Conference Theme

Over the last decades, cultural tourism has been one of the most globally significant areas of economic development and growth. In Australia, colonial monuments continue to receive attention and the demand for ‘Aboriginal tourism experiences’ is increasing. The Federal Government and State Governments continue to focus on Aboriginal tourism as a strategy for economic development and social improvement. However, significant critical questions need to be asked about the mechanisms that are driving these developments as well as the position of archaeological and heritage practitioners within this field. Is the growth of cultural tourism a product of a romanticised and ultimately revisionist nostalgia? Is the interest in Aboriginal tourism experiences a consequence of problematic notions of an untouched deep past of Australia and contemporary Aboriginal people? These themes are directly connected to aspects of social justice. Their critical analysis and understanding must be the basis of a sustainable calibration of the intellectual and socio-economic relationships between Western scientific, popular, and Indigenous narratives, particularly in relation to cultural tourism. This session welcomes contributions from archaeology, Indigenous studies, tourism studies, and heritage studies that discuss intersections between public, Indigenous and academic discourses about time and history within the realm of cultural tourism in Australia.

Session Convenors:
Laura Mayer, The University of Western Australia
Martin Porr, The University of Western Australia
Rebecca Corps, The University of Western Australia

Culturally modified trees is a term used to describe trees that have been culturally altered or used by The Traditional Custodians of Australia. These trees are an important living part of Country, with tangible links to deep time, historical and contemporary cultural practices in Australia. The diversity of form and cultural function within this site type cannot be understated. Modifications can include carvings, the removal of bark and wood, resource extraction holes, and the active shaping of tree limbs. Beyond the socioeconomic function of tangible bark objects and tree modifications, these cultural trees represent ongoing intangible cultural connections including political and spiritual connections. While these trees may physically only be several hundred years old, they represent the transmission of Traditional Ecological Knowledge and cultural connections that have continued for millennia. Importantly, these trees represent an ongoing cultural practice, with Traditional Custodians continuing to modify trees today. As a living site type, they are particularly vulnerable to development, drastically changing climate and the trees' own lifespan. This session looks to bring together different voices and perspectives on culturally modified trees by Traditional Custodians and archaeologists from different parts of Australia, including the attributes, purposes and diversity of cultural meanings of culturally modified trees.

Session Convenors:
Abby Cavanagh, Archaeologist/Heritage Consultant
Madonna Thomson, Jagera Daran Pty Ltd
Kate Greenwood, Greenwood Consultancy

Since the First People, the sea has been a place of beings and spirits, an environment that facilitates travel and connections, and a giver of resources. But over the past 80,000 years the sea has also experienced cycles of rising and falling, it has come and gone, revealing and covering enormous areas of land. Whilst the study of submerged palaeolandscapes is an area of increasing interest in Australia, there is much that can be learnt about past human interactions with the sea through the cycles of sea level rise and fall.

This session explores past relationships between people, the sea and the landscapes that have been shaped by cycles of changing sea level. We will explore the people and archaeology of landscapes, coastlines, and seascapes that are currently underwater (either completely or in the intertidal zone), that find themselves isolated today as islands, or former coastlines that are now some distance from the sea. We seek to move on from technical discussions about how submerged palaeolandscapes are investigated towards a ‘re-peopling’ these places that centres Indigenous voices and experiences of sea country through the changing cycles of time and sea.

Session Convenor:
Hanna Steyne, Wessex Archaeology

The Australian Association of Consulting Archaeologists Inc. (AACAI) invites participation in a session that critically explores the ever-evolving role of consulting archaeologists in shaping ethical, inclusive, and time-conscious heritage practices. Our session examines how temporal frameworks influence consulting archaeology and how practitioners can better integrate Indigenous perspectives and community priorities. It will showcase how consulting archaeologists are continuing to rethink their methodologies to move beyond compliance-driven models towards approaches that are collaborative and culturally informed. It aims to continue fostering dialogue among practitioners, Traditional Owners, policymakers, and academics to share insights and develop pathways for more ethical and inclusive consulting archaeology practices.

