Uncovering Australia pages 12/12/02 4:42 PM Page i Uncovering Australia This page intentionally left blank Uncovering Australia pages 12/12/02 4:42 PM Page iii Uncovering Australia Archaeology, Indigenous people and the public Sarah Colley Uncovering Australia pages 12/12/02 4:42 PM Page iv 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: (61 2) 8425 0100 Fax: (61 2) 9906 2218 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 Uncovering Australia pages 12/12/02 4:42 PM Page v 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 Uncovering Australia pages 12/12/02 4:42 PM Page vi 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 Uncovering Australia pages 12/12/02 4:42 PM Page vii 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 Uncovering Australia pages 12/12/02 4:42 PM Page viii 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 Uncovering Australia pages 12/12/02 4:42 PM Page ix 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