Centre for Rock Art Research + Management in Crawley, Western Australia, Australia | College & University

Centre for Rock Art Research + Management

Locality: Crawley, Western Australia, Australia

Address: 35 Stirling Highway 6009 Crawley, WA, Australia

Website: http://www.crarm.uwa.edu.au

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25.01.2022 It was refreshing to attend a lecture in person last night! Prof Peter Veth from Archaeology at UWA presented the Memorial George Seddon Lecture and spoke passionately about the Deep History of Place in Western Australia. The crowd hosted by Hans Lambers and UWA Institute of Advanced Studies enjoyed a detailed review of 50,000 years of the origins of place in our State, and there was vigorous debate about reforming the heritage management agenda following some excellent suggestions for heritage futures raised in Pete's conclusion.

25.01.2022 We're excited to announce that we are following the lead of our colleagues from Shumla Archaeological Research & Education Center by participating in #MotifMonday. CRAR+M #MotifMonday will explore rock art from around Australia and the world with commentary from CRAR+M researchers and Aboriginal collaborators. A motif is a single picture on a rock surface. This will have been created in many possible ways including painting with coloured ochres using feather brushes, or be...ing engraved with a hammerstone onto the surface of a panel. Join us each week to understand the amazing variability that can be found in the different rock art regions of Australia and across the world!

25.01.2022 This evening there will be a TEDXPerth online salon on the Value of Heritage - focused on Murujuga (Dampier Archipelago) and the current journey of the #Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation and the local custodians quest for World Heritage Listing. Speakers will be Peter Jeffries (Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation CEO) and Jo McDonald (Director CRAR+M) The evening will kick off with a revisiting of the TEDX Perth talk given by Jo McDonald in 2015 on why Australian rock art needs to be protected...

25.01.2022 Lovely to be on Ngurra with Narda Ngarli to celebrate Murujugas nomination to the UNESCO Tentative List and the opening of the Ngajarli Boardwalk. Glad we could be there - thanks to Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation for the great celebration!

24.01.2022 Interesting find - especially in light of our seminar this week on submerged landscapes! This portable art has been claimed as the oldest rock art in the British Isles - though at the time is was produced it was part of the landscape of the Magdalenians who created a similar style across France and parts of Spain! https://www.theguardian.com//engraved-stones-found-on-jers

24.01.2022 Continuing coverage from ABC News with comments by Professor Peter Veth, on behalf of the Australian Archaeological Association and Peter Jeffries, CEO of Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation, on the significance of these finds.

23.01.2022 Last night, Director Jo McDonald joined Peter Jeffries (Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation CEO) for the TEDx Perth Salon discussion on heritage. In case you missed it, here's the video!

22.01.2022 So wonderful to celebrate new heritage findings with the fantastic Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation

22.01.2022 The Rock Art Network has just published their page on Rock Art Sites that are inscribed on the World Heritage List: Well done Pilar Fatás @BenDickens and @PeterRobinson !! This was announced today because on this day, November 16th, 48 years ago, the World Heritage Convention was signed and adopted at the UNESCO conference in Paris! https://www.bradshawfoundation.com//unesco_world/index.php

21.01.2022 A timely piece on our neglect of one of Sydney's most significant rock art sites - from the contact era: Bull Cave in Campbelltown, contains images of the bulls which escaped from the First Fleet! Despite decades of conservation effort: this picture of Dave Lambert and Bronwyn Conyers (NPWS conservator and archaeologist) from 1985 was taken after a graffiti removal exercise; the current photos show an appalling amount of spray-painted graffiti; despite the installation of a ...protective grid. The sketch is by John Clegg -- who recorded this as a 'bitsa schema': showing that its Aboriginal artists were not familiar with such a cloven-hoofed animal. John argued that these were the original escapee cattle -- as they were un-polled after their long journey from England on a boat! When they discovered the herd (which was henceforth named Cowpastures) years later - they all had horns. https://www.smh.com.au//a-special-sydney-place-reminds-us-