We welcome papers that reflect on the following:

• Decolonising Practice: Strategies for embedding Indigenous knowledge and voices in heritage assessments.
• Ethical Frameworks: Implementing AACAI’s Code of Ethics in contemporary consulting scenarios.
• Community Engagement: Case studies highlighting successful collaborations with Traditional Owner groups.
• Policy and Legislation: Navigating the impact of heritage laws on consulting archaeology practices.

AACAI’s commitment to ethical practice and community engagement positions this session as a critical platform for discussing the responsibilities and opportunities facing consulting archaeologists today.

Session Convenors:
JJ McDermott, Australian Association of Consulting Archaeologists Inc
Lynley Wallis, Australian Association of Consulting Archaeologists Inc

This session will showcase an active two-way research program being undertaken as an ARC Linkage Project (LP200300886). Focused on the three vast heritage estates of our partner Aboriginal communities: Martu/JYAC, Birriliburu IPA (MNR) and Murujuga (MAC) our multidisciplinary and two-way research team includes archaeologists, hydrologists, anthracologists, botanists, ecologists, anthropologists and partners from DBCA, WAM, Woodside, BHP and Newcrest. The project seeks to understand connections between the desert and the sea and to explore how mythological narratives and rock art facilitate knowledge transmission in the arid zone.

By focusing on Jukurr: open mythological narratives and songlines, four research nodes are exploring interactions of people on Country through time. This session will highlight some of the outputs from the first two years of the project, with 12 papers proposed from our Indigenous partners and multidisciplinary team. Papers will include contributions on rock art, stories, water, plants, cultural objects, heritage training and school outreach program, with strong participation by our indigenous partners.

Session Convenors:
Sam Harper, The University of Western Australia
Jo McDonald, The University of Western Australia
Peter Jeffries, Mudz Enterprises
Melvin Farmer, Birriliburu IPA (MNR)

This session will showcase recent research and developments in Noongar archaeology, heritage, and cultural heritage management across the greater Boorloo (Perth) region—spanning from the foothills of the Darling Scarp in the east to Wadjemup (Rottnest Island) in the west and centred on the Swan Coastal Plain. During periods of lower sea level, this landscape expanded significantly westward, beyond Wadjemup.

Hallam’s pioneering systematic surveys and detailed historical research in the 1970s and 1980s documented numerous surface sites and proposed a model of Noongar land use centred on wetlands, plant husbandry, and landscape management through fire. Several dated sites indicate Aboriginal occupation extending back more than 40,000 years. This deep-time history culminates in colonial period sites with glass artefacts and in living Noongar tradition.

Although the difficulties of dating may have discouraged some academic research, urban expansion—particularly to the north and south of Perth—has increased the demand for detailed evaluations to inform and support heritage protection.

This session aims to re-assess the archaeological potential of the region and its cultural connections across time and space, as revealed through recent work. It will interest practitioners engaged in cross-cultural, collaborative research in urban regions facing development pressures and anthropogenic environmental change.

Session Convenors:
Caroline Bird, Archae-aus
Joe Dortch, Dortch Cuthbert
Fiona Hook, Archae-aus
Sven Ouzman, The University of Western Australia
Richenda Prall, Rottnest Island Authority
Jo Thomson, Big Island Research

This year’s digital archaeology session focuses on how archaeologists have embraced digital technology and tools (archaeotech) to document, interpret and communicate the different elements of change and continuity inherent within archaeology. The integration of other disciplines, such as remote sensing, data science, GIS, and virtual reality have also improved the accessibility, efficiency and accuracy of documentation, data collection and analysis. New and adapted digital workflows can both improve time management and enable the visualisation of change over time in ways that are simply not possible using analogue methods. Change detection within and between archaeological sites is one of the major advances in this space and we are increasingly moving beyond 3D models to 4D – adding the dimension of time. Archaeotech can also be used to develop different ways to track and quantify change and visualise time, challenging the orthodoxy and innovating in ways that can support previously underrepresented groups to mobilise archaeology in new and exciting ways. Archaeotech provides an important set of tools that can be used to create high quality outputs to aid in communication of different elements of change through time to stakeholders and community members. We invite papers that showcase the varied ways in which archaeotech is pushing the boundaries and improving the way we document and interpret archaeological places.

