PAINTING THE POLICE · 2016-04-27 · conflict in the Laura-Cooktown area (Cole 2004). Although the...

17Number 71, December 2010

AbstractAboriginal 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 colonial texts, the depictions record Indigenous identity in the contexts of local agency and colonialism.

IntroductionAboriginal resistance to colonial invasion of the Cooktown Palmer

region has been well-documented (Cole 2004; Hughes 1978;

Kirkman 1978; Loos 1982) but colonial records have little to say

about Indigenous identity or attitudes (Loos 1982:85; Reynolds

1972:34). How can archaeology, which has seldom been used to

address Australia’s contested history (see Barker 2007; Lydon

2006), fill such gaps in historical records? While the remains

of colonial settlements such as Native Mounted Police camps

stand out in the landscape and can be studied archaeologically

(Cole 2004), it is more difficult to identify Indigenous traces of

the same era, mainly because many traditional ways of making

artefacts persisted in the midst of contact (Byrne 2002; Harrison

2004). Although Aboriginal people of the area readily made

use of exotic materials (Cole 2004), archaeologists have found

limited traces of this practice in archaeological sites.

Perhaps the best-known Indigenous ‘contact’ artefacts around

Laura are rock paintings of foreign animals, people and objects

first reported by Trezise (1971). These include pigs and horses

(see Flood 1997; Maynard 1979; Morwood 2002; Rosenfeld

1982), Europeans and Europeans with rifles (Flood 1997;

Morwood 2002) and policemen or Native Police (Huchet 1993;

Maynard 1979; Trezise 1985, 1993; Walsh 1988). Of these types

only the animal depictions have been studied archaeologically

(see Rosenfeld 1982).

Elsewhere, studies of visual culture have provided insights into

Indigenous concepts and social transformations in the context

of culture contact (Jolly 1998; Klassen 1998; Taçon et al. 2003).

For example Taçon et al. (2003) identified aspects of individual

versus group identity by studying imagery on portable objects

made by Aboriginal people in southeast Australia between 1850

and 1970. The field of contact archaeology is increasingly calling

upon visual depictions to integrate with written histories and

archaeological investigations of the past (e.g. Taçon et al. 2010).

This research calls upon visual depictions of policemen

identified by knowledgeable Aboriginal people (see Huchet

1993; Trezise 1985) to expand an investigation of colonial

conflict in the Laura-Cooktown area (Cole 2004). Although

the latter study identified factors which contributed to the

effectiveness of Aboriginal resistance, it shed little light on

Indigenous society owing to the one-sided nature of the records

used – archaeological remains of Boralga police camp and

historical texts (see Galloway 2006 and Little 2007 regarding

partiality in historical records). These shortcomings provide

the rationale and main question for this new research: What,

if anything, can depictions associated with policemen tell us

about the identity and mindset of the Aboriginal people who

actualised them? The analysis is not an archaeological end in

itself but a way of integrating rare evidence from the ‘other’ side

of the frontier to read between the lines of colonial history in

Cape York Peninsula.

Research Issues and MethodsAndrée Rosenfeld (1982:199) analysed depictions of horses and

pigs within a broader stylistic study, applying the premise that

Laura rock art constitutes ‘the durable component of a past

system of expressive symbolic behaviour’. Rosenfeld’s search for

‘types of structure, levels of complexity, modes of operation’ as

indicators of ‘cognitive significance’ were novel in Australian

archaeology, which was yet to take up the ‘contextual, structural

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

9 Fifth Avenue, St Lucia, QLD 4067, Australia [email protected]

Figure 1 The study area with localities of police figures.

18 Number 71, December 2010

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

and symbolic’ approaches apparent overseas (see Huchet 1991).

These approaches are now standard in Australian archaeology,

particularly in studies of the systemic roles and functions of

Aboriginal rock art (see Morwood 2002).

The research presented in this paper follows the methodology

of such studies: the integration of structural analysis of rock art

with other archaeological data. However it takes a more holistic

approach by drawing on cultural, historical and ethnohistorical

data (Ross 2001; and see ‘informed methods’ of Taçon and

Chippendale 1998:6). Some of the ethnohistorical data were

provided to Percy Trezise in the 1960s by senior Aboriginal

men who were born and raised in the Laura region in times

when Aboriginal people were hunted by the Native Mounted

Police and rock art was still a living tradition. More recently,

relevant information was recorded from the next generation,

including George Musgrave (c.1920-2006) and Tommy George.

These Indigenous lives, which supply ‘local webs of meanings’

(Williamson 2004:183), are typical of the ‘hidden histories’

(Rose 1991) that have emerged to challenge dominant accounts

of national identity and enrich archaeology (Clarke and Paterson

2003:49).

Ethnohistorical data were recorded during community

archaeology projects (e.g. Cole et al. 2002) or retrieved from

the publications of Percy Trezise (1969, 1971, 1985, 1993), who

was engaged in the 1960s by the (then) Australian Institute

of Aboriginal Studies to record rock art in the Laura region.

