| Summary: | The coasts, islands and waters of the Great Barrier Reef have been home for First Nations peoples for thousands of years. Most of the islands and coral cays of the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area (GBRWHA) formed in the Holocene (last 11,700 years) following postglacial sea level rise. Continuous First Nations coastal occupation occurred in the GBRWHA from at least c.9000 years ago to the present with increasingly intensive coast and island use evident by the Mid-Holocene (c.4000–6000 years ago), with specialised maritime economies known historically and ethnographically emerging throughout the Late Holocene (past 4000 years). Archaeological research in the GBRWHA has focused on when islands were first used and/or seasonally or permanently occupied; how people travelled to islands; Melanesian and Asian connections; cultural responses to insularity and isolation; and the effects of sea-level and climate change. GBRWHA archaeological sites are unique archives of information on long-term inter-relationships between environment and culture that can inform current climate and sea level debates. Coastal and island sites are impacted by many processes that differentially alter or remove them from the archaeological record, necessitating complex approaches to understanding their formation, preservation, functions and management in partnership with contemporary First Nations communities.
|
|---|