Once were foragers: The archaeology of agrarian Australia and the fate of Aboriginal land management

Paterson, Alistair

doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2016.12.047

Cited by 13 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…This work has explored the ways by which communities re-authored colonial material culture for their own purposes and supplemented nutritionally and culturally inadequate rations with their own food quests (Harrison 2002;Smith 2001;Smith and Smith 1999). In studies of the pastoral agricultural domain, previous researchers have also established that communities were sometimes able to adapt their art and ritual scheduling in order to maintain social cohesion and links to country and to mitigate growing dependence on station life (Head and Fullagar 1997;O'Connor et al 2013;Paterson 2018a). Similar readings of labor relationships in the contemporary and closely related pearling industry, however, have thus far remained out of reach.…”

Section: {Fig 1 Near Here}mentioning

confidence: 99%

Power in Food on the Maritime Frontier: A Zooarchaeology of Enslaved Pearl Divers on Barrow Island, Western Australia

Dooley

Manne

Paterson

2020

Int J Histor Archaeol

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Use of Indigenous divers on nineteenth-century northwest Australian pearling luggers gave rise to a transregional apparatus of coercion, physical mistreatment, and arguably, slavery. Where accounts of conditions experienced by divers are limited to the documents of contemporary colonial men, our contribution explores a rare archaeological perspective. Zooarchaeological and taphonomic analysis of the Bandicoot Bay campsite, Barrow Island, evokes an exploitative labor relationship inherited from a wider colonial process yet actively re-negotiated by its participants through subsistence practices. The operation's pearlers selected a camp that advantaged concerns for labor organization and resource management while their divers seized opportunities for self-directed subsistence.

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Section: {Fig 1 Near Here}mentioning

confidence: 99%

Power in Food on the Maritime Frontier: A Zooarchaeology of Enslaved Pearl Divers on Barrow Island, Western Australia

Dooley

Manne

Paterson

2020

Int J Histor Archaeol

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“…However, some native landscapes in Australia have been converted to industrialised agriculture as recently as the 1980s (Kasel & Bennett, 2007). Prior to European settlement, the reports of early European explorers suggest that the indigenous communities practiced low-impact, low intensity, sustainable agriculture utilising native species, with cultivation methods that involved minimal soil disturbance and little modification of the native nutrient cycles; there were no hard-hoofed ruminants (Pascoe, 2018;Paterson, 2018). By contrast, Europe and Asia have a long (centuries) history of land-use for industrialised agriculture (Goldewijk & Ramankutty, 2004).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Agricultural land‐use favours Mucoromycotinian, but not Glomeromycotinian, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi across ten biomes

et al. 2021

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Globally, agricultural land-use negatively affects soil biota that contribute to ecosystem functions such as nutrient cycling, yet arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are promoted as essential components of agroecosystems. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi include Glomeromycotinian AMF (G-AMF) and the arbuscule-producing fine root endophytes, recently reclassified into the Endogonales order within Mucoromycotina. The correct classification of Mucoromycotinian AMF (M-AMF) and the availability of new molecular tools can guide research to better the understanding of their diversity and ecology.To investigate the impact on G-AMF and M-AMF of agricultural land-use at a continental scale, we sampled DNA from paired farm and native sites across 10 Australian biomes.Glomeromycotinian AMF were present in both native and farm sites in all biomes. Putative M-AMF were favoured by farm sites, rare or absent in native sites, and almost entirely absent in tropical biomes. Temperature, rainfall, and soil pH were strong drivers of richness and community composition of both groups, and plant richness was an important mediator.Both fungal groups occupy different, but overlapping, ecological niches, with M-AMF thriving in temperate agricultural landscapes. Our findings invite exploration of the origin and spread of M-AMF and continued efforts to resolve the phylogeny of this newly reclassified group of AMF.

