Abstract
Cultural heritage research is not impartial to local or wider politics. While community-based projects need to address local issues, histories and protocols, external forces such as legislation also influence methodologies. This chapter describes a process for developing collaborative approaches to research projects with Aboriginal groups in the Australian Wet Tropics that addresses local protocol and legislative frameworks to produce mutually beneficial research outcomes (of benefit to the researcher and the community). This process provided two-pronged outcomes—the researcher was able to identify, record and assess the preservation of cultural sites while Aboriginal communities used the project to assert ownership, build their own site databases, train younger land managers and rangers and record cultural knowledge. The approach also had limitations. Governance, resourcing, recognition of “native title” and other factors influenced both the capacity and desire for groups to participate in heritage projects. The resulting power sharing arrangements provides a framework for “working alongside” community groups in a post-native title landscape.
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Notes
- 1.
“Native title” in the Australian context refers to the common law doctrine of Aboriginal title. This is “the recognition by Australian law that Indigenous people have rights and interests to their land that come from their traditional laws and customs” (National Native Title Tribunal 2010).
- 2.
Queensland, for instance, has the Aboriginal Land Act 1991 (Qld) and the Torres Strait Islander Land Act 1991 (Qld).
- 3.
More than 5.7 million hectares of land have been transferred in Queensland (DNRM 2017).
- 4.
There is also a Torres Strait Islander Cultural Heritage Act 2003 which mirrors the ACHA; however, we refer to the ACHA in this chapter as the study area is within Aboriginal land.
- 5.
Recognising failed native title claimants as an Aboriginal party is currently under review by the Queensland government following the Nuga Nuga Aboriginal Corporation v Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnership decision in December 2017.
- 6.
The term “prescribed body corporate” (PBC) has a specific meaning under the Native Title Act 1993, that is, a corporation incorporated under the Corporations (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) Act 2006 (“CATSI Act”) and nominated by a group of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people to hold and manage (as trustee) or manage (as agent) their native title rights and interests when and if that group succeeds in having their native title recognised in a Federal Court determination. Once registered by the National Native Title Tribunal (NNTT) as required by the Native Title Act 1993, they are technically known as registered native title bodies corporate (RNTBCs). RNTBCs have statutory obligations under Act and the Native Title (Prescribed Bodies Corporate) Regulations 1999.
- 7.
The term “Old People” is used by many Aboriginal people to describe their ancestors who are thought to exist as spirits. Similarly, the Australian Aboriginal landscape is sentient, inhabited by a range of spirit beings.
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Acknowledgements
We thank MaMu Aboriginal Corporation, Mullen Bun Goon Limited, Wabubadda Aboriginal Corporation, Western Yalanji Aboriginal Corporation, Yirrganydji Gurabana Aboriginal Corporation and all the individual custodians involved in fieldwork, administrative support and project management for the rock art and dendroglyph recording and our many associated projects. This research was part of the Australian Research Council Discovery Grant Objects of Possession: Artefact Transactions in the Wet Tropics of North Queensland, 1870–2013 and individual projects received funding from the Wet Tropics Management Authority Student Research Grant Program, Queensland Indigenous Land and Sea Grants Program and James Cook University Post-Graduate Research Scheme.
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Buhrich, A., McIntyre-Tamwoy, S., Greer, S. (2019). Working Alongside: Community Archaeology in Post-native Title Australia. In: Jameson, J.H., Musteaţă, S. (eds) Transforming Heritage Practice in the 21st Century. One World Archaeology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-14327-5_8
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