SEMINAR: Metal Burial: understanding caching behaviour and �contact� material culture in the NE Kimberley

This paper explores identity, and the impacts of cross-cultural encounters on individuals, material objects and cultural practices through a lens on cached modified metal objects and associated cultural materials from the NE Kimberley. These objects were wrapped in paperbark and weighed down within a stone rock-ring, a bundling practice also seen in human burials in this region. The utilisation of new materials (e.g. metal) with traditional techniques (edge-grinding metal into an axe) is explored. These objects and their potential owner(s) are contextualised within the invasion/ contact and particularly pastoral history of this region.