Making Waves: sea, art and archaeology

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Seacountries of Northern Australia and Island Neighbours", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

The sea country of Groote Eylandt was formed by ancestral beings who made a vast interconnecting network of islands and waterways; the saltwater that defines the contours of the land has also profoundly shaped Groote Eylandt culture, history and archaeology. Rock paintings of boats and fishing scenes occur from beach to hillside. Shells that once nourished the old people are scattered across sand dunes or stored in archive boxes. Bark paintings of turtles, shark and stingray are exhibited in galleries across Australia. Art and ocean have mediated lived experience and encounters between people and place for thousands of years. This paper explores the intersections between the maritime society of Groote Eylandt, archaeology and acts of creativity. It will consider the edges and the expanse of the maritime world, how art, whether viewed through the lens of cultural communication or contemporary practice, has the potential to enliven the way we think and do archaeology.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Seacountries of Northern Australia and Island Neighbours   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2023

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Contact(s): Nicole Haddow