Trezise’s three decades of work, which included establishing an

archive at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait

Islander Studies (AIATSIS), Canberra, ‘provided the platform for

all later researchers in the region’ (Morwood and Smith 1994:23;

see Rosenfeld 1982). Much of the cultural, ethnohistorical and

linguistic information he recorded has been confirmed and

extended by Rigsby, Cole and others, and used in land claims

and Native Title research over the past 20 years (B. Rigsby, pers.

comm., 2010). I studied rock art and paint materials at Giant

Horse, Lee Cheu, Mingaroo Hill and Red Bluff rockshelters and

at other cultural sites in the course of fieldwork for regional

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 SettingThe 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

ancestral law (Rigsby 1999). Clans owned their own languages,

totems, songs, dances and designs which connect them with

their lands and Stories (Rigsby 1997, 2002). An important

understanding was (and is) that the Stories (the spirits of the

ancestors or the ‘Old People’ who include the recently dead)

live on the land in their own places. In this way rock paintings

are part of the ancestral law – they are Stories and their sites

retain the footprints of the Old People (G. Musgrave, pers.

comm., 2000).

The local groups were comprised of several families of

different clans who moved around and lived in the landscape

together. Land-use was organised around (men’s) primary rights

to use land and secondary rights from relationships such as

marriage, a system which provided options of movement and

access to seasonal resources (Rigsby 1980). During the wet season

(November to April) Aboriginal people led a more sedentary life,

camping in rockshelters or on sandy ridges. The dry season (May

to October) was a time of mobility and ceremonial life (Sharp

1939) when groups gathered together around rivers, running

creeks and waterholes.

From the onset of the Palmer River goldrush in 1873 a major

source of cross-cultural conflict was the colonial occupation of

waterways and river crossings for settlements and for transport

routes such as the Hell’s Gate, Palmerville and Maytown tracks

(Figure 1). To deal with Aboriginal resistance the Queensland

government established Native Mounted Police camps staffed by

armed European officers and Aboriginal troopers recruited from

the south, their role being to kill Aboriginal people (Richards 2008).

One of the earliest police camps was Boralga (Lower Laura) set-up

in 1874 near a crossing of the Laura River on the Palmerville track.

After an initial period of fierce guerilla warfare Aboriginal

people were forced to change age-old patterns of land-use (Cole

2004). Some groups moved more or less permanently to the

remote, semi-arid uplands where essential water is available in

springs and sandstone aquifers. The Laura Deighton plateau

became ‘a great stronghold’ for Aborigines (Pike 1998:83),

particularly after the miners abandoned the Hell’s Gate track.

Officially this area was patrolled by Boralga police, but in reality

police movements were severely restricted by seasonal conditions.

Figure 2 Police patrols on Cape York Peninsula c.1900 (QSA A/41364).


Noelene Cole

In the 1880s, despite the decline of goldmining and ‘the

high mortality of the blacks’ (Hughes 1978:103), the conflict

continued. According to Tommy George and George Musgrave

their Old People put down their spears in their father’s and

grandfather’s time (c.1897, Rigsby 2002). However, free-ranging

Aborigines continued to be pursued by police patrols which

continued to operate into the twentieth century (Figure 2). The

ancient tradition of making rock art is believed to have ceased

around the 1920s (Trezise 1971).

Hidden HistoriesThe Aboriginal men who assisted Percy Trezise were born into

the resilient clans and free-ranging local groups of the Quinkan

region in the late nineteenth century. As such they were

knowledgeable about traditional culture and well-acquainted

with the methods of the Native Mounted Police. For example,

Willy Long was an initiated Olkola man who lived free before

eventually coming ‘inside’ to work on cattle stations (Trezise

1969:49). His parents escaped a massacre of the Olkola people

by the Musgrave police (Trezise 1969:102). Caesar Lee Cheu was

Koko Warra by tribal identity (Land Tribunal 1996:114; Trezise

1969:137), and spoke his father’s language, a Thaypanic language

Ogo Ikarrangal (Rigsby 2003). His family was regularly pursued

by the police before they ‘came in’ to work on cattle stations

(Trezise 1993:153). Retired police tracker Harry Mole, who

spoke a Thaypanic language from around Laura (Rigsby 2002),

was captured by the police as a child during an attack on the

Kuku Warra (Trezise 1969:51). He was recruited as a trooper at

an early age, worked in the police force for some 40 years, and has

been remembered as a ‘very strict’ policeman (L. George, pers.

comm., 2000). Tommy George of the next generation is the last

surviving, fluent Indigenous speaker of Agu Alaya (Taipan Snake

language of the Thaypanic complex). Over three generations

members of his family, including brothers Jerry Musgrave and

George Musgrave, worked for the police force as Aboriginal

trackers (note that the latter name eventually replaced the term

‘trooper’). Their father, George Wanaya, was forcibly ‘recruited’

into the Native Mounted Police (Cole et al. 2002).

Police Sites and DepictionsThe analysis presented here focuses on an assemblage of figures

that is distributed across seven rockshelters and three localities

of the Laura district (Figure 1). The core assemblage of 19

human figures (Table 1) is deemed to be a sample as there are

probably other unidentified or unlocated paintings associated

with the police. Locality 1 lies on the plateau between the Laura

and Deighton Rivers where Trezise (1971, 1985, 1993) reported

police figures at Crocodile (C1-C4), Pig (P1-P7) and Emu (E1-

E3) rockshelters. Locality 2 is around the middle reaches of the

Laura River where Tommy George identified paintings at Giant

Horse (GH1) shelters. To the southwest on a headwater of the

Little Laura River is Locality 3 where the Lee Cheu (LC1) figures

were located and described by Trezise (1993). Figures at Red Bluff

(RB1) near the Little Laura and Mingaroo Hill (M1-M2) in the

Laura River locality are included on the basis of their attributes.

