ACT Heritage Library Manuscript Collections

HMSS 0474 Red Hill Camp: Prioritising Indigenous Communities in Inner City Community Archaeology - Steven Skitmore Research Papers

This collection contains the thesis Red Hill Camp: Prioritising Indigenous Communities in Inner City Community Archaeology and supporting documentation by Steven (Steve) Skitmore. The thesis was submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Archaeological Science (Advanced) in the College of Arts and Social Sciences at The Australian National University (ANU). 

The thesis reports on a community archaeological project run in Canberra in 2015-2016. The project was a joint venture involving Steve, Bridget San Miguel, a student researcher at the ANU, and senior members of Canberra's Representative Aboriginal Organisations (RAOs) - Buru Ngunnawal Aboriginal Corporation, King Brown Tribal Group, Little Gudgenby River Tribal Council and Ngarigu Currawong Clan. It is part of a broader collaboration supervised by Dr Duncan Wright (ANU) and Dave Johnston (Aboriginal Archaeologists Australia) titled Local Significance: Indigenous Archaeology in and around Canberra. 

The broad aim of the project was to address the limited number of community archaeology projects conducted with Indigenous groups in the urban environment, by showing that this research is both feasible and beneficial. It focused on the 'Red Hill Camp', an ethnographically known indigenous campsite in the suburb of Griffith.

The methodology of the project involved an oral history recording of Ngambri elder Matilda House at various sites of significance to her, including 'Red Hill Camp'.