Challenging metanarratives: The past lives in the present

Abstract

ABSTRACTIt is over 35 years since Langford (1983) called for archaeologists to recognise Aboriginal people's right to control their heritage. Although there have been enormous changes since then in the way Australian archaeologists engage with Traditional Owners in the practice of archaeology and cultural heritage management, several metanarratives that privilege Western knowledge constructs over Indigenous ways of knowing persist. Although such metanarratives continue to be challenged, pockets of entrenched resistance remain. This is seen most clearly in the divide between oral history/Indigenous narrative and science, often expressed as a disconnect between “myth” and “reality” (Ingold 2013; Porr and Matthews 2016). In this paper, I provide an introduction to the papers in this issue, set within a reflection on the challenges to metanarratives that are evolving as a result of the engagement between archaeologists and Indigenous owners of heritage. I emphasise our increasing recognition of the poly‐vocality of “truth” and the validity of Indigenous interpretations of their archaeology and heritage.