Locality 1, Laura Deighton PlateauThe Laura Deighton plateau has a long history of Aboriginal

occupation dating from c.14,000 BP (Rosenfeld et al. 1981).

From 1873 the ‘rush’ track from Cooktown to the Palmer crossed

the plateau down to the Laura River by way of Coamey Creek

(Trezise 1973). The three sites in which police figures have

Table 1 Visual attributes of police figures (PT=code after Trezise 1971).

Motif PTHeight >1m Horizontal Inverted Male Eyes Cap

Object/Rifle ‘Boots’ Clothes

Bichrome/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



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

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

Figure 6 Police paintings, Emu shelter.


Noelene Cole

been identified occur within two separate clusters of rock art

sites (the Crocodile and Pig groups respectively) of the rugged

Coamey Creek catchment. The sites, Crocodile 1, Pig and Emu

rockshelters, are situated on or near escarpments with views

across the plateau to the Laura River. All are close to freshwater

springs, have surface scatters of stone artefacts, charcoal and

used ochres and relatively large assemblages of superimposed

paintings. Evidence of recent occupation includes a wooden

paintbrush handle found near an ochre stained grindstone at

Emu shelter (P. Trezise, pers. comm., 1984).

In 1965 Trezise was accompanied to the area by Willy

Long who described ‘large men painted in the top layer’ of

Crocodile 1 rockshelter as ‘bullymen’, the Aboriginal English

name for policemen (Trezise 1985:75). At the time Trezise

knew nothing of the Native Mounted Police and assumed

the figures to be European policemen. Later Caesar Lee Cheu

identified the paintings as ‘black police’ (i.e. Native Mounted

Police) (Trezise 1985, 1993). The figures have staring eyes,

bare feet and an elongated shape under the left arm; each pair

includes a man with a long neck and a regular infill of lines

and another man with no neck, a mouth and an irregular

infill (Figures 3-4). On the foreheads of the pair on the outer

wall are red discs identified by Caesar Lee Cheu as police caps

(Trezise 1985) (Figure 4). Lee Cheu described lines which

project from the mouth of a repainted snake into the foot of

one police figure as venom ‘to put the poison’ in him (Trezise

1993:51) (Figure 9b).

Several kilometres northeast across the plateau at Pig shelter,

Caesar Lee Cheu identified four figures as police (Trezise 1993:52).

One inverted figure (Table 1-P1; Figure 5) is infilled in red with

intersecting white lines. Another (Table 1-P2) is a monochrome,

horizontal male with an elongated shape alongside. Nearby are

two small men described by Lee Cheu as possible representations

of ‘white leaders of black police’ (Trezise 1993:52). Pecking into

the armpits of two figures are birds said to ‘steal the bones of

dead people from mortuary platforms’ (Trezise 1971:30) (Figure

9g); the bird is apparently the elusive black bittern (Ixobrychus

flavicollis, Pizzey and Knight 1997:124). The site contains other

male figures with rounded feet and juxtaposed objects (e.g.

Trezise 1971:27, M26, J37).

Across the gully from Pig shelter is the Emu rockshelter where

three finely painted, bichrome figures (Table 1-E1-3, Figure 6)

were identified by Caesar Lee Cheu as police. Part of the curved

figure (Figure 6a) is missing, apparently erased by the action of

wallabies or feral pigs. The two horizontal figures have neatly

rounded feet with white lines at the ankle. A leg bulge on one

(Figure 6b) was identified by Caesar Lee Cheu as a revolver

holster (Trezise 1993:51). This may be the sign of an officer as

revolvers were issued only to white officers of the Native Police

(J. Richards, pers. comm., 2008).

Locality 2, Laura RiverThe Giant Horse cluster of rockshelters lies at the head of a

spring-fed gully on the Laura River escarpment south of Laura.

Aboriginal occupation dates from c.4000 years ago with intensive

artistic activity continuing into the contact period (Morwood

1995a:105). Andreé Rosenfeld’s surface collection (Queensland

Museum S590, S591) which includes wooden artefacts, flaked

bottle glass and mussel shell indicates the everyday activities

which took place here in the recent past. In a prominent position

on a west-facing wall of an overhang which adjoins the main

shelter with the spectacular painting of the ‘Giant Horse’ is

a group of figures which Tommy George (pers. comm., 2000)

describes as ‘the dead tracker paintings’. Tommy George has little

to say about the paintings other than that the tracker is ‘dead’, and

that he knows the name of the artist, one of the Old People who

fought the police. The tracker is prone, his hands clutching the

reins of a horse (Figure 7). His rounded thighs suggest trousers

and leggings. Trezise (1971:68) noted a similarity between this

‘thrown rider’ and a male figure in the top layer of paintings near

the ‘Giant Horse’.

