This project involves a remote rural industry partner, a regional university, a Melbourne-based university and industry partner. Their commitment and collaboration is detailed below.
The Quinkan region, around Laura in Cape York, is listed on the Register of the National Estate for its outstanding natural and cultural heritage values. It is a Designated Landscape Area. The Laura based Ang-Gnarra Aboriginal Corporation (A-GAC) manages the east Quinkan lands, including its unique and extensive body of Aboriginal rock art, on behalf of the Trustees of the East Quinkan Reserves. The Quinkan Trustees (QRC), despite the wealth of their culture, to date have had no consistent government funding or means to manage the natural or cultural resources of the Reserves. They are about to be involved in the development of a local interpretive centre and are anxious to establish an appropriate data management system.
Since 1998, Quinkan Trustees have been working with researchers Noelene Cole, JCU, and Liddy Nevile (fromerly of Melbourne IT Pty Ltd) to repatriate cultural materials (e.g. ethnographic and rock art research data) for cultural heritage management. They have sought ways of accessing these widely dispersed materials to develop an organised system of cultural heritage interpretation and management at Laura, and to develop resources for educational tourism.
The Queensland Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), administering the Cultural Record Act, maintains records of cultural sites and controls the permit process for tourism and research in these areas. Quinkan Trustees have worked with JCU, EPA and Melbourne IT researchers to develop the Quinkan catalogue as a major step towards local management of cultural resources.
In 2000, JCU, Motile, Melbourne IT and the Quinkan Trustees are collaborated in a joint JCU/Melbourne IT funded project, the Rock Art Thesaurus, to develop a classification taxonomy. This was done in anticipation of a computer system in which to use it (the Quinkan Matchbox). In a related project, JCU has assisted Quinkan Trustees by providing duplicates and secure interim storage facilities for the Trezise collection of Laura rock art records, donated to JCU in 1998. This collection contains items of many kinds including site information, paintings, photographs, audio tapes, databases, archaelogical charts and books. Many of these are now acknowledged to belong to Indigenous people or to need to be reproduced for their use.
Other initiatives already underway include oral history recording, cultural site recording and mapping. These are ongoing and will also contribute to the Quinkan catalogue. Other activities include developing an Australian centre for rock art research in Cairns, for which a building (known as ‘the Dome’ and adjacent to JCU) has been purchased. This centre, uniting the Australian Rock Art Research Association and the cultural custodians, will channel remote and local visitors and researchers to the Laura region.
In November 1999, Indigenous representatives and university researchers met in the Cairns Dome to consider joint development of educational tourism and the research project now proposed. In March 2000, at a workshop at JCU Cairns, Quinkan Elders reported their progress and reaffirmed their enthusiasm for having appropriate web-based cultural heritage management and interpretation tools.
The Quinkan Culture Matchbox Project will incorporate the initiatives already underway in which community members and Elders participate. A May 2000 workshop in Laura for the Rock Art Thesaurus will involve community participants and Elders. Participants will be paid for their assistance. This model for working with the community will be continued into the new project.
Elders will participate voluntarily in the Executive and Cultural Advisory Committees, advising on cultural and intellectual property issues. They will be paid to provide content for the development of the prototype catalogue. JCU will seek traineeships funded by the Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Employment Unit for training Laura community members to use the catalogue system independently. Once trained, these people will work with Elders to create and augment catalogue records. JCU will also work with community people on the Creative Design for the Laura implementation of Matchbox and provide on-going technical support and maintenance.
Current projects demonstrate the productive and strong relationship between the participants.