PAINTING the POLICE: Aboriginal Visual Culture and Identity in Colonial Cape York Peninsula Noelene Cole

PAINTING THE POLICE: Aboriginal Visual Culture and Identity in Colonial Cape York Peninsula Noelene Cole

Abstract Aboriginal rock paintings of policemen near Laura and their ‘ethnographic interpretation’ were reported by Percy Trezise (1985:74, 1993) but are otherwise unstudied. This research integrates formal analysis of an assemblage of police and associated depictions with cultural, historical and archaeological evidence to shed light on Indigenous society and identity in the frontier period (c.1873-1890s). In drawing on Aboriginal testimony the study connects with local webs of meaning. Stylistic analysis reveals the police motif as an innovative, specialised category within Quinkan style. Signs of cognitive structure include visual, material and contextual attributes (e.g. shape, colour and form, paint recipes, graphic associations, positions and locations). Stylistic coherence suggests that radically new contexts of production (war, social and demographic transformations) did not disrupt the ancestral knowledge systems and unique worldviews which lie at the heart of visual culture at Laura. Unlike most Figure 1 The study area with localities of police figures. colonial texts, the depictions record Indigenous identity in the contexts of local agency and colonialism. For example Taçon et al. (2003) identified aspects of individual versus group identity by studying imagery on portable objects Introduction made by Aboriginal people in southeast Australia between 1850 Aboriginal resistance to colonial invasion of the Cooktown Palmer and 1970. The field of contact archaeology is increasingly calling region has been well-documented (Cole 2004; Hughes 1978; upon visual depictions to integrate with written histories and Kirkman 1978; Loos 1982) but colonial records have little to say archaeological investigations of the past (e.g. Taçon et al. 2010). about Indigenous identity or attitudes (Loos 1982:85; Reynolds This research calls upon visual depictions of policemen 1972:34). How can archaeology, which has seldom been used to identified by knowledgeable Aboriginal people (see Huchet address Australia’s contested history (see Barker 2007; Lydon 1993; Trezise 1985) to expand an investigation of colonial 2006), fill such gaps in historical records? While the remains conflict in the Laura-Cooktown area (Cole 2004). Although of colonial settlements such as Native Mounted Police camps the latter study identified factors which contributed to the stand out in the landscape and can be studied archaeologically effectiveness of Aboriginal resistance, it shed little light on (Cole 2004), it is more difficult to identify Indigenous traces of Indigenous society owing to the one-sided nature of the records the same era, mainly because many traditional ways of making used – archaeological remains of Boralga police camp and artefacts persisted in the midst of contact (Byrne 2002; Harrison historical texts (see Galloway 2006 and Little 2007 regarding 2004). Although Aboriginal people of the area readily made partiality in historical records). These shortcomings provide use of exotic materials (Cole 2004), archaeologists have found the rationale and main question for this new research: What, limited traces of this practice in archaeological sites. if anything, can depictions associated with policemen tell us Perhaps the best-known Indigenous ‘contact’ artefacts around about the identity and mindset of the Aboriginal people who Laura are rock paintings of foreign animals, people and objects actualised them? The analysis is not an archaeological end in first reported by Trezise (1971). These include pigs and horses itself but a way of integrating rare evidence from the ‘other’ side (see Flood 1997; Maynard 1979; Morwood 2002; Rosenfeld of the frontier to read between the lines of colonial history in 1982), Europeans and Europeans with rifles (Flood 1997; Cape York Peninsula. Morwood 2002) and policemen or Native Police (Huchet 1993; Maynard 1979; Trezise 1985, 1993; Walsh 1988). Of these types Research Issues and Methods only the animal depictions have been studied archaeologically Andrée Rosenfeld (1982:199) analysed depictions of horses and (see Rosenfeld 1982). pigs within a broader stylistic study, applying the premise that Elsewhere, studies of visual culture have provided insights into Laura rock art constitutes ‘the durable component of a past Indigenous concepts and social transformations in the context system of expressive symbolic behaviour’. Rosenfeld’s search for of culture contact (Jolly 1998; Klassen 1998; Taçon et al. 2003). ‘types of structure, levels of complexity, modes of operation’ as indicators of ‘cognitive significance’ were novel in Australian 9 Fifth Avenue, St Lucia, QLD 4067, Australia [email protected] archaeology, which was yet to take up the ‘contextual, structural

Number 71, December 2010 17 Painting the Police: Aboriginal Visual Culture and Identity in Colonial Cape York Peninsula

projects (e.g. Cole 1998; Ward et al. 2001; Watchman et al. 1992). I recorded rock art at Emu rockshelter in 1984 as a participant in a research project directed by Trezise (1985). Comparative and contextual data were retrieved from a local study at Jowalbinna (Cole 1992) and a regional study (Cole 1998). I analysed Trezise’s records, including his unpublished records held at AIATSIS and James Cook University for Giant Horse, Crocodile, Pig, Emu and other cultural sites in the context of the regional study.

The Setting The study area (Figure 1) lies in the Laura district within the greater Quinkan region, which is known for its spectacular sandstone topography and an Aboriginal rock art tradition that dates to the terminal Pleistocene and possibly earlier (Cole et al. 1995). People of the surviving Indigenous language groups (Guugu Yimithirr, Kuku Yalanji, Kuku Thaypan and Olkola) are descendants of the ‘classical’ land-owning clans, such as those around Laura which were collectively known by some older people as ‘Kuku Warra’ and ‘Kuku Mini’ (Rigsby 2003). The system of land/people relationships was based on Figure 2 Police patrols on Cape York Peninsula c.1900 (QSA A/41364). ancestral law (Rigsby 1999). Clans owned their own languages, totems, songs, dances and designs which connect them with and symbolic’ approaches apparent overseas (see Huchet 1991). their lands and Stories (Rigsby 1997, 2002). An important These approaches are now standard in Australian archaeology, understanding was (and is) that the Stories (the spirits of the particularly in studies of the systemic roles and functions of ancestors or the ‘Old People’ who include the recently dead) Aboriginal rock art (see Morwood 2002). live on the land in their own places. In this way rock paintings The research presented in this paper follows the methodology are part of the ancestral law – they are Stories and their sites of such studies: the integration of structural analysis of rock art retain the footprints of the Old People (G. Musgrave, pers. with other archaeological data. However it takes a more holistic comm., 2000). approach by drawing on cultural, historical and ethnohistorical The local groups were comprised of several families of data (Ross 2001; and see ‘informed methods’ of Taçon and different clans who moved around and lived in the landscape Chippendale 1998:6). Some of the ethnohistorical data were together. Land-use was organised around (men’s) primary rights provided to Percy Trezise in the 1960s by senior Aboriginal to use land and secondary rights from relationships such as men who were born and raised in the Laura region in times marriage, a system which provided options of movement and when Aboriginal people were hunted by the Native Mounted access to seasonal resources (Rigsby 1980). During the wet season Police and rock art was still a living tradition. More recently, (November to April) Aboriginal people led a more sedentary life, relevant information was recorded from the next generation, camping in rockshelters or on sandy ridges. The dry season (May including George Musgrave (c.1920-2006) and Tommy George. to October) was a time of mobility and ceremonial life (Sharp These Indigenous lives, which supply ‘local webs of meanings’ 1939) when groups gathered together around rivers, running (Williamson 2004:183), are typical of the ‘hidden histories’ creeks and waterholes. (Rose 1991) that have emerged to challenge dominant accounts From the onset of the Palmer River goldrush in 1873 a major of national identity and enrich archaeology (Clarke and Paterson source of cross-cultural conflict was the colonial occupation of 2003:49). waterways and river crossings for settlements and for transport Ethnohistorical data were recorded during community routes such as the Hell’s Gate, Palmerville and Maytown tracks archaeology projects (e.g. Cole et al. 2002) or retrieved from (Figure 1). To deal with Aboriginal resistance the Queensland the publications of Percy Trezise (1969, 1971, 1985, 1993), who government established Native Mounted Police camps staffed by was engaged in the 1960s by the (then) Australian Institute armed European officers and Aboriginal troopers recruited from of Aboriginal Studies to record rock art in the Laura region. the south, their role being to kill Aboriginal people (Richards 2008). Trezise’s three decades of work, which included establishing an One of the earliest police camps was Boralga (Lower Laura) set-up archive at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait in 1874 near a crossing of the Laura River on the Palmerville track. Islander Studies (AIATSIS), Canberra, ‘provided the platform for After an initial period of fierce guerilla warfare Aboriginal all later researchers in the region’ (Morwood and Smith 1994:23; people were forced to change age-old patterns of land-use (Cole see Rosenfeld 1982). Much of the cultural, ethnohistorical and 2004). Some groups moved more or less permanently to the linguistic information he recorded has been confirmed and remote, semi-arid uplands where essential water is available in extended by Rigsby, Cole and others, and used in land claims springs and sandstone aquifers. The Laura Deighton plateau and Native Title research over the past 20 years (B. Rigsby, pers. became ‘a great stronghold’ for Aborigines (Pike 1998:83), comm., 2010). I studied rock art and paint materials at Giant particularly after the miners abandoned the Hell’s Gate track. Horse, Lee Cheu, Mingaroo Hill and Red Bluff rockshelters and Officially this area was patrolled by Boralga police, but in reality at other cultural sites in the course of fieldwork for regional police movements were severely restricted by seasonal conditions.