21.01.2022 This weeks #MotifMonday looks at a ship motif from the historic pastoral station called Inthanoona, a site in Ngarluma country. The site is on the Jones River where the river runs adjacent to the edge of rocky base of the Chichester Ranges. This panel overlooks the remains of the main buildings of Inthanoona sheep station, established in the initial phase of European colonisation of the eastern Pilbara. The rock art at Inthanoona and other nearby sheep stations reveals how ...Aboriginal people used engraving as a core communication strategy during a period of extraordinary change. In a single generation Aboriginal peoples access to their ngurra (country) was restricted. The white pastoralists quickly came to rely on Aboriginal people for their labour: both on sheep stations and also on their pearling fleet which relied on men, women and child divers. One of six boats at Inthanoona, this place reveals how maritime experiences were brought inland and revealed through rock art. Other introduced subject matter included horse shoe tracks, trailing through the rock panels Notice how the human figure at the front of the boat has his hands on his hips a characteristic stand of the boss-men. There is a question whether the figure at the back of the boat is an animal (sheep?) being loaded onto the boat

20.01.2022 Heres a write up about one of our HDR UWA Research students! Well done Ana what a great read!

20.01.2022 Great wide-ranging podcast with Sven Ouzman talking about the complexities of heritage protection in Western Australia

19.01.2022 Congratulations to Kimberley Foundation Ian Potter Chair in Rock Art, Professor Joakim Goldhahn who is part of an interdisciplinary research project that has just been awarded an ARC Special Research Initiatives 2020 round 2 grant. The project will investigate historical Aboriginal responses to ‘contact’ with newcomers to their land. It will generate new knowledge using systematic recordings of rock art and bark paintings created during the last 400 years in western Arnhem L...and, including an in depth analyses of the 1912-1922 Baldwin Spencer Collection of bark paintings, now at the Museums Victoria, and rock art at Awunbarna (Mt Borradaile) in western Arnhem Land, NT. The analysis of these key visual first-hand records of Australia’s history, together with documentation from digital archives and other media, will lead to new ways of understanding Aboriginal history. Drawing on multiple forms of media, the project will examine how Aboriginal people used graphic systems to navigate threats and opportunities in northern Australia, with the main benefit to Australia being a more comprehensive and inclusive written history. The Lead CI for this three-year project is Dr Sally K. May (Griffith University) and it also includes Professor Paul Taçon (Griffith University); Associate Professor Liam Brady (Flinders University); Dr Daryl Wesley (Flinders University); Dr Laura Rademaker (The Australian National University); Dr Andrea Jalandoni (Griffith University), and Dr Luke Taylor (Independent/Australian National University). The project will work closely with its research partners, Injalak Arts in Gunbalanya and Davidson's Arnhemland Safari at Awunbarna, western Arnhem Land, NT.

19.01.2022 Lovely photogrammetry by Rock Art of the Sydney Basin and Interpretative connection for an iconic site near Staples Lookout. John Clegg wrote about this interpretive dilemma - rabbits only being introduced by the British- and Syndey Uni Honours students used to do a field exercise here, surveying from the ridgeline down to the mangroves, finding and documenting the many diverse sites in between ...

17.01.2022 CRAR+M researchers were privileged to see the new Origins Gallery with Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation custodians and WAM’s Anneliese Carson and @MoyaSmith. Great to see research from our collaborative project already in the public domain! Can’t wait to go back and see more! Beautiful building and a fabulous integration of Indigenous themes throughout all exhibitions! #BoolaBardip

17.01.2022 The shocking destruction of the significant Juukan Gorge rockshelters, highlights the need to have robust and flexible heritage agreements between proponents and Aboriginal communities that are responsive to new information about cultural significance. We mirror the statement by the Australian Archaeological Association and acknowledge that the legislation needs to change to ensure this type of devastating heritage outcome is not repeated. As Director Jo McDonald stated on Ha...ck on triple j yesterday, what's gone badly wrong here is that the WA State Heritage Act does not allow Section 18 consents to be reversed or appealed when new information on cultural and scientific significance comes to light. We too call on the Western Australian regulators and industry leaders to work towards building a stronger and fairer heritage protection framework for the State and immediate action on critical revisions to the WA Heritage Act. https://australianarchaeologicalassociation.com.au//loss-/

