(Re)Engaging with the (Un)Known: Collaboration, Indigenous Knowledge, and Reaffirming Aboriginal Identity in the Torres Strait Islands, Northeastern Australia

Until recently, the role of Indigenous communities in researching their past had largely been considered nonessential or unimportant by Western-trained archaeologists and anthropologists, who instead constructed their identities and histories for them. This colonial culture of archaeology effectively silenced Indigenous voices; narratives of Indigenous histories were decidedly one-sided. Faced with this unjust situation Indigenous peoples worldwide have endured an uphill struggle to regain control of their heritage and significantly alter the power balance in investigations of their pasts. Well-publicized debates involving the museum sector, universities, and issues of repatriation of material culture and skeletal remains emerged in countries with Indigenous populations, such as the United States, Australia, and Canada (e.g., Bray 2001; Bray and Killion 1994; Merrill et al. 1993; Mihesuah 2000; Mulvaney 1985; Zimmerman and Clinton 1999). Inevitably, Indigenous stances concerning their cultural heritage clashed (and continue to clash) with some archaeologists and anthropologists, who, while recognizing the importance of consultation with Indigenous communities in some regard, still see Indigenous material culture as having a significant place in the realm of "scientific investigation."

However, it should also be pointed out that sustained efforts by some archaeologists during this time have sought to address these concerns, to promote Indigenous engagement in archaeology, and to counter the colonial experience. Scholars such as George Nicholas, Larry Zimmerman, Sonya Atalay, Claire Smith, and Joe Watkins (to name but a few) have devoted much of their research to challenging the status quo as well as to assisting Indigenous communities to develop the capacity to carry out their own archaeology (see collections of papers in, e.g., Colwell-Chanthaphonh and Ferguson 2008a; Dongoske et al. 2000; Nicholas and Andrews 1997; Smith and Wobst 2005; Swidler et al. 1997).

In Australia efforts by Indigenous groups to contest the power and control of archaeologists in the study of the Indigenous past have been clearly articulated by the stance of the Tasmanian Aboriginal community. Since the early 1980s the Tasmanian Aboriginal community has been extremely vocal about their thoughts on the relationship between archaeologists and Indigenous communities and the control of Western "scientists" in research into their heritage. While Ros Langford noted that the Tasmanian Aboriginal community was not against "working with others on preserving our heritage," she did emphasize the lack of recognition and understanding by researchers of the present-day importance of archaeological materials housed at museums and universities (Langford 1983, 2). Conflict between archaeologists and the Tasmanian Aboriginal Land Council in the mid-1990s further highlighted tensions between Indigenous groups and Western scientists as both parties sought control of excavated material culture from sites in southwestern Tasmania. As Laurajane Smith notes in her discussion of the way Tasmanian material culture was used as a commodity to confer power by archaeologists, "it was the commodification of material culture as a resource of power that ultimately allowed the Tasmanian Aboriginal community to challenge archaeological authority and subvert it by reclaiming possession of that material culture" (Smith 1999: 31). Predictably, it is this unequal power relation between archaeologists and Indigenous groups that induces confrontation. By not having access to the production and use of knowledge being generated by archaeologists, Indigenous communities remain at the other end of the power spectrum.

The emergence of community-based archaeological ventures in the early 1990s, and an increasing concern surrounding ethical conduct by researchers working with Indigenous groups, was largely seen as a way of moderating tensions between archaeologists and Indigenous groups (Brady and Crouch, in press). It was also a natural extension to what was developing on the archaeological landscape, with a growing number of archaeologists reaching out to communities, and community members starting to pursue their interests in archaeology. Examples of archaeologists working together with Indigenous communities to learn about their past could now be easily found in the archaeological literature; the Society for American Archaeology devoted a section of their bulletin to documenting examples of archaeologists and Indigenous groups "Working Together"; and symposiums, conferences, edited volumes and the like were the focus of a push...