EVENT: Archaeology Seminar Series

In this collaborative presentation, the Aboriginal Heritage Action Alliance's (AHAA) four cofounders share their differing perspectives on the role research has played in Aboriginal heritage campaigns in Western Australia, and present some findings on the evolving Aboriginal heritage legislative and administrative landscape. Some of these campaigns have drawn on conventional archaeological, anthropological, ethnographic and legal knowledge and research, but have also made use at times of less academically mainstream research methodologies and information sources to create a better understanding of the complex political, administrative and human landscape in which these campaigns have been situated. Some of these information gathering and investigative methodologies include the use of Freedom Of Information requests, Department of Aboriginal Affairs (DAA) Aboriginal Heritage Inquiry System database, professional and Aboriginal cultural networks, peer review of heritage reports and documents, parliamentary questions, investigative journalism, questionnaires and interviews, collation of media data, confidential human intelligence sources, Corruption and Crime Commission covert intelligence data, and others. The compilation of various sources provides an important advantage to public advocacy campaigns such as AHAA's current campaign against the WA State Government's Aboriginal Heritage Act Amendment Bill 2014, and recent highly controversial changes to the administration of WA's Aboriginal heritage by the Department of Aboriginal Affairs.