Huge news for our understanding of Australian archaeology! theconversation.com/humanitys-ol... "... the people who made these hand stencils ... were very likely part of the population that would later cross the sea and become the ancestors of Indigenous Australians"

The ARC’s processes are back to being farcical, @jasonclaremp.bsky.social You advocated for a streamlined, efficient, faster ARC, but all that progress has been undone. How can they claim to fund “innovation” with more than a year between initial proposal & outcomes? It should be 6 months, not 16!

Discovery Projects are now a complete joke: EoIs were due 12 Dec last year. Full apps are due 22 April this year. Results won't be out until next year: 15 Jan – 15 Apr 2027. That’s up to 16 MONTHS!

ARC’s new schedule is at www.arc.gov.au/funding-rese... It will now take A YEAR, or more, for researchers to know whether their grants are successful or not. For example, early-career researchers are to submit DECRA proposals 11 March this year but they may not be announced 'til 9 March NEXT YEAR!

⁉️The ARC has delayed outcomes of ALL grants 1–4 months & increased scheduled outcome windows from 2 weeks to 3 months! This reverses 4 years of progress in providing greater certainty & ability to plan for researchers, their families & unis. Their excuse? Security checks under new ARC legislation👇

More on ARC job cuts & restructure: ARC’s spending $374k on consultants for organisational “review” & “planning & development”. They’re also spending $765k on “risk management”. That’s $1.1 million on consultants being spent over 1 year. Un. Believable. Slow clap, ARC.

Where to start, with a statement like this? "Tim Ayres said the cuts were aimed at refocusing … CSIRO towards research priorities, such as critical minerals, iron & steel production in Australia." From some rando down the bus stop, one would brush it off. But this is from our Science Minister 🤯

Delighted to take part in this @austarchj.bsky.social Forum inspired by Kellie Pollard (et al.) on archaeology for #Indigenous emancipation In response, we share Yanyuwa perspectives on why even 'sterile' beach sands are cultural (‘Shell grit has a song’) www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

New Forum in Australian Archaeology: “Voice: A Third Space in Archaeology to Advance Indigenous Emancipation,” with commentaries & authors’ response. All articles FREE for 30 days 👉 www.tandfonline.com/action/showA...

Our new study of an Australian boomerang 🪃 is out! ‘How forensic analysis & traditional knowledge reveal the story of a unique boomerang’ in The Conversation: theconversation.com/how-forensic... And our in-depth research article in ‘Australian Archaeology’: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... 🏺

Fascinating new research - using traditional knowledge, archaeology and collections to uncover new (old) Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung stories from this wangim (boomerang)! What a great example of Indigenous-driven artefact research by @carolinedigs.bsky.social et al theconversation.com/how-forensic...

Durham, early morning

Precious finger traces from First Nations ancestors revealed in a glittering mountain cave in Australia theconversation.com/precious-fin...

Australian writers urge Albanese to abolish Job-Ready Graduates The critical thinking, problem-solving, and creative skills of Bachelor of Arts graduates are critical for navigating a future of challenges and careers that haven’t yet been imagined. #RepealJRG theconversation.com/top-australi...

1/ THREAD: It’s with deep regret we share the news that SAPIENS will halt publication of new content by the end of this year. We are so proud of everything SAPIENS has achieved and for our role in furthering public anthropology. Wenner-Gren’s letter to our community. wennergren.org/important-ne...

Horrendous news about the unique anthropology magazine @sapiens.org and the study of the human past and present worldwide

Men traded wares – but women traded knowledge: what a new archaeological study tells us about PNG sea trade #archaeology theconversation.com/men-traded-w... /em

"Productivity reform starts with public science" by Nathan Garland @n8sci.bsky.social has some worthy suggestions for improving productivity. In news we all know – but the Government seems to like ignoring – it'll help to fund more basic science research! nathangarland.substack.com/p/productivi...

Delighted to share our #archaeology 🏺 research in @theconvo-bot.bsky.social Men traded wares – but women traded knowledge: what a new archeological study tells us about PNG sea trade theconversation.com/men-traded-w...

So many congratulations to my dear colleague @jojomcd.bsky.social and @ciehf.bsky.social Chief Investigator on receiving an ARC Australian Laureate Fellowship for her project Pilbara Dreaming: Rock Art, Water and Heritage Futures!

Beyond delighted to have received ARC Linkage funding to work with the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation and Museums Victoria to unlock new Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung stories through archaeology in artefact collections

Congratulations to the University of Sydney (Kakadu places of the recent past) and Monash University (Aboriginal artefact collections from southeast Australia) teams for their recent success in the ARC Linkage Projects funding #ozarch rms.arc.gov.au/RMS/Report/D... /em

#booksky #writingcommunity

Wonderful results from community based archaeology research! 🏺 www.abc.net.au/news/2025-06...

@arc-tracker.bsky.social I’m struck by the irony / inconsistency / disconnect between the constant reminders I have been receiving over the past weeks to get on and complete my ARC assessments, while I await the LP24 outcome. He says during a break from completing the assessments…

The public meltdown happening between the world’s richest man 🙄 and the President of the United States 🙄🙄 once again begs the age-old question: are men simply too emotional to be in positions of power?