17.01.2022 We have been excited to work with Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation representatives on the new WA Museum Boola Bardip which opened on Saturday. The incredible Tootsie Daniel leads this article .... "A beam of light shoots across the gallery space, projecting a series of zoomorphic figures onto a grainy, red surface. A dugong, a turtle, a fish and a small kangaroo glisten in the dark, barely distinguishable, as you might expect of artworks that are some 50,000 years old. These... are the Dreaming stories of the Ngarda-Ngarli people of Murujuga country, also known as the Burrup Peninsula, which is home to the world’s largest concentration of petroglyphic rock art. The rocks, they are alive, says Yindjibarndi elder Tootsie Daniel of Murujuga, where three billion-year-old rock formations meet the vast Indian ocean. They speak to us. They are living stories. Tootsie is among more than 54,000 Western Australians whose living stories are weaved through the WA Museum Boola Bardip, which reopened on Saturday after a $400 million, four-year redevelopment."

17.01.2022 First underwater Aboriginal site discovered in Australia! Professor Jo McDonald, Director of the Centre for Rock Art Research + Management at The University of Western Australia talks about the recent discoveries on Murujuga in the Dampier Archipelago as part of the Deep History of Sea Country ARC Linkage Project with Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation. To find out more and read the paper: https://bit.ly/2NL1SMk

17.01.2022 This weeks #MotifMonday showcases rock art of Gobustan, Azerbaijan which was declared on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2007. It is one of the most visited rock art sites in all of Europe and Asia, receiving more than 250,000 visitors per year. Close to the western shore of the Caspian Sea is a small group of hills containing hundreds of panels of petroglyphs that have collectively become known as the Gobustan Rock Art Cultural Landscape. The age of the oldest art at the ...site remains debated, but direct dating has proven that the art sequence extends back over ten thousand years and some of the most ancient images might be more than double this age since they depict typical Pleistocene art subjects such as aurochs, woolly rhinoceros and wild horses. The site also contains some of the oldest surviving depictions of boats, examples can be seen here in these photograph taken by CRAR+M's Professor Benjamin Smith in 2019. Gobustan has an excellent visitor centre and guided tours lead visitors to a selection of the most important engraved panels at the site. When you are next in Baku - in a post-COVID world when holiday travel is once again possible - be sure to visit this extraordinarily important site that provides a bridge between the great rock art traditions of Europe and Central Asia.

17.01.2022 New paper just out reporting more details on the underwater cultural landscapes of Murujuga off the Western Australian coastline. Authors includes several PhD and MA candidates at both Flinders and UWA. Well done team! Wiseman, C., M. OLeary, J. Hacker, F. Stankiewicz, J. McCarthy, E. Beckett, J. Leach, P. Baggaley, C. Collins, S. Ulm, J. McDonald and J. Benjamin 2020 A multi-scalar approach to marine survey and underwater archaeological site prospection in Murujuga, West...ern Australia. Quaternary International. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2020.09.005 During the past 20,000 years approximately one-quarter of the continental landmass of Australia was inundated by postglacial sea-level rise, submerging archaeological evidence for use of these landscapes. Underwater archaeological sites can offer substantial insights into past lifeways and adaptations to rapidly changing environments, however the vast scale of inundation presents a range of challenges in discovering such sites. Here we present a suite of methods as a model methodology for locating sites in submerged landscapes. Priority areas for survey were based on palaeoenvironmental contexts determined from the onshore archaeological record. Remote sensing was used to identify seabed composition and indicators of palaeolandscapes where high potential for human occupation and site preservation could be identified in Murujuga (or the Dampier Archipelago), northwestern Australia. Target locations were surveyed by scientific divers to test for the presence of archaeological material. Application of this methodology resulted in the discovery of the first two confirmed sub-tidal ancient Aboriginal archaeological sites on Australia's continental shelf. Survey methods are discussed for their combined value to identify different classes of landscapes and archaeological features to support future underwater site prospection. See more

