TY - JOUR
T1 - Invasion, Retaliation, Concealment and Silences at Dead Man's Flat, South Australia
T2 - A Consideration of the Historical, Archaeological and Geophysical Evidence of Frontier Conflict
AU - Roberts, Amy
AU - Barnard-Brown, Jessica
AU - Moffat, Ian
AU - Burke, Heather
AU - Westell, Craig
AU - the River Murray and Mallee Aboriginal Corporation
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - This article presents the results of historical research, as well as archaeological and geophysical surveys, in order to explore a number of frontier conflict events at Dead Man’s Flat in South Australia (SA). The historical records reveal the cruelty and complexity of the period and expose the concealments, contradictions, euphemistic language, denials and silences that are typical of the Australian frontier. Further disparities are revealed in more recent commemorative efforts. Archaeological investigations in the study area provided an ‘absence of evidence’. Whilst the geophysical survey revealed that there are potential graves located on the flat, no interment was located in the area commemorated by local non-Indigenous community members. The combined results of this multi-method approach uncovered new dissonances, raised new questions and provided new exegeses about the frontier in this region. For traditional owners, the sum of the evidence reveals a history of invasion, killings and massacre, theft, deceit and cover-up–Dead Man’s Flat is, therefore, a place to be approached with deep respect in order to honour the experiences of their ancestors.
AB - This article presents the results of historical research, as well as archaeological and geophysical surveys, in order to explore a number of frontier conflict events at Dead Man’s Flat in South Australia (SA). The historical records reveal the cruelty and complexity of the period and expose the concealments, contradictions, euphemistic language, denials and silences that are typical of the Australian frontier. Further disparities are revealed in more recent commemorative efforts. Archaeological investigations in the study area provided an ‘absence of evidence’. Whilst the geophysical survey revealed that there are potential graves located on the flat, no interment was located in the area commemorated by local non-Indigenous community members. The combined results of this multi-method approach uncovered new dissonances, raised new questions and provided new exegeses about the frontier in this region. For traditional owners, the sum of the evidence reveals a history of invasion, killings and massacre, theft, deceit and cover-up–Dead Man’s Flat is, therefore, a place to be approached with deep respect in order to honour the experiences of their ancestors.
KW - archaeology
KW - Frontier conflict
KW - ground-penetrating radar
KW - history
KW - Murray River
KW - unmarked graves
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85108401774&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://purl.org/au-research/grants/ARC/LP170100479
UR - http://purl.org/au-research/grants/ARC/DE160100703
U2 - 10.1080/03721426.2021.1940751
DO - 10.1080/03721426.2021.1940751
M3 - Article
SN - 0085-5812
VL - 145
SP - 194
EP - 217
JO - Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia
JF - Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia
IS - 2
ER -