Research Staff Dr Amanda Kearney
Lecturer
Centre for Australian Indigenous Studies, Room 222
990 54203
amanda.kearney@arts.monash.edu.au
My research speciality is Australian Indigenous anthropology and ethnoarchaeology and in particular intangible cultural heritage and the emotional geographies that accompany Indigenous homelands. I have a strong interest in legislative and policy arrangements in relation to tangible and intangible cultural heritage, both within Australia and abroad. My doctoral research focused on Indigenous Australian cultural and social engagements with homelands, the politics of place and human relationships with powerful places over time. This, and my ongoing research has developed in working with Yanyuwa people, the Indigenous owners of land and sea in the southwest Gulf of Carpentaria, Australia. Working with younger and older generations I have sought to understand and document the terms of engagement and experience that inform a uniquely Yanyuwa way of experiencing the land and seascapes.
I am currently working with the Yanyuwa to investigate the complexities of their sea country and the important cultural terms on which they must be managed for future generations of Yanyuwa people. As an extension of this I am developing research in the areas of Indigenous knowledge and cross-generational knowledge transmission. By way of collaborative research, with the Yanyuwa community, Dr John Bradley (Monash University) and Tom Chandler (Monash University) I have been able to consider the role of digital technologies in the education of young Yanyuwa people.
Main Research Interests
• Anthropology and Ethnoarchaeology• Gender and Indigeneity
• Emotional Geographies and Indigenous homelands
• Intangible cultural heritage
• UNESCO
• Global consciousness and Local awareness
Areas of Post Graduate Supervision
• Ethnoarchaeology• Material culture studies
• Cultural heritage and the UNESCO Culture Sector
• Cross generational Indigenous knowledge transmission
• Emotional geographies and Indigenous homelands
• Gendered and generational knowledge systems
Publications
Kearney, A. (forthcoming) Yanyuwa Country and the Lived Cultural Domain in Archaeology. CAIS Monograph Series. Melbourne: Australian Scholarly Publishing.
Kearney, A. (in press for 2008) Intangible Cultural Heritage: Global awareness and local interest. In W. Logan and L. Smith (eds) Key Issues in Cultural Heritage.
London: Routledge.
Kearney, A. (in press for 2008) Place as material culture and restorative tool Yanyuwa women’s ceremony places in northern Australia. In M. Goggin and B. Fowkes Tobin(eds) Women and Things, 1750-1950: Gendered Material Strategies. Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing.
Kearney, A. (in press for 2008) Gender in landscape archaeology. In B. David and J. Thomas (eds) Handbook of Landscape Archaeology. Walnut Creek: Left Coast Press.
Kearney, A. and J, Bradley (2008). Remote Learning Partnership Project Consultancy Report. Prepared for the Northern Territory Department of Employment, Education and Training.
Kearney, A. 2007. Place spirit and intangible cultural heritage in a contested land. In Ensor, J., I. Polak and P. Van Der Merwe (eds), Other Contact Zones - New Talents 21C, pp.120-142. Perth: Australian Public Intellectuals Network, Curtin University.
Kearney, A and Bradley, J. 2006. Landscapes with shadows of once living people: Kundawira and the challenge for archaeology to understand. In B. David, B. Barker and I.J. McNiven (eds) The Social Archaeology of Australian Indigenous Societies, pp.182-203. Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press.
Kearney, A. 2006. Holding Yawulyu. Hecate’s Australian Women’s Book Review. Vol 18(1):18-21.
Conferences
A.Kearney, "Too Strong to Ever Not Be There, An Emotional Geography of a Yanyuwa Place" Heritage and the Environment Conference, Sabhal Mor Ostaig, Glasgow Caledonian University, 2007.
A. Kearney, "Intangible Cultural Heritage and Social Archaeologies", Kyoto University, Jinbunken, Transnational Research Group, Kyoto, 2005.
A. Kearney, "An Ethnoarchaeology of Engagement: Yanyuwa engagements as entangled encounter", School of Fine Arts, Classical Studies and Archaeology Post-Graduate Conference,University of Melbourne, 2003.
A. Kearney, "Gender, Archaeology and the Landscapes of Culture",Inscriptions in the Sand, Eastern Mediterranean University, Turkish Republic of Cyprus, 2003.
A. Kearney, "Critical self-awareness as a researcher: Moving from researcher to social actor", School of Fine Arts, Classical Studies and Archaeology Post-Graduate Conference,University of Melbourne, 2002.
A. Kearney, "An archaeofaunal and palaeoenvironmental study on Bushrangers Cave, Southeast Queensland", Recent Archaeological Research in Southeast Queensland Symposium,University of Queensland, 2001.
A. Kearney, "The Yanyuwa people and their marine environment",Victoria University of Technology, Sustainable Development Unit, 2001.
A. Kearney, "Engaged Archaeology: A place for human landscapes",School of Fine Arts , Classical Studies and Archaeology Post-Graduate Conference, University ofMelbourne, 2001.
Research Grants
2007
$26,000
Sidney Myer Foundation (with Dr John Bradley)
Project Title: Wingkayarra aluwa li-nganunga li-wanakala – Moving with our Ancestors: Animation and Indigenous Intangible Heritage
$50,000
Northern Territory Department of Employment, Education and Training – Local Community Consultancy
Project Title: Remote Learning Partnerships Project