SEMINAR: Archaeology Seminar Series

The concept of archaeological significance and its assessment is a particularly vexing issue for archaeologists working in Indigenous heritage management in Western Australia. Recent events including the resources boom, proposed heritage legislation reform, associated changes to the application of section 5, resultant de-registering of Aboriginal Sites and WA Supreme Court decision have all brought the issue of heritage values and significance into sharp focus. They have also highlighted a critical need for a comprehensive interrogation of the overarching processes and values of heritage management practice in Western Australia.

My proposed PhD research aims to investigate the process by which Indigenous archaeological sites are attributed value and assessed for significance under the Western Australian Aboriginal Heritage Act 1972. Using four Western Australian case studies I aim to map and critically analyse current valuing and significance assessment processes in order to examine the underlying value and ideological structures, how these affect the process and what effects governance, political,social and economic contexts have on the outcomes. I further seek to contextualise current Western Australian praxis within a global context through comparative analysis with international examples, particularly within multicultural, multi-ethnic contexts where ascriptions of significance values are regularly contradictory and contested. This comparative perspective will allow an assessment of how current local practice could be transformed into a more transparent, inclusive and consensus-based process.