Reclaiming space at Red Hill Camp: Community archaeology with urban indigenous groups

Abstract

Community archaeology can contribute to positive social outcomes for urban Indigenous communities by focusing on the recent history of the modern city. We report on a community archaeology project undertaken in Canberra, Australia, which focused on the 1940–50s campsite of one of the authors’ Indigenous Ngambri/Ngunnawal family. Project outcomes showed that even despite a lack of material culture, community archaeology has the ability to shift narratives of place in an urban centre to include sites of contemporary significance to local Indigenous people. We consider methodological limitations, the concept of parallel conversations and the possibility that such projects are able to reclaim land in historically marginalized groups’ struggles for recognition. We argue that a focus on recent Indigenous history has the potential to be particularly transformative in this regard. Show more