ASHA in conjunction with National Archaeology Week is delighted to present this illuminating talk with Professor Grace Karskens on 18 May at 12pm.

The Real Secret River, Dyarubbin.

Placenames, seeing Country whole and Aboriginal cultural renewal

In 2016 I stumbled across an extraordinary manuscript: a handwritten list, created in 1829, of 178 Aboriginal place names for Dyarubbin and Ganangdayi, the Hawkesbury and Macdonald Rivers in New South Wales. I’d been researching this area for over ten years and never dreamed such a document existed. This list became the heart of a collaborative project, The Real Secret River: Dyarubbin with Darug researchers, educators and artists, as well as linguists, geologists and archaeologists. Together we successfully relocated over 90 of these names and produced a digital Story Map, as well as a series of public-facing essays and stories, two major exhibitions and ongoing dual naming projects. In this year’s National Archaeology Week, I will explore the importance and politics of place names in Australia, as well as the implications and possibilities of ‘seeing Country whole’ through this collaborative, cross-disciplinary approach for Aboriginal cultural renewal, for public landscapes and for wider public awareness and understanding of Aboriginal culture and history.

Grace Karskens is Emeritus Professor of Australian History at the University of New South Wales Sydney. Her books include The Colony: A History of Early Sydney, which won the 2010 Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Non-fiction, and People of the River: Lost Worlds of Early Australia, which won the Prime Minister’s Award for Australian History in 2021.

Banner image by Joy Lai.

Contact the host of The Real Secret River, Dyarubbin - Grace Karskens