16.01.2022 Topical research on slaving - Kimberley Points on Barrow Island show the presence of Kimberley people on Barrow Island in pearling barracoons, great research by Centre for Rock Art Research + Managements Alistair Paterson and Peter Veth

15.01.2022 Some great images of the new Ngajarli boardwalk in Murujuga National Park... CRAR+M was proud to have been able to work with @MurujugaAboriginalCorporation and Parks, supported by RioTinto's Conservation Agreement with the C/W, to help with the recording and management of rock art in the vicinity and imagery for the interpretive signage...

15.01.2022 Great Op Ed in the Australian by the Hon Ben Wyatt MLA, Out of the ashes of the WA Heritage Act... We wait hopefully.

15.01.2022 Great start to NAIDOC Week with the publication of several AAA Forum contributions from CRAR+M researchers Jo McDonald and Sam Harper. Here is the first -- we will post the second shortly! We wish you all a great and celebratory NAIDOC Week!! https://www.tandfonline.com/epri/MPUSEXVQVTJHCGXEEN6T/full

12.01.2022 CRAR+M morning tea - with Jane’s not nice cake - which was actually a delish vegan contribution

12.01.2022 Great to see that our article with the Deep History of Sea Country Project and Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation are among the top 50 articles for this year!! UWA Research https://twitter.com/Conversation/status/1311110485496881154

11.01.2022 After a false start - our paper on visualising different landscapes and sites using a range of techniques is now out! Some great work by UWA students Emma Beckett and Patrick Morrison working on #Murujuga:Dynamics of the Dreaming and #DHSC - thanks as always to Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation for letting us try these new ways of looking at their cultural landscapes https://www.openquaternary.com/articles/10.5334/oq.81/

11.01.2022 Tonight, Peter Veth's Seddon Lecture will be broadcast on ABC's Big Ideas programme. Another great contribution to NAIDOC week celebrations! https://www.abc.net.au//indigenous-deep-history-a/12867114

11.01.2022 For this week’s #MotifMonday, we are again showcasing rock art from @MurujugaAboriginalCorporation! This week’s panel can be a challenge to see (especially the track closest to our CRAR+M scale), so we’ve used DStretch to enhance the original field image, revealing numerous three-toed bird tracks, including a trail. This panel has split and weathered over time, meaning that there may have been more bird tracks depicted here in the past. This panel is located at Ngajarli (formerly Deep Gorge) where the trail boardwalk was recently opened (link). This is the first recreational and interpretive site developed within Murujuga National Park and is a stunning way to view rock art up close. Visit www.murujuga.org.au to learn more.

10.01.2022 This week’s incredible #MotifMonday is from Huashan, Guangxi Province, China, featuring probably the world’s largest rock painting site with tens of thousands of paintings extending more than 40 metres up a vertical rock face! The paintings have been dated by thermoluminescence dating, mostly to the period 2000 1000 BP. The paintings depict ritual scenes including sacred drums (Bronze Drums), people dancing, people clapping and a few symbolic animals. Artists must have used... some form of scaffolding to make these paintings. The rock leans outwards at a considerable angle and so it would not have been possible to abseil down from above on ropes. The scaffolding seen here is modern, erected for conservation purposes, but even standing at the highest point of this scaffolding is terrifying. The original painters undertook death-defying feats to paint this rock. It must have held incredible ritual significance. Here the site is seen undergoing conservation. A team of Chinese conservators worked for more than three years on consolidating the rock surface and stabilising sections that were in the process of exfoliating. Professor Benjamin Smith from CRAR+M, provided advice during the World Heritage Site Listing process. The site was inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2016. The scaffolding is now fully removed and site is once again open to tourists. For more information about this and other rock art sites across East Asia see the volume edited by Benjamin Smith and Jean Clottes in 2019: https://www.academia.edu/39221862/

