by Lawrence B. Conyers, Mary-Jean Sutton, Ian Moffat and Chet Walker
Mapping the Graves of the Mapoon Mission Cemetery, Queensland, Australia
Aboriginal people in Cape York Peninsula area of Australia have strong emotional attachment to cemeteries and the burial places of their ancestors. Often, as at Mapoon, in northern Queensland, many such places are unmarked and neglected. The graves can be difficult to identify on the ground surface, either because they were never marked, or because…
3 responses to “Mapping the Graves of the Mapoon Mission Cemetery, Queensland, Australia”
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This was a very intensive project that we conducted in Australia in very sandy ground. We found many “European-style” graves that were from the post-Contact time, but also Aboriginal-style graves that tended to be in clusters, and were much older. Those burials have likely deteriorated over time, as burials were usually wrapped in bark-cloth. Each grave in our area was studied individually, showing the variation in grave types, which can be used elsewhere as models for internment ages and types.
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Very interested in this article for a couple of reasons.
Firstly, showing the radargrams of the possible burials that have been detected is of great value to those of us that are in this field. The signs of human burial in radar data are often so subtle and nuanced, no two burials in a cemetery are alike at times!
Also I was very interested in how you were able to clear the site prior to survey. I also operate in the Indigenous cemetery field, this is the greatest barrier to conducting surveys, getting the site in a suitable condition for survey.
Great article, I will be referencing this in future!-
Thanks Andrew. I have another grave paper that I will put up here soon. We had permission from the local people to do whatever was necessary…we cut, burned and scraped the ground like mad! Ian Moffat was our go-to ground clearance guy…you are at Flinders with him…ask him about it! When I got there Ian had been working for 3 days with helpers clearing the ground and there was still smoke rising from all the piles of vegetation that he had cleared and burned!
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