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In the 1880s, despite the decline of goldmining and ‘the surviving, fluent Indigenous speaker of Agu Alaya (Taipan Snake high mortality of the blacks’ (Hughes 1978:103), the conflict language of the Thaypanic complex). Over three generations continued. According to Tommy George and George Musgrave members of his family, including brothers Jerry Musgrave and their Old People put down their spears in their father’s and George Musgrave, worked for the police force as Aboriginal grandfather’s time (c.1897, Rigsby 2002). However, free-ranging trackers (note that the latter name eventually replaced the term Aborigines continued to be pursued by police patrols which ‘trooper’). Their father, George Wanaya, was forcibly ‘recruited’ continued to operate into the twentieth century (Figure 2). The into the Native Mounted Police (Cole et al. 2002). ancient tradition of making rock art is believed to have ceased around the 1920s (Trezise 1971). Police Sites and Depictions The analysis presented here focuses on an assemblage of figures Hidden Histories that is distributed across seven rockshelters and three localities The Aboriginal men who assisted Percy Trezise were born into of the Laura district (Figure 1). The core assemblage of 19 the resilient clans and free-ranging local groups of the Quinkan human figures (Table 1) is deemed to be a sample as there are region in the late nineteenth century. As such they were probably other unidentified or unlocated paintings associated knowledgeable about traditional culture and well-acquainted with the police. Locality 1 lies on the plateau between the Laura with the methods of the Native Mounted Police. For example, and Deighton Rivers where Trezise (1971, 1985, 1993) reported Willy Long was an initiated Olkola man who lived free before police figures at Crocodile (C1-C4), Pig (P1-P7) and Emu (E1- eventually coming ‘inside’ to work on cattle stations (Trezise E3) rockshelters. Locality 2 is around the middle reaches of the 1969:49). His parents escaped a massacre of the Olkola people Laura River where Tommy George identified paintings at Giant by the Musgrave police (Trezise 1969:102). Caesar Lee Cheu was Horse (GH1) shelters. To the southwest on a headwater of the Koko Warra by tribal identity (Land Tribunal 1996:114; Trezise Little Laura River is Locality 3 where the Lee Cheu (LC1) figures 1969:137), and spoke his father’s language, a Thaypanic language were located and described by Trezise (1993). Figures at Red Bluff Ogo Ikarrangal (Rigsby 2003). His family was regularly pursued (RB1) near the Little Laura and Mingaroo Hill (M1-M2) in the by the police before they ‘came in’ to work on cattle stations Laura River locality are included on the basis of their attributes. (Trezise 1993:153). Retired police tracker Harry Mole, who spoke a Thaypanic language from around Laura (Rigsby 2002), Locality 1, Laura Deighton Plateau was captured by the police as a child during an attack on the The Laura Deighton plateau has a long history of Aboriginal Kuku Warra (Trezise 1969:51). He was recruited as a trooper at occupation dating from c.14,000 BP (Rosenfeld et al. 1981). an early age, worked in the police force for some 40 years, and has From 1873 the ‘rush’ track from Cooktown to the Palmer crossed been remembered as a ‘very strict’ policeman (L. George, pers. the plateau down to the Laura River by way of Coamey Creek comm., 2000). Tommy George of the next generation is the last (Trezise 1973). The three sites in which police figures have

Table 1 Visual attributes of police figures (PT=code after Trezise 1971). Height Object/ Bichrome/ Motif PT >1m Horizontal Inverted Male Eyes Cap Rifle ‘Boots’ Clothes Polychrome C1 O23 • • • • •

C2 P27 • • • • • • C3 J52 • • • • • • • • C4 G57 • • • • • • • • P1 E6 • • • • • • P2 I12 • • • • • • P3 J7 • • • • P4 E10 • • • • • P5 M26 • • • • • • P6 J37 • • • • P7 N47 • • • • • • E1 K21 na • na • • na • E2 J25 • • • • • • • E3 L36 • • • • • • • GH1 7 • • • • • • M1 Na • • • • • • • M2 Na • • • • • • • LC1 Na • • • • • • • RB1 78 • • • • • • Total 19 11 14 2 18 14 6 16 14 3 17

Number 71, December 2010 19 Painting the Police: Aboriginal Visual Culture and Identity in Colonial Cape York Peninsula

Figure 3 Crocodile 1, police paintings inner wall (Photograph: Noelene Cole).

Figure 4 Crocodile 1, police paintings outer wall (Photograph: Figure 5 Police painting, Pig shelter (Photograph: Noelene Cole). Noelene Cole).

Figure 6 Police paintings, Emu shelter.

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Figure 7 ‘Tracker’ painting Giant Horse (Photograph: Noelene Cole). Figure 8 Lee Cheu paintings (Photograph: Noelene Cole).

been identified occur within two separate clusters of rock art figure (Figure 6a) is missing, apparently erased by the action of sites (the Crocodile and Pig groups respectively) of the rugged wallabies or feral pigs. The two horizontal figures have neatly Coamey Creek catchment. The sites, Crocodile 1, Pig and Emu rounded feet with white lines at the ankle. A leg bulge on one rockshelters, are situated on or near escarpments with views (Figure 6b) was identified by Caesar Lee Cheu as a revolver across the plateau to the Laura River. All are close to freshwater holster (Trezise 1993:51). This may be the sign of an officer as springs, have surface scatters of stone artefacts, charcoal and revolvers were issued only to white officers of the Native Police used ochres and relatively large assemblages of superimposed (J. Richards, pers. comm., 2008). paintings. Evidence of recent occupation includes a wooden paintbrush handle found near an ochre stained grindstone at Locality 2, Laura River Emu shelter (P. Trezise, pers. comm., 1984). The Giant Horse cluster of rockshelters lies at the head of a In 1965 Trezise was accompanied to the area by Willy spring-fed gully on the Laura River escarpment south of Laura. Long who described ‘large men painted in the top layer’ of Aboriginal occupation dates from c.4000 years ago with intensive Crocodile 1 rockshelter as ‘bullymen’, the Aboriginal English artistic activity continuing into the contact period (Morwood name for policemen (Trezise 1985:75). At the time Trezise 1995a:105). Andreé Rosenfeld’s surface collection (Queensland knew nothing of the Native Mounted Police and assumed Museum S590, S591) which includes wooden artefacts, flaked the figures to be European policemen. Later Caesar Lee Cheu bottle glass and mussel shell indicates the everyday activities identified the paintings as ‘black police’ (i.e. Native Mounted which took place here in the recent past. In a prominent position Police) (Trezise 1985, 1993). The figures have staring eyes, on a west-facing wall of an overhang which adjoins the main bare feet and an elongated shape under the left arm; each pair shelter with the spectacular painting of the ‘Giant Horse’ is includes a man with a long neck and a regular infill of lines a group of figures which Tommy George (pers. comm., 2000) and another man with no neck, a mouth and an irregular describes as ‘the dead tracker paintings’. Tommy George has little infill (Figures 3-4). On the foreheads of the pair on the outer to say about the paintings other than that the tracker is ‘dead’, and wall are red discs identified by Caesar Lee Cheu as police caps that he knows the name of the artist, one of the Old People who (Trezise 1985) (Figure 4). Lee Cheu described lines which fought the police. The tracker is prone, his hands clutching the project from the mouth of a repainted snake into the foot of reins of a horse (Figure 7). His rounded thighs suggest trousers one police figure as venom ‘to put the poison’ in him (Trezise and leggings. Trezise (1971:68) noted a similarity between this 1993:51) (Figure 9b). ‘thrown rider’ and a male figure in the top layer of paintings near Several kilometres northeast across the plateau at Pig shelter, the ‘Giant Horse’. Caesar Lee Cheu identified four figures as police (Trezise 1993:52). Several kilometres to the west is the Mingaroo Hill complex One inverted figure (Table 1-P1; Figure 5) is infilled in red with first recorded by Trezise in the 1960s. Mingaroo 1 has a wide intersecting white lines. Another (Table 1-P2) is a monochrome, overhang and views across the Laura valley. Cultural materials horizontal male with an elongated shape alongside. Nearby are include a surface scatter of stone artefacts, utilised ochre and two small men described by Lee Cheu as possible representations glass fragments. Pigment art on the rear wall includes two of ‘white leaders of black police’ (Trezise 1993:52). Pecking into stencilled bones and a frieze of fresh-looking figures, two the armpits of two figures are birds said to ‘steal the bones of of which have attributes of the police (Table 1-M1, 1-M2, dead people from mortuary platforms’ (Trezise 1971:30) (Figure Figure 9c,h). 9g); the bird is apparently the elusive black bittern (Ixobrychus flavicollis, Pizzey and Knight 1997:124). The site contains other Locality 3, Little Laura River male figures with rounded feet and juxtaposed objects (e.g. After 1875 travellers to and from the Palmer goldfields had the Trezise 1971:27, M26, J37). use of an alternative coach route, Robinson’s track, the precursor Across the gully from Pig shelter is the Emu rockshelter where of the Maytown track (Hay 1987). Overlooking the track, the three finely painted, bichrome figures (Table 1-E1-3, Figure 6) Little Laura River and Shepherd Creek, is Red Bluff, a local were identified by Caesar Lee Cheu as police. Part of the curved landmark known by Aboriginal people as ‘Jowalbinna’ (Dingo

