Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
My name's Peter Veth and I'm the Winthrop Professor in Archaeology here at
The University of Western Australia and I'm the inaugural
Kimberly Foundation Ian Potter Chair in Rock Art.
I actually began at this university several decades ago
as an honours student in anthropology and archaeology.
My first degree was actually on the Burrup Peninsula,
the area wanted the biggest LNG gas projects
in the world and also one of the largest rock art provinces.
I did my PhD on the Canning Stock Route
and I had the privilege of working with the last hunter gatherer people actually on the planet.
People who had never met Europeans
until 1963,1967 and the last (believe it or not) 1976.
I did my work on archaeology, on their history on the nature of their contact
with these first Europeans
and then really just tried to understand what it was to be a desert person
how desert peoples envolved throughout the globe
Africa, Sahara, Central Asia and so forth
so it's an extraordinary set of opportunities that came from
this hub at the University of Western Australia.
I currently actually hold two chairs. One is to look
at the Barrow Island archaeology of Northwest Australia which builds on my
long-term interests
in the nature of desert hunter gatherers, the evolution maritime societies
and actually historic labour history of both Aboriginal people and others involved
in Northwest Maritime industries. My other major substantive position
is this Inaugural Chair funded by the Ian Potter Foundation through the
Kimberley Foundation and Impex
and the University of Western Australia and that is to take research
in the stupendously beautiful rock art
of the Kimberley region, which is of enormous significance to the traditional owners
and obviously is something that's emblematic that we see at the Olympics,
that we we see on all sorts of
public documents. So Kimberly Rock Art is known
for its aesthetic beauty, the fact that it has mysterious
early figures the Guions or Bradshaws showing people with incredible head dresses,
ornaments, accoutrements in scenes actually dancing, fighting doing
a whole range of things which
you don't see in many early art repertoires around the world.
So one of our major projects at the moment
is to get a cohort of research students working closely with communities
throughout the Kimberley.
Working with industry, working with land resource managers
and actually disentangling the age of the art,
its conservation status, working how to actually work with industry in managing this art
and actually reproducing it in respectful and
sustainable ways for the public to enjoy and indeed one at the new economies for
the Kimberley for northern Australia
will be taking people through to see particular areas which are opened up for
public interpretation,
to understand, to actually use this window or portal into
a very very deep, in fact probably continuous culture
that is sixty thousand years old. So starting here in the 1970's doing
anthropology/archaeology I feel personally I've come full circuit to come back here
and actually mentor and try to facilitate a new generation of researchers
and research from the University across a whole range
stakeholders. If you're interested in further work
and our active programs with communities and students around Australia
please look at my personal staff profile on the UWA site.
Thank you.