SEMINAR: Anarchaeology of Graffiti - Sven Ouzman, UWA

Is Archaeology a tool – or even pathology – of European colonisation? Does it have liberatory potential? Can there be an archaeology of today and of tomorrow?

Increasingly, archaeologists are becoming aware of the discipline’s history and the need to de-colonise much of its theory and praxis. One strategy is to work with and even to incorporate Indigenous understandings of the past. Another move is studying ‘contemporary archaeology’ to reverse the gaze so that it is less ‘us’ studying ‘them’ than ‘us’ studying ‘us’. But such a move can be indulgent; so we need to examine what is at stake in studying ‘contemporary pasts’. Archaeological analysis of battlefields, prisons, homelessness, and garbage disposal have proved insightful in bringing marginalised people and pasts to the fore. In this spirit I use archaeological and rock art techniques to examine graffiti. Superficially understood as a modern language of the poor and peripheral; archaeological analysis shows graffiti to continue an ancient tradition of politically-engaged place-marking and making. I illustrate this point using case studies from southern Africa and Western Australia. I conclude by considering the definition and legal status of graffiti, heritage management implications, and the ethics of contemporary archaeology studies.