Digital Archaeology and Creative Practice | CAA Australasia Panel
Description
Making the Past Present: Exploring the Intersection of Digital Archaeology and Creative Practice
Join us for a conversation about collaboration, creativity, technology, and the evolving relationship between art and archaeology.
How do artists and archaeologists use digital technologies to connect with the past? What happens when scientific research, creative practice, and emerging technologies converge?
This panel brings together Indigenous artists whose work engages with archaeology, heritage, memory, and place. Through discussion and examples from their practice, panellists will reflect on the opportunities and challenges of working with digital tools and emerging technologies. Together, we will explore how these approaches influence the ways we interpret, communicate, and experience the past.
Our speakers for this panel are Joey Nganjmirra, Aja Reyes, Dylan Sarra, and Leila H. Staffler, with host Dr Andrea Jalandoni. This panel will be recorded and later made available via the CAA Australasia YouTube channel.
CAA Australasia's events are free and open to the public. Attendees agree to abide the by the CAA International's social media policy.
Stay up to date with all our events by becoming a member of CAA Australasia for free (join us here), and by following us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Bluesky, and Discord. You can catch up on our past events at our YouTube channel.
Event image: Blue and White 2022, Aja Reyes.
Lineup
Joey Nganjmirra
Joey Nganjmirra is a leading Kunwinjku artist and respected knowledge holder whose work reflects the deep cultural heritage of the Nganjmirra family and Djalma clan. Renowned for narrative-rich artworks that draw on ancestral stories and ceremonial traditions, he also plays an important role in supporting archaeologists and anthropologists documenting the rock art of western Arnhem Land, including the significant galleries at Injalak Hill.
Aja Reyes
Aja Reyes is a CHamoru scientist and artist with a background in marine biology, and natural and cultural resource surveying and management related to the compliance of development with environmental statutes. Since 2022, when Aja joined the Guam Rock Art Study, she has used her abstract art to better engage and explore the findings as they relate to her cultural identity.
Dylan Sarra
Dylan Sarra is a First Nations Australian artist, researcher, storyteller, and cultural practitioner of Gooreng Gooreng and Taribelang heritage from Central Queensland. His multidisciplinary practice combines sculpture, installation, printmaking, historical research, and immersive storytelling to explore the enduring impacts of colonisation, cultural memory, and truth telling. Alongside his visual arts practice, Sarra works with the Queensland Museum on cultural heritage research and the repatriation of the Burral Burral (Burnett River) petroglyphs, supporting the return of one of Australia’s most significant Aboriginal rock engraving sites to Traditional Owners. Sarra is the inaugural Queensland Museum First Nations Fellow, a multiple time finalist in the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards, and recipient of the 2025 Cairns Indigenous Art Fair People’s Choice Award. His work is held in significant public collections including the Queensland Museum and Griffith University Art Museum and the Australian War Memorial.
Leila H. Staffler
Leila H. Staffler is an educator, public servant, and cultural advocate from the Northern Mariana Islands. With over two decades of experience in education as a teacher and principal, she has championed student-centered learning and culturally relevant curriculum across Micronesia. Leila has also served in the CNMI Legislature and as Secretary of Labor, where she worked to strengthen opportunities for local workers and expand access to education and training. Her work in the humanities includes documenting the cultural heritage of the Marianas through film, with a focus on preserving stories and traditions for future generations.
Dr Andrea Jalandoni
Dr Andrea Jalandoni is a Senior Research and DECRA Fellow based at the Griffith Centre for Social and Cultural Research (GCSCR) and Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution (ARCHE) at Griffith University. Her research interests are rock art and digital archaeology working extensively in Australia, Southeast Asia, and Micronesia. As a recreational pilot, she is also interested in aerial archaeology and flying herself to work in remote areas. Some of her current projects include documenting all the rock art of the Mariana Islands, combining remote sensing and ethnography in Pohnpei and Kosrae (FSM), developing new methods for studying finger flutings, trialing hyperspectral imaging on some of the oldest rock art in the world in Indonesia, and studying rock art placement in the Northern Territory.
Tickets for good, not greed Humanitix dedicates 100% of profits from booking fees to charity
