Aboriginal Maritime Landscapes of South Australia: The Balance Ground

Fowler, Madeline E. (2019) Aboriginal Maritime Landscapes of South Australia: The Balance Ground (Archaeology & Indigenous Peoples), Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY. Routledge, 196pp.

Abstract

Aboriginal Maritime Landscapes in South Australia reveals the maritime landscape of a coastal Aboriginal mission, Burgiyana (Point Pearce), in South Australia, based on the experiences of the Narungga community.

A collaborative initiative with Narungga peoples and a cross-disciplinary approach have resulted in new understandings of the maritime history of Australia. Analysis of the long-term participation of Narungga peoples in Australia’s maritime past, informed by Narungga oral histories, primary archival research and archaeological fieldwork, delivers insights into the world of Aboriginal peoples in the post-contact maritime landscape. This demonstrates that multiple interpretations of Australia’s maritime past exist and provokes a reconsideration of how the relationship between maritime and Indigenous archaeology is seen. This book describes the balance ground shaped through the collaboration, collision and reconciliation of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples in Australia. It considers community-based practices, cohesively recording such areas of importance to Aboriginal communities as beliefs, knowledges and lived experiences through a maritime lens, highlighting the presence of Narungga and Burgiyana peoples in a heretofore Western-dominated maritime literature.

Through its consideration of such themes as maritime archaeology and Aboriginal history, the book is of value to scholars in a broad range of disciplines, including archaeology, anthropology, history and Indigenous studies.

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