09.01.2022 One of the last gender divides: Man the Hunter - Woman the Gatherer, looks set to fall; great research from Early Holocene South America. A young woman buried with a a tool kit including projectile points and ochre... https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/45/eabd0310 XqS2gZga1BoOxwBiLnmYJyQKRR3IqrxoEp3A2GdaI-H_tA

09.01.2022 Great to see the Indigenous Desert Alliance Ranger Conference on UWA Research campus today during NAIDOC (National Aboriginal and Islander Day Observance Committee) Week, great digital set up and Rangers and elders zooming in from all over the desert! Great talks on firing, climate change, the importance of language, feral cats, the night parrot and more! Deadly Rangers doing a great job on country!!

09.01.2022 Today’s #MotifMonday looks at an engraved kangaroo at the Devil’s Rock Maroota site, within the boundaries of the Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council. This kangaroo has been struck by a number of boomerangs and a spear. As well as telling the story of a successful hunt, this motif also tells of the arrival of Europeans: there is a sailing ship has been superimposed on its shoulders. You can see that the line thickness and technique is quite different from these two d...ifferent phases of production. There are two other ‘contact’ motifs at this site: a man in a top hat and a lady in a dress who John Clegg used to call Lady Crinoline. At both ends of this important site there are the two main culture heroes for the region: Biaimi and Daramulan and these appear to be joined by two trails of c.280 small round dots. There are a large number of other kangaroos, eels and an emu with eggs. The site also has many axe-grinding grooves, located where there is a seepage across the platform. This site was an important gathering place in the Darug language area where a number of stories were told!

09.01.2022 Many people who are interested in dream states - because they are insomniacs - will be the perfect audience for this fabulous talk by Dave Whitley! Unlikely to be boring -- so please don't watch if you are hoping to go to sleep! WA Seminar Time is midnight!

09.01.2022 Lovely to be on Ngurra with Narda Ngarli to celebrate Murujuga’s nomination to the UNESCO Tentative List and the opening of the Ngajarli Boardwalk. Glad we could be there - thanks to Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation for the great celebration!

09.01.2022 Today, with Archaeology at UWA, Centre for Forensic Anthropology and UWA School of Social Sciences, we were excited to host The University of Western Australia's new Vice-Chancellor, Professor Amit Chakma on a tour of our archaeology and forensics labs. Professor Chakma had a welcome from community partner Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation's CEO Peter Jeffries, before getting a hands on experience with Dr Sam Harper on archaeological sorting, Dr Kane Ditchfield on lithic analysis and Dr Emilie Dotte-Sarout on creating a charcoal reference collection. We also toured the Forensics lab where Professor Chakma viewed the oldest European human remains in Australia (from the Batavia shipwreck and mutiny).

08.01.2022 Great discussion on Saturday Extra between Peter Veth and Geraldine Doogue about the good (+ bad) changes to the WA Aboriginal Heritage Act.

08.01.2022 Todays #MotifMonday looks at an engraved kangaroo at the Devils Rock Maroota site, within the boundaries of the Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council. This kangaroo has been struck by a number of boomerangs and a spear. As well as telling the story of a successful hunt, this motif also tells of the arrival of Europeans: there is a sailing ship has been superimposed on its shoulders. You can see that the line thickness and technique is quite different from these two d...ifferent phases of production. There are two other contact motifs at this site: a man in a top hat and a lady in a dress who John Clegg used to call Lady Crinoline. At both ends of this important site there are the two main culture heroes for the region: Biaimi and Daramulan and these appear to be joined by two trails of c.280 small round dots. There are a large number of other kangaroos, eels and an emu with eggs. The site also has many axe-grinding grooves, located where there is a seepage across the platform. This site was an important gathering place in the Darug language area where a number of stories were told!

