Unearthed Burial from Rising Sea Levels: A Collaborative Community Approach for Tackling Climate Change in the Torres Strait Islands, Australia

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Crucial Issues in United States Department of Defense Cultural Resources Management " session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The Torres Strait Islands, Australia, covers 50,000 km2 and includes 300 islands, with only 17 home to community settlements. Although regional maritime culture includes seascapes rich in cosmological and spiritual meaning, many sites that constitute cultural identity are under threat due to rising sea levels from climate change. Home to the Kaurareg people, the Murulag Island has been significantly impacted by sea-level rise. Recently, an Aboriginal burial was exposed through the highest king tide on record. The impact of sea-level change on burial and cultural sites has seen much concern and distress raised by Kaurareg elders. The lack of action by the Australian government to assist the community has resulted in the people lodging a formal complaint to the United Nations. They also sought out university archaeologists to assist them. Our paper shows how collaborative community-focused research was used to help recover their burial and repatriation. Salvage excavation, coastal modelling of shoreline loss, and a ground-penetrating radar survey to locate other burials were carried out. Our study is the first time archaeological rescue excavation has been completed in the Straits threatened by sea-level change. We hope this project will lead to an enhanced strategy for managing similar sites.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Crucial Issues in United States Department of Defense Cultural Resources Management   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36477.0