Number 71, December 2010 21 Painting the Police: Aboriginal Visual Culture and Identity in Colonial Cape York Peninsula

structure and meaning in Aboriginal art systems (Basedow 1925; Brandl 1982; Cole 1998; Cole and Watchman 1996; George et al. 1995; Huchet 1990; Morphy 1991; Morwood 2002; Munn 1973; Rosenfeld 1982; Smith 1992; Taylor 1987). The subject matter of the distinctive Laura (Quinkan) painting tradition is predominantly figurative with human figures (anthropomorphs) accounting for some half of painted motifs (Cole 1995). In order to characterise the ‘police motif’, the depictions noted above (Table 1) are examined in the wider context of human figures at Laura. The latter are defined here as those figures which have a basic likeness to human beings (i.e. possess a head, torso, two arms and two legs) (Maynard 1977:399). Local Aboriginal people have identified many such figures and their human or supernatural associations (Ang- Gnarra Aboriginal Corporation 1996; George et al. 1995).

The Police Motif As indicated in Table 1, 16 of 19 of the motifs believed to be police have horizontal or inverted positions as opposed to the upright stance of the majority (c.90%) of human figures. The former positions are said to be associated with death (George et al.1995:33; George Pegus cited by Trezise 1993:38). In some police figures (see Figures 6a, 9a,g) the line of the body is curved and in others there are signs of interaction (e.g. a fallen horseman, lines of venom striking a policeman). Such features are unusual in an art system which generally lacks signs of movement and interaction (Rosenfeld 1982). Most police are depicted with a penis whereas only a minority (27%) of humans are depicted as explicitly male (Cole 1992). Figure 9 Police motifs (not to scale). The staring eyes of most (14) police also give them special character as only c.6% of human figures have eyes. The latter Ear). Aboriginal occupation of the main shelter, Red Bluff 1, group includes figures of special significance such as the Timara dates from c.9800 BP (Morwood 1995b). Trezise (1971:101, Quinkans (see George et al. 1995). Figure 78) noted a ‘horizontal bichrome man with ear pendants, Rosenfeld (1982) compared relative elongation and one bone shaped’. The man (Figure 9e) has distinctive attributes compactness of animal shapes by calculating simple ratios of of the police; the head appendage which combines attributes of linear dimensions. A similar method was used here to compare a cap and a bone appears to be an addition. ‘police’ shapes with two subsets of human figures – Quinkan An unconfirmed report sighted during a review of Cape York spirit figures which have various supernatural features (George Peninsula rock art records (Cole et al. 1992) suggests there may et al. 1995:24) and a group of human figures identified as be other police paintings in the area. In this report the Protector explicitly male. A ratio was obtained by dividing width of each of Aborigines at Laura describes a painting of a ‘policeman’ and figure (maximum width of torso) by length (from top of head ‘a bearded man behind a horse and plough’ situated upstream to base of feet). The groups of Quinkans and male human from Red Bluff on Shepherd Creek (Chambers 1939). representations have a wide range of physiques which include Trezise (pers. comm., 1998) located the remote Lee Cheu elongated, stick-like bodies on the one hand and short, roundish site and named it after Caesar Lee Cheu who told of seeing bodies on the other. Such ‘extreme’ body shapes are responsible paintings in the rugged gorges of Shepherd Creek as a child. for the degrees of variation indicated for these two groups in The Lee Cheu shelter is one of a series of art sites along a Table 2. In comparison, police figures tend to be somewhat northern escarpment of Shepherd Creek. It is a spectacular, homogeneous in shape and size, resulting in a low degree of inaccessible place set into a corner of a towering cliff beside a variation (Table 2). While human depictions in general tend to steep gorge. The police paintings are the most recent-looking be less than 1m in height (Cole 1992), more than half of police figures, prominently displayed high in a corner of the cliff face. figures are relatively tall (>1.5 m.). The comparisons suggest that The group includes a crudely painted horse, a crocodile and in terms of body shape the police assemblage lies at the more a distinctive male figure with a stone axe at his head (Table naturalistic end of the spectrum of human representations in 1-LC1, Figure 8). The paintings bear no resemblance to those Laura rock art. described by Chambers (1939). When visible, human feet in Laura art are depicted with various numbers of toes or toeless with rounded, sometimes Symbolic Structure indistinct ends. The range is apparent in various published The following analysis focuses on various visual, contextual records (Cole 1992:Figures 2-6; Huchet 1993:Figure 4; Trezise and material attributes which have been identified as sources of 1971). The police depictions tend to have clearly defined feet,

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Table 2 Body ratio (width/height; SD=standard deviation). All Quinkan Figures Male Figures Police Figures Mean 67.9 27 22 22 SD 9.9 11 10 5 Maximum 90 52 67 32 Minimum 1 3 1 15 n 759 69 625 17

Table 3 Composition of white ‘contact’ paints, extract from Watchman et al. (1992); Ward et al. (2001) (note GH3 contaminated with underlying yellow paint). Site Motif Sample No. Colour Elements Minerals Mushroom Rock steel axe MR8 White 5Y8/1 K,Al,Si,Fe muscovite Lee Cheu horse LCS1 White 5YR8/1 Al,Si,K(Ti,Fe,S) quartz, kaolinite, illite Lee Cheu LC1 policeman LCS2 White 5YR8/1 Si,Al,K (Fe,Ti,S) quartz, kaolinite, (upper) illite Lee Cheu man LCS3 White 5YR8/1 Al,Si,K (Ti,Fe) quartz, kaolinite, illite Red Bluff policeman (cap) RB3 White 2.5Y8/2 Si,Al,(K,Ti,Fe) kaolinite, quartz Red Bluff woomera stencil RB4 White 5Y8/1 Si(Al.K,Ti,Fe) kaolinite, quartz Giant Horse Giant Horse GH3 White 10R8/1 Fe,Si,K,Al goethite, quartz, (outline) muscovite

Table 4 Composition of red ‘contact’ paints (Note: LCS4 contaminated with underlying white paint). Site Motif Sample No. Colour Elements Minerals Red Bluff policeman RB2 Dusky red 10R3/4 Fe(Si) Hematite Lee Cheu policeman (Red LCS4 Dark red 7.5R3/4 Si,Al,Fe (K,Ti,P,Cu) Quartz, kaolinite, stripe) illite, haematite