Session Convenors:
Emma Beckett, The University of Western Australia
Andrea Jalandoni, Griffith University

Time is a narrative. In whatever way time is marked or measured, the passage of time creates and nurtures stories which archaeologists have the privilege of unlocking through our interpretations of the material cultural record. In this session, we invite papers that speak to narratives of ‘time’ through the study of stone artefacts. Stone endures, and people’s interactions with it feed our knowledge of the deep and recent past as well as contemporary connections. We encourage papers that tell stories about place, technology, landscape and/or science through stone structures, places, and artefacts, or which connect us with Ancestral and Traditional Knowledges.

In line with the conference theme, we particularly encourage papers that delve into changing practices, including the ways that stone technology is interpreted through collaboration with Traditional Owners, or that challenge the concept of linear time and the ‘past’ as a separate entity, through models of endurance and connection. Student contributions and presentations by Traditional Owners will be prioritised for inclusion in this session.

Session Convenors:
Jenna Walsh, Flinders University
Rebekah Kurpiel, La Trobe University

Archaeological narratives that span deep time are often framed against palaeoenvironmental shifts unfolding on geological timescales, where resolution is measured in millennia and human-scale temporality becomes difficult to discern. Within the long-view, the specifics of human behaviour - decisions, actions, encounters, choices - can blur or become lost, especially where the record is fragmentary, taphonomically complex, or sparsely resolved. Yet in regions like the Pilbara uplands, the deep record sometimes sharpens into focus, revealing moments that are more than simply human presence at an indistinct point in time. As multi-disciplinary methods and techniques evolve, research examining the interplay and tensions between "deep time" and "human time" is becoming a dynamic and timely theme.

This session invites papers that explore such moments in the Pilbara, and other arid landscapes, where an action, an expression of preference, a shift in practice, or a specific activity has been found legible in the archaeological record. Participants are encouraged to present work that looks at particular episodes in time, explores methodological innovation, and foregrounds examples of human agency and decision-making within broader temporal arcs, embracing the granular, the situated, and the resolutely human.

Session Convenor:
Kathryn Przywolnik, Wintawari Guruma Aboriginal Corporation

To what extent are gender and sexually diverse individuals and groups made visible in the structures and work of Australian archaeology? This session draws on queer theory and personal experience to broadly question notions of fixed difference (e.g., a male-female binary), ‘normal’ (e.g., heteronormativity), and representations of intersectionality; and the concept of ‘queering’ to question archaeological assumptions about social, political, legal, cultural and economic processes’ ability to deliver on social justice outcomes. Questions that might be explored include: How have archaeologists who identify as LGBTQI+ shaped the history and practices of Australian archaeology? What are the present-day experiences of queers working in the discipline—fabulous, dark, or otherwise? What does it mean to do queer archaeology in the Indigenous-migrant settler context of Australia? What would a queering of Australian archaeology look like and hope to achieve?

The ‘lightening round’ session will comprise six x 10-minute papers (ideally provocations) and a 60-minute panel discussion. We are seeking abstracts—from those who identify as queer as well as allies—for short papers or self-nominations to the panel (via direct contact with the session co-chairs).

Session Convenors:
Steve Brown, University of Canberra
Ursula Frederick, University of Canberra
Madeleine Kelly, Flinders University
Clay Law, Taungurung Land & Waters Council

“It’s about bringing the Traditional Owners to the conversation from the very start, not at the end or half way through when you know all the management recommendations have been done anyway as a tokenistic approach” (Jake Goodes at the Gariwerd Rock Art Management Forum, 2023)

Since 2023, the Gariwerd Rock Art Management Initiative has sought to provide a platform for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to engage with and share Indigenous worldviews of looking after rock art and heritage through self-determined ownership and collaborative efforts. This year as the AAA conference considers the theme ‘Its About Time’ and the voices that have been silenced and marginalised through archaeology and maritime archaeology, the GRAMI collective will once again look to provide a forum for the agency, authority, rights and responsibilities of Australia’s First Peoples to reclaim the narrative - showcasing and celebrating strengths-based approaches and innovative opportunities to continuing challenges. Exploring archaeology in all forms through biocultural interconnections of Country, sea and sky, this session will involve Indigenous-led presentations followed by a panel discussion with presenters.

