Work Samples  

Kariyarra Aboriginal Corporation

De Grey Mining Native Ttile Agreement - Worked on the negotiating team to ensure an equitable and fair agreement outcome for the Kariyarra People.

Horizon Power

Analysed and advised on economic development opportunities for communities as a result of applying Distributed Energy Resources technologies into remote Australian microgrids

Advised on business opportunities for Indian and Philippines markets

Town of Claremont, WA

Smoking ceremony, Aboriginal consultations and surveys for Section 18 Ministerial Consent at Lake Claremont

Cox Architects, Stradbroke Island, QLD

Researched, consulted and provided anthropological interpretations to architect team.

Worked with Traditional Owners to develop Cultural centre and Straddie campsites on Stradbroke Island as part of the Economic Transition Strategy.

Shire of Kalamunda

Aboriginal Consultations, Surveys and Ministerial Consent under Section 18 of the AHA 1972 - Hartfield Park, Welshpool Reserve

Cultural heritage advice for Bibbulman Track Terminus Upgrade

Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura Aboriginal Corporation

Worked with traditional Knowledge Holders, immediately post-Jukaan Gorge destruction to understand pertinent at-risk sites, ethnographies and to record preliminary social surroundings concerns under the WA EPA.

Centre for Social Impact, UWA Business School, IBECC Conference

Advice on Contemporary Aboriginal Affairs

Public Relations, Website and Conference Program

SKA Astronomy Project, CSIRO, WA Government

Aboriginal consultations and cultural heritage surveys including mapping ancient oral cosmologies. 

Oakajee Port and Rail, WA

Documented ancient Aboriginal burial sites and campgrounds in proposed port area

Telstra Corporation, WA

Archaeological and Anthropological Research and Surveys between Albany and Denmark with Wagyl Kaip Native Title Claimants.

South West Aboriginal Land and Sea Council, WA

Conducted over 30 surveys. Panel supplier for anthropological and cultural heritage surveys throughout Southwest.

Anindilyakwa Land Council, Groote Eylandt, Indigenous Protected Area, NT

Conducted 50 person research trip to SE Groote Eylandt.

Defined role aimed at recording women's anthropology

Analysed 400 yr old Makassan/Aboriginal trade relationships

Recorded ancient Aboriginal art

Dirk Hartog Island, UNESCO World Heritage Area, WA

Conducted first Aboriginal cultural heritage surveys and consultations, resulting in an ILUA and freehold parcel on island being returned to the Malgana Shark Bay People.

Yamatji Marlpa Aboriginal Corporation, WA

Provided expert materials for Native Title proceedings

Advised on native Title negotiations in the Pilbara

Conducted Aboriginal heritage surveys and reporting in Midwest and Pilbara regions

Department of Regional Development and Landcorp, WA

Worked with Noongar groups to provide advice and conduct surveys of important cultural heritage sites on Unallocated Crown Lands. 

Water Corporation

Conducted Baseline Assessments for Town Reserves Regularisation Program

Provided Communications Collateral

Established inter-departmental stakeholder relationships

Rio Tinto Iron Ore, Pilbara Iron, WA

Aboriginal cultural heritage expeditions for iron ore expansion projects including Hope Downs, Brockman 4, West Angelas and Paraburdoo tenements, working with Yamatji Marlpa Aboriginal Corporation.

Recorded and helped preserve Jandaru Jipalpa, ancient rockshelter site

Fortescue Metals Group, WA

Exploration tenements cultural heritage surveys in Midwest.

Case Study One

2015 Journey to Dilyakurrba - South East Groote Eylandt in the Gulf of Carpentaria, Northern Territory

Thanks: Anindilyakwa Land Council, filmmaker Matt Blyth and the Anindilyakwa People

A sixty kilometre journey in a north-south direction across Groote Eylandt takes an arduous 3 and 1/2 hours. We transit slowly in convoy, over some of the most rugged 4WD terrain I have encountered in over a decade of fieldwork. Some call the Northern Territory a 'man's country'. In my vehicle are three women, all native to this place, all groaning loudly as we jolt at 5km/per hour over another series of rocks along an impossible track.

We were on our way to 'Sexy Beach', so named due to a mythology about the 'old' people who had transgressed strict marital laws and who were found copulating on the beach. Needless to say this group of 'sexy' people were massacred by the larger tribe that today occupies the northern part of the island. There was much mystery surrounding precisely where the massacre occurred and the ethnic background of those who were killed there. Some said they were like '...aliens, with pointy skulls'. They were described as very tall, long limbed, with long dark hair. How long ago this massacre had occurred could be verified if burial remains or any archaeological evidence was found. This was one of our many objectives.