Table 5 Policemen and associated objects (‘rifles’) (W/R/W= white outline around red solid area with infill of white lines; Y=yellow; BY=brownish yellow; RY=reddish yellow; PT=code after Trezise 1971). Motif PT Object as Fraction of Object Colours Policeman Colours Policeman Height C1 O23 .30 W/R/W W/R/W C2 P27 .35 W/R/W W/R/W C3 J52 .35 Red outline R/RY/R (and grey upper) C4 G57 .31 Red outline R/RY/R (and grey upper) P1 E6 W/R/W P2 I12 .42 BY BY P3 J7 .3 W/Y/W W/Y/W (upper) W/R/W (lower) P4 E10 W/Y/W P5 M26 .43 BY R (upper); BY (lower) P6 J37 .75 W/R/W R P7 N47 .45 W/R/W W/R/W E1 K21 W/R/W W/R/W E2 J25 .37 W/R/W W/R/W E3 L36 .45 W/R/W W/R/W GH 1 7 .5 W/R/W W/R MH 1 .44 W/R/W W/R/W MH 2 .42 W/R/W W/R/W LC1 78 .7 R/W/R R/W/R RB1 na W/R/W Mean 19 .38

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and of these four have toes (Figure 9a,b). The trend suggests at Crocodile 1 points to very dedicated efforts to obtain rare that clearly defined, rounded feet (interpreted by Trezise 1971 as pigment to characterise the navy blue of the troopers’ shirts. boots) may be a sign of the police. Some figures have variations in colour and/or form which Lines may indicate clothing (e.g. Figures 8, 9b,c,d,e,h) or features All but two police figures have infill in the form of a grid or a which may represent a holster or leggings (Figures 6-7). Six simpler pattern of intersecting lines and outlines (Table 5, Figure of the figures (e.g. Figures 9b,c,d,e,h) have unique head forms, 9). Such arrangements are not unique to the police as Rosenfeld quite different from standard head shapes and headdresses at (1982:211) identified them on 49% of faunal depictions (see Laura including those of various spirit figures and ‘culture heroes’ Huchet 1990; Walsh 1988:204). Rosenfeld concluded that the (see Cole 1992:Figures 2-6; Huchet 1993:97, Figures 4-5). Caesar regular placement of lines is likely to have cognitive value. It Lee Cheu stated that (at Crocodile 1) the ‘red oval shapes on top follows that the regular lines which mark off or form axes along of the heads of figures 205 and 214 represent the peaked caps of arms, wrists, necks and ankles, or intersect legs and bodies of the mounted police’ (Trezise 1985:75). The Aboriginal hand sign police figures have cognitive value. In three figures there is a clear for ‘bullyman’ was an open hand across the forehead followed demarcation between the grid pattern of the lower body and the by a gesture which meant ‘run away quickly’ as demonstrated plain upper body creating the impression of shirts and trousers by Willy Long (Trezise 1985:75). As the troopers wore caps at all (Figure 9b,d). Another pattern is the correspondence between times to distinguish them from local Aborigines (Corfield 1923; the colour, outlines, lines or infill of each policeman (particularly see Figure 11) it is likely that the depiction of the cap symbolises his feet) and the style of the juxtaposed object (Table 5, Figure 9). this practice. The lines across the foreheads of some police are reminiscent of the hand sign. Other Associations and Graphic Cues Painters were selective with regard to the motifs they placed Paint Colours and Materials next to policemen. For example, horses (and horse tracks) are With the exception of grey, the colours of police paintings follow depicted rather than pigs. Association with white hand stencils the usual colour spectrum of Laura art. The most frequent is a standard pattern in Laura art, as are juxtapositions with combination, white outlines around red solid areas with white apparent symbols of sorcery or violence (snake, catfish, bones, infill, is characteristic of the recent style at Laura (Cole 1998). crocodile, see Trezise 1971). Lines of shallow, pounded marks Overpainting, a practice which is commonplace here and such as those which run across police paintings at Mingaroo may have some antiquity (Cole 1998; Watchman 1988) has Hill are another common feature of Laura rockshelters (Cole transformed some monochrome police figures into bichromes 1998). According to George Musgrave (pers. comm., 2000) such or polychromes. However, the application of grey paint over light marks were made by ‘flogging the rock with a stone while singing, red infill in two police figures at Crocodile 1 is unique. Another clapping and using special words’, a ceremonial act to re-energise unusual stylistic combination is the use of contrasting colours the paintings, similar to repainting. above and below the waist of the capped figure at Lee Cheu Although there are one or two cases of speared human (Figure 8) and two figures at Pig shelter (Table 1-P3, 1-P5). figures amongst the wider assemblage of human figures in Earth pigments were obtained from local sources such as Laura rock art there is no evidence of patterned associations the ochre quarry near Emu shelter reported by Trezise (1971). between human figures and artefacts most commonly depicted Paint sampling projects (Ward et al. 2001; Watchman et al. 1992) in the art: axes, boomerangs, spearthrowers, dillybags and included Giant Horse, Lee Cheu and Red Bluff shelters for the mortuary baskets. Therefore the placement of a stone axe with express purpose of including ‘contact’ paints in the analysis. a policeman and the repeated juxtaposition of the police figures White paints from a cap, horse and a policeman follow standard with the shapes which have been widely labelled as guns or rifles recipes with kaolinite as the main mineral (Table 3). However, (Cole 1995; Flood 1997; Huchet 1993; Morwood 2002; Trezise in the field the Lee Cheu whites appeared to be very luminous 1971, 1985; Walsh 1988) is most unusual. As Trezise does not and were difficult to match with Munsell colours. The identical indicate the source of the term ‘rifle’ we cannot assume that compositions of these paints support field observations that the it came from Aboriginal informants. Although the shapes are Lee Cheu 5 paintings are linked, as in a scene. unlike realistic depictions of rifles in Arnhem Land art (see Although Laura red paints have similar gross mineralogies Brandl 1982; Chaloupka 1993) they are positioned under arms (haematite and quartz), a minority (5/30 samples, see Watchman in realistic proportions to human height (Table 5). The objects et al. 1992; Table 3) contain a relatively pure haematite with a with figures P6 and LC1 are outside of the usual range (Table 5, typical value of 10R3/4, dusky red. The red paint from the Figure 9d,f) but neither do they comply with standard artefact policeman at Red Bluff (Table 4) is in this group, suggesting the categories at Laura. If the vaguely drawn objects (Figures 4, 9b) selection of a high grade pigment. depict rifles, they may represent the very uncertain perceptions Yellow, reddish yellow and brownish yellow (Table 5) are of early, terrifying encounters with guns. typical of Laura paints which contain goethite (Watchman et al. 1992:Tables 4-5). However the grey paint used in two Locations police figures at Crocodile 1 is rare and its source unknown. Selection of ‘police’ sites appears to have been culturally The only known paint of similar colour occurs at Blue Figures determined – all are established story places where successive shelter, Deighton River, where a possibly unique bluish grey paintings connect with ancestral law. Within these cultural paint contains a manganese bearing mineral and perhaps constraints sites were chosen for strategic features: elevation, organic ingredients (Cole and Watchman 1993). The grey paint shelter, security, water supplies and views across settler tracks and

