Being Irish: The Nineteenth Century South Australian Community of Baker’s Flat

Abstract

This paper examines Irish social identity (‘Irishness’) in a nineteenth century, working class Irish community based at Baker’s Flat, Kapunda, in the mid-north of South Australia. The research centers on the concepts of identity and power, specifically, how the Baker’s Flat community expressed identity through material culture, and what this tells us about the community and its power relations. An existing collection of metal artifacts, as well as archaeological data resulting from a site survey, are analyzed to determine the relationships of power and Irishness.