RESEARCH REPORTS

2. REPORTS ON THE BURRA COMMUNITY ARCHAEOLOGY PROJECT: Burra Community Archaeology Project
by Claire Smith, Flinders University

Page 1

The Burra Community Archaeology Project researches the archaeological manifestations of multiculturalism in colonial Australia, including the manner in which this aspect of colonial history is incorporated into contemporary cultural tourism strategies and practices. Burra is located in the mid-north of South Australia. The Burra project emerges from a unique collaboration between archaeology, cultural tourism and relevant industry and community bodies. The major partners in the project are Flinders University, the Regional Council of Goyder, the National Trust of South Australia, Burra Burra Branch, and the Mid North Regional Development Board.

Burra is well known as an area of great archaeological significance relating to Australia's earliest mining era 1 (see, for example, Auhl and Gilbert 1978, 1986). Beyond this, however, lies the largely unrecognised and complex social history of a greatnumber of ethnic groups. Our preliminary research indicates that Burra was the hub of a truly multicultural society as early as the 1840s. This project will investigate the nature of this multiculturalism in colonial Australia, including its archaeological manifestations and the manner in which this aspect of colonial history is incorporated into contemporary cultural tourism in the region.

A single degree square may have several, maybe over a hundred, overlays. Each overlay provides an index for one flight. The researcher places the overlay on the base 1:250,000 map to discover whether that flight covered the site of interest.

This research is important to current discussions concerning the formation of 'social memory', the collective and selective memories of societies about their pasts (e.g. McGuire and Paynter 1991; Johnson 1996; Burke 1999) and, in particular, how these pasts are interpreted and presented in the present. This study will give rise to new understandings not only of colonial history but also of the reasons certain histories areprivileged over others. From this point of view, the information that is not included in contemporary interpretations will be as important as the information that is included.

This project has important implications for Australia as a whole as well as other parts of the world. It is well recognised that the stories of non-whites often are lost in colonial histories. Studies seeking to redress this imbalance, however, usually concentrate on the hidden histories of black or Indigenous peoples. Our study is far wider than this, encompassing at least ten different ethnic groups. The wider significance of the project is enhanced accordingly. We are unaware of any study of multicultural colonial histories of comparable scope and detail to that planned for this project. While the project itself is locally focused, the implications of the research are global.

Finally, we hope that the Burra project will serve as a model for other archaeologists to use in developing community archaeological projects of this scope. The project has developed steadily over the last three years. Anticipated outcomes include cultural resource management strategies for relevant agencies; detailed analyses of relationships between colonial peoples; and a synthesis of the colonial history of the region. Apart from academic papers, this research will produce educational materials suitable for teaching at a range of levels and will include a multimedia education package which can be used to teach archaeology and cultural heritage at local schools and elsewhere. This project is funded by the Australian Research Council under its Strategic Partnerships with Industry-Research and Training Scheme and by the Flinders University-Industry Collaborative Research Grant Scheme

References
Auhl, I. and Gilbert, S. 1978 Burra Conservation Study: historic buildings and area survey. Unpublished report prepared for the Burra conservation steering committee.
Auhl I. 1986 The Story of the 'Monster Mine': The Burra Burra Mine and its Townships 1845-1877. Hawthorndene, South Australia: Investigator Press.
Burke H. 1999 Meaning and Ideology in Historical Archaeology. Style, Social Identity and Capitalism in an Australian Town. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers.
Johnson, M. 1996 An Archaeology of Capitalism. Oxford: Blackwells. McGuire R and R Paynter (eds) 1991 The Archaeology of Inequality. Oxford: Blackwell.