24 Number 71, December 2010 Noelene Cole

river corridors. The figures are painted on walls, not ceilings, in colours and paints, lines, positions, associations) and innovations prominent positions. Many appear to gaze across the landscape, (selection of rare paint, realistic features, juxtaposed objects, placed for visual effect, to see and be seen. signs of action and interaction). Elaborate patterns, additions With the exception of Lee Cheu 1, the police sites have good and renovations suggest that paintings were constructed shelter, living space and substantial evidence of occupation ceremonially, painstakingly and periodically. Variation is within and art. As shown in Table 6 they contain c.40–350 motifs, the usual range of Laura style (Cole 1992, 1998). Some is likely and as such are typical of Laura rockshelters with medium-to- to be a result of ‘artistic freedom’ (see Biebuyck 1973:180 cited by large, generalised assemblages of art (Cole 1998). They do not Layton 1993:34; Morphy 1991; Rosenfeld 1982:217; Washburn resemble ‘specialised’ sites identified by Rosenfeld (1982:215) by 1983 for creative variation in corporate art systems). Smaller- a ‘restricted theme’ of ‘elaborate anthropomorphs’ (e.g. Timara scale police paintings may be connected to shorter stays at sites Quinkans, see Ang-Gnarra Aboriginal Corporation 1996) and an which lack water supplies or living space. absence of habitation debris. Why were signs of naturalism (in height, body shape and clothing) an attribute of the police? While representations Temporal and Social Contexts of clothing may be merely an elaboration of the convention Although clan populations were depleted, displaced and of adding headdresses, belts etc to denote special functions sometimes obliterated in the colonial period (e.g. Brady et (see George et al. 1995), Rosenfeld (1982:213) concluded al. 1980), the local groups continued, albeit with altered that the ‘higher level of explicit characterising information’ compositions. In the late nineteenth century such resilient in depictions of pig and horse was intended to assist image groups were living on the Laura Deighton plateau, in the recognition, except where such detail is already provided Palmer ranges, near the head of the Little Laura River and in ‘clearly characterised paintings of the same species’. This moving around the Laura, Deighton and Kennedy Rivers (Cole theory may explain the relative naturalism of most police 2004; Trezise 1993). figures and the absence of detail in figures which have nearby, The police sites are located in such areas, situated on top explicit paintings of pigs, horses or policemen (Figures 9f,h,i). layers of the art sequence in sites which have evidence of both It may also shed light on the depiction of the ambiguous long-term and very recent Aboriginal occupation. According shape of the object or ‘rifle’. As there is a virtual absence to George Musgrave and Tommy George such paintings are in Laura art of the non-figurative (see Rosenfeld 1982), associated with rockshelter use by their Old People (who there must be a reason for this ambiguity. The spatial and belonged to the local groups) in ‘The Wild Time’. Perhaps the stylistic connections between the objects and the juxtaposed genesis was at Crocodile 1 during guerilla warfare on the nearby policemen suggest that the figures are cognitively inseparable. Hell’s Gate track (see Cole 2004:174-175). Therefore the cue to identifying the object lies in the external information supplied by the juxtaposed policeman. Discussion Official police photographs suggest that the trooper uniform The distribution and coherent style of the police assemblage of navy blue shirts with red facings, navy blue caps, trousers across the catchments of the Laura and Little Laura Rivers with a red stripe, boots and leggings (see Lamond 1949:32; confirms oral history and documentary evidence that Aboriginal Richards 2008:125) (Figures 10 and 12) was a powerful symbol groups continued to move around and interact in the post-contact of police authority. Evidently the distinctive cap and the navy period. Cultural features which allowed local groups to transform blue trousers with the red stripe continued to be worn by police and survive included multilingualism, webs of kin relationships, trackers into the twentieth century (Laura George, pers. comm., flexible laws of inheritance, ancestral, inalienable connections to 1999) (Figure 12). It is likely that the intrinsic, symbolic value of land and the capacity to live in wild and inaccessible ancestral the uniform is a source of meaning in depictions of the police. country which was marginal to colonisation. If the rounded feet represent boots their use as graphic signs Sources of symbolic structure in the police paintings are visual, is also feasible given the significance of tracks in Aboriginal material and contextual (motifs, paints, design elements, graphic knowledge systems (Rosenfeld 1982; Trezise 1971) and reports associations, positions and locations), following conventions of of amazed reactions of Aboriginal people to seeing boots and Laura art. However the police motif is distinguished from other boot tracks (Flood 1997:314; Reynolds 1982). anthropomorphs by a singular selection and combination of The depiction of the penis on apparently trousered figures customary signs (masculinity, eyes, characteristic feet, traditional may seem an illogical mix of realism and metaphor. However

Table 6 Art assemblages and presence of occupation debris in police sites (note Giant Horse C2-C3 are adjoining shelters). Site No. Motifs Recorded Occupation Debris Crocodile 1 172 • Emu 90 • Giant Horse C2 15 • Giant Horse C3 351 • Lee Cheu 1 49 Mingaroo Hill 1 64 • Pig B2 147 • Red Bluff A3 42 •

Number 71, December 2010 25 Painting the Police: Aboriginal Visual Culture and Identity in Colonial Cape York Peninsula

was informed of the use of image sorcery to kill an enemy. For example, a man could make and use a bark effigy of a crocodile to kill his enemies, or paint a picture of the victim attacked by snakes (Trezise 1971:30). A piece of apparel containing the victim’s sweat or hair was taken to a rockshelter ‘chanted over and buried in the floor, the appropriate figure painted on a rock wall or ceiling, while the sorcerer chanted the manner of death’ (Trezise 1971:9-10). Painting details such as clothing may have compensated for a lack of personal items of the police, although it is not known whether the sorcery was aimed at individuals or police in general. As the process required the victim’s knowledge, the staring eyes and prominent placement of police figures may Figure 10 Native Mounted Police detachment, Coen, Cape York represent efforts to connect visually with the victim. Peninsula 1890s (John Oxley 08944). Reynolds (1982:86-87) argued that sorcery was important to Aboriginal resistance and in the Aboriginal mind possibly ‘at least as significant as physical confrontation’. However the usually elaborate police paintings are not typical sorcery figures which, according to Trezise (1971:9), are ‘usually poorly executed in a plain solid colour and seldom have any decoration’. Tommy George Musgrave and George Musgrave (George et al. 1995:33) explained that painting the invaders was not only ‘to kill them’ but ‘to get strong to fight them’. In other words, the police motif was as an expression of cultural identity, power and solidarity in fighting the police.

Conclusions Richards (2008:5) concluded that the Queensland Native Figure 11 Police troopers at Lower Laura (Boralga) Native Mounted Police ‘were, for Aboriginal people, the symbol of invasion and Police camp (John Oxley 62346). dispossession throughout the second half of the nineteenth century’. Perhaps the paintings reflect this ideology. However, colonialism was not a simple, dualistic process involving two isolated, opposing entities (Stein 2005; Van Dommelan 2006). Native police detachments were plagued by internal conflict due to the coercion of Aborigines into their ranks (a policy of divide and rule, Richards 2008). Troopers often deserted or rebelled as in the uprising of six troopers at Upper Laura Barracks in 1880 in which three troopers were killed (see Richards 2009). The Native Mounted Police force, like colonialism itself (see Little 2007; Schreiber 2005) was not monolithic, and in Cape York Peninsula it struggled for years to defeat Aboriginal resistance (Cole 2004). Evidence presented in this study suggests that visual culture, an ancient and enduring traditional knowledge system at Laura, remained at the heart of Aboriginal culture in the tumultuous Figure 12 Police handing out blankets at Laura c.1913 (Queensland colonial period. Symbolic structure indicates that the artists Museum RB9294/2 Fitzgibbon Collection). collectively conceived and contextualised cultural meaning in both traditional and innovative ways, through the painstaking a similar contradiction is evident in horse depictions in which selection and mindful combination of graphic elements, motifs, Rosenfeld (1982:213) found ‘a non-standardized combination story sites, materials and associations. The paintings of police of new visual clues of shape and traits are incorporated to emerged as specialised, value-laden images in Quinkan style. specify the identity of the animal painted’. In some depictions Colonial politics and war generated drastic changes in Aboriginal this appears as a blend of realistic shape and an unnatural, society but did not destroy the unique worldviews and values marsupial-like anal swelling. Rosenfeld (1982:217) concluded which bound it together. that such ‘zoologically contradictory information appears to Symbolic structure therefore points to solidarity and have been acceptable’. Clearly the mindful selection of attributes confidence rather than cultural disintegration. However, the by Aboriginal artists to create motifs (i.e. consistent categories) is production of art in this dangerous environment also involved not required to conform to non-Indigenous understandings and imagination and courage. Following other cross-cultural studies categories (see Ross 2001). which have shown how material culture negotiated cultural The police figures have alignments associated with death or identities (Harrison 2002; Stein 2005; Taçon et al. 2003; Thomas juxtapositions with symbols of sorcery or violence. Trezise (1971) 2002) this research suggests that visual culture supported the

