Push on to protect Australia's rare rock art

Updated May 28, 2012 10:55:45

Much of Australia's most important rock art is under threat and risks being destroyed through vandalism, development and tourism.

Paul Taçon, the Griffith University chair in rock art research, says unless steps are taken to protect the collections, they will be lost forever.

Professor Taçon, who is heading up the Place, Evolution and Rock Art Heritage Unit (PERAHU), is calling for assistance to establish a national register of Australian rock art.

He says despite being home to some of the most significant examples of cave art in the world, Australia is lagging behind the rest of the world in protection and understanding of their importance.

Professor Taçon says Australia is in the unique position of having a living cultural link to the works.

He says the inclusion of the Djulirri rock art complex in Arnhem Land in the Google Art Project, which aims to collate the most important artworks in the world for online viewing, is an example of the the international standing of Australian Indigenous rock art.

News Online spoke to Professor Taçon about these national treasures and the dangers they are facing:

Australia has some of the most significant rock art in the world, we have more sites than any other country, at least 100,000, but we don't know exactly how many because we don't have any central database.

This art is important because there's a living connection right across the country.

The rock art is extremely important from a heritage, a historical, and a spiritual point of view for Aboriginal people.

But also we can learn all sorts of things from it, aspects of climate change, and how that affected people - what long-extinct animals looked like, how people reacted to the arrival of Asians and Europeans in different parts of the country.

What sorts of ancestral beings were important for Aboriginal groups and lots of other things.

This is an amazingly powerful resource - aesthetically powerful, spiritually powerful, it's all about history and Australia's past.

Professor Paul Taçon

There's never been a national rock art conservation and management strategy, and in many parts of the country, sites are increasingly vulnerable to human actions.

It's sort of like climate change, rock art was never meant to last forever and there's always been natural weathering.

But today with unprecedented mining exploration, with tourists and others getting to the remotest parts of the country, we're seeing sites destroyed through development, graffiti and vandalism.

Professor Paul Taçon

The first thing we're doing is just raising awareness about how important and special this rock art is, not just for Aboriginal people, but for all Australians.

In many parts of the world, rock art is a part of national identity, we see that in France and South Africa for instance.

A rock art motif is even incorporated into the national emblem of South Africa, and in France they spend millions of dollars a year on individual sites.

So we're trying to say, 'hey look, we've got even more sites than they do and they're even more special because we've got this living connection'.

We've got at least a 15,000, perhaps 30,000-year history with the art being produced at all different times during this period.

This is something that we have to get out there this message, that this stuff is special, so let's protect it, let's work together to pass it on to future generations so that they can enjoy and learn from it too.

Professor Paul Taçon

We need to develop specific conservation and management plans for particular sites, such as Chalawong in south-east Queensland, that has some stability problems and is vulnerable to bushfires because of a wooden platform and vegetation close to the art, and also to vandalism.

We need to develop specific plans for whole areas like the Wellington Range, where Djulirri, the rock art site on the Google Art Project, is located. There's no management plan there, yet there's mining and more and more tourist pressure.

And the same is true of the Cape York region in northern Queensland, the famous Quinkin-Laura also has mining exploration applications, some of which have been granted. There's increased tourist pressures and there's no proper management plan to account for all of this.

So the Aboriginal communities in all these places want something done, but they need some assistance, resources. And that's where we come into play and can help.

Professor Paul Taçon

In Australia we are in a unique position in that there are Aboriginal elders and younger people who are very knowledgeable about the most recent art.

There's still a few people alive in parts of the Northern Territory, for instance, who made rock art when they were young, although because they're elderly they are quickly disappearing.

But there are still many Indigenous Australians who know the stories associated with particular sites, and particular images at those locations, as well as the larger landscape that they're an integral part of.

That's very different from France or Spain or other parts of Europe, because we've got a gap of a few thousand years between today and when the last rock art was made.

In South Africa unfortunately, there are hardly any indigenous groups who directly connect with the art.

They hold it as being really important but there aren't any individuals left who actually made rock art when they were young, or saw it being made, and there are only a few places in North America where that's the case as well.

Professor Paul Taçon

The other initiative that PERAHU has is to use state-of-the-art technology to do 3D scans for instance and other forms of advanced recording.

We can then take those records into our virtual reality lab, at the Gold Coast campus, and convert those into virtual replicas of the site.

We can also make interactive displays so that you can virtually walk or fly through the site.

And if we make really detailed records like that, if a site is destroyed we can actually replicate it.

But first of all we need to raise the funds to buy the equipment and pay for the costs in order to do that.

And what I'd like to do is at least record in extensive detail, Australia's top 50, if not top 100, sites.

Professor Paul Taçon

The Google Art Project is important for two reasons; one it raises awareness that this art is really special and significant because there it is standing alongside the great built galleries of the world, housing magnificent collections of Western and Asian art.

But the second thing is it provides virtual access to this really important and fragile site and in that sense protects it from physical access.

And what many Aboriginal communities want to do is provide physical access to a small number of special sites that tourists will get a great experience from and have managed visits to those places.

But then restrict access to other places like Djulirri, but at the same time we can provide virtual access so that people still will learn about this amazing place.

Professor Paul Taçon

Topics: arts-and-entertainment, indigenous-culture, indigenous-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander, visual-art, australia, wa, qld, nt, nsw, vic, tas, sa, act

First posted May 24, 2012 15:33:53