Our expedition consisted of anthropologists, archaeologists, environmental scientists, chefs, helicopter pilot and logistical support people. Most importantly, we were bringing in Anindilyakwan people who had not visited this part of their own island in many years. Hostile winds for most of the year made it difficult to traverse the seas in small boats. In times past, the Macassan traders would visit on the Mamarika wind and leave on the Bara wind, staying for six months of every year to harvest Trepang, beche de mer or sea cucumber, a delicacy for the Chinese palate. The Anindilyakwa People had enjoyed a long history of sharing this part of the world, and their abundant sea cucumber, with their hardy seafaring neighbours. Some even took the journey back to Makassar and settled there.

The caves along the coast offer a feast to the eyes of spectacular paintings capturing this time in history - the long held association with the 'other'. These strangers from another land who no doubt began as foes and who inevitably became tolerated, in some way or other. The artwork inside the coastal caves contrasted strongly with sites just a little inland. These seemed to preserve the cultural understandings of the traditional owners, in a more traditional format and were possibly centuries older. Iconography outlining totems, propriety and documenting the abundant sea resources.

Dilyakurrba as the SE of Groote Eylandt is referred to, is one of the most beautiful and remote places on the planet. The Anindilyakwan song men sang of the cold winds, using their 'shaky voice' style that seems both chillingly fearful and yet somehow poignant. The old lady from Umbakumba, who I worked closely with, clawed back into her memory for places she had sheltered from cyclones in, leading us with childlike innocence into them, filling us with awe at her survival and the survival of her memories from a time some 75 years earlier. She was the last to remember living down there in that faraway place, she was the last to come in to the new settlement in the 1940s where she was taught to 'sit down' and learn the white man's lessons. She spoke clearly and with strength in her beautiful language, the language of the land, commanding us to listen as any good story teller does.

The bones of the murdered people who had lived on Sexy Beach had been bleached white and returned to the sands on the shores. We never found any physical evidence of them. Their memory eternalised in a story of an immorality, that exists without the burden of proof.

Outcomes: Women's stories were recorded on film, new heritage sites recorded, information regarding trade with Macassan (Sulawesi) people for over 400 years. Successful mobilisation of over 50 people in community across two expeditions of 5 days each. Emergent discussions around China/Indonesia/Groote Eylandt trade route 'recognition' as part of Native Title process.

Case Study Two

2007 Gift from a Mother Whale - The first Aboriginal Survey of Dirk Hartog Island, World Heritage Area, Shark Bay, Western Australia

Thanks: Pastoral Leaseholder the Wardle family, Yamatji Marlpa Aboriginal Corporation and the Malgana People of Shark Bay

Wirruwarna, the Aboriginal name for Dirk Hartog Island is the birthing ground of the Green Turtle, long considered a delicacy by the Indigenous people of the Shark Bay area for both flesh and eggs. First the Dutch, then the British and then the French claimed this small island as their own, ignoring the home fires of the first nation's people living all along the shores. Described by the French explorers in the late 1700's as a '...strong race of giants, with long beards to their knees', the people of Shark Bay have lived a maritime existence there for some tens of thousands of years. Some 6-8000 years ago due to the last glacial maxima (previous ice age) the area of tidal water between the peninsula and Wirruwarna would have been much lower and narrower, enabling access to the prized turtles and their eggs by simply using a log as a flotation device to float to the island.

Whales too give birth along the north western edge of the island, past the Cape Inscription lighthouse, where the cliffs dip in to provide a sheltered cove along the edge of sheer limestone cliffs. Here are the large standing stones near an area of blowholes that blow water high into the air as waves crash against the cliffs. My Aboriginal guides and I stared, mesmerised looking out upon the endless ocean, marvelling at the power of mother nature. Then we saw her. A mother whale, a smaller whale and a very small baby whale 'surfing' on the waves below. As the blowholes sang with the force of the Indian Ocean being thrust through them, the whales seemed answer back, an echoing from land to sea. Suddenly from one of their blows rose a thing, shaped like a football, hurtling forth from the whales below to land at our feet. The locals knew immediately what it was. They also understood its spiritual and cultural significance.

Ambergris looks rather ugly - a waxy like substance that lives in a the bile duct of the Sperm Whale's lower intestines, a substance produced by this species only, to break down the beaks of giant squids. It is only produced in some whales and may be released upon death or when the mother whale gives birth. Once highly valued as a whale by-product for carrying the scent of perfume, it is now more of a rare phenomenon than anything, due to the protection of whales against slaughter. The lighter the colour of the Ambergris, the fresher it is. This was nearly white. The Malgana people were very proud of their 'catch', marking the first Aboriginal heritage survey of Dirk Hartog Island with a rare find. A precious gift from the largest beings in the sea to the oldest inhabitants of the land.

Outcomes: As a result of recommendations from this Aboriginal heritage consultation, YMAC legal representatives negotiated a significant area of freehold to be made available for Malgana People, on Dirk Hartog Island.