Shades of red: Peter Worsley’s rock art research on Groote Eylandt
Shades of red: Peter Worsley’s rock art research on Groote Eylandt Book Section
Histories of Australian Rock Art Research
- Author(s): Frederick, UK, Clarke, A
- Secondary Author(s): Taçon, PSC, May, SK, Frederick, UK, McDonald, J
- Published: 2022
Abstract: The Groote Eylandt archipelago is unique within Australia, by having one of the longest trajectories of rock art recording. Commencing in 1803 when paintings at Chasm Island were noted by Matthew Flinders and sketched by William Westall, a sustained program of research began in earnest in the early twentieth century. Largely comprising the work of anthropologists and archaeologists, along with the observations of keen-eyed amateurs, this history reveals a rich vein of approaches, analytical methods, theories and techniques. From Norman Tindale in the 1920s to George Chaloupka in the 1980s, each researcher brought something of themselves and their own agenda just as they grappled with the opportunities and constraints characteristic of their time and purpose. Hence, this twentieth-century history of rock art research on Groote Eylandt conveys a range of questions and interpretive frameworks, which we propose collectively reflect the glow of a Golden Age of rock art research in the archipelago.