Encounters with Yanyuwa Rock Art: Reflexivity, Multivocality and the "Archaeological Record" in Northern Australia’s Southwest Gulf Country

This chapter explores what a reflexive encounter in an Indigenous archaeology context looks and feels like, and what its implications might be for the archaeologist and how they construct the past. Archaeological fieldwork can oftentimes generate emotional and affectual responses all of which represent critical features of the reflexive process. Here, Brady draws on aspects of his journey as an archaeologist working alongside anthropologists and Yanyuwa Families to explore this reflexive process in a series of encounters with what is routinely described in the archaeological literature as “rock art sites.” As part of this process he reflects back on the discipline of archaeology, and his training in this field. He writes to show how reflexive thinking may ultimately contribute to the decolonizing process in archaeology.