Several kilometres to the west is the Mingaroo Hill complex

first recorded by Trezise in the 1960s. Mingaroo 1 has a wide

overhang and views across the Laura valley. Cultural materials

include a surface scatter of stone artefacts, utilised ochre and

glass fragments. Pigment art on the rear wall includes two

stencilled bones and a frieze of fresh-looking figures, two

of which have attributes of the police (Table 1-M1, 1-M2,

Figure 9c,h).

Locality 3, Little Laura RiverAfter 1875 travellers to and from the Palmer goldfields had the

use of an alternative coach route, Robinson’s track, the precursor

of the Maytown track (Hay 1987). Overlooking the track, the

Little Laura River and Shepherd Creek, is Red Bluff, a local

landmark known by Aboriginal people as ‘Jowalbinna’ (Dingo

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



Ear). Aboriginal occupation of the main shelter, Red Bluff 1,

dates from c.9800 BP (Morwood 1995b). Trezise (1971:101,

Figure 78) noted a ‘horizontal bichrome man with ear pendants,

one bone shaped’. The man (Figure 9e) has distinctive attributes

of the police; the head appendage which combines attributes of

a cap and a bone appears to be an addition.

An unconfirmed report sighted during a review of Cape York

Peninsula rock art records (Cole et al. 1992) suggests there may

be other police paintings in the area. In this report the Protector

of Aborigines at Laura describes a painting of a ‘policeman’ and

‘a bearded man behind a horse and plough’ situated upstream

from Red Bluff on Shepherd Creek (Chambers 1939).

Trezise (pers. comm., 1998) located the remote Lee Cheu

site and named it after Caesar Lee Cheu who told of seeing

paintings in the rugged gorges of Shepherd Creek as a child.

The Lee Cheu shelter is one of a series of art sites along a

northern escarpment of Shepherd Creek. It is a spectacular,

inaccessible place set into a corner of a towering cliff beside a

steep gorge. The police paintings are the most recent-looking

figures, prominently displayed high in a corner of the cliff face.

The group includes a crudely painted horse, a crocodile and

a distinctive male figure with a stone axe at his head (Table

1-LC1, Figure 8). The paintings bear no resemblance to those

described by Chambers (1939).

Symbolic StructureThe following analysis focuses on various visual, contextual

and material attributes which have been identified as sources of

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 MotifAs 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).

The staring eyes of most (14) police also give them special

character as only c.6% of human figures have eyes. The latter

group includes figures of special significance such as the Timara

Quinkans (see George et al. 1995).

Rosenfeld (1982) compared relative elongation and

compactness of animal shapes by calculating simple ratios of

linear dimensions. A similar method was used here to compare

‘police’ shapes with two subsets of human figures – Quinkan

spirit figures which have various supernatural features (George

et al. 1995:24) and a group of human figures identified as

explicitly male. A ratio was obtained by dividing width of each

figure (maximum width of torso) by length (from top of head

to base of feet). The groups of Quinkans and male human

representations have a wide range of physiques which include

elongated, stick-like bodies on the one hand and short, roundish

bodies on the other. Such ‘extreme’ body shapes are responsible

for the degrees of variation indicated for these two groups in

Table 2. In comparison, police figures tend to be somewhat

homogeneous in shape and size, resulting in a low degree of

variation (Table 2). While human depictions in general tend to

be less than 1m in height (Cole 1992), more than half of police

figures are relatively tall (>1.5 m.). The comparisons suggest that

in terms of body shape the police assemblage lies at the more

naturalistic end of the spectrum of human representations in

Laura rock art.

When visible, human feet in Laura art are depicted with

various numbers of toes or toeless with rounded, sometimes

indistinct ends. The range is apparent in various published

records (Cole 1992:Figures 2-6; Huchet 1993:Figure 4; Trezise

1971). The police depictions tend to have clearly defined feet,

Figure 9 Police motifs (not to scale).


Noelene Cole

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 (upper)

LCS2 White 5YR8/1 Si,Al,K (Fe,Ti,S) quartz, kaolinite, 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 (outline)

GH3 White 10R8/1 Fe,Si,K,Al goethite, quartz, 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 stripe)

LCS4 Dark red 7.5R3/4 Si,Al,Fe (K,Ti,P,Cu) Quartz, kaolinite, 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 Policeman Height

Object Colours Policeman Colours

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



and of these four have toes (Figure 9a,b). The trend suggests

that clearly defined, rounded feet (interpreted by Trezise 1971 as

boots) may be a sign of the police.

Some figures have variations in colour and/or form which

may indicate clothing (e.g. Figures 8, 9b,c,d,e,h) or features

which may represent a holster or leggings (Figures 6-7). Six

of the figures (e.g. Figures 9b,c,d,e,h) have unique head forms,

quite different from standard head shapes and headdresses at

Laura including those of various spirit figures and ‘culture heroes’

(see Cole 1992:Figures 2-6; Huchet 1993:97, Figures 4-5). Caesar

Lee Cheu stated that (at Crocodile 1) the ‘red oval shapes on top

of the heads of figures 205 and 214 represent the peaked caps of

the mounted police’ (Trezise 1985:75). The Aboriginal hand sign

for ‘bullyman’ was an open hand across the forehead followed

by a gesture which meant ‘run away quickly’ as demonstrated

by Willy Long (Trezise 1985:75). As the troopers wore caps at all

times to distinguish them from local Aborigines (Corfield 1923;

see Figure 11) it is likely that the depiction of the cap symbolises

this practice. The lines across the foreheads of some police are

reminiscent of the hand sign.