08.01.2022 Nhaaguja Elders are devastated after rock art damaged in WA's Mid West. This site is one of only 80 Protected Areas under the current AHA legislation, recognised for its outstanding importance to the cultural heritage of this State. Damage like this, is what many traditional groups fear about opening their sites to the public. More education is needed to ensure that rock art sites are not impacted on by visitors.... Why isn't this site better protected? Read more about this incident in the link below:

07.01.2022 Today's #MotifMonday highlights the rock art in the Pachmarhi Biosphere Reserve in Central India (Vindhyan Range, Madhya Pradesh). Martin Porr undertook an initial exploratory survey in the region in December 2017 to gain some preliminary insights into the complexity and distribution of the rock art. This work was done in collaboration with Parth Chauhan (IISER Mohali, India). The art of the Pachmarhi Reserve is widely known but has not been studied with modern technologies... and has not been analysed spatially. The complex scene in this image is very likely a reflection of an equally complex narrative. Based on the detailed depictions of clothing, equipment, metal weapons and horses, this scene is dated to the early historic period in the early centuries CE. Most of this historic rock art is painted in white. This contrasts with the art from earlier periods, which is mostly executed in red pigments. Historic rock art motifs are also use red and white bichrome techniques: with the outline painted in the darker colour and equipment and material culture items being enhanced. Central Indian rock art is usually divided into successive Mesolithic, chalcolithic and historic phases. The exact date ranges of these phases are unknown but the earliest phase is likely to be Early Holocene. The material culture depicted in this phase articulates with hunter-gatherer populations; the second with farming communities and the third with more hierarchical agrarian societies. This last phase is characterised by the depiction of metal tools and weapons as well as frequent battle and fighting scenes. The rock art in Central India occurs in rock shelters of the Vindhya Mountains, which are mostly comprised of sandstone. The most famous site is Bhimbetka with a range of spectacular Mesolithic panels. The site comprises a large number of rock shelters in numerous outcrops. Excavations have revealed a continuous occupation of the site since the late Acheulean (ca. 300,000 years ago). Bhimbetka is also the only rock art site that has gained UNESCO World Heritage status in India. More information on this site can be found here: https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/925/

06.01.2022 Great rock art management story - and fabulous rock art - from Queensland https://www.abc.net.au//turraburra-gracevale-ind/12776038

06.01.2022 A different perspective on the submerged sites found at Murujuga by the #DHSC Project which included #CRAR+M researchers and Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation collaborators

06.01.2022 Congratulations to Martin Porr on the announcement of a three-year project funded by the German Research Council (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft; DFG). Read more about this new project in our latest blog entry; you can also hear Martin's interview on ABC Radio!

05.01.2022 We welcome Joakim Goldhahn to CRAR+M as the newly appointed Kimberley Foundation Australia Ian Potter Chair in Rock Art! CRAR+M Director Jo McDonald, says this appointment heralds in a new era of Kimberley and northern Australian research that will build on the strong foundations developed by Peter Veth, working with our Centre's other Kimberley specialists Jane Balme, Sven Ouzman and Martin Porr. Read more

05.01.2022 And here is Sam Harper's contribution to the AAA Forum, providing another perspective on the future of our discipline - and the very topical concept 'job's-ready' graduates! https://www.tandfonline.com/epri/BU7BNW6NVKCF3KSYYDNV/full

04.01.2022 Today we feature a San rock engraving from South Africas/Xam heartland a World Heritage Site. The /Xam San produced thousands of engravings relating to their social and spiritual lives. In todays photo 5 elephant, 3 rhino, 1 hippo, 1 fish and 4 human figures have been abraded on the vertical surface of a dolerite or ironstone boulder. The different patination or weathering of some of the image suggests either that images were added over time or renewed. The abrad...ing, vertical surface and scene-like composition are quite unusual for San rock engravings, which tend to occur on flatter boulder and are pecked or incised. Could this be the work of San from rock painting areas to the west, south or east, adapting to a new environment? Could this be the work of displaced or multi-ethnic groups of Indigenous people using rock art to understand a changing world? Southern Africa is also home to the rock arts of Khoe herders, African farmers, multi-ethnic/creolised groups, and even European settlers/invaders. We will feature rock art from these traditions on coming Motif Mondays. Until then do visit the African Digital Rock Art Archive - http://www.sarada.co.za/ and see https://www.icomos.org//227-southern-african-rock-art-sites for a list of 9 rock art World Heritage areas to visit when it is safe to do so! Enjoy!

