CRAR+M Monograph 2

Dynamics of the Dreaming was a collaboration between Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation, UWA and RioTinto. The project researched both deep time and contemporary values. The aim was to understand the scientific and cultural values of the National Heritage Listed Place - and to support the World Heritage nomination.

Dynamics of the Dreaming was a collaboration between Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation, UWA and RioTinto. The project focussed on both deep time and contemporary values. The aim was to understand the scientific and cultural values of the National Heritage Listed Place - and to provide scientific evidence in support of the World Heritage Listing nomination. 

In this chapter we describe our documentation of Murujuga’s rock art. We explore the conventions of our classificatory typology and the digital collection processes which we created during the project. The chapter concludes with a broad summary our new knowledge of this region’s rock art, highlighted in more detail in each of the different island’s survey chapters.

Stone structures, features and arrangements are important, geographically fixed archaeological resources. These are anthropogenically moved or placed stone which range from symbolic arrangements of highly cultural significance to structures that reflect a broad range of subsistence behaviours.

Almost 5,000 motifs and sixty-six stone structures were recorded across the west of Enderby Island. Art production commenced here when this was still part of the coastal landmass, and continued after it became an island.

Five excavations on Enderby Island included a deep sand body first occupied 15,760 years ago, mangrove-focussed midden between 10-8kya, changing occupation patterns when the island formed, and a reported whaler’s grave on the north coast.

Rock art across Rosemary Island includes the earliest Murujuga stylistic phases, and most of its recorded subsequent phases. The earliest known Australian domestic structure was recorded here.

Eight excavations along the western side of Rosemary Island have shown earliest occupation was around 10,500 years ago at Wadjuru Pool. Early Holocene mangrove-focussed habitation was found in four landscapes and there was a changed economic focus after island formation.

Almost 1,430 motifs were recorded on West Lewis Island’s basalt geology along with 10 stone structures. As well as having a deeper time depth (including dot-headed anthropomorphs), this art records historic encounters with whalers and pastoralists.

Rockshelters are rare across the archipelago. We excavated a small test square here at the request of Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation who were seeking a suitable repository for repatriating human remains.

The historical settlement at West Lewis Island includes ruined stone structures from a nineteenth-century pastoral station. Why was this desert island chosen for sheep farming? We sought evidence for early interactions between pastoralists, pearlers and Aboriginal people.

Flying Foam Passage was a focus for the colonial-era pearling industry. Our work on Dolphin Island investigated a place named previously as ‘Rock Pool Creek’ or ‘Cemetery Beach at Watering Bay’. The rock art here reveals a deep-time use of this place by Aboriginal people, and more recent inscriptions by historically significant figures.

“Flying Foam Passage was a major pearling area from the late 1860s. Black Hawke Bay contains more relics and remains of structures than any other known pearling site in the Dampier Archipelago.” McIlroy 1979. Our fieldwork focused on this hub of 19th-early 20th Century pearling, and we describe the Aboriginal cultural heritage features located around the margins of this bay.

Almost 29,000 motifs and 600+ stone structures were recorded across the Burrup by the MLP – at Ancient Pool and Watering Cove – and during 12 years of the UWA/MAC/RioTinto field schools.

These Burrup digs targeted previously unexplored landscapes. Old Geos is in the centre of the Burrup while the Watering Cove Holocene sand dunes are on its east.

Marine life of the Dampier Archipelago thrives in a diverse range of habitats: from estuarine and nearshore, to reefs and open-water (pelagic). While not all of the 650 identified fish species from these aquatic zones are depicted in the rock art, these depictions include the full range of marine habitats.

Each of the seven turtle species known to have inhabited the archipelago can be identified in the rock art of the Murujuga. Where species could not be identified, this was due to engravings having characteristics of multiple species, a possible deliberate decision by the artist.

From the seventeenth century Murujuga became known to the world, first entering onto maps of maritime explorers. From the 1860s, the Dampier Archipelago became a significant part of the colonial world. For Yaburara and Mardudunhera people, this colonisation spiralled into violence - culminating in the 1868 Flying Foam Massacre.

Modelling and 3D visualization tools (Terragen 4.5.7) have been used to create coastal terrain models at Murujuga. These allow us to interpret how the landscape would have looked throughout the entire period of human occupation of this north-west land and seascape.