Session Convenors:
Melissa Marshall, The University of Notre Dame Australia 
Reginald Clarke, Eastern Maar Aboriginal Corporation
Leroy Malseed, Gunditj Mirring Traditional Owner Aboriginal Corporation
Colin Gorton, Barengi Gadjin Land Council
Michael Douglas, Barengi Gadjin Land Council
Kylie Boundy, Barengi Gadjin Land Council
John Clarke, Eastern Maar Aboriginal Corporation
Nathalia Guimaraes, Eastern Maar Aboriginal Corporation
Emily Corris, Eastern Maar Aboriginal Corporation
Chrystle Carr, Eastern Maar Aboriginal Corporation
Troy Lovett, Gunditj Mirring Traditional Owner Aboriginal Corporation
Bill Bell, Gunditj Mirring Traditional Owner Aboriginal Corporation
Jake Goodes, Parks Victoria
Wendy Luke, Parks Victoria
Dave Lucas, Parks Victoria
Lloyd Pigram, The University of Notre Dame Australia 
Cissy Gore Birch, Kimberley Cultural Connections

Murujuga Traditional Owners and Custodians (Ngarda-Ngarli) have lived on, cared for and managed an ever-evolving landscape for over 50,000 years. Although colonisation and subsequent dispossession interrupted traditional management of Country, the resilience of Ngarda-Ngarli and their strong connection to country has allowed for the reintroduction of Indigenous management at Murujuga.

Although the industry has dramatically improved the recognition of heritage and protection, perspective of what heritage management is remains underpinned by academic interpretations of value and important conversation around nature/culture and Indigenous perspectives often remains within the context of approvals and assessments. The reality is that heritage management continues long after these processes, and Ngarda-ngarli work every day to protect, sustain and contextualise heritage within a living cultural tradition.

At Murujuga, heritage management is more than the identification and documentation of places and history. It is the holistic management and protection of land and sea, plants and animals, environmental processes, access to country, the practice of culture, the succession of knowledge, and the safety of visitors.

It’s about time we reflect on the historically underrepresented perspectives of Indigenous Australians in the field, and this session showcases how Ngarda-Ngarli rangers undertake the day-to-day management of heritage when the archaeologists go home.

Session Convenors:
Victoria Wade, Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation
Amy Stevens, Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation
Candace Willison, Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation

This session will explore how archaeological evidence from maritime and coastal contexts reveals Australia's past connections to the world, encompassing economic through to social aspects. We are interested in papers that illustrate the networks of trade, cultural exchange and migration that have shaped Australia's identity. We invite papers on significant encounters such as those related to the Dutch East India Company, or interactions with Asian entrepreneurs in Northern Australia. The colonial realities of these connections in maritime and coastal contexts are encouraged, particularly those related to labour, cultural entanglement and exploitation. We invite presentations that specifically deal with the archaeological record — from artefacts, shipwrecks, or settlement patterns — to provide a deeper understanding of these global connections. By examining the archaeological record, we aim to highlight the ways in which Australia has engaged with diverse cultures throughout history. This session seeks to foster a rich dialogue on the implications of these findings for our understanding of Australia's past and its place in the global narrative.