Paint Colours and MaterialsWith the exception of grey, the colours of police paintings follow

the usual colour spectrum of Laura art. The most frequent

combination, white outlines around red solid areas with white

infill, is characteristic of the recent style at Laura (Cole 1998).

Overpainting, a practice which is commonplace here and

may have some antiquity (Cole 1998; Watchman 1988) has

transformed some monochrome police figures into bichromes

or polychromes. However, the application of grey paint over light

red infill in two police figures at Crocodile 1 is unique. Another

unusual stylistic combination is the use of contrasting colours

above and below the waist of the capped figure at Lee Cheu

(Figure 8) and two figures at Pig shelter (Table 1-P3, 1-P5).

Earth pigments were obtained from local sources such as

the ochre quarry near Emu shelter reported by Trezise (1971).

Paint sampling projects (Ward et al. 2001; Watchman et al. 1992)

included Giant Horse, Lee Cheu and Red Bluff shelters for the

express purpose of including ‘contact’ paints in the analysis.

White paints from a cap, horse and a policeman follow standard

recipes with kaolinite as the main mineral (Table 3). However,

in the field the Lee Cheu whites appeared to be very luminous

and were difficult to match with Munsell colours. The identical

compositions of these paints support field observations that the

Lee Cheu 5 paintings are linked, as in a scene.

Although Laura red paints have similar gross mineralogies

(haematite and quartz), a minority (5/30 samples, see Watchman

et al. 1992; Table 3) contain a relatively pure haematite with a

typical value of 10R3/4, dusky red. The red paint from the

policeman at Red Bluff (Table 4) is in this group, suggesting the

selection of a high grade pigment.

Yellow, reddish yellow and brownish yellow (Table 5) are

typical of Laura paints which contain goethite (Watchman

et al. 1992:Tables 4-5). However the grey paint used in two

police figures at Crocodile 1 is rare and its source unknown.

The only known paint of similar colour occurs at Blue Figures

shelter, Deighton River, where a possibly unique bluish grey

paint contains a manganese bearing mineral and perhaps

organic ingredients (Cole and Watchman 1993). The grey paint

at Crocodile 1 points to very dedicated efforts to obtain rare

pigment to characterise the navy blue of the troopers’ shirts.

LinesAll but two police figures have infill in the form of a grid or a

simpler pattern of intersecting lines and outlines (Table 5, Figure

9). Such arrangements are not unique to the police as Rosenfeld

(1982:211) identified them on 49% of faunal depictions (see

Huchet 1990; Walsh 1988:204). Rosenfeld concluded that the

regular placement of lines is likely to have cognitive value. It

follows that the regular lines which mark off or form axes along

arms, wrists, necks and ankles, or intersect legs and bodies of

police figures have cognitive value. In three figures there is a clear

demarcation between the grid pattern of the lower body and the

plain upper body creating the impression of shirts and trousers

(Figure 9b,d). Another pattern is the correspondence between

the colour, outlines, lines or infill of each policeman (particularly

his feet) and the style of the juxtaposed object (Table 5, Figure 9).

Other Associations and Graphic CuesPainters were selective with regard to the motifs they placed

next to policemen. For example, horses (and horse tracks) are

depicted rather than pigs. Association with white hand stencils

is a standard pattern in Laura art, as are juxtapositions with

apparent symbols of sorcery or violence (snake, catfish, bones,

crocodile, see Trezise 1971). Lines of shallow, pounded marks

such as those which run across police paintings at Mingaroo

Hill are another common feature of Laura rockshelters (Cole

1998). According to George Musgrave (pers. comm., 2000) such

marks were made by ‘flogging the rock with a stone while singing,

clapping and using special words’, a ceremonial act to re-energise

the paintings, similar to repainting.

Although there are one or two cases of speared human

figures amongst the wider assemblage of human figures in

Laura rock art there is no evidence of patterned associations

between human figures and artefacts most commonly depicted

in the art: axes, boomerangs, spearthrowers, dillybags and

mortuary baskets. Therefore the placement of a stone axe with

a policeman and the repeated juxtaposition of the police figures

with the shapes which have been widely labelled as guns or rifles

(Cole 1995; Flood 1997; Huchet 1993; Morwood 2002; Trezise

1971, 1985; Walsh 1988) is most unusual. As Trezise does not

indicate the source of the term ‘rifle’ we cannot assume that

it came from Aboriginal informants. Although the shapes are

unlike realistic depictions of rifles in Arnhem Land art (see

Brandl 1982; Chaloupka 1993) they are positioned under arms

in realistic proportions to human height (Table 5). The objects

with figures P6 and LC1 are outside of the usual range (Table 5,

Figure 9d,f) but neither do they comply with standard artefact

categories at Laura. If the vaguely drawn objects (Figures 4, 9b)

depict rifles, they may represent the very uncertain perceptions

of early, terrifying encounters with guns.