04.01.2022 This week’s #MotifMonday looks at shield motifs from the Sydney Basin. These are found in both the engraved assemblages and the pigment-decorated rock shelters. Shields were also a well-documented item of local material culture. Captain Cook collected (without asking!) an undecorated shield from a Gweagal Aboriginal camp in Gamay (now Kurnell) when he landed in 1770. The ethnohistoric literature records there were three shield types in Sydney. The examples shown here are the ...elemong, usually decorated in white and red pigment; and in the stencilled panel is the tawarrang (a parrying shield). In the early 1800’s Sydney shields were described (by Threlkeld) as lozenge-shaped, pointed at top and bottom, and pigeon-breasted rather than flat (and) are always painted with white pipeclay and are generally ornamented with a St George’s Cross, formed by two bands two or three inches wide, one vertical the other horizontal, coloured red. Archaeologically, we have found much more variety than this. We think that this very public form of material culture projected important cultural identity information about the five different language groups in Sydney. Today’s examples are from Darkingung country (top left), Ku-ring-gai country (top right), and the stencilled panel is from Darug country. The illustration of the shield was made during Freycinet’s voyage in 1824. If you want to know more you can read our paper: McDonald, J. and S. Harper (2016). "Identity signalling in shields: how coastal hunter-gatherers use rock art and material culture in arid and temperate Australia." Australian Archaeology(2): 123-138. DM us if you would like a copy! If you want to know more about the Gamay shield now in the British Museum see the paper by Val Attenbrow and related press.

03.01.2022 New paper just out on visualising heritage at multiple scales, from @DHSC Project and Murujuga: Dynamics of the Dreaming - thankyou to @Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation for supporting this research

03.01.2022 Just out in the Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, a paper co-authored by CRAR+Mers Sven Ouzman, Peter Veth and Sam Harper! This paper, led by Jean-Jacques Delannoy (Université Savoie Mont Blanc), looks at the human impacts on Borologa, a rockshelter site on the Drysdale River in the northeast Kimberley. Using an archaeomorphological methodology - developed specifically with Bruno David (Monash University) and applied at this site - this paper looks at how people ha...ve actively changed the physical shape of this rockshelter by removing large slabs of rock, creating alcoves and a restructured internal space. Archaemorphology brings together archaeology and geomorphology to understand the lived history of a place, where what has in the past been understood as a static canvas, is instead understood as a dynamic architectural and performative space. The importance of this study as another example of the manipulation of rockshelters by Aboriginal people in Australia (like at Nawarla Gabarnmang in the Northern Territory) challenging traditional divisions between the natural and cultural aspects of a given place. Physical landscapes (here, rockshelters) are not passive, but rather socially engaged and culturally shaped. This research was undertaken as a part of the UWA-led Kimberley Visions ARC Linkage Project (UWA, Monash, UoM and Savoie), on Kwini and Balanggarra NT country with Traditional Owners and the Balanggarra Aboriginal Corporation, and in collaboration with the University of Melbourne led Kimberley Rock Art Dating Linkage Project. UWA team members Sven Ouzman, Peter Veth and Sam Harper were involved in the fieldwork across the 2016 and 2017 seasons, and contributed to the background and context in this paper. https://rdcu.be/b53bU

03.01.2022 More on our recent publication with Flinders University on the Deep History of Sea Country with Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation

03.01.2022 Great new results by Beth Velliky and colleagues, on pigment decoration on ivory adornments from the Aurignacian

03.01.2022 "In WA, the state government asserts that heritage can co-exist with industry. But this will only be possible if the state recognises heritage is non-renewable just like the mineral wealth of this country." Hot off the press - this article by Director Jo McDonald in The Conversation discusses how WA can avoid another event like Juunkan Gorge. Remember, tomorrow is the Future Forum 2020: Visions for the Future of Aboriginal Heritage in Western Australia. Registrations at the event have sold out, however you can still register for the Zoom Live Stream here: bit.ly/2GWI6Od

