Aboriginal Environments Research Centre

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Isolation, Insularity and Change in Island Populations - an Interdisciplinary Study of Aboriginal Cultural Patterns in the Gulf of Carpentaria

Our interdisciplinary study tests pivotal hypotheses concerning insularity, isolation and cultural change in Aboriginal Australia. It examines two now-divergent island populations residing in similar physical environments and with shared ancestral language and a common mainland source group. The project examines how these groups contended with cultural change over a 10,000-year time scale, sometimes acculturating exogenous traits whilst at others exploiting insularity and isolation to promote distinctiveness through local invention in such a way that two different cultures emerged. The findings will contribute to international debates on island colonisation and how cultural reproduction continues in the face of globalising influences.

    Aims: 
  • examines two now-divergent island populations residing in similar physical environments and with shared ancestral language and a common mainland source group
  • examines how these groups contended with cultural change over a 10,000-year time scale
    Outcomes: 
  • findings will contribute to international debates on island colonisation and how cultural reproduction continues in the face of globalising influences
    Status: 
  • Complete
    Date: 
  • 2006 to 2010
Project Contacts
Partners & Funding Details
    Funding Body: 
  • Australian Research Council
    Funding Amount: 
  • $365 000.00
    Publications: 
  • Rosendahl, Daniel, Memmott, P., Ulm, S., Lilley, Ian, Robins, Richard, Stock, Errol, Dalley, Cameo and Hain, Emma (2006). Understanding Isolation and Change in Island Environments: A Perspective from the Southern Gulf of Carpentaria.
  • Memmott, P., Evans, N., Robins, R. I. and Lilley, I. (2006) Understanding Isolation and Change in Island Human Populations through a study of Indigenous Cultural Patterns in the Gulf of Carpentaria.
  • Ulm, S., Evans, N., Memmott, P., Rosendahl, D., Robins, R., Lilley, I. and Stock, E. (2008). Exploring Isolation and Change in Island Environments: Preliminary results from the Southern Gulf of Carpentaria, Australia.
  • Ulm, Sean, Evans, Nicholas, Memmott, Paul, Rosendahl, Daniel, Robins, Richard, Lilley, Ian and Stock, Errol (2008). Palaeoenvironmental and Cultural Change across the Wellesley Archipelago: Preliminary results from the Southern Gulf of Carpentaria.