficult, divisive and disruptive past

Robust local vegetation records from dense archaeological shell matrixes: a palynological analysis of the Thundiy shell deposit, Bentinck Island, Gulf of Carpentaria, Australia

This study investigates the palynological remains (both fossil pollen and charcoal) recovered from the Thundiy shell midden deposit, Bentinck Island, Gulf of Carpentaria, northern Australia, to provide a vegetation and fire record for this site, which sheds light on human occupation of the southern Wellesley Archipelago over the late Holocene. Results show that the development of a high-density shell deposit by human activities was directly responsible for pollen preservation, possibly through the creation of a moist, anaerobic environment that reduces oxidation of pollen grains. The presence of recoverable pollen from a shell midden deposit from Bentinck Island provides a valuable new proxy to provide greater context for archaeological records, particularly in terms of local vegetation information and potential insight into human land management practices

Integrating geoarchaeology and magnetic susceptibility at three shell mounds: a pilot study from Mornington Island, Gulf of Carpentaria, Australia

In coastal areas of the globe, open shell matrix sites are commonly used to establish regional chronologies of human occupation and identify patterns of cultural change, particularly for the Holocene, post-sea-level stabilisation period. Despite this, many basic sedimentary analyses that are routinely applied to rockshelter deposits (e.g. geophysical characterisation, particle size etc) are rarely applied to these sites. Magnetic susceptibility, occasionally used in rockshelters, has never been used to investigate shell matrix sites in Australia, despite several international studies identifying its efficacy for other types of open sites. This paper reports a pilot project applying a range of conventional sedimentary and archaeological analyses, as well as magnetic susceptibility at three anthropogenic shell mounds on Mornington Island, Gulf of Carpentaria, Australia. Results are compared to, firstly, assess site integrity and, secondly, to ascertain whether magnetic signatures are related to cultural or natural site formation processes. The results establish that the mounds were repeatedly visited, despite the archaeological evidence, including radiocarbon ages, suggesting effectively ‘instantaneous’ deposition. This has important implications for studies of other shell mounds where the limitations of radiocarbon dating precision may also mask multiple deposition events

Direct radiocarbon dating of fish otoliths from mulloway (Argyrosomus japonicus) and black bream (Acanthopagrus butcheri) from Long Point, Coorong, South Australia

Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon dates (n=20) determined on fish otoliths from mulloway (Argyrosomus japonicus) and black bream (Acanthopagrus butcheri) are reported from five sites at Long Point, Coorong, South Australia. The dates range from 2938–2529 to 326–1 cal. BP, extending the known period of occupation of Long Point. Previous dating at the sites indicated intensive occupation of the area from 2455–2134 cal. BP. Results provide a detailed local chronology for the region, contributing to a more comprehensive understanding of Aboriginal use of Ngarrindjeri lands and waters. This study validates the use of fish otoliths for radiocarbon dating and reveals how dating different materials can result in different midden chronologies

Usewear and phytoliths on bedrock grinding patches, Pilbara, north-western Australia

Bedrock grinding patches were recorded in the Fortescue Metals Group Ltd (FMG) Rail Corridor within the Wooodstock/Abydos Aboriginal Heritage Area 130 km south of Port Hedland, Western Australia. WA State Ministerial conditions required the salvage of representative samples, residue analysis and other detailed microscopic study to investigate the technology and function of these grinding patches. Following a pilot study and experimental work, we undertook microscopic study of 159 samples - including PVS (PolyVinyl Siloxane™) peels and water extractions - from 81 grinding patches, collected at six sites. The worn stone surfaces are microscopically similar to traces found on experimental and Aboriginal stone artefacts used for grinding seeds, although the development of wear patterns is variable. The most common residues were phytoliths, which indicate that grinding patches were utilised for grinding grasses of the Panicoid and Chloridoid sub-families, although the open nature of the sites means issues of taphonomy need to be considered. Spinifex phytoliths suggest seeds from this plant may also have been exploited. No traces of pigment or ochre were found. We suggest that the grinding patches are linked with food processing associated ceremonial gatherings and rock art

The point of spinifex : Aboriginal uses of spinifex grasses in Australia

For thousands of years spinifex grasses were utilized by Indigenous Australians, most commonly for the production of resin that was then used as a hafting adhesive. While varying levels of knowledge about this particular use are retained in Indigenous communities, museum collections serve as a valuable repository of little known information about a multitude of other uses of spinifex including ornamental, medicinal, structural and ceremonial functions. In this paper we describe the range of uses of spinifex, based on examinations of objects and photographs held in various museum collections, coupled with reviews of the ethnographic and ethnohistoric literature. This study (1) brings together disparate sources of knowledge about Indigenous uses of spinifex that are not well known among the scientific community and (2) demonstrates the value of museum collections for Indigenous communities seeking to ‘reconnect’ with aspects of so-called ‘lost traditional culture’

Northern Australian offshore island use during the Holocene: the archaeology of Vanderlin Island, Sir Edward Pellew group, Gulf of Carpentaria

This paper presents an overview of archaeological investigations in the Sir Edward Pellew Islands in the southwest Gulf of Carpentaria, northern Australia. It is argued that Vanderlin Island, like the majority of Australia's offshore islands, attests to a lacuna in human habitation for several thousand years after the marine transgression and consequent insulation c.6700 years ago. With the imminent threat of inundation, people appear to have retreated to higher land, abandoning the peripheral exposed shelf areas; subsequent (re)colonisation of these relict shelf areas in their form as islands took place steadily from c.4200 BP, with increased intensity of occupation after 1300 BP. Possible links between the timing of island occupation, watercraft technology and the role of climate change are investigated, with more recent changes in the archaeological record of Vanderlin Island also examined in light of cultural contact with Macassans

Looking for the proverbial needle? The archaeology of Australian colonial frontier massacres

Amongst other issues, the 'History Wars' raise the question as to whether or not sites of conflict on the Australian colonial frontier will be preserved in the archaeological record. We explore this question through a consideration of what the expected nature of any such evidence might be, based on general and specific historical accounts and an understanding of site formation processes. Although limited success has been achieved to date in locating definitive evidence for such sites in Australia, we conclude that there are some specific situations where archaeology could usefully be applied to give rise to a more multi-dimensional understanding of the past