Rock-paintings of exotic animals in the Sydney Basin, New South Wales, Australia

Clegg, John; Ghantous, Simon

doi:10.3828/bfarm.2003.1.7

Cited by 3 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…Nonetheless, it must be noted that the identification of introduced motifs has provided vital insights into Indigenous responses to colonial‐contact and other cross‐cultural encounters (see, e.g. Balme & O'Connor, 2015; Clegg & Ghantous, 2003; May et al ., 2020a; McDonald, 2008; Paterson, 2005). As a result, contact rock art, that is, rock art created in the context of cross‐cultural encounters between Indigenous and foreign peoples is now understood as an active medium through which Indigenous people visualised and meditated changing social and ideological landscapes.…”

Section: Continuity and Change In Rock Artmentioning

confidence: 99%

Resistance and remembering through rock art: Contact‐period rock art in Wardaman country, Northern Australia

Kelly

2021

Archaeology in Oceania

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Although notions of resistance are not new in rock art research concerning cross‐cultural colonial encounters, this study shows how multiple dimensions of Indigenous resistance can be explored through a multidisciplinary analysis of rock art in northern Australia. The study explores the intersections between introduced “Western” and pre‐existing “traditional” motifs in rock art near Yingalarri waterhole in Wardaman Country, Northern Territory, analysing the visual conventions and superimpositions with an eye towards Wardaman epistemological engagements with rock art and experiences of colonial occupation. These intersections reveal further dimensions of Wardaman responses to colonial occupation, including the negotiation of shifting inter‐regional relationships and engagements with Country as well as the continued emphasis on inherited artistic practices. The study also explores the continuing role that rock art, and its interpretation, plays in Indigenous colonial resistance. Wardaman discussions of introduced motifs documented during the 1988–1991 Earthwatch project brought the paintings out of the past, giving them contemporary significance via kinship connections and narratives of survival that challenge colonial efforts to erase Indigenous experiences of early colonial contact and occupation. The paper contributes to archaeological understandings of inter‐regional connections between northern Australian rock art regions and rock art production and discussion as a means for Aboriginal resistance and remembrance after the arrival of Europeans.

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Section: Continuity and Change In Rock Artmentioning

confidence: 99%

Resistance and remembering through rock art: Contact‐period rock art in Wardaman country, Northern Australia

Kelly

2021

Archaeology in Oceania

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“…During our research only a few sites with definite contact imagery, such as horses, a pig, a musket and other introduced subjects, were documented in the Wollemi area . Clegg and Ghantous (2003) and McDonald (2008b) have reviewed the limited number of rock art images produced after contact in greater Sydney. Clegg and Ghantous (2003:263) suggest 'representations of European objects were incorporated into Aboriginal ritual and rock-art' but McDonald (2008b:16) concludes 'The rock art evidence would suggest that the arrival of the outsiders resulted in the termination of the Sydney region's symbolical and artistic culture.…”

Section: Contact Period Imagerymentioning

confidence: 99%

The contemporary cultural significance of Gallery Rock, a petroglyph complex recently found in Wollemi National Park, New South Wales, Australia

Taçon¹,

Brennan²,

King³

et al. 2019

Aesthetics, Applications, Artistry and Anarchy: Essays in Prehistoric and Contemporary Art

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In 2001 we began The Landscape of Blue Mountain Rock Art research project. Since then, over 250 rock art sites have been recorded in Wollemi National Park, consisting of engravings, drawings, stencils and some paintings. Two of the largest, best preserved and culturally significant sites are Eagle's Reach, with drawings and stencils, and Gallery Rock, an engraved platform. Although images were made using very different techniques there are many common subjects and stylistic features between the sites. Each location also shares imagery with smaller sites across southern Wollemi, where most research has been undertaken. For contemporary Aboriginal people of the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area these two sites are highly significant as interrelated cultural places that are focal points within larger cultural landscapes. In this paper, we report the contemporary cultural significance of Gallery Rock and articulate its relationship to Eagle's Reach and other nearby rock shelter art sites. Discussion focuses on the interpretation of some figures as key Ancestral Beings and whether some, such as Baiame, have a pre-European settlement context, something of great interest to John Clegg who visited Gallery Rock in 2007.

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“…Since that time, this engraving (a registered Aboriginal site) does not appear to have been of any great interest to archaeological researchers. Scholarship of post-contact rock art has in reality been focussed on "contact" art, being images of traditional style and execution most likely made at or immediately after contact (e.g., Clegg & Ghantous, 2003;McDonald, 2008). Engravings made with metal tools and/ or in a non-traditional style, even if by Aboriginal people, have generally not been considered, and it is almost accepted wisdom that the tradition of engraving and pigment art died out early in the colonial era and that knowledge of rock art amongst Sydney's Aboriginal people was all but gone by the 1840s (McDonald, 2008: 98-101, 110).…”

Section: Historical Versus Archaeological Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Changing Perspectives in Australian Archaeology, part III. Hidden in plain view—the Sydney Aboriginal Historical Places Project

Irish¹

2011

Tech. Rep. Aust. Mus., Online

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abstract. Post-contact Aboriginal archaeology is a relatively new but growing discipline in Australia, though most work has been focussed on non-urban areas. A scoping study initiated in 2006 sought to determine the viability of an historical and archaeological research project in Sydney, Australia's oldest and largest urban centre. Such research has not been previously attempted in a systematic way, due to the assumed high impact of European settlement on the region's post contact Aboriginal archaeology. The study has shown this not to be the case, combining the records of previous archaeological and historical research to create a spatial database of 280 post-contact Aboriginal places within the Sydney region. Preliminary analysis of this data has shown some interesting trends in the location and nature of these places, which suggest further research could be of significant value to the interpretation of post-contact Aboriginal history and the nature of cross-cultural interactions in urban centres, as well as pre-contact archaeology and traditional Aboriginal life in the region. The Sydney Aboriginal Historical Places Project has been formed to progress this research in conjunction with local Aboriginal communities in the Sydney region.

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Rock-paintings of exotic animals in the Sydney Basin, New South Wales, Australia

Cited by 3 publications

References 3 publications

Resistance and remembering through rock art: Contact‐period rock art in Wardaman country, Northern Australia

Resistance and remembering through rock art: Contact‐period rock art in Wardaman country, Northern Australia

The contemporary cultural significance of Gallery Rock, a petroglyph complex recently found in Wollemi National Park, New South Wales, Australia

Changing Perspectives in Australian Archaeology, part III. Hidden in plain view—the Sydney Aboriginal Historical Places Project

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