Gentilli Public Lecture and School of Social Sciences Prize-giving Ceremony.

Managing Culture, Climate Change and Industry: a two-way conversation on the deep history and future of Murujuga (Dampier Archipelago).

The rock art of Murujuga (the Dampier Archipelago) tells the story of extreme climate change over the course of human history in this place.

When people first lived here 50,000 years ago, the coast was more than 100 kilometres away and this was an inland desert range. After the last Ice Age, the sea level rose dramatically, and the islands were formed around 7,000 years ago. The Murujuga landscape and seascape is managed by the Ngarda ngarli (represented by Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation) for its natural and cultural values. Murujuga is also managed to ensure that this important cultural landscape can ‘co-exist’ with one of the largest concentrations of industrial development in Western Australia.

This lecture explores how knowledge of the past – and the conversation between Indigenous and Western science – is feeding into a deeper understanding of the past ways of knowing and seeing this landscape, as well as building futures for Aboriginal people of the coastal Pilbara.