This week the Honorable Dr Carmen Lawrence launched the second CRAR+M monograph detailing the Dynamics of the Dreaming Linkage project. This book is a new way of disseminating research, and represents a framework for engaged Aboriginal agency for heritage protection - in a potential World Heritage estate. The Murujuga cultural landscape is of great significance to the Ngarda-ngarli, represented by Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation (MAC). MAC represents the Yaburara-Mardudunhera, Ngarluma-Yinjabarndi and Wong-goo-tt-oo peoples who own and co-manage this conservation estate with DBCA. Murujuga is ..read more

Emma Beckett and Jo McDonald The first Desert to the Sea (D2C) trip for 2023 took place in May. This trip was hosted at Yamada Camp by Mungarlu Ngurrarankatja Rirraunkaja (MNR) Aboriginal Corporation and it brought the research team together from across Australia with Birriliburu IPA custodians and rangers. The researchers flew and drove in from all over the country, and the custodians also came together from all over the vast Martu estate. After a day’s drive north of Wiluna, we arrived in the early evening and set up camp. In the morning we were greeted by amazing views of the rocky ranges ..read more

Sam Harper and Jo McDonald The 2023 Desert to the Sea Culture Camp with Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation (MAC) was an initial planning session on Ngarluma country at Balla Balla near Whim Creek. This camp involved Ngarluma and Yindjibarndi Traditional Owners as well as MAC heritage staff and researchers from UWA and the Western Australian Museum.  We camped for three nights next to Balla Balla Creek. The UWA and WAM researchers joined the MAC team at MAC HQ to organise vehicles, food supplies and camping gear, before heading east. The journey started with Vince Adams showing the researcher ..read more

Members from the Frobenius Institute and the University of Western Australia have been collaborating over the last three years with Wanjina Wunggurr Traditional Owners to work on ethnographic materials from the Kimberley that have been kept in Germany for more than 80 years. The project is conducted in collaboration with the Dambimangari, Wilinggin, and Wunambal Gaambera Aboriginal Corporations. The project team at the Goethe University Frankfurt am Main, which also houses the Frobenius Institute (from left to right: Christina Henneke, Richard Kuba, Pete O’Connor, Rona Charles, Lloyd Nulgit ..read more

by Chae Byrne and Emilie Dotte-Sarout During our 2023 fieldwork with Birriliburu IPA Traditional Owners in the Fire and Plants Research Node of the Desert to the Sea project, we were able spend time on our passion for trees and wood charcoal. As anthracologists (archaeobotanists specialising in analysing wood charcoal remains from archaeological sites) our goal with this project is to improve scientific reference collections and to record ethnobotanical knowledge. Reference collections will allow better archaeological interpretations of different signatures left by campfires − from ancient de ..read more

by Caroline Mather This is a question that researchers are trying to answer at Murujuga (the Dampier Archipelago), one of the world’s largest rock art provinces, located on the Pilbara coast. The study is part of an ARC Linkage Project: Dating Murujuga’s Dreaming, being undertaken by researchers from The University of Western Australia (UWA), The University of Melbourne and The University of Wollongong in collaboration with Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation, Rio Tinto and Woodside. The project, led by CRAR+M Director Professor Jo McDonald, is using a number of scientific analyses of landscapes ..read more

by Martin Porr For the last three years, a team from the Frobenius Institute in Germany and the University of Western Australia has been working on making ethnographic materials, that have been kept in Germany for more than 80 years, accessible to Wanjina Wunggurr Traditional Owners. This project is conducted in collaboration with the Dambimangari, Wilinggin and Wunambal Gaambera Aboriginal Corporations. Between 12 - 19 July this year, and under the guidance of Rona Charles, John Rastus and Craig Rastus, researchers Richard Kuba, Christina Henneke, and Martin Porr visited several sites that w ..read more

Amy Stevens (MAC) and Jo McDonald (CRAR+M) The Murujuga Symposium brought together First Nations people from across Australia and the world to hear about the nomination of the Murujuga Cultural Landscape and to talk about the challenges and opportunities that Indigenous people face in managing World Heritage properties. After a Welcome to Gadigal Country by Allan Murray (MLALC), the Symposium was launched by the Honourable Tanya Plibersek, MLA, Minister for the Environment, who reiterated her support for the nomination and outlined some key initiatives to increase the recognition of cultural ..read more

The 2021 field school saw six undergraduate students and four staff members on Murujuga to finish an area of Picnic Creek partially recorded in the 2015 field school, and to record heritage within a road corridor proposed for access to the northern Burrup. After a cultural induction and welcome to country from the Murujuga Land and Sea Unit (MLSU) and Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attraction (DBCA) Rangers, the field school took to the slopes. Left: rangers giving a cultural induction to the UWA students and staff; Centre: Ranger Sarah Hicks giving a tour of Nganjarli; Right: U ..read more

Together with Dambimangari Aboriginal Corporation, we mourn the passing of two most senior Traditional Owners, Donny Woolagoodja and Janet Oobagooma. We also want to celebrate their lives and their invaluable contributions to the continuation of their community, as knowledge holders and advocates for their people. Their inspiring presence will be greatly missed. Janet Oobagooma (centre), Kim Doohan, Christina Henneke & Richard Kuba discussing archival material from the collections of the Frobenius Institute at the facilities of the Wilinggin Aboriginal Corporation in Derby in July 2022. P ..read more