Noel Pearson’s 2004 Quarterly Essay is quoted, as is Stan Grant’s 2016 memoir.
There are fewer Indigenous voices in this narrative than I expected. My interest as a reader increased as female archaeologists began to make their presence felt, especially Isabel McBryde, who was one of the first archaeologists to connect with the traditional owners on whose land she worked. The mistakes made – as much as the discoveries found – leave their mark on the discipline today. The structure serves to highlight a key point: archaeology in Australia was a white man’s playground for decades. However, Deep Time Dreaming is worth pursuing. It is mind boggling to consider, but in the early years most of the motley museum curators, historians and want-to-be Indiana Joneses who dug up the deep past had never even met – or tried to meet – an Aboriginal person.Īs a reader, this made for a tough few chapters. This chronological approach highlights the extraordinary development of the discipline – begun by 20th century museum curators literally digging up whatever they found to 21st century researchers rewriting the timeline of humanity itself.Īt times, this means Deep Time Dreaming reads as the narrative of inadequately trained white men (many who were not even born in Australia) plundering a past they did not understand.
The book follows the careers of the most prominent archaeologists working in Australia in the 20th century. Griffiths explores the growing recognition of Australia’s deep past, once considered an empty continent and now proven to be home to the oldest continuing cultures in human history. As Griffiths quotes (on page 128), ‘Australia – virtually ignored by prehistorians until the 1960s as a tedious archaeological backwater – is now the focus of the quest to unravel the prehistory of mankind’.
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