LocationsSelection of ‘police’ sites appears to have been culturally

determined – all are established story places where successive

paintings connect with ancestral law. Within these cultural

constraints sites were chosen for strategic features: elevation,

shelter, security, water supplies and views across settler tracks and


Noelene Cole

river corridors. The figures are painted on walls, not ceilings, in

prominent positions. Many appear to gaze across the landscape,

placed for visual effect, to see and be seen.

With the exception of Lee Cheu 1, the police sites have good

shelter, living space and substantial evidence of occupation

and art. As shown in Table 6 they contain c.40–350 motifs,

and as such are typical of Laura rockshelters with medium-to-

large, generalised assemblages of art (Cole 1998). They do not

resemble ‘specialised’ sites identified by Rosenfeld (1982:215) by

a ‘restricted theme’ of ‘elaborate anthropomorphs’ (e.g. Timara

Quinkans, see Ang-Gnarra Aboriginal Corporation 1996) and an

absence of habitation debris.

Temporal and Social ContextsAlthough clan populations were depleted, displaced and

sometimes obliterated in the colonial period (e.g. Brady et

al. 1980), the local groups continued, albeit with altered

compositions. In the late nineteenth century such resilient

groups were living on the Laura Deighton plateau, in the

Palmer ranges, near the head of the Little Laura River and

moving around the Laura, Deighton and Kennedy Rivers (Cole

2004; Trezise 1993).

The police sites are located in such areas, situated on top

layers of the art sequence in sites which have evidence of both

long-term and very recent Aboriginal occupation. According

to George Musgrave and Tommy George such paintings are

associated with rockshelter use by their Old People (who

belonged to the local groups) in ‘The Wild Time’. Perhaps the

genesis was at Crocodile 1 during guerilla warfare on the nearby

Hell’s Gate track (see Cole 2004:174-175).

DiscussionThe distribution and coherent style of the police assemblage

across the catchments of the Laura and Little Laura Rivers

confirms oral history and documentary evidence that Aboriginal

groups continued to move around and interact in the post-contact

period. Cultural features which allowed local groups to transform

and survive included multilingualism, webs of kin relationships,

flexible laws of inheritance, ancestral, inalienable connections to

land and the capacity to live in wild and inaccessible ancestral

country which was marginal to colonisation.

Sources of symbolic structure in the police paintings are visual,

material and contextual (motifs, paints, design elements, graphic

associations, positions and locations), following conventions of

Laura art. However the police motif is distinguished from other

anthropomorphs by a singular selection and combination of

customary signs (masculinity, eyes, characteristic feet, traditional

colours and paints, lines, positions, associations) and innovations

(selection of rare paint, realistic features, juxtaposed objects,

signs of action and interaction). Elaborate patterns, additions

and renovations suggest that paintings were constructed

ceremonially, painstakingly and periodically. Variation is within

the usual range of Laura style (Cole 1992, 1998). Some is likely

to be a result of ‘artistic freedom’ (see Biebuyck 1973:180 cited by

Layton 1993:34; Morphy 1991; Rosenfeld 1982:217; Washburn

1983 for creative variation in corporate art systems). Smaller-

scale police paintings may be connected to shorter stays at sites

which lack water supplies or living space.

Why were signs of naturalism (in height, body shape and

clothing) an attribute of the police? While representations

of clothing may be merely an elaboration of the convention

of adding headdresses, belts etc to denote special functions

(see George et al. 1995), Rosenfeld (1982:213) concluded

that the ‘higher level of explicit characterising information’

in depictions of pig and horse was intended to assist image

recognition, except where such detail is already provided

in ‘clearly characterised paintings of the same species’. This

theory may explain the relative naturalism of most police

figures and the absence of detail in figures which have nearby,

explicit paintings of pigs, horses or policemen (Figures 9f,h,i).

It may also shed light on the depiction of the ambiguous

shape of the object or ‘rifle’. As there is a virtual absence

in Laura art of the non-figurative (see Rosenfeld 1982),

there must be a reason for this ambiguity. The spatial and

stylistic connections between the objects and the juxtaposed

policemen suggest that the figures are cognitively inseparable.

Therefore the cue to identifying the object lies in the external

information supplied by the juxtaposed policeman.

Official police photographs suggest that the trooper uniform

of navy blue shirts with red facings, navy blue caps, trousers

with a red stripe, boots and leggings (see Lamond 1949:32;

Richards 2008:125) (Figures 10 and 12) was a powerful symbol

of police authority. Evidently the distinctive cap and the navy

blue trousers with the red stripe continued to be worn by police

trackers into the twentieth century (Laura George, pers. comm.,

1999) (Figure 12). It is likely that the intrinsic, symbolic value of

the uniform is a source of meaning in depictions of the police.

If the rounded feet represent boots their use as graphic signs

is also feasible given the significance of tracks in Aboriginal

knowledge systems (Rosenfeld 1982; Trezise 1971) and reports

of amazed reactions of Aboriginal people to seeing boots and

boot tracks (Flood 1997:314; Reynolds 1982).

The depiction of the penis on apparently trousered figures

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 •



a similar contradiction is evident in horse depictions in which

Rosenfeld (1982:213) found ‘a non-standardized combination

of new visual clues of shape and traits are incorporated to

specify the identity of the animal painted’. In some depictions

this appears as a blend of realistic shape and an unnatural,

marsupial-like anal swelling. Rosenfeld (1982:217) concluded

that such ‘zoologically contradictory information appears to

have been acceptable’. Clearly the mindful selection of attributes

by Aboriginal artists to create motifs (i.e. consistent categories) is

not required to conform to non-Indigenous understandings and

categories (see Ross 2001).

