Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Goba of Mua: archaeology working with oral tradition

2004; Cambridge University Press; Volume: 78; Issue: 299 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1017/s0003598x00093005

1745-1744

Bruno David, Ian J. McNiven, Louise Manas, John Manas, Saila Savage, Joe Crouch, Guy Neliman, Liam M. Brady,

Historical and Cultