Legislation: The Reality VS the Dream       Convenor:     Dr R. Luebbers

Examples of the way specific jurisdictions are applying legislation in Australia and around the world to achieve heritage conservation objectives. How does the reality differ from the vision? Observations on the directions and areas of improvements from those who work inside government.

• Mike McIntyre, Manager, Policy and Strategic Development, Heritage Victoria.
  "Legislation: Panacea to Strait-jacket".
  

      I take a personal journey through certain episodes in archaeology over the last 25-30 years. In passing, consideration is given to community expectations, legislative forms, and day-to-day realities against which Australian archaeology sometimes operates.



• Dr Joy Elley, Director, Heritage Services Branch, Aboriginal Affairs Victoria.
  "Managing Change in Aboriginal Heritage: A View from Inside".
  

      The landscape in which Aboriginal cultural heritage in Victoria is being managed and protected is undergoing great change. This paper will look at some of these changes and the way in which they are impacting on the administration of heritage protection legislation. Some of the changing circumstances being dealt with by Aboriginal Affairs Victoria include:

• A whole-of-government approach to Aboriginal Affairs
• Increasing involvement by Aboriginal communities in all aspects of cultural heritage management
• Increased awareness of Aboriginal cultural heritage issues
• Introduction of native title legislation
• AAV's incorporation into the Department of Natural Resources and Environment.

      While these changing circumstances present a great challenge to cultural heritage administrators, this paper will argue that they provide exciting opportunities to re-shape the way in which Aboriginal cultural heritage legislation is administered in Victoria.



• Ross Anderson, Maritime Archaeologist, Maritime Heritage Unit, Heritage Victoria.
  "Life-jackets, Not Strait-jackets: Community and Government in Maritime Heritage".
  

      This paper will attempt to show that the Victorian government and community have a close working relationship in the area of maritime heritage and archaeology.  Rather than government legislation and policy 'strait-jacketing' public access to historic shipwreck sites, government, individuals and community groups have worked in accord to achieve the goal of professionally conducted 'good' maritime archaeology (as opposed to unrestricted looting of sites), and dissemination of the resulting information to the general public.  This working relationship is embedded in government policy and legislation, and it will be argued this relationship has granted further life to our shipwrecks and the knowledge they contain.

Partnerships: Working with Community Members       Convenor:     Dr Jane Lydon

Consultation: how is it achieved and measured? Who defines the community and what is its aspiration about heritage? How are the boundaries of the community defined and how can archaeological service providers help? Do partnerships work?

• Dr Anita Smith, Researcher/Coordinator, Cultural Heritage Centre for Asia and the Pacific, Deakin University, Melbourne.
  "Cultural Tourism at Yarrawarra Aboriginal Community- A Collaborative Research Process".
  

      In 1997 the Yarrawarra Aboriginal Corporation on the north coast of NSW in partnership with the University of New England began a research project investigating archaeological and historical evidence in the area over which the Yarrawarra Garby Elders have custodianship. The specific aim of the project was to provide interpretive material for Yarrawarra’s eco-tourism enterprise. For the partnership to be successful the research process, the interpretive framework, and the generation of publications needed to be inclusive of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal practices and perspectives. In this paper I will discuss how the idea of landscape - both literal and theoretical - provided the context for this to take place.



• Tracy Ireland, PhD student, Department of Archaeology, University of Sydney.
  "Consultation Conundrums: An Analytical Discussion of Recent Contentious Cases in Sydney".
  

      Some recent archaeological heritage management projects in Sydney have raised a number of concerns about how to do effective community consultation and how to respond to issues raised in consultation in ethical and meaningful ways. Issues raised by the redevelopment of two sites will be discussed: the Randwick Destitute Children’s Asylum cemetery site, within the Prince of Wales Hospital, and the NSW Conservatorium of Music site. These examples highlight debates about the translation of community wishes into meaningful heritage management outcomes and professional problems with “invented attachments” to places and to things when they come under threat. It is suggested that heritage is a social/cultural process of identity construction and is a part of ongoing community building. Methodologies which focus only on evaluating the authenticity and historical importance of a community’s attachment to a place or a thing deny this role in community building and social change.



• Dr Nikki Stern, Lecturer, School of Historical and European Studies, La Trobe University.
  "Archaeological Research in Indigenous Africa: A View from Kenya".
  

      Dr Stern will discuss the procedures she followed in order to carry out archaeological research in Kenya, Africa, focusing upon the project’s relations with the indigenous community in respect to its expectations and the impact of daily reality.

Delivering the Product to the Community       Convenor:     Dr Richard Cosgrove

What do communities want to see or know? What do archaeologists wish to sell or give to the community? Is the legislative requirement the only reason we do our work? How do communities wish to see their heritage places presented? What products or services do communities need to understand their past? How is heritage used by the community? The packaging of Heritage.

• Dr Ian McNiven, Lecturer, School of Fine Arts, Classical Studies and Archaeology, University of Melbourne
  "An Acceptable Past? Issues in Decolonising Australian Indigenous Archaeology".
  

      Perhaps the greatest challenge to the long-term survival and viability of Australian Indigenous archaeology is making its practice acceptable and relevant to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. While important steps have been made in recent years in community consultation and the integration of archaeology into community-based heritage projects, I argue that much of what we do is still underwritten by subtle colonial tenets that continue to alienate the very people whose past we examine. Drawing on examples from my work in various parts of the continent, this paper examines some of these tenets and suggests avenues to make archaeology more acceptable to the Indigenous community.



• Professor Richard Wright, United Nations Consultant, Sydney.
  "Forensic Archaeology in Solving War Crimes: A Recent Example from Bosnia".
  

      This contribution will discuss the role of archaeology in criminal investigations of mass graves in Bosnia. The work has been carried out over the last four years by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), a UN organization based in The Hague. The ultimate archaeological product to be delivered to 'the community' is a report to ICTY on how the grave was found and how the bodies were exhumed, with observations on the method of disposal of the dead. In addition the report describes any signs of interference with the grave, such as attempts to hide the evidence by digging up the bodies and taking them away. Alternatively the grave may be a place to which bodies, dug up elsewhere, were imported and secreted, i.e. the grave is a secondary grave. The fieldwork therefore requires rigorous stratigraphic observations to be made and recorded.
      Forensic archaeology is not archaeological research. One measure of the favourable success of such an archaeological forensic report is that the defence chooses not to challenge it and so the report lies buried in ICTY's archives.



• Professor Tim Murray, School of Historical and European Studies, La Trobe University.
  "Some Recent Examples of Historical Archaeology in the Community".
  

      Over the past few years the Archaeology Program at La Trobe has been involved in several projects which have had a significant element of their rationale devoted to public heritage and heritage tourism programs. I will outline the Little Lon project (which had its first public manifestation as a display in the new Museum of Melbourne), the Camp Street Archaeological project (constructed with GML and Heritage Victoria), four honours dissertations in 2000 directed to strategic research for the Strathbogie Shire Council, and the new ARC Linkage project on the Archaeology of the Modern City which is being run in Sydney and Melbourne. I will conclude by reflecting on the value of these associations for teaching, research and the public advocacy of the value of archaeological heritage.