The police figures have alignments associated with death or

juxtapositions with symbols of sorcery or violence. Trezise (1971)

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

represent efforts to connect visually with the victim.

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.

ConclusionsRichards (2008:5) concluded that the Queensland Native

Police ‘were, for Aboriginal people, the symbol of invasion and

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

colonial period. Symbolic structure indicates that the artists

collectively conceived and contextualised cultural meaning in

both traditional and innovative ways, through the painstaking

selection and mindful combination of graphic elements, motifs,

story sites, materials and associations. The paintings of police

emerged as specialised, value-laden images in Quinkan style.

Colonial politics and war generated drastic changes in Aboriginal

society but did not destroy the unique worldviews and values

which bound it together.

Symbolic structure therefore points to solidarity and

confidence rather than cultural disintegration. However, the

production of art in this dangerous environment also involved

imagination and courage. Following other cross-cultural studies

which have shown how material culture negotiated cultural

identities (Harrison 2002; Stein 2005; Taçon et al. 2003; Thomas

2002) this research suggests that visual culture supported the

Figure 10 Native Mounted Police detachment, Coen, Cape York Peninsula 1890s (John Oxley 08944).

Figure 11 Police troopers at Lower Laura (Boralga) Native Mounted Police camp (John Oxley 62346).

Figure 12 Police handing out blankets at Laura c.1913 (Queensland Museum RB9294/2 Fitzgibbon Collection).


Noelene Cole

cultural resilience and strategic transformation of Quinkan

society. Rock art has provided a rare glimpse of cultural identity

in the context of local agency (see Rogers 2006) which, although

a key component of colonialism (Hall and Silliman 2006; Stein

2005), is missing from colonial accounts.

AcknowledgmentsI thank the George and Musgrave families of Laura, in

particular Tommy George, and the late George Musgrave and

Laura George for their support in this research. This paper

was presented at WAC6, Dublin, in a session convened by

Paul Taçon and colleagues (2008). For valuable comments I

thank Bruce Rigsby, Tommy George, Jonathan Richards, Alice

Buhrich and the editors and referees. James Leech, Arthur

Cole and MBE Toowong assisted with graphics. The paper

draws on research assisted (variously) by the Australian

Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies,

James Cook University, Ang-Gnarra Aboriginal Corporation,

Queensland Environmental Protection Agency (Community

History Grants) and Earthwatch Institute.

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number 71 December 2010

EditorialSean Ulm & Annie Ross ii

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

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

Painting the Police: Aboriginal Visual Culture and Identity in Colonial Cape York PeninsulaNoelene 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 AsiaSue 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 GuineaIan 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, AustraliaSally K. May, Paul S.C. Taçon, Daryl Wesley & Meg Travers 57

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

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

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

BOOK REVIEWSRoonka: Fugitive Traces and Climatic Mischief edited by Keryn WalsheReviewed by Eleanor Crosby 79

Archaeological Investigation by Martin CarverReviewed by David Frankel 80

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

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

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

THESIS ABSTRACTS 87

In this issue

nu

mb

er 712010

BACKFILLRock Art and Modified Tree Tracings Digitisation: Background, Sites, Issues and AccessEmma Lees 89

Lectures 93

List of Referees 95

NOTES TO CONTRIBUTORS 97

ISSN 0312-2417

AUSTRALIAN ARCHAEOLOgICAL ASSOCIATION INC.Office Bearers for 2010

Position Name Address

ExecutivePresident Lynley Wallis Aboriginal Environments Research Centre, The University of Queensland,

PO Box 6114, St Lucia, QLD 4067

Secretary Andrew Border 3 Queens Road, Railway Estate, Townsville, QLD 4810

Treasurer Michael Morrison Department of Archaeology, Flinders University, GPO Box 2100, Adelaide,

SA 5001

Membership Secretary Dan Rosendahl Aboriginal Environments Research Centre, The University of Queensland,

PO Box 6114, St Lucia, QLD 4067

Membership Secretary Jacqueline Matthews School of Social Science, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072

Public Officer Sally Brockwell Archaeology & Natural History, School of Culture, History & Language,

College of Asia & the Pacific, The Australian National University, Canberra,

ACT 0200

Webmaster Samantha Bolton Archaeological & Heritage Management Solutions Pty Ltd, PO Box 9077,

Nicholson Road, Subiaco, WA 6008

Indigenous Liaison Officer Christopher Wilson Yunggorendi First Nations Centre for Higher Education & Research,

Flinders University, Adelaide, SA 5001

Media Liaison Officer Peter Veth National Centre for Indigenous Studies, The Australian National

University, Canberra, ACT 0200

Media Liaison Officer Michelle Langley School of Archaeology, University of Oxford, 36 Beaumont Street,

Oxford, OX12PG, United Kingdom

Australian Archaeology EditorsEditor Sean Ulm Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Studies Unit, The University of

Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072

Editor Annie Ross School of Integrative Systems, The University of Queensland, Brisbane,

