When her time comes, there’s no doubt where esteemed anthropological archaeologist Professor Claire Smith AO will be laid to rest.
“There’s a corner of the Barunga* graveyard, and people know where, that my husband Jacko (Gary Jackson) and I have permission to be buried,” Claire says. “We are white people, but all our Barunga family will be there.”
Claire working with members of the community to record unmarked graves at the Barunga Cemetery.
For what began, decades ago during her UNE undergraduate studies, as a purely professional relationship with the Barunga peoples of the Northern Territory has evolved into so much more.
“Over time, the gossamer threads bind you,” Claire says, “and my relationships with the people of Barunga are now more like friendships. Today, I work with the children and grandchildren of those I began working with in the 1980s. I don’t so much go to Barunga to do research as do research to go to Barunga.”
That shift has seen Claire commit to long-term field research that has pioneered the inclusion of Indigenous perspectives in archaeology (Indigenous Archaeology) here and overseas. It has seen her bring Aboriginal students to train in Adelaide, create archaeological field schools for Aboriginal students and help establish the Barunga Knowledge Centre, to be opened later this year.
Born to working class parents, Claire was studying Economics at the University of Newcastle when her interest in prehistory was piqued. She soon transferred to an Arts degree at UNE to focus on Aboriginal art, and graduated with First Class Honours and the University Medal.
Claire Smith at graduation
“I started as an external student at UNE and absolutely grew to love my subject. I eventually moved to Armidale and found it a very nurturing environment, where I thrived. The teachers were outstanding, and the archaeology program is still one of the best in the country.”
Claire’s Honours thesis on relationships between style, social structure and the environment in Aboriginal Australia expanded into a PhD that delved deeper into Aboriginal artistic systems – and introduced Claire to the people of Barunga.
After finding her academic home at Flinders University, Claire undertook a series of research projects into Aboriginal ways of “being, knowing and doing”, founded on the trusted relationships that slowly developed. She has worked with the people of Barunga every year since 1990 and, more recently, the Ngadjuri and Adnyamathahna peoples, with most of their work seeking to integrate archaeological, documentary and oral evidence to investigate the relationships between Indigenous people and their country.
By recording histories at risk of being lost, Claire says she hopes not only to advance our understanding of Australia’s first peoples but also contribute to the decolonisation of archaeology and even reconciliation.
“We are currently looking at how climate change is affecting cultural heritage sites around Barunga,” Claire says. “Aboriginal people are embedded in these communities and have the capacity to do long-term recordings of even minute changes in the landscape. That knowledge a white scientist can’t have. But, working together, we can braid Indigenous and western knowledge.
“Archaeology can contribute to human dignity and wellbeing and the healing of communities. The best way to decolonise archaeology is to step back; you can empower people by no longer disempowering them. You then create the space for Indigenous leaders to emerge on their own terms.”
Australia Day honours earlier this year recognised Claire’s “distinguished service to tertiary education, particularly social and anthropological archaeology, and as a national and international academic”.
“The AO emerges from the mentoring I received from archaeologists at UNE, which supported and nurtured my vision for an archaeology that promotes social justice,” Claire says. “I continue to pursue change, and a desire to help people achieve a better life for themselves, to achieve their full potential.”
Claire was the principal supervisor for the first two Aboriginal people to be awarded a PhD in archaeology: Dr Chris Wilson, in 2017, and Dr Kellie Pollard in 2019.
With Wiradjuri archaeologist Kellie, Claire is co-lead of the Australian Hub for the Center for Braiding Indigenous Knowledges and Science at the University of Massachusetts. It aligns closely with her work through the World Archaeological Congress [where she was president from 2003-2014] to expand opportunities for Indigenous peoples and scholars globally, giving them “a safe forum to share their cultural knowledge in international conversations, without it being diminished”.
Returning again and again to Barunga expands Claire’s own horizons, too.
“I bring my own skills and knowledge, but I am always the learner. I learn a little bit more each time. Then I can contribute just a little bit, here and there.
“I am drawn to the timelessness of these landscapes, and to the love of the people and their love for me. It makes my heart happy. I live in a white fella world, but I never feel as appreciated as I do at Barunga.”
*80 kilometres south-east of Katherine, in the Northern Territory, and known for the Barunga Statement, a painted document presented to Prime Minister Bob Hawke in 1988 calling on the Australian Government to recognise Indigenous rights and self-determination, including a treaty between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.
