The Rock Art Scenes At Injalak Hill: Alternative Visual Records of Indigenous Social Organisation and Cultural Practices

Abstract

This paper explores the potential of Indigenous rock art scenes from western Arnhem Land (Australia) as visual media in archaeological and ethnoarchaeological research into Indigenous social organisation and practices. Traditionally, the main visual media used to analyse Indigenous cultures have been ethnographic or ethnohistoric reports and photographs. Through three case studies from Injalak Hill this paper illustrates how rock art scenes may elicit complementary and alternative types of information and provide a different means of understanding Indigenous social behaviours and practices. Rock art scenes, as visual records of Indigenous social organisation, should be considered a key complement to photographs, since they provide crucial information that is quite different from, or not necessarily recorded in, photographs.