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Goba of Mua: archaeology working with oral tradition

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Bruno David ,
Ian McNiven ,
Louise Manas ,
John Manas ,
Saila Savage ,
Joe Crouch ,
Guy Neliman  and
Liam Brady
Bruno David
Affiliation:
School of Geography and Environmental Science, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria 3800, Australia
Ian McNiven
Affiliation:
School of Geography and Environmental Science, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria 3800, Australia
Louise Manas
Affiliation:
Mualgal Native Title Group, Kubin Community Council, Mua Island, via Thursday Island, Queensland 4875, Australia
John Manas
Affiliation:
Mualgal Native Title Group, Kubin Community Council, Mua Island, via Thursday Island, Queensland 4875, Australia
Saila Savage
Affiliation:
Mualgal Native Title Group, Kubin Community Council, Mua Island, via Thursday Island, Queensland 4875, Australia
Joe Crouch
Affiliation:
Centre for Australian Indigenous Studies, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria 3800, Australia
Guy Neliman
Affiliation:
Mualgal Native Title Group, Kubin Community Council, Mua Island, via Thursday Island, Queensland 4875, Australia
Liam Brady
Affiliation:
School of Geography and Environmental Science, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria 3800, Australia
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Extract

A team of Elders and community officials from the island of Mua in the Torres Straits got together with archaeologists from Australia to study an episode which occurred on the island before the coming of Christianity in 1871. Oral tradition located the burial place of the father of an ancestral islander named Goba, and the investigation of a rock shelter nearby gave a dated sequence of occupation and a fresh sighting of rock paintings, all relating to the period. Each type of evidence gave context to the other, and the project offered a vivid example of how history is fashioned.

Keywords

Torres Straitoral traditionrock artcommunity archaeology
Type
Method
Information
Antiquity , Volume 78 , Issue 299 , March 2004 , pp. 158 - 172
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2004

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