Author: Peter Carty
Carty, Peter, 2025 Journey of the Lorrkon: Indigenous Burial Rituals and Colonisation in southern Arnhem Land, Flinders University, College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences
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European colonisation of Arnhem Land has had a dramatic effect upon the life ways of its Indigenous inhabitants. The impact is easily seen in some features of Indigenous culture, such as language, because it is relatively open to observation. Other features are comparatively closed, such as burial practices. This research has two goals, the first is to establish what the burial practices and their associated archaeology were, in southern Arnhem Land in general and the Barunga Community in particular, at the time of colonisation. The second goal is to gauge the impact that colonisation has had upon these burial practices and archaeology. Three approaches were used, the first was a forensic reading of literature for descriptions of traditional burial practices. The second approach was interviewing Elders at Barunga for their recollections of traditional burial practices. These two sources were used to construct a Baseline of traditional burial practices. The third approach, observations, was used to record contemporary burial practices. The differences between the Baseline and contemporary burial practices describe a stepped, or staged erosion of traditional burial rituals and an almost complete elimination of their traditional material culture. At Barunga, some burial practices have been eliminated or are currently neglected, others are present but in a modified form, while roughly one quarter remain as they were when originally observed by early researchers, uninfluenced by colonial culture. Another observation is the use of burial practices not seen in the historical or oral record. These new elements have both Indigenous and Colonial origins. The results illustrate both the severe impact that colonialism has had upon traditional burial practices, as well as the resilience and flexibility of the people of Barunga in maintaining some practices and developing new ones. Further research would emphasise the use of Indigenous interviewers to gain a more nuanced understanding of burial practices and the re-Indigenizing of contemporary burial practices.
Keywords: Barunga, Southern Arnhem Land, Indigenous Burial Rituals, Traditional Burial Rituals, Colonisation, Contemporary Indigenous Burials.
Subject: Archaeology thesis
Thesis type: Masters
Completed: 2025
School: College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences
Supervisor: Claire Smith