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“…Other colonial ventures existed on the west Australia coast but are not considered likely to relate to the site: whaling (these sites are now well known and occur on parts of the coast where whale migrations are visible [Paterson et al . ]); sheep pastoralism (pastoral leases existed for Barrow Island; however, there the material evidence is inconsistent with pastoral sites, also now well understood [Paterson ]); and coastal ports, involving colonial oversight, which would be already well understood from historical accounts and revealed through port infrastructure such as jetties and landings of which there are none at Barrow Island. From these findings, it was concluded that the site most likely reflected a settlement related to the colonial pearl fisheries, as the only itinerant maritime industry known to have made use of significant Aboriginal crews during the period (Paterson , ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Island survival: The anthracological and archaeofaunal evidence for colonial‐era events on Barrow Island, north‐west Australia

Byrne

Dooley

Manne

et al. 2019

Archaeology in Oceania

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The establishment of north-west Australia's nineteenth-century pearlshell fisheries led to the first occupation of many arid offshore islands since the early mid-Holocene. The nature of this occupation, and how crews subsisted on such remote landscapes, remains poorly understood. We investigate a rare instance of an archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological record for this colonial-era activity at Bandicoot Bay, Barrow Island. Varied taxonomic representation suggests an atypical subsistence strategy for a maritime industry, involving broad exploitation of resources over several local landscapes and an absence of remains of provisioned food. Identified plant taxa largely conform to resources known ethnographically to have been exploited by north-west Aboriginal communities, and many relate to traditional food practices. The spatial patterning of charred wood and bone suggests multiple burning activities and areas of specific use. Conditions of wood fuel on the island may have prompted the augmentation of fuel, indicated by the presence of non-local wood charcoal and high proportions of calcined bone. These findings (i) are consistent with the hypothesis that the site's occupants originated from the north-west as part of coerced pearling labour and (ii) provide unique insight into the role offshore islands may have occupied in the management of this industry's labour forces. RÉSUMÉAu 19 e siècle, le développement d'une industrie de pêche des huitres perlières dans le nord-ouest de l'Australie entraina la première réoccupation de nombreusesîles arides de cette région, après celles datant du milieu de l'Holocène. La nature de ces occupations et la façon dont leséquipages purent subsister au sein de milieux si isolés demeurent mal comprises. Nous examinons ici un exemple rare d'assemblages archéozoologiques et archéobotaniques pour ce type d'activités de la période coloniale, dans la baie de Bandicoot, Barrow Island. La diversité des représentations taxonomiques de faune suggère une stratégie de subsistance atypique pour une industrie maritime, incluant un mode d'exploitation extensif des ressources issues de plusieurs environnements locaux, ainsi qu'une absence de restes provenant de nourriture approvisionnée. Les taxons botaniques identifiés correspondentà ceux exploités par les communautés aborigènes du nord-ouest du continent, selon les données ethnographiques, et beaucoup sont associés aux pratiques de subsistance traditionnelles. La répartition spatiale des restes anthracologiques et de faune suggère l'existence de plusieurs types de combustion et zones d'activités spécialisées. La disponibilité du bois de feu sur l'île a pu motiver la recherche de solutions pour augmenter les ressources en combustible, comme semble l'indiquer la présence de charbons de bois d'essence non locale et les proportions importantes d'os calcinés. Ces résultats (i) supportent l'hypothèse selon laquelle les occupants de ce siteétaient originaires du nord-ouest du continent et furent déplacés par le biais du système de travail forcé imposé ...

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Once were foragers: The archaeology of agrarian Australia and the fate of Aboriginal land management

Cited by 13 publications

References 27 publications

Power in Food on the Maritime Frontier: A Zooarchaeology of Enslaved Pearl Divers on Barrow Island, Western Australia

Power in Food on the Maritime Frontier: A Zooarchaeology of Enslaved Pearl Divers on Barrow Island, Western Australia

Agricultural land‐use favours Mucoromycotinian, but not Glomeromycotinian, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi across ten biomes

Island survival: The anthracological and archaeofaunal evidence for colonial‐era events on Barrow Island, north‐west Australia

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