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Rock art is a distinctive expression of human behaviour that provides evidence of the cognitive, social, spiritual, technological, and cultural practices of past societies. Within the Australian context, Indigenous rock art research has predominantly been shaped by Western research frameworks, often prioritising tangible and formal analyses over Indigenous intangible values and perspectives. This has contributed to the marginalisation of Indigenous knowledge systems and reinforced colonial legacies in research theory and practice. Although the importance of intangible cultural heritage (ICH) is increasingly recognised, insufficient research has placed Indigenous relationships with rock art and Country at the centre of analysis. This thesis examines how researchers have historically engaged with Indigenous communities and intangible culture in Australian rock art research.
The research uses a qualitative methodology to analyse a corpus of rock art research materials to explore discourses within the literature. It uses grounded theory methodology, with open and axial coding, to describe what you did here with the sources in a few words. Two case studies within the Sydney-Hawkesbury region of south-eastern New South Wales are the focus of the study: Emu Cave and the Mount Ku-ring-gai Aboriginal Site. The analysis considers how research approaches have engaged with Indigenous communities and intangible values over time.
The findings show that researchers have not consistently engaged with Indigenous communities, with engagement acknowledged increasingly after the 2000s. Themes of intangible culture are more commonly noted implicitly with language, and are attributed overtly only once within the sample set. The analysis shows that as Indigenous and community consultation grows, reflecting what? so does consideration of intangible values. Future research on rock art should be engaged with, and where appropriate led by, Indigenous communities, placing exploration of intangible and tangible as equal and interconnected. |
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