Session Convenors:
Alistair Paterson, The University of Western Australia
Peter Veth, The University of Western Australia
Corioli Souter, WA Museum
Ross Anderson, WA Museum
Wendy van Duivenvoorde, Flinders University

This session is a tribute to Australian archaeologist and lithic specialist Dr Tim Ryan Maloney (11/6/1988 – 2/11/2024). Growing up fishing and hunting around the banks of the Murrumbidgee, it was from a young age Tim learned deep respect for First Nations peoples, cultures, and Country. Becoming an archaeologist, Tim brought that respect into his profession along with his disarming, friendly charm and solid work ethic. Throughout his career Tim navigated consulting and academic realms with research taking him across Australia and beyond. Learning with elders on Gooniyandi and Bunuba Country held an incredibly special place in Tim’s heart. More recently research led to Borneo, uncovering the oldest known surgical amputation in the world. Passionate about stone artefacts and a skilled knapper, Tim's interests beyond lithics included a penchant for supernatural horror movies, a profound distain for feral cats, and a great love of trivia. 2025 marks ten years since the AAA was last in Fremantle where Tim famously presented the paper “Ghostbusters busted: material culture of the satanic, demonic, and possessed”. To celebrate the talented and utterly hilarious Dr Maloney, this session provides space to honour Tim and his love of all thing’s archaeology. Purposefully eclectic, we welcome diversity of papers from lithic technologies to material culture of the occult. 

Session Convenors:
India Ella Dilkes-Hall, Griffith University
Eve Haddow, University of Cambridge

A new generation of collaborative work with Traditional Custodians in the Australian arid zone has resulted in new narratives of settlement and regional cultural diversity, linking the Dreaming with both Deep Time and more contemporary records of desert people on Country. Almost two-thirds of sites in Australia which are dated to greater than 45 kyr are located within or adjacent the arid zone. This mirrors the proportion of the continent which is classified as either arid or semi-arid and includes key sites from the Carnarvon, Pilbara, Little Sandy Desert, Nullarbor, Flinders and Murray Darling bioregions. However, many large gaps in coverage remain. For example, the first systematic excavations have only been carried out in the Great Sandy Desert in 2025; a bioregion covering 267,250 km2 or four times the size of Tasmania. We are witnessing an emerging trend of early, repeated and dynamic occupation records which reflect successful human settlement of very different arid landscapes through periods of climate change and stress. This session invites contributions from researchers and teams who are engaging in archaeology, ethnobiology and Quaternary sciences giving rise to new narratives of time from the Australian arid zone. Co-presentation with desert custodians is strongly encouraged.

Session Convenors:
Peter Veth, The University of Western Australia
Wendy Reynen, The University of Western Australia
Kane Ditchfield, The University of Western Australia

‘There is no present or future—only the past, happening over and over again—now’.
Eugene O'Neill, A Moon for the Misbegotten

Archaeology, by definition, is the presentation of the past in the present. Archaeologists investigate what happened in the past, and share their findings in the present. In addition, archaeology can also be about the role of the past in shaping the future (e.g. Schofield 2024; Veth 2024; see also CIEHF 2025). Just as archaeology tells stories about time, so too do other narratives. Often categorised as ‘myths’, with connotations of fabrication and fantasy, myths can be important narratives about the past that contain lessons for the present and the future (Nabokov 2002; Sutton 1988). The most obvious examples of such mythology come from Indigenous epistemologies, but there are also examples from the recent (historical) past and from maritime heritage.

In this session we invite presentations that combine archaeology and narrative to illustrate the important intersections between myth and science; between the past and the present; demonstrating the place of the past in the future.

Session Convenors:
Annie Ross, The University of Queensland
Galiina Ellwood, James Cook University

Archaeological science (aka archaeometry) involves applying analytical techniques from a wide range of disciplines to the study of material culture and cultural landscapes. Within this year’s joint AAA/AIMA conference framework, the presentation of archaeometric research initiatives and results from both terrestrial and marine contexts will highlight strides made toward a more inclusive and interdisciplinary study of our past, celebrating co-designed projects led by Indigenous Australians, First Nations peoples and other historically underrepresented groups. It’s about time archaeological science in Australia place greater emphasis on human stories.

We welcome presentations from academic and professional perspectives showcasing innovative approaches and results from a broad array of specialties such as conservation sciences, archaeological microscopy, archaeological chemistry, landscape reconstruction, innovative approaches to sea Country and seascapes, palaeogenomics, molecular palaeopathology, ancient DNA, palaeoproteomics, and residue and usewear analysis. The session includes a lightning round with ten minutes’ presentations using no more than five slides, as well as standard presentations of 20 minutes including Q&A.