26 Number 71, December 2010 Noelene Cole

cultural resilience and strategic transformation of Quinkan Cole, N., K. Sale and B. David 1992 Cape York Peninsula rock-art site records. In society. Rock art has provided a rare glimpse of cultural identity M. Rowland and N. Franklin (eds), Rock Art Sites in the Cape York Peninsula in the context of local agency (see Rogers 2006) which, although Biogeographic Zone, pp.61-96. Report to the Australian Institute of Aboriginal a key component of colonialism (Hall and Silliman 2006; Stein and Torres Strait Islander Studies, Canberra and Department of Environment and 2005), is missing from colonial accounts. Heritage, Brisbane. Cole, N. and A. Watchman 1993 Blue paints in prehistory. Rock Art Research Acknowledgments 10(1):59-61. I thank the George and Musgrave families of Laura, in Cole, N. and A. Watchman 1996 Archaeology of white hand stencils of the Laura region, particular Tommy George, and the late George Musgrave and North Queensland (Australia). In J. Mohen (ed.), Techne 3: La Science au Service de Laura George for their support in this research. This paper l’Histoire de l’Art et des Civilizations, pp.82-90. Paris: Le Laboratoire de Recherché was presented at WAC6, Dublin, in a session convened by des Musées de France Palais du Louvre. Paul Taçon and colleagues (2008). For valuable comments I Cole, N., A. Watchman and M. Morwood 1995 Chronology of Laura rock art. In M. thank Bruce Rigsby, Tommy George, Jonathan Richards, Alice Morwood and D. Hobbs (eds), Quinkan Prehistory: The Archaeology of Aboriginal Buhrich and the editors and referees. James Leech, Arthur Art in S.E. Cape York Peninsula, Australia, pp.147-160. Tempus 3. St Lucia, QLD: Cole and MBE Toowong assisted with graphics. The paper Anthropology Museum, University of Queensland. draws on research assisted (variously) by the Australian Corfield, W. 1923 Reminiscences of north Queensland. Journal of the Royal Historical Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, Society of Queensland 2(2):81-96. James Cook University, Ang-Gnarra Aboriginal Corporation, Flood, J. 1997 Rock Art of the Dreamtime: Images of Ancient Australia. Sydney: Angus Queensland Environmental Protection Agency (Community and Robertson. History Grants) and Earthwatch Institute. Galloway, P. 2006 Material culture and text: Exploring the spaces within and between. In M. Hall and S. Silliman (eds), Historical Archaeology, pp.42-64. Oxford: Blackwell. References George, T., G. Musgrave and Ang-Gnarra Rangers 1995 Our Country, Our Art, Our Ang-Gnarra Aboriginal Corporation 1996 Quinkan Rock Art. Laura: Ang-Gnarra Quinkans. Laura: Ang-Gnarra Aboriginal Corporation. Aboriginal Corporation. Hall, M. and S. Silliman 2006 Introduction: Archaeology of the modern world. In M. Hall Barker, B. 2007 Massacre, frontier conflict and Australian Archaeology. Australian and S. Silliman (eds), Historical Archaeology, pp.1-19. Oxford: Blackwell. Archaeology 64:9-14. Harrison, R. 2002 Australia’s iron age: Aboriginal post-contact metal artefacts from Old Basedow, H. 1925 The Australian Aboriginal. Adelaide: F.W. Preece. Lampoo station, southeast Kimberley, Western Australia. Australasian Historical Brady, D., C. Anderson and B. Rigsby 1980 Some of us are still alive: The Palmer River Archaeology 20:67-76. revisited. Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies Newsletter 13:30-36. Harrison, R. 2004 Contact archaeology and the landscapes of pastoralism in the north- Brandl, E. 1982 Australian Aboriginal Paintings in Western and Central Arnhem Land. west of Australia. In T. Murray (ed.), The Archaeology of Contact in Settler Societies, Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies. pp.109-143. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Byrne, D. 2002 An archaeology of attachment: Cultural heritage and the post-contact. In Hay, J. 1987 The Laura to Maytown coach road. Cairns Historical Society Bulletin 326. R. Harrison and C. Williamson (eds), After Captain Cook: The Archaeology of the Huchet, B. 1990 The identification of cicatrices depicted on anthropomorphs in the Recent Indigenous Past in Australia, pp.135-146. Sydney University Archaeological Laura region, North Queensland. Rock Art Research 7(1):27-43. Methods Series 8. Sydney: Archaeological Computing Laboratory University of Huchet, B. 1991 Theories and Australian pre-history: The last three decades. Australian Sydney. Archaeology 33:44-51. Chaloupka, G. 1993 Journey in Time. Chatswood, NSW: Reed. Huchet, B. 1993 A spatial analysis of anthropomorphs from rock art sites of the Laura Chambers, J. 1939 Report to the Director of Native Affairs, Brisbane. EP File. Department area, Australia. In J. Steinbring, A. Watchman, P. Faulstich and P. Taçon (eds), of Environment and Heritage, Brisbane. Report sighted 1992. Time and Space: Dating and Spatial Considerations in Rock Art Research, pp.92- Clarke, A. and A. Paterson 2003 Cross-cultural archaeology: An introduction. 100. Occasional AURA Publication 8. Melbourne: Australian Rock Art Research Archaeology in Oceania 38(2):49-51. Association. Cole, N. 1992 Human motifs in the rock art of Jowalbinna. In J. McDonald and Hughes, I. 1978 A state of open warfare: Frontier conflict in the Cooktown area. In H. I.P. Haskovec (eds), State of the Art: Regional Rock Art Studies in Australia and Reynolds (ed.), Race Relations in North Queensland, pp.99-117. Townsville: James Melanesia, pp.164-173. Occasional AURA Publication 6. Melbourne: Australian Cook University. Rock Art Research Association. Jolly, P. 1998 Modelling change in the contact art of the south-eastern San, southern Cole, N. 1995 Rock art in the Laura Cooktown region, S. E .Cape York Peninsula. In M. Africa. In C. Chippendale and P. Taçon (eds), The Archaeology of Rock-Art, pp.247- Morwood and D. Hobbs (eds), Quinkan Prehistory: The Archaeology of Aboriginal 267. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Art in S.E. Cape York Peninsula, Australia, pp.51-70. Tempus 3. St Lucia, QLD: Kirkman, N. 1978 A snider is a splendid civilizer: European attitudes to Aborigines on Anthropology Museum, University of Queensland. the Palmer. In H. Reynolds (ed.), Race Relations in North Queensland, pp.119-143. Cole, N. 1998 Eel and Boomerang: An Archaeological Study of Stylistic Variation in Townsville : James Cook University. Rock Art of the Laura Region. Unpublished PhD thesis, James Cook University, Klassen, M. 1998 Icon and narrative in transition: Contact-period rock art at Writing- Townsville. On-Stone, southern Alberta, Canada. In C. Chippendale and P. Taçon (eds), The Cole, N. 2004 Battle camp to Boralga: A local study of colonial war on Cape York Archaeology of Rock-Art, pp.42-72. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Peninsula, 1873-1894. Aboriginal History 28:156-189. Lamond, H.1949 Native Mounted Police. Walkabout 15/11:31-32. Cole, N., G. Musgrave, L. George with T. George and D. Banjo 2002 Community Land Tribunal Queensland 1996 Aboriginal Land Claim to Lakefield National Park 1996. archaeology at Laura, Cape York Peninsula. In S. Ulm, C. Westcott, J. Reid, A. Report of the Land Tribunal established under the Aboriginal Land Act 1991 to the Ross, I. Lilley, J. Prangnell and L. Kirkwood (eds), Barriers, Borders, Boundaries: Hon. Minister for Natural Resources. Brisbane: Land Tribunal. Proceedings of the 2001 Australian Archaeological Association Annual Conference, Layton, R. 1993 The Anthropology of Art. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University pp.137-150. Tempus 7. Brisbane: Anthropology Museum, University of Queensland. Press.

