Abstract
The archaeology of Aboriginal people since European settlement, or post-contact archaeology, is a dynamic and highly contested area of study. It has a deep resonance in modern Australian life and is charged with significance for many people in the wider community who often have differing agenda. Far from being a dry academic pursuit, research in post-contact archaeology carries great emotional and political weight and has the power to affect major legal decisions with ongoing economic and cultural ramifications. It is also an area that has seen great change since the first work was done in the 1960s. It has grown from a narrowly focused study of Aboriginal people as subjects of European mission activity to a wide-ranging field that encompasses issues of identity and community history, long-term cultural and environmental change and understandings of colonisation as a process which is centrally engaged with contemporary political and legal issues around native title, the nature of history and what it means to be Australian in today’s society.
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Lawrence, S., Davies, P. (2011). Aboriginal Dispossession and Survival. In: An Archaeology of Australia Since 1788. Contributions To Global Historical Archaeology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-7485-3_3
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