QLD 4072 & School of Social Science, The University of Queensland,

Brisbane, QLD 4072

Editorial Assistant Linda Terry School of Social Science, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072

Short Reports Editor Lara Lamb School of Humanities & Communications, University of Southern

Queensland, Toowoomba, QLD 4350

Short Reports Editor Catherine Westcott Department of Transport & Main Roads, GPO Box 1412, Brisbane, QLD 4001

Review Editor Jon Prangnell School of Social Science, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072

Review Editor Jill Reid Department of Transport & Main Roads, GPO Box 1412, Brisbane, QLD 4001

Thesis Abstract Editor Stephen Nichols School of Social Science, The University of Queensland, Brisbane QLD 4072

State RepresentativesAustralian Capital Territory Sally May School of Archaeology & Anthropology, Research School of Humanities &

the Arts, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200

New South Wales Maria Cotter Heritage Futures Research Centre, School of Humanities, University of

New England, Armidale, NSW 2351

Northern Territory Trish Bourke Heritage Branch, Department of Natural Resources, Environment,

The Arts & Sport, Northern Territory Government, Darwin, NT 0800

Queensland Lincoln Steinberger School of Geography, Planning & Environmental Management,

The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072

South Australia Alice Gorman Department of Archaeology, Flinders University, GPO Box 2100, Adelaide,

SA 5001

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,

Clayton, Victoria 3800

Western Australia Stuart Rapley Archae-aus Pty Ltd, PO Box 177, South Fremantle, WA 6162

Australian Archaeology, the official publication of the

Australian Archaeological Association Inc., is a refereed

journal published since 1974. It accepts original articles

in all fields of archaeology and other subjects relevant to

archaeological research and practice in Australia and nearby

areas. Contributions are accepted in seven sections: Articles

(5000-8000 words), Short Reports (1000-3000), Obituaries

(500-2000), Thesis Abstracts (200-500), Book Reviews

(500-2000), Comment (1000) and Backfill (which includes

letters, conference details, announcements and other material

of interest to members). Australian Archaeology is published

twice a year, in June and December. Notes to Contributors are

available at www.australianarchaeologicalassociation.com.au.

Australian Archaeology is indexed in the Arts and Humanities

Citation Index of the ISI Web of Knowledge, SCOPUS,

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Australian Archaology is ranked as a tier A journal by the

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Australian Archaeology is available through Informit and JSTOR.

Graphic Design: Lovehate Design

Printing: Screen Offset Printing

Cover: Painting of a European tall ship, most likely made in

the 1700s (Photograph: Paul S.C. Taçon).

All correspondence and submissions should be addressed to:

Australian Archaeology

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The views expressed in this journal are not necessarily those

of the Australian Archaeological Association Inc. or the Editors.

© Australian Archaeological Association Inc., 2010

ISSN 0312-2417

Editors

Sean Ulm The University of Queensland

Annie Ross The University of Queensland

Editorial Advisory Board

Val Attenbrow Australian Museum

Margaret Conkey University of California, Berkeley

Bruno David Monash University

Andrew Fairbairn The University of Queensland

Richard Fullagar Scarp Archaeology

Martin Gibbs University of Sydney

Luke Godwin Central Queensland Cultural Heritage

Management Pty Ltd

Chris Gosden University of Oxford

Simon Holdaway University of Auckland

Susan Lawrence La Trobe University

Judith Littleton University of Auckland

Jo McDonald JMcD CHM Pty Ltd

& The Australian National University

Tim Murray La Trobe University

Jim O’Connell University of Utah

Fiona Petchey University of Waikato

Lynette Russell Monash University

Robin Torrence Australian Museum

Peter Veth The Australian National University

David Whitley ASM Affiliates Inc.

Editorial Assistant

Linda Terry The University of Queensland

Short Report Editors

Lara Lamb University of Southern Queensland

Catherine Westcott Department of Transport

& Main Roads (Qld)

Book Review Editors

Jon Prangnell The University of Queensland

Jill Reid Department of Transport & Main Roads (Qld)

Thesis Abstract Editor

Stephen Nichols The University of Queensland

iNumber 71, December 2010

EditorialSean Ulm & Annie Ross ii

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

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

Painting the Police: Aboriginal Visual Culture and Identity in Colonial Cape York PeninsulaNoelene 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 AsiaSue 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 GuineaIan 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, AustraliaSally K. May, Paul S.C. Taçon, Daryl Wesley & Meg Travers 57

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

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

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

BOOK REVIEWSRoonka: Fugitive Traces and Climatic Mischief edited by Keryn WalsheReviewed by Eleanor Crosby 79

Archaeological Investigation by Martin CarverReviewed by David Frankel 80

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

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

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

THESIS ABSTRACTS 87

BACKFILLRock Art and Modified Tree Tracings Digitisation: Background, Sites, Issues and AccessEmma Lees 89

Lectures 93

List of Referees 95

NOTES TO CONTRIBUTORS 97

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PAINTING THE POLICE · 2016-04-27 · conflict in the Laura-Cooktown area (Cole 2004). Although the...

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Transcript of PAINTING THE POLICE · 2016-04-27 · conflict in the Laura-Cooktown area (Cole 2004). Although the...