Uncovering Australia

270 Pages·2003·2.07 MB·English

by  Sarah Colley

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Uncovering Australia
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Uncovering
Australia
Archaeology, Indigenous people
and the public
Sarah Colley
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First published in 2002
Copyright © Sarah Colley 2002
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying, recording or by any information storage
and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the
publisher. TheAustralian Copyright Act 1968(the Act) allows a
maximum of one chapter or 10% of this book, whichever is the
greater, to be photocopied by any educational institution for its
educational purposes provided that the educational institution (or
body that administers it) has given a remuneration notice to
Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) under the Act.
Allen & Unwin
83 Alexander Street
Crows Nest NSW 2065
Australia
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.allenandunwin.com
National Library of Australia
Cataloguing-in-Publication entry:
Colley, Sarah Muriel.
Uncovering Australia : archaeology, indigenous people and
the public.
Bibliography.
Includes index.
ISBN 1 86508 209 0.
1. Archaeology—Political aspects—Australia.
2. Aborigines, Australian—Antiquities.
3. Cultural property—Australia.
I. Title.
994.0049915
Set in 10.5/14.5 pt Weiss by Midland Typesetters, Maryborough, Victoria
Printed by South Wind Production, Singapore
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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Contents
Preface viii
The original idea ix
A different book xiii
Acknowledgements xvi
1 Archaeology in Australia 1
Major research questions 2
What is the archaeological record? 8
The contribution of ethnography 10
Continuity and change 12
Further limits of historical information 13
Deep and shallow pasts 14
Historical archaeology 16
Contact archaeology 18
Archaeological values of places 21
2 The rise and rise of cultural heritage management 22
Stakeholders in place 23
Heritage legislation and policy in Australia 24
Managing heritage and culture 30
Into the breach 39
Compromise 42
Effects of cultural heritage management on Australian archaeology 45
Professionalism 50
Archaeological knowledge and cultural heritage management 58
3 Archaeologists and Indigenous people in Australia 59
Colonialism, Indigenous identity and black–white politics 63
v
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vi UNCOVERING AUSTRALIA
Views of the past and the politics of identity 67
Do Indigenous Australians need archaeology? 71
Archaeology as physical and spiritual threat 75
Pragmatic concerns 76
Ownership and ethics 78
Ownership and contact archaeology 81
Censorship, academic freedom and intellectual property rights 83
What is the value of archaeological research? 89
4 Negotiating archaeological research 92
Community consultation 92
A case study: Cuddie Springs 97
‘Indigenous-controlled’ archaeology 101
5 Indigenous places and consulting archaeology 105
Building the M2 motorway 107
Legislative limits and practical constraints 111
Community consultation 114
War of words 115
Authenticity 116
The importance of title 120
Professionalism, archaeology and Indigenous control of
heritage management 121
6 Archaeology and the public 126
Public perceptions of archaeology 126
Alternative archaeologies 131
Public and private archaeology 135
Amateur archaeology 140
Australian archaeology and public education 148
7 Archaeology and the media 154
Jinmium and early dates 154
More Australian stories 161
Pre-Cook ships 166
Representation in news and current affairs 168
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Contents vii
8 Archaeology, Indigenous Australia and postcolonialism 171
Early dates for human settlement 175
Knowledge across the boundaries 177
Aborigines and outsiders: Knowledge beyond the fringe? 180
Speaking out, staying silent 185
Finishing without closure 190
Endnotes 191
Bibliography 208
Index 240
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Preface
Since the 1970s, when fieldwork in Australia began in earnest, archaeolo-
gists have unlocked a vast trove of stories about the past which fascinate
many Australians. Archaeology relies on studying material evidence—things
and places from the past which are often important to non-archaeologists as
well. Media reports about the destruction of important archaeological sites
by developers, about bottle collectors digging into historic sites, and about
Indigenous ancestral remains that continue to be held in museum collections
interest more people than just archaeologists. Claims by archaeologists for
increasingly earlier dates for human occupation of the continent are front
page news. In the early 1970s archaeological evidence suggested a date of
40000 years ago for the first human settlement. Suggestions are now
pushing this date back to 60000 years ago, or even earlier. Not all archae-
ologists agree with this, and to some descendants of the earliest inhabitants
the dates are irrelevant: they know that their ancestors have always lived
here. Yet such dates are important and have been drawn into the political
domain to influence the way the public views Indigenous claims.
Professional archaeology in Australia is only about 40 years old. This
period has witnessed many changes in Australian society which are
reflected in the way Australian archaeologists go about their work. Of par-
ticular importance have been the changing roles of Indigenous people in
managing their own cultural places, and government control of archae-
ology through the introduction of planning and heritage legislation.
These aspects have become increasingly apparent to me since I began
teaching archaeology. In 1990 I was appointed as a lecturer in Australian
archaeology and cultural heritage management at the University of
Sydney and began reading widely about the practice of prehistory and
archaeology in Australia. I became interested in the way knowledge
produced by archaeologists since the 1960s was closely entangled with
viii
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Preface ix
political and social issues. As I prepared and delivered my lectures I also
found that Tasmania featured prominently in the literature, and that Tas-
manian case studies were especially useful for introducing students to key
theoretical, political and ethical issues relevant to the practice of Aus-
tralian archaeology more generally.
The original idea
I was first approached by Allen & Unwin in 1996 to write a book about
archaeology in Tasmania. In that year an updated edition of Lyndall Ryan’s
widely acclaimed history of Aboriginal Tasmania, The Aboriginal Tasmanians,
was published, with the support and assistance of many members of the
Tasmanian Aboriginal community. Ryan’s book was first published in 1981
and the new edition made passing reference to Tasmanian prehistory and
archaeology. So many significant things had happened in this field since
1981 that the publisher felt the topic merited a book in its own right. I met
Lyndall Ryan during this time and we talked about archaeology in
Tasmania and the courses I’d developed. She suggested my name to the
publisher1and a project was conceived.
Archaeological research began in earnest in Tasmania from the 1960s
onwards. This work soon demonstrated that people had lived there for
tens of thousands of years, and were there when the island of Tasmania as
we know it today did not yet exist. Low sea levels caused by global
climatic changes associated with the last ice age exposed a single landmass
consisting of what are now the islands of Tasmania, mainland Australia,
New Guinea and the continental shelf in between. Tasmania and Bass
Strait were a large peninsula at the southern tip of this landmass. When sea
levels rose again about 10000 years ago, the islands of Tasmania were
created. Archaeological and other evidence demonstrates that people living
there became isolated from the rest of the world until Abel Tasman sailed
to the islands in AD 1642. We presume this isolation came about because
the people’s boats could not complete the crossing over the wide and
stormy waters of Bass Strait between Tasmania and the mainland—
although people could and did make sea voyages to closer offshore islands.2
Then, during the early 1980s, the Tasmanian Hydro-Electric Com-
mission, backed by the state government, proposed flooding areas around
the Franklin River in the south-west. This threatened large tracts of