Juukan Gorge: The Story of Destruction, Excavation and Rebuilding
Part of: Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)
This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Juukan Gorge: The Story of Destruction, Excavation and Rebuilding" at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.
On the 24th of May 2020 the world was shocked to learn of the destruction of Juukan Gorge by mining company Rio Tinto as part of their mine expansion. Blasting of the gorge included severe damage to rockshelters known to be over 40,000 years old and containing a unique cultural history of the Puutu Kunti Kurrama People. Public outcry ensued. The Australian Federal Government conducted a Parliamentary enquiry, and heritage protection legislation was changed. However, we question how effective have these changes been and what lessons have been learned from this disaster.
This session is provided by the PKKP Aboriginal Corporation and those who assisted with the archaeological investigations; originally and now as the Gorge is rehabilitated. In the session we present the history of excavations, destruction, re-excavation and attempts to move forward. This is the first public presentation of this information, discussing the extreme archaeological significance of Juukan and its place in the cultural landscape of the PKK.
Other Keywords
Cultural Resources and Heritage Management •
Historic •
Paleolithic •
Caves and Rockshelters •
Cultural Resource Management •
Cultural Heritage and Preservation
Geographic Keywords
AUSTRALIA •
Commonwealth of Australia (Country) •
Queensland (State / Territory) •
Australia (Continent) •
Victoria (State / Territory) •
New South Wales (State / Territory) •
Tasmania (State / Territory) •
South Australia (State / Territory) •
Western Australia (State / Territory) •
Australian Capital Territory (State / Territory)
Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-4 of 4)
- Documents (4)
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The Legacy of the Destruction of Juukan Gorge in Australia (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Juukan Gorge: The Story of Destruction, Excavation and Rebuilding" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. On the 24th of May 2020, mining company Rio Tinto destroyed significant rockshelters at Juukan Gorge, in the western Hamersley Range of Western Australia’s Pilbara Region, as part of its iron ore operations. This event had devastating consequences for the Puutu Kunti Kurrama People, who have now lost one of their most...
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Securing the Future for PKKP through the Remediation of Juukan Gorge and Beyond (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Juukan Gorge: The Story of Destruction, Excavation and Rebuilding" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Following the destruction of Juukan Gorge, the PKKP Aboriginal Corporation led the Juukan Gorge Remediation Project, which saw the rehabilitation of the broader Juukan Gorge area within line of site from the Juukan-2 rockshelter. This paper is an exploration of those rehabilitation efforts, which includes the...
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A Simpler Time: Archaeological Excavations and Assessment at Juukan Gorge 2008–2014 (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Juukan Gorge: The Story of Destruction, Excavation and Rebuilding" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper discusses the archaeological excavations at Juukan Gorge in 2008 and then in 2014. We present a Late Pleistocene and Holocene chronology for the Gorge (see Slack et al. 2009), indicating that Aboriginal people first occupied the interior of the Hamersley Plateau in Western Australia over 46,000 years ago....
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The World’s Largest Archaeological Jigsaw Puzzle: Excavations at Juukan Gorge 2022–2023 (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Juukan Gorge: The Story of Destruction, Excavation and Rebuilding" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Since 2022 a team of archaeologists in collaboration with the PKK People has been re-excavating the Juukan 2 site. Under the rubble of the blast, we have found an in situ cultural deposit with largely intact material culture. This paper describes the process and methodology we have used to find this delicate sedimentary...