This is an ARCAS sponsored session.

Session Convenors:
Sofia Samper Carro, Australian National University
Jillian Huntley, Griffith University
Louise Shewan, the University of Melbourne
Mathieu Leclerc, Australian National University
Renaud Joannes-Boyau, Southern Cross University

Conceptualising time is a core component of archaeological interpretation and the critical engagement with time has been a topic of conceptual reflection in other fields such as anthropology over many years – but less so in archaeology. Understandings of time have often been weaponised to Other different groups of people in the colonial setting, or to privilege androcentric notions of the ‘oldest’ dates being most important. While such insights have impacted many academic disciplines and public discourses, they remain poorly integrated into Australian archaeological research, teaching, and public outreach. We invite papers which explore how Australian archaeologists can better and more critically understand and translate concepts of time. We welcome submissions addressing Indigenous conceptualisations of time; how concepts of linear time have historically shaped public discourse about Australian histories; on theoretical perspectives on critiquing research agendas of ‘oldest and deepest’; how the significance of time through Western and Indigenous lenses can be braided together across a range of different areas, including cultural heritage management; and how we can better approach the teaching of time within and outside of archaeology. We hope that this session will be agenda-setting across different specialisations within Australian archaeology, looking both within and beyond the discipline. 

This is an ANCATL sponsored session. 

Session Convenors:
Sven Ouzman, The University of Western Australia
Martin Porr, The University of Western Australia 
Gretchen Stolte, The University of Western Australia

In recent years, the significance of indigeneity within the field of maritime cultural heritage has been recognized more widely. Understanding indigeneity in maritime heritage is not simply “including” Indigenous histories within existing heritage frameworks. Instead, it calls for a rethinking of maritime heritage itself, as living, relational, and deeply rooted in diverse ways of knowing and engaging with the sea.

This session invites presentations contributing to the broader efforts to recognize, rehabilitate, and respect Indigenous maritime cultural heritage in Southeast Asia and related contexts. We welcome proposals that engage with broad epistemological themes, including oceanic living, traditional watercraft building, navigation practices, coastal dwelling, marine harvesting traditions, sacred maritime environments, and the legal recognition of Indigenous maritime rights.

The session aims to unite scholars, researchers, and practitioners exploring the diverse dimensions of indigeneity in maritime and riverine cultures. It provides a platform for sharing research findings, exchanging ideas, and fostering interdisciplinary dialogue. By convening diverse perspectives, it seeks to deepen collective understandings of Indigenous maritime heritage and reimagine more inclusive, relational heritage frameworks that foreground Indigenous knowledge systems and worldviews.

Session Convenor:
Abhirada Komoot, Kyoto University

This session presents a synthesis of collaborative research at Yirra, an ethnographically important rockshelter on Yinhawangka Country in the uplands of the Pilbara. Excavated under the direction of the Yinhawangka Aboriginal Corporation with support from Rio Tinto, Yirra is currently the oldest dated site in the region at 50,000 years. Recent work has expanded on earlier compliance excavations, enabling paired OSL and AMS dating, geoarchaeological and micromorphological studies, lithic analysis (conjoining, use-wear, residue), and archaeobotanical research. Notably, Yirra preserves closely matched OSL and AMS ages back to 40,000 BP.

The site provides a high-resolution record of repeated human use through major climatic events, including the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and ENSO intensification. Unlike many Pilbara sites showing reduced LGM use, Yirra contains superimposed hearths, fire-altered sediments, and lithic reduction episodes. Post-LGM use increases, marked by shifts in tool production, plant processing, and upland niche exploitation.

Reflecting the conference theme “It’s About Time” Yirra offers a rare and detailed temporal framework for understanding early inland occupation, long-term technological continuity, and adaptive innovation. The session opens and closes with Yinhawangka-led presentations, emphasising the cultural significance of the site and the collaborative foundations of this research.

Session Convenors:
Fiona Hook, Archae-aus
Peter Veth, The University of Western Australia
Senior Elder, Yinhawangka Aboriginal Corporation