Australia's long and ongoing Aboriginal history holds vital information about human identity, adaptability and resilience. We use culturally appropriate and cutting-edge analysis in collaboration with Aboriginal partners in the Pilbara, Kimberley and the South West to add to our research knowledge and to create sustainable heritage futures.

The history of Australia over recent centuries requires research into the archaeology of encounters with Europeans, Makassans and other visitors, examining emerging cross-cultural identities, shared histories, colonisation and dispossession.

Anthropology is a theoretically and methodologically informed process, each stage of which can yield fascinating information about the human past. Close forensic analysis of the many types of anthropological evidence reveals details about human life. From 'big picture' questions such as ‘what makes us human?’ to specific details, such as the last use of a stone tool. Collaboration with the Centre for Forensic Anthropology extends this work to the human body.

This ARC Linkage project will expand our understanding of Aboriginal settlement and land-use in north-west Australia by investigating how the mythological narratives of Australia’s deserts enable the transmission of knowledge in water-limited environments.

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Lead Chief Investigator, Professor Jo McDonald

The Desert People ARC Laureate Fellow brings innovative science & Indigenous knowledge together to develop new understandings of the 60,000-year custodianship of Australian deserts.

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Laureate Professor Pete Veth, FAHA

This project works with expert museum, gallery, library, archive and university researchers on a range of evidence of the Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie (VOC, or United East India Company) in Australian and international collections, including shipwrecks, artefacts, maps, letters, diaries and human remains, to examine Australia’s place in global networks involving Europe, Asia and Africa.

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Chief Investigator, Professor Alistair Paterson

ARC Centre of Excellence for Indigenous and Environmental Histories and Futures aims to generate a new direction in knowledge creation based on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander led approaches to managing Land and Sea Country.

The Centre expects to make a legacy contribution by developing complementary Indigenous and Western knowledge frameworks for modelling environmental, cultural, and historical change in Australia over the last millennium and into the near future.

Expected outcomes focus on sustainable Indigenous land and sea management planning for future decades. Benefits include improved forecasting of the trajectory of environmental change, an increase in the capacity of Indigenous research, creation of a pipeline for Indigenous students into research, and evidence-based policy-making.

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Chief Investigator, WA Node Leader, Professor Jo McDonald

This project aims to investigate the scientific lives of the first women who conducted archaeological work in Oceania from the late 19th to the mid-20th century, and document their hidden contributions to the development of Pacific archaeology, to ensure their stories and legacies become part of broader narratives in the history of science. 

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DECRA Research Fellow, Archaeology, Dr Emilie Dotte-Sarout