Public archaeology and Indigenous culture

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This publication is a small contribution to a much larger social and political debate in Australia, of which archaeology is a significant contributor. My approach to the question and ultimate conclusion was careful to avoid making archaeology an elite process divorced from the everyday. Rather I considered archaeology as a culturally laden term that promotes certain approaches to the study of the past and considered how other equally valid cultural approaches to the past should also form the discussion about a public archaeology. In particular the treatment of different periods of Australia's past such as our relatively short historical period and our immensely time deep Indigenous pre-history. The impact of the past upon significant National issues such as reconciliation between Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Australians is ever present and requires a greater acknowledgement and importantly, understanding, if this goal is to be achieved in a meaningful way that provides tangible improvements to the lives of Indigenous Australians.

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