Navigating Contact: Tradition and Innovation in Australian Contact Rock Art

Abstract

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The missing Macassans: Indigenous sovereignty, rock art and the archaeology of absence

“…We argue that contact rock art was used as a tool by Aboriginal communities to communicate cross-cultural experiences and empower community members to navigate threats and engage with new opportunities (e.g. Frieman and May 2020). As argued elsewhere, watercraft dominate the introduced subject matter of rock art made during the last 500 years in northwest Arnhem Land (e.g.…”

“…Many hundreds of paintings were produced at Djulirri afterwards, including introduced watercraft, aircraft, European figures, a bicycle, a wagon, firearms, whaling gun, fighters wearing boxing gloves, letters from the English Alphabet, but also traditional subject matter such as depictions of Ngalyod (the Rainbow Serpent), kangaroos, and emus depicted in x-ray form, and more (e.g. Frieman and May 2020;May et al 2010;Figure 7). Other examples of sailing vessels were documented across the Wellington Range but in small numbers.…”

Survival, Social Cohesion and Rock Art: The Painted Hands of Western Arnhem Land, Australia

“…As discussed earlier, rock art has the remarkable ability not only to reflect periods of stress within and between different societies but also to play an active role in assisting these groups in navigating these experiences (e.g. Frieman & May 2019). It should follow that sudden, obvious shifts in style evidenced in the archaeological record may be indicating such episodes.…”

“…Chaloupka 1993). In fact, as recent research on contact rock art has shown (see Goldhahn & May 2019 for an overview) and as argued by Frieman and May (2019), Australian historical-period rock art reveals a dynamic, socially embedded series of practices which allowed new ideas, new materials and new ways of seeing the world to be examined, interrogated and selectively adopted into preexisting social structures and practices.…”

“…Some groups were so impacted by violence, incursions into their land and forced movement that they all but ceased rock-art production (Mulvaney 2018; Taçon et al 2012, 428), while others were drawn to connect with their rock-art traditions in new ways, such as by re-working earlier rock-art imagery (Taçon et al 2008). Still others engaged with the new subject matter, depicting introduced material culture and animals, as though reflecting on its significance (May et al 2017b); while, at the same time, they continued to produce more traditional motifs long after the novelty of these new subjects had run its course in rock art (Frieman & May 2019; May et al 2010; 2019).…”