Children and Rock Art: A Case Study from Western Arnhem Land, Australia

Goldhahn, Joakim; May, Sally K.; Maralngurra, Josie Gumbuwa; Lee, Jeffrey

doi:10.1080/00293652.2020.1779802

Cited by 11 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…This idea of art creation as a tool for educating is now well established (see Frieman and May 2020;Goldhahn et al 2020;May 2006May , 2008Taylor 1996). Elder Thompson Yulidjirri (pers.…”

Section: Rock Art As a Medium For Communicationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The missing Macassans: Indigenous sovereignty, rock art and the archaeology of absence

May

Wesley

Goldhahn

et al. 2021

Australian Archaeology

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The contact period rock art of northern Australia provides unprecedented insights into Aboriginal cross-cultural experiences during the last few hundred years. Northwest Arnhem Land, Australia, has an extensive rock art assemblage and a complicated history of interactions between Aboriginal communities and island South East Asians (Macassans), colonists, explorers, missionaries, buffalo shooters, and more. This contact period rock art offers a unique opportunity to explore a variety of questions relating to cross-cultural interactions and artistic responses to new people, objects and ideas. In this paper we argue that a dichotomy exists in the number of European and south-east Asian themed rock art motifs. We suggest that there is an underlying theme in the proliferation of European related imagery relating to threats to Indigenous sovereignty. Our findings suggest that rock art illustrates the Aboriginal community's responses to both groups and their experience of the existential threat posed by European intruders. The apparent lack of rock art relating to south-east Asian interactions, although perplexing, may in fact provide circumstantial evidence for a very different type of interaction between some northern Australian and southeast Asian communities.

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“…This idea of art creation as a tool for educating is now well established (see Frieman and May 2020;Goldhahn et al 2020;May 2006May , 2008Taylor 1996). Elder Thompson Yulidjirri (pers.…”

Section: Rock Art As a Medium For Communicationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The missing Macassans: Indigenous sovereignty, rock art and the archaeology of absence

May

Wesley

Goldhahn

et al. 2021

Australian Archaeology

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“…During the new millennium, several attempts have been unfolded which explicitly aim to link rock art to different ceremonial and ritual contexts (Goldhahn 1999;2016;Ross & Davidson 2006;Whitley 2011). A growing number of these studies have explored rock art in relation to gender and lifecourse rite de passage ceremonies, as a visual culture operating as an inter-generational medium in coming-of-age rituals (Goldhahn & Fuglestvedt 2012;Goldhahn et al 2020;Hays-Gilpin 2004;May et al 2019). Most, if not all, of these studies have predominantly relied on formal scientific analyses of material culture from archaeological contexts (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘I Have Done Hundreds of Rock Paintings’: On the Ongoing Rock Art Tradition among Samburu, Northern Kenya

Goldhahn¹,

Labarakwe²,

Skoglund³

et al. 2020

CAJ

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In this paper, we discuss observations from fieldwork in northern Kenya which revealed solid evidence for a vital ongoing rock art tradition among warriors of Samburu—lmurran. They make rock art during their lives as warriors, typically between the ages of 15 and 30, when they live away from their villages, herding cattle and thus representing a specific ‘community of practice’. Our findings reveal that Samburu rock art is made predominantly as a leisure occupation, while camping in shelters, as part of activities also involving the preparation of food. Typical images include domestic animals, humans (both men and women) and occasionally wild animals such as elephants and rhinos. Each age-set and new generation of lmurran is inspired by previous artwork, but they also change the tradition slightly by adding new elements, such as the recent tradition of writing letters and names close to the images. We conclude that even though rock art as such is not part of any ritual or ceremonial setting, it plays an important role as an inter-generational visual culture that transfers a common ongoing cultural engendered warrior identity through time.

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The Critique of Learning Inclusion in a Digital World: A Conversation

Dobson,

Svoen,

Agrusti

et al. 2024

Sustainable Development Goals Series

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In this chapter the editors respond to questions raised by Arjen Wals (SDG4 subseries advisor of the Springer SDG series) and his reading of this book as a whole: Is it possible to envisage a counter-movement to the digital age? Are we the editors too distracted by the promise of the digital and risk neglecting how it might colonise our minds, creating new forms of exclusion—despite the importance of digital story telling? What of those who prioritise the digital before other basic human needs, such as food, water and housing? How does this book’s focus upon SDG 3, 4 and 11 relate to other SDG’s?

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Children and Rock Art: A Case Study from Western Arnhem Land, Australia

Cited by 11 publications

References 42 publications

The missing Macassans: Indigenous sovereignty, rock art and the archaeology of absence

The missing Macassans: Indigenous sovereignty, rock art and the archaeology of absence

‘I Have Done Hundreds of Rock Paintings’: On the Ongoing Rock Art Tradition among Samburu, Northern Kenya

The Critique of Learning Inclusion in a Digital World: A Conversation

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