2006 AWARDS FOR OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENTS IN ARCHAEOLOGY

Australia’s best and brightest in the field of archaeology have been recognised in the Australian Archaeological Association (AAA) awards for 2006. The AAA, based at The University of Western Australia, is one of the largest archaeological organisations in Australia, representing a diverse membership of professionals, students and others with an interest in archaeology. AAA President Dr Alistair Paterson said the 2006 award-winners demonstrated the depth of talent in Australian archaeology. Professor Mike Smith, currently Director of Research and Development at the National Museum of Australia, won the Rhys Jones Medal for Outstanding Contributions to Australian Archaeology. “Professor Smith has spent 25 years working in the Central Australian Desert,” Dr Paterson said. “A distinguished field archaeologist, he pioneered research into late Pleistocene settlement in the Australian desert. “His attention to the ‘big questions’ facing archaeology, his ability to turn ideas into research projects, his continued work in the field, his enviable publication record, his elegant prose, his generosity to other researchers, and his passion for the discipline of archaeology make him an ideal recipient of the Rhys Jones Medal.” The medal was established in honour of Rhys Jones to mark his enormous contribution to the development and promotion of archaeology in Australia. Other award winners were: • Dr Ian Johnson, of the University of Sydney, who was awarded Life Membership of the AAA. The award was established to recognise significant and sustained contribution to the objects and purposes of the AAA. Professor Johnson’s contribution began in 1978 when he organised the first Australian archaeology conference at Kioloa, New South Wales, which lead to the formation of AAA the following year. He has been a leader in the development of computer technology for archaeology and helped set up and maintain AAA’s first website and membership database in the 1990s through Sydney University’s Archaeological Computing Laboratory; • Dr Richard Fullager - also from the University of Sydney – won the inaugural Bruce Veitch Award for Indigenous Engagement. The Award celebrates Bruce Veitch’s important contribution to the practice and ethics of archaeology in Australia and in particular his close collaboration with traditional owners. Dr Fullager’s commitment to Aboriginal communities has been demonstrated through three specific projects: first, he has worked with the Murinpatha and Miriuwung-Gajerrong people since the late 1980s, providing expert witness testimony in their successful Native Title case; second, he has been a key part of the University of Sydney Riversleigh Archaeology Project, working closely with the Waanyi people in northwest Queensland; and third, he provided a key leadership role in his work as chair of the AAA Code of Ethics Review Subcommittee. • Dr Rodney Harrison, formerly of The University of Western Australia, won the John Mulvaney Book Award, established in honour of John Mulvaney and his contribution and commitment to Australian archaeology. Dr Harrison won the award for ‘Shared Landscapes: Archaeologies of Attachment and the Pastoral Industry in New South Wales’, published by NSW Department of Environment and Conservation and UNSW Press in 2004. Dr Harrison’s book investigates the archaeology of pastoralism in the Upper MacLeay Valley and elsewhere in NSW and entwines the studies of archaeology and heritage conservation through the lens of shared Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal pastoral activities in a style easily accessible to the general public, students and academics.