The 2021 field school saw six undergraduate students and four staff members on Murujuga to finish an area of Picnic Creek partially recorded in the 2015 field school, and to record heritage within a road corridor proposed for access to the northern Burrup. After a cultural induction and welcome to country from the Murujuga Land and Sea Unit (MLSU) and Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attraction (DBCA) Rangers, the field school took to the slopes.
Left: rangers giving a cultural induction to the UWA students and staff; Centre: Ranger Sarah Hicks giving a tour of Nganjarli; Right: UWA students on the new boardwalk at Nganjarli
MLSU rangers and senior men joined UWA students at the Rio Tinto ATAL Building in Dampier to take part in the rock art recording workshop led by Jo McDonald and Victoria Anderson. This was then followed by a workshop led by database manager Sarah de Koning on CRAR+M’s recording pro forma and photography workflow.
Left: Ranger Richard Variakojis using the iPad to enter rock art data; Centre: Ranger Dale Sambo measuring art in the field; Right: UWA students doing photo processing at night.
Our first few days in the field were exciting as DBCA Rangers, MLSU Rangers and UWA students started using iPads for sketches and data collection, as well as DLSR cameras for photography, under the watchful guide of team leaders Jo McDonald, Sarah de Koning, Vic Anderson and Emma Beckett. Students and Rangers keenly participate in the highly coveted artefact recording team led by Peter Veth who spent the field school mapping out the extent of the large artefact scatter that covered almost the entire survey area.
Top Left: The team recording rock art; Top Right: Ranger and Senior Man Peter Cooper sketching rock art in the field; Bottom Left: The team examining a rock art panel; Bottom Right: survey on country.