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Little, B.J. 2007 Historical Archaeology: Why the Past Matters. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Rosenfeld, A. 1982 Style and meaning in Laura art: A case study in the formal analysis Coast Press. of style in prehistoric art. Mankind 13(3):199-217. Loos, N. 1982 Invasion and Resistance: Aboriginal-European Relations on the North Rosenfeld, A., D. Horton and J. Winter 1981 Early Man in North Queensland. Terra Queensland Frontier 1861-1897. Canberra: Australian National University Press. Australis 6. Canberra: Department of Prehistory, Research School of Pacific Studies, Lydon, J. 2006 Pacific encounters, or beyond the islands of history. In M. Hill and S. Australian National University. Silliman (eds), Historical Archaeology, pp.292-312. Oxford: Blackwell. Ross, M. 2001 Emerging trends in rock art research: Hunter-gatherer culture, land and Maynard, L. 1977 Classification and terminology in Australian rock art. In P.J. Ucko landscape. Antiquity 75(289):543-548. (ed.), Form in Indigenous Art: Schematization in the Art of Aboriginal Australia Schreiber, K. 2005 Imperial agencies and local agencies. In G.J. Stein (ed.), The and Palaeolithic Europe, pp.385-402. Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Archaeology of Colonial Encounters, pp.237-262. Oxford: James Currey. Studies. Sharp, L. 1939 Tribes and totemism in north-east Australia. Oceania 9(3):254-275. Maynard, L. 1979 The archaeology of Australian Aboriginal art. In S.M. Mead (ed.), Smith, C. 1992 The use of ethnography in interpreting rock art: A comparative study Exploring the Visual Art of Oceania, pp.83-110. Honolulu: University Press of Hawaii. of Arnhem Land and the Western desert of Australia. In M. Morwood and D. Morphy, H. 1991 Ancestral Connections: Art and an Aboriginal System of Knowledge. Hobbs (eds), Rock Art and Ethnography, pp.39-45. Occasional AURA Publication 5. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Melbourne: Australian Rock Art Research Association. Morwood, M. 1995a Excavations at Giant Horse. In M. Morwood and D. Hobbs (eds), Stein, G. 2005 Introduction. In G. Stein (ed.), The Archaeology of Colonial Encounters, Quinkan Prehistory: The Archaeology of Aboriginal Art in S.E. Cape York Peninsula, pp.3-30. Oxford: James Currey. Australia, pp.101-106. Tempus 3. St Lucia, QLD: Anthropology Museum, University Taçon, P. and C. Chippendale 1998 An archaeology of rock-art through informed of Queensland. methods and formal methods. In C. Chippendale and P. Taçon (eds), The Morwood, M. 1995b Excavations at Red Bluff 1. In M. Morwood and D. Hobbs (eds), Archaeology of Rock-Art, pp.1-10. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Quinkan Prehistory: The Archaeology of Aboriginal Art in S.E. Cape York Peninsula, Taçon, P.S.C., S.K. May, S.J. Fallon, M. Travers, D. Wesley and R. Lamilami 2010 A Australia, pp.127-132. Tempus 3. St Lucia, QLD: Anthropology Museum, University minimum age for early depictions of Southeast Asian praus in the rock art of of Queensland. Arnhem Land, Northern Territory. Australian Archaeology 71:1-10. Morwood, M. 2002 Visions from the Past: The Archaeology of Australian Aboriginal Rock Taçon, P., B. South and S.B. Hooper 2003 Depicting cross-cultural interaction: Figurative Art. Crows Nest, NSW: Allen and Unwin. designs in wood, earth and stone from south-east Australia. Archaeology in Morwood, M. and C. Smith 1994 Rock art research in Australia 1974-94. Australian Oceania 38(2):89-101. Archaeology 39:19-38. Taylor. L. 1987 ‘The same but different’: Social Reproduction and Innovation in the Art Munn, N. 1973 Walbiri Iconography: Graphic Representation and Cultural Symbolism in of the Kunwinjku of Western Arnhem Land. Unpublished PhD thesis, Australian a Central Australian Society. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. National University, Canberra. Pike, G. 1998 On the Trail of Gold: The Story of James Venture Mulligan North Thomas, N. 2002 Colonising cloth. In C.L. Lyons and J.K. Papadopoulos (eds), The Queensland’s Greatest Prospector Explorer: An Autobiography Quoted by Glenville Archaeology of Colonialism, pp.182-198. Los Angeles: Getty Research Institute. Pike, with Commentary. Mareeba: Glenville Pike. Trezise, P. 1969 Quinkan Country. Sydney: Reed. Pizzey, G. and F. Knight 1997 The Field Guide to the Birds of Australia. Sydney: Harper Trezise, P. 1971 Rock Art of South-East Cape York Peninsula. Canberra: Australian Collins. Institute of Aboriginal Studies. Reynolds, H. 1972 Aborigines and Settlers: The Australian Experience 1788-1939. Trezise, P. 1973 Last Days of a Wilderness. Sydney: Collins. Stanmore, NSW: Cassell. Trezise, P. 1985 Crocodile 1 Gallery, Laura. Rock Art Research 4(2):74-77. Reynolds, H. 1982 The Other Side of the Frontier: Aboriginal Resistance to the European Trezise, P. 1993 Dream Road. St Leonards, NSW: Allen and Unwin. Invasion of Australia. Ringwood, VIC: Penguin. Van Dommelan, P. 2006 Ambiguous matters. In C.L. Lyons and J.K. Papadopoulos (eds), Richards, J. 2008 The Secret War: A True History of Queensland’s Native Police. St Lucia, The Archaeology of Colonialism, pp.121-146. Los Angeles: Getty Research Institute. QLD: University of Queensland Press. Walsh, G. 1988 Australia’s Greatest Rock Art. Bathurst, NSW: E.J. Brill/Robert Brown and Richards, J. 2009 Some ‘Policing the Laura’ References 1872-1940, compiled by Jonathan Associates. Richards. Unpublished report provided to N. Cole. Ward, I., A. Watchman, N. Cole and M. Morwood 2001 Identification of minerals in Rigsby, B. 1980 The language situation on Cape York Peninsula: Past, present and future. pigments from Aboriginal rock art in the Laura and Kimberley regions, Australia. In J. Wright, N. Mitchell and P. Watling (eds), Reef Rainforest Mangroves Man: A Rock Art Research 18(1):15-23. Focus on Cape York Peninsula, pp.5-7. Brisbane: Wildlife Preservation Society of Washburn, D. 1983 Toward a theory of structural style in art. In D. Washburn (ed.), Queensland. Structure and Cognition in Art, pp.1-7. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Rigsby, B. 1997 Structural parallelism and convergence in the Princess Charlotte Watchman, A. 1988 Repainting or periodic-painting at Australian Aboriginal sites: Bay languages. In P. McConvell and N. Evans (eds), Archaeology and Linguistics: Evidence from rock surface crusts. In G. Ward (ed.), Retouch: Maintenance and Aboriginal Australia in Global Perspective, pp.169-178. Melbourne: Oxford Conservation of Aboriginal Rock Imagery, pp.26-30. Occasional AURA Publication University Press. 5: Melbourne: Australian Rock Art Research Association. Rigsby, B. 1999 Aboriginal people, spirituality and the traditional ownership of land. Watchman, A., J. Sirois and N. Cole 1992 Mineralogical examination of rock painting International Journal of Social Economics 26(7/8/9):963-973. pigments near Laura, north Queensland. In B.L. Fankhauser and J. Robert Bird Rigsby, B. 2002 Kuku Thaypan, Introduction, Unpublished MS provided to N. Cole. (eds), Archaeometry: Current Australasian Research, pp.141-149. Canberra: Rigsby, B. 2003 The Languages of the Quinkan and Neighbouring Region. Unpublished Department of Prehistory, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National report to Quinkan Cultural Centre, Laura. University. Rogers, J.D. 2006 Archaeology and the interpretation of colonial encounters. In G.J. Stein Williamson, C. 2004 Contact archaeology and the writing of Aboriginal history. In (ed.), The Archaeology of Colonial Encounters, pp.331-354. Oxford: James Currey. T. Murray (ed.), The Archaeology of Contact in Settler Societies, pp.176-199. Rose, D.B. 1991 Hidden Histories: Black Stories from the Victoria River Downs, Humbert Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. River and Wave Hill Stations. Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press.

