For Research Week at UWA, Traditional Owners from Murujuga (the Burrup Peninsula) are visiting UWA to continue learning about university research and to co-present findings from the second year’s fieldwork of an ARC Linkage project, Murujuga: Dynamics of the Dreaming. This project addresses the need to investigate the age of the world-famous rock art galleries of Murujuga and to document what they mean to the Aboriginal community of the region.

This partnership between Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation, Rio Tinto, and UWA is recording rock art from the earliest stages of Aboriginal occupation in the Pilbara and in a range of areas across the Archipelago, to understand this early creativity. This year the team has continued to document rock art across the islands and has focussed on the recent past.  Exciting finds including inscriptions left by American whalers in the 1840’s and the excavation of the Pastoral Station on West Lewis Island (established in the 1870’s). The research team is also exploring the way that open songs – Tjaabi – can be used to interpret the rock art. The team has created 3D digital imagery of art and Aboriginal and historic structures for virtual displays in museums and using Occulus Rift for experiencing the landscape remotely.

This public lecture will present new finds from across the Archipelago, with the Aboriginal custodians giving their perspective of the project and their hopes for Caring for this Country.