Sew La Ti Embroidery:
Australasia

Unfortunately, most Australians have not had the privilege of visiting these special places. Such a visit radically expands a person’s understanding of Australian history as something that goes much, much deeper than our shallow, colonial roots of the last few hundred years.

To reinforce this broader understanding of identity and heritage, archaeologists, chemists, geologists, and physicists from the universities of Melbourne, Western Australia and Wollongong, Archae-Aus consultancy, and the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation launched a 3 year project across the Kimberley to date rock art using an astonishing variety of scientific techniques.

In 2014 the team was privileged to begin work along the King George River in Balanggarra Country, and has continued this year along the coast of Dambimangari Country.

The work involves careful study of the rock art and its associated cultural context and then taking very small samples mostly of mineral crusts, mudwasp nests and organic material growing on rock surfaces, for laboratory analysis.

These materials may also degrade the art itself over time, so understanding their formation will help guide future conservation and management practices.

No rock art dates are available yet – though indications are that some rock art is very recent, while other rock art traditions may be tens of thousands of years old.

These dates will help demonstrate to the outside world the depth and range of Kimberley rock art, and build the case for it to be recognised with World Heritage Site status.

These dates also help disprove false claims that some Kimberley rock art was not made by Aboriginal people.

To properly date and understand Kimberley rock art will take many years, but the Rock Art Dating Project team are confident the results will help grow a national pride and respect for this intellectual and cultural achievement made and looked after by Aboriginal people.

Source: Science Network WA [July 07, 2015]

Federal Environment Minister Greg Hunt has told Fairfax that he believes the Budj Bim landscape – stony rises from Mt Eccles near Macarthur to a prehistoric aquaculture system on Lake Condah and south to Tyrendarra wetlands – was an outstanding site that had the potential to achieve World Heritage status.

He has invited the Victorian government to complete an independently audited assessment to prove compliance with world heritage values.

If that showed there were "recognised outstanding universal values, then I would be delighted to propose this as a tentative item for listing by the World Heritage Committee", he said.

The Victorian Premier, Daniel Andrews, has written to Mr Hunt stating the Victorian government's full support for listing Budj Bim, and has forwarded a peer-reviewed study by leading scientists and archaeologists that finds the landscape is of international significance and that the criteria for listing is fully justified.

Budj Bim – the Indigenous name of Mt Eccles which produced the lava flow that was settled by the Gunditjmara Indigenous people thousands of years ago –  is already on the Australian National Heritage Register.

World Heritage listing would elevate it to the status of the Great Barrier Reef, one of the 19 Australian sites currently receiving international protection.

The Gunditjmara are considered unique in Australia. They lived in large villages constructed of stone huts and harvested eels and fish in a sophisticated network of weirs and traps, dated to at least 6600 years ago, that meant they had no need of a nomadic lifestyle.

The Gunditj Mirring Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation, backed by teams of archaeologists, historians and independent heritage experts, having been gathering evidence for a decade to support the nomination for UNESCO World Heritage listing.

Author: Tony Wright | Source: The Age [June 05, 2015]