Following the Franklin: using film footage ethnographically to study archaeological practice in Tasmania

Abstract

When archaeologists Rhys Jones, Jim Allen and others undertook archaeological investigations in the newly proclaimed World Heritage Area in southwest Tasmania following the Franklin River Dam campaign, they were accompanied by a film-maker from the then Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies (AIAS). A short archaeological report published within the same year gives a linear account of these investigations. The film footage—which lay unedited and unseen at the now Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) for decades following these investigations—tells a more nuanced story. Drawing upon Bruno Latour’s Actor-Network Theory, this paper considers how film footage provides a unique opportunity to move beyond the available accounts in order to describe ethnographically the various actors that comprise and influence archaeological practice. In doing so, this article argues that analysis of film can provide insights into the reality of archaeological investigations often obscured within written accounts. More than that, however, film also provides an opportunity to revisit the people, places and practices of archaeology to produce historical accounts of archaeological practice that are as colourful as the characters that produced it.