The unknown ‘Ice Age’ artists of Borneo. This project aims to shift the focus of the search for art’s origins onto important new horizons. Who were the first artists? When and why did it become second nature for humans not simply to exist within the natural world, but to encode it with images of things both real and imagined? The discovery of cave paintings in Sulawesi and more recently in Borneo dating to at least 40,000 years ago has altered our understanding of the origins and spread of the f ....The unknown ‘Ice Age’ artists of Borneo. This project aims to shift the focus of the search for art’s origins onto important new horizons. Who were the first artists? When and why did it become second nature for humans not simply to exist within the natural world, but to encode it with images of things both real and imagined? The discovery of cave paintings in Sulawesi and more recently in Borneo dating to at least 40,000 years ago has altered our understanding of the origins and spread of the first painting traditions. This project will build upon these breakthrough discoveries by constructing the first detailed portrait of the cultural and symbolic worlds of the unknown artists of Pleistocene Borneo. By doing so, it will further our knowledge about the process of the emergence of figurative art, one of the most fundamental cultural developments in the evolution of humankind.Read moreRead less
Heritage diplomacy and One Belt One Road. This project aims to address China’s One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative, utilising the concept of heritage diplomacy to interpret the role culture plays in shaping trade and diplomatic relations. This project expects to develop new knowledge about 21st Century diplomacy and the political drivers of heritage preservation today. Expected outcomes of the project include collaborations with OBOR think tanks and universities in Australia, China and Central A ....Heritage diplomacy and One Belt One Road. This project aims to address China’s One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative, utilising the concept of heritage diplomacy to interpret the role culture plays in shaping trade and diplomatic relations. This project expects to develop new knowledge about 21st Century diplomacy and the political drivers of heritage preservation today. Expected outcomes of the project include collaborations with OBOR think tanks and universities in Australia, China and Central Asia, and an open access-mapping database based on international heritage documentation standards. This should significantly assist Australian and heritage international agencies understand the large-scale forces and pressures that shape their future conservation policies in the region.Read moreRead less
Understanding Japan's human-centred environmentalism. Japanese environmental activism has influenced attitudes and policymaking on the environment in Japan and worldwide for half a century. This project will demonstrate the strengths and limitations of Japan’s human-centred environmentalism and will encourage us to reconsider the tension between human satisfaction and environmental protection.
Mapping China's urban crisis: the politics of land and resettlement. This project aims to examine the spatial, political, and social restructuring of the urban margins of Chinese cities by unravelling complexities and tensions involved in the recent rural settlement transition, during which numerous villages were demolished and converted into arable land.
Chinese trade and diplomacy in South-East Asia from the 9th to 19th century common era. China’s trade in porcelain to South-East Asia over the past millennium provides the longest, continuous, market record for a product. The contrast between official Chinese control and what the archaeology reveals the traders really did, displays the limits of state power and the role of trade as another path in China’s diplomatic engagement with SE Asia.
A multifaceted study of Tangsa: a network of linguistic varieties in North East India. Our world's linguistic and cultural heritage, the product of human evolution, is being lost rapidly due to globalisation and modernisation. This project will record the linguistic diversity of the Tangsa people of North East India, thereby increasing our knowledge of an important regional neighbour and of our human society and history.
Sumatra’s role in ancient human movements and evolution. This project aims to test whether humans moving through Southeast Asia used a savannah corridor, facilitating their migrations into Sumatra and Java, and examine the effect of rainforests on human movements and evolution. This will be accomplished by examining ecological proxies from vertebrate remains found in established and newly identified fossil sites in Sumatra. These results are expected to provide a new understanding of the environ ....Sumatra’s role in ancient human movements and evolution. This project aims to test whether humans moving through Southeast Asia used a savannah corridor, facilitating their migrations into Sumatra and Java, and examine the effect of rainforests on human movements and evolution. This will be accomplished by examining ecological proxies from vertebrate remains found in established and newly identified fossil sites in Sumatra. These results are expected to provide a new understanding of the environmental context of human evolution in Asia, and identify routes ancient people took as they moved south through Asia and into Australia.Read moreRead less
Unlocking the missing Millennia of mainland Southeast Asia. This project will reveal the prehistoric transition from Neolithic to Bronze Age in South and Southeast Asia, the missing Millennia of the archaeological record. Sophisticated linguistic analyses, facilitated by innovative computational methods and bioinformatics, reconstruct the languages, migrations, and societies of the region’s oldest cultures
Traffic in women and girls in the Asia Pacific region, 1865-1940. This project will offer a critical analysis of historical narratives on the traffic in women within Asia Pacific networks. It will position Australian history at the forefront of international research on transnational history, informed by race and gender studies and considers parallels with today’s human trafficking debates.
Decolonisation and photography in Southeast Asia: Histories and legacies. This project aims to investigate the untold history of decolonisation in Southeast Asia through amateur soldier photographs taken on the front line of conflicts. Such photographs constitute a vast yet neglected archive that promises unique insights into encounters between combatants on all sides, and with civilians whose experiences have rarely been accessible, particularly women, children and unfree workers. The expected ....Decolonisation and photography in Southeast Asia: Histories and legacies. This project aims to investigate the untold history of decolonisation in Southeast Asia through amateur soldier photographs taken on the front line of conflicts. Such photographs constitute a vast yet neglected archive that promises unique insights into encounters between combatants on all sides, and with civilians whose experiences have rarely been accessible, particularly women, children and unfree workers. The expected outcomes of this project are to produce new understandings of violence in decolonisation and the long-term legacies of colonialism in Southeast Asia. This project also intends to provide a critical historical framework for understanding the meaning and impact of photographs taken in war.Read moreRead less