02.01.2022 We are excited to share that the article "First Discovery of a Submerged Australian Aboriginal Site on the Seabed" that was co-authored by Jo McDonald (with Jonathon Benjamin, Sean Ulm, Geoff Bailey and Mick O'Leary), has been included in The Conversation 's recently published "The Year that Changed Us", the top 50 articles of 2020. This article featured work done in collaboration with the @Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation through the Deep History of Sea Country ARC Discovery Project based out of Flinders University. To read the article, click here: https://theconversation.com/in-a-first-discovery-of-its-kin

02.01.2022 For this weeks #MotifMonday we are showcasing rock art from Ngajarli in Murujuga National Park, also known as the Dampier Archipelago, just off the north-west coast of Western Australia. This country is jointly managed by the Murujuga Land and Sea Unit Rangers of the @MurujugaAboriginalCorporation and @WAParksWildlife. Todays motif is a fat-tailed macropod or kangaroo that has been engraved in a solid form using the percussive technique of pecking. We can see huge stylistic... diversity in artworks on Murujuga in part because Indigenous people have been creating art here for so many thousands of years. As well as having different ways of showing kangaroos through time, different species of kangaroos have also been depicted. Depictions of large terrestrial animals (this beauty measures nearly 1.5m in length!) likely shows the diet during the last ice age (between 30,000 and 18,000 years ago) when the coastline was almost 160km away. This ones fat tail may indicate a species which is now extinct, or, may show an exaggerated tail because this was a prized part of the animal. You can learn more about the Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation and this rock art on your next visit to the Pilbara by booking a tour. Tours will be open to the public by September. https://www.murujuga.org.au/experience-murujuga/

01.01.2022 We echo the congratulations to our undergraduate students, in particular our students who took The Archaeology of Rock Art. Jo and Sam (and all the guest lecturers) have enjoyed our weekly lectures and tutorials, and we look forward to seeing you involved in future rock art projects! Congratulations to Dominik Fabry, Gaelen Giles and Joy Morrison for your outstanding achievements this semester.

01.01.2022 Ana Paula Motta's research dissertation will examine the human-animal relationship in rock art from the Kimberley as part of the Kimberley Visions ARC Project. Read more about how she is working to bridge the gap between science and art, past and present.

01.01.2022 New paper by Jo McDonald just out on the history of archaeological research in the Western Desert. "Its almost 20 years to the day that I first worked with Martu on the Canning Stock Route ... this paper is with gratitude to all the people who have taught me and shared their knowledge along the way" https://www.archaeologybulletin.org/articl/10.5334/bha-624/

01.01.2022 For this week’s #MotifMonday, we are showcasing some famous rock engravings from the Bronze Age monument Bredarör on Kivik in Scania, Sweden, dated to c. 14001300 BCE. This documentation was made in 1775 by the antiquarian Hilfeling on one of his many excursions to document prehistoric monuments and rock art. This was first published in Anders Forssenius dissertation in 1780 Monumentum Kiwikensi and it is sometimes referred to as the Stonehenge of northern Europe. In th...e last 15 years, CRAR+M’s Professor Joakim Goldhahn has researched this fascinating monument in several articles and two books. The latest book will be published this month and contains a bilingual republication of Forssenius dissertation in Latin and Swedish, with an extended English summary. You can learn more about this peculiar monument and the 1780 dissertation below. https://www.academia.edu//To_let_mute_stones_speak_on_the_

01.01.2022 Great to see that Wayne Brennan and colleagues are monitoring the fire impacts to rock art and other heritage in the Blue Mountains!

01.01.2022 Today we join in celebrating all the incredible Aboriginal Elders we are privileged to know and work with across Australia. We also acknowledge with mixed emotions that today's celebration is in part necessary because of the Stolen Generations legacy.