28 Number 71, December 2010 In this issue

Editorial Sean Ulm & Annie Ross ii

ARTICLES A Minimum Age for Early Depictions of Southeast Asian Praus in the Rock Art of Arnhem Land, Northern Territory Paul S.C. Taçon, Sally K. May, Stewart J. Fallon, Meg Travers, Daryl Wesley & Ronald Lamilami 1

A Dingo Burial from the Arnhem Land Plateau R.G. Gunn, R.L. Whear & L.C. Douglas 11

Painting the Police: Aboriginal Visual Culture and Identity in Colonial Cape York Peninsula Noelene Cole 17

Cave Archaeology and Sampling Issues in the Tropics: A Case Study from Lene Hara Cave, a 42,000 Year Old Occupation Site in East Timor, Island Southeast Asia Sue O’Connor, Anthony Barham, Matthew Spriggs, Peter Veth, Ken Aplin & Emma St Pierre 29

Historicising the Present: Late Holocene Emergence of a Rainforest Hunting Camp, Gulf Province, Papua New Guinea Ian J. McNiven, Bruno David, Ken Aplin, Max Pivoru, William Pivoru, Alex Sexton, Jonathan Brown, Chris Clarkson, Kate Connell, John Stanisic, Marshall Weisler, Simon Haberle, Andrew Fairbairn & Noel Kemp 41

Painting History: Indigenous Observations and Depictions of the ‘Other’ in Northwestern Arnhem Land, Australia Sally K. May, Paul S.C. Taçon, Daryl Wesley & Meg Travers 57

SHORT REPORTS Earliest Evidence for Ground-Edge Axes: 35,400±410 cal BP from Jawoyn Country, Arnhem Land Jean-Michel Geneste, Bruno David, Hugues Plisson, Chris Clarkson, Jean-Jacques Delannoy, Fiona Petchey & Ray Whear 66

The Age of Australian Rock Art: A Review Michelle C. Langley & Paul S.C. Taçon 70

Buggering Around in the Backyard: Creating Attachment to Place through Archaeology and Material Culture Steve Brown 74

BOOK REVIEWS Roonka: Fugitive Traces and Climatic Mischief edited by Keryn Walshe Reviewed by Eleanor Crosby 79

Archaeological Investigation by Martin Carver Reviewed by David Frankel 80

The Politics of Suffering: Indigenous Australia and the End of the Liberal Consensus by Peter Sutton Reviewed by Luke Godwin 81

Managing Archaeological Resources: Global Context, National Programs, Local Actions edited by Francis P. McManamon, Andrew Stout & Jodi A. Barnes Reviewed by Thomas F. King 84

Arrernte Present, Arrernte Past: Invasion, Violence, and Imagination in Indigenous Central Australia by Diane Austin-Broos Reviewed by John White 85

THESIS ABSTRACTS 87 2010

number 71 December 2010 number 71 BACKFILL Rock Art and Modified Tree Tracings Digitisation: Background, Sites, Issues and Access Emma Lees 89

Lectures 93 ISSN 0312-2417

List of Referees 95

NOTES TO CONTRIBUTORS 97 Australian Archaeological Association INC. Office Bearers for 2010

Position Name Address

Australian Archaeology, the official publication of the Editors Executive Australian Archaeological Association Inc., is a refereed Sean Ulm The University of Queensland President Lynley Wallis Aboriginal Environments Research Centre, The University of Queensland, journal published since 1974. It accepts original articles Annie Ross The University of Queensland PO Box 6114, St Lucia, QLD 4067 in all fields of archaeology and other subjects relevant to Secretary Andrew Border 3 Queens Road, Railway Estate, Townsville, QLD 4810 archaeological research and practice in Australia and nearby Editorial Advisory Board Treasurer Michael Morrison Department of Archaeology, Flinders University, GPO Box 2100, Adelaide, areas. Contributions are accepted in seven sections: Articles Val Attenbrow Australian Museum SA 5001 (5000-8000 words), Short Reports (1000-3000), Obituaries Margaret Conkey University of California, Berkeley Membership Secretary Dan Rosendahl Aboriginal Environments Research Centre, The University of Queensland, (500-2000), Thesis Abstracts (200-500), Book Reviews Bruno David Monash University PO Box 6114, St Lucia, QLD 4067 (500-2000), Comment (1000) and Backfill (which includes Andrew Fairbairn The University of Queensland Membership Secretary Jacqueline Matthews School of Social Science, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072 letters, conference details, announcements and other material Richard Fullagar Scarp Archaeology Public Officer Sally Brockwell Archaeology & Natural History, School of Culture, History & Language, of interest to members). Australian Archaeology is published Martin Gibbs University of Sydney College of Asia & the Pacific, The Australian National University, Canberra, twice a year, in June and December. Notes to Contributors are Luke Godwin Central Queensland Cultural Heritage ACT 0200 available at www.australianarchaeologicalassociation.com.au. Management Pty Ltd Webmaster Samantha Bolton Archaeological & Heritage Management Solutions Pty Ltd, PO Box 9077, Chris Gosden University of Oxford Nicholson Road, Subiaco, WA 6008 Australian Archaeology is indexed in the Arts and Humanities Simon Holdaway University of Auckland Indigenous Liaison Officer Christopher Wilson Yunggorendi First Nations Centre for Higher Education & Research, Citation Index of the ISI Web of Knowledge, SCOPUS, Susan Lawrence La Trobe University Flinders University, Adelaide, SA 5001 Australian Public Affairs Information Service (APAIS) and Judith Littleton University of Auckland Media Liaison Officer Peter Veth National Centre for Indigenous Studies, The Australian National Anthropological Literature and Anthropological Index Online. Jo McDonald JMcD CHM Pty Ltd University, Canberra, ACT 0200 & The Australian National University Media Liaison Officer Michelle Langley School of Archaeology, University of Oxford, 36 Beaumont Street, Australian Archaology is ranked as a tier A journal by the Tim Murray La Trobe University Oxford, OX12PG, United Kingdom Australian Research Council, European Reference Index for the Jim O’Connell University of Utah Humanities and French Agence d’Evaluation de la Recherche et Fiona Petchey University of Waikato Australian Archaeology Editors Editor Sean Ulm Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Studies Unit, The University of de l’Enseignement Supérieur. Lynette Russell Monash University Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072 Robin Torrence Australian Museum Editor Annie Ross School of Integrative Systems, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Subscriptions are available to individuals through Peter Veth The Australian National University QLD 4072 & School of Social Science, The University of Queensland, membership of the Australian Archaeological Association David Whitley ASM Affiliates Inc. Brisbane, QLD 4072 Inc. or to organisations through institutional subscription. Editorial Assistant Linda Terry School of Social Science, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072 Subscription application/renewal forms are available at Editorial Assistant Short Reports Editor Lara Lamb School of Humanities & Communications, University of Southern http://www.australianarchaeologicalassociation.com.au. Linda Terry The University of Queensland Queensland, Toowoomba, QLD 4350 Australian Archaeology is available through Informit and JSTOR. Short Reports Editor Catherine Westcott Department of Transport & Main Roads, GPO Box 1412, Brisbane, QLD 4001 Short Report Editors Review Editor Jon Prangnell School of Social Science, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072 Graphic Design: Lovehate Design Lara Lamb University of Southern Queensland Review Editor Jill Reid Department of Transport & Main Roads, GPO Box 1412, Brisbane, QLD 4001 Printing: Screen Offset Printing Catherine Westcott Department of Transport Thesis Abstract Editor Stephen Nichols School of Social Science, The University of Queensland, Brisbane QLD 4072 & Main Roads (Qld)

Cover: Painting of a European tall ship, most likely made in State Representatives the 1700s (Photograph: Paul S.C. Taçon). Book Review Editors Australian Capital Territory Sally May School of Archaeology & Anthropology, Research School of Humanities & Jon Prangnell The University of Queensland the Arts, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200 All correspondence and submissions should be addressed to: Jill Reid Department of Transport & Main Roads (Qld) New South Wales Maria Cotter Heritage Futures Research Centre, School of Humanities, University of New England, Armidale, NSW 2351 Australian Archaeology Thesis Abstract Editor Northern Territory Trish Bourke Heritage Branch, Department of Natural Resources, Environment, PO Box 6088, St Lucia QLD 4067, AUSTRALIA Stephen Nichols The University of Queensland The Arts & Sport, Northern Territory Government, Darwin, NT 0800 Email: [email protected] Queensland Lincoln Steinberger School of Geography, Planning & Environmental Management, URL: http://www.australianarchaeologicalassociation.com.au The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072 South Australia Alice Gorman Department of Archaeology, Flinders University, GPO Box 2100, Adelaide, The views expressed in this journal are not necessarily those SA 5001 of the Australian Archaeological Association Inc. or the Editors. Tasmania Denise Gaughwin Forest Practices Authority, PO Box 180, Kings Meadows, TAS 7249 Victoria Duncan Wright Centre for Australian Indigenous Studies, PO Box 55, Monash University, © Australian Archaeological Association Inc., 2010 Clayton, Victoria 3800 Western Australia Stuart Rapley Archae-aus Pty Ltd, PO Box 177, South Fremantle, WA 6162

ISSN 0312-2417 TABLE OF CONTENTS