It severely undercuts industry trust in these schemes. I am not sure I would try to persuade my industry partners to have a crack at LP anymore.

Is ARC breaching its own legislation right now? ARC Act says grant outcomes have to be announced within 21 days of Board approval👇 Outcomes for Linkage Projects & Laureate Fellowships were anticipated weeks ago. If ARC Board approved before anticipated dates, they should've been announced by now.

Article from @monashuniversity.bsky.social colleagues: "Rather than creating a market for dodgy educational AI by lowering their ambitions ... universities should invest in smaller class sizes and teachers who are passionate about their disciplines." link.springer.com/article/10.1...

There's now 2 schemes for which the announcements are late: Linkage Projects & Laureate Fellowships. Despite knowing this might happen more than a month ago, ARC still haven't got a new timeline! The outcomes will have been determined, and only require ARC Board sign-off (not the Minister).

ARC once again smashing it out of the park with an extremely helpful "update"👇 (▶️ www.arc.gov.au/news-publica...) This "update" tells us there'll be updates in future. They had the entire Caretaker period to reschedule the Linkage Projects & Laureate Fellowships announcements…

In this new🏺paper we help overturn some assumptions about trade on PNG's south coast We looked at similar pottery designs across 100km of coast Turns out, they spread not by trade but movement of women makers - intermarriage and community exchanges 👉 link.springer.com/article/10.1...

"The Australian electorate, by and large, backs Australian made when it comes to manufacturing and innovation. But modern social and cultural challenges don’t receive the same profile. We call on the next Australian government to back Australian thinking." humanities.org.au/uncategorise...

My first editorial as part of the @austarchj.bsky.social team - but an important one ... We discuss how not everyone is being included in the push for Open Access in🏺 How can we ensure research with, by and for Indigenous peoples is available for all? 👇 www.tandfonline.com/eprint/NEE3B...

Life imitates art: Trump's plans for Gaza. L: From the new Private Eye (which went to press on Monday night), in shops now. R: Yesterday's headlines.

No words

🪧 Hi - I'm recruiting for a PhD looking at the history of First Nations encounters with Asian voyagers @monashuniversity.bsky.social! Involves remote fieldwork in the NT with Yanyuwa Families Drop me a line via the email in the ad if you're interested! careers.pageuppeople.com/513/cw/en/jo...

Great to see these results coming from Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung knowledge & archaeological investigations ... New excavation of ‘rings of mystery’ in Victoria reveals rich Aboriginal history theconversation.com/new-excavati... by @carolinedigs.bsky.social et al in @austarchj.bsky.social

Really honoured to be chosen for this by academy fellows humanities.org.au/power-of-the... @ciehf.bsky.social @monashuniversity.bsky.social

Really enjoyed co-convening this with @martinporr.bsky.social Mady Kelly & Kellie Pollard - great standard of AusTAG paper! #AAA47

Another great @ciehf.bsky.social postdoc job opportunity, this time at the UWA Node: external.jobs.uwa.edu.au/cw/en/job/51... #AustralianArchaeology

Australian Archaeology in Profile 2025: A Survey of Working Archaeologists Help us build a profile of professional archaeology in Australia! Now in its 20th year, this survey develops an understanding of our discipline and how it is changing. www.surveymonkey.com/r/profiling2...

Have you heard of Mound Key!? The once capital of the Calusa Kingdom of southwestern Florida is an entirely anthropogenic island (c. 60ha) made completely of shell! There are even massive fish storage ponds (watercourts) for live fish surplus to feed its c. 4,000 residents! #archaeology #ecology

Great #archaeology & history paper from a poorly understood part of the world - West Papua

OPEN ACCESS ARTICLE: From the latest issue of the JPH we have 'Five Centuries of Settlement Dynamics and Mobility in the Northern Raja Ampat Islands of West Papua', buff.ly/3BCXECB #Archaeology #OralTraditions #NewGuinea #PacificHistory #Publication #OpenAccess

New here so here's my latest #archaeology 'thing'! Use the link 👇 for our Open Access paper "Building culturally meaningful chronologies: negotiating Indigenous and Western temporalities in Oceania" w/ @lynetterussell.bsky.social & Rob Skelly onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Aboriginal people made pottery and sailed to distant offshore islands thousands of years before Europeans arrived theconversation.com/aboriginal-p... via @theconvo-bot.bsky.social

For the first time in Australian archaeology, using experimental studies and comparisons with historical necklaces, we analysed tusk shell bead manufacture, use-wear, and breakage, revealing insights into late Pleistocene bead crafting, symbolic use, and placement patterns. #AustralianArchaeology

It's been a long time coming and taken years of hard work from many people to see it to fruition, but we finally made it! This week the new ARC Centre of Excellence for Indigenous and Environmental Histories and Futures (CIEHF) was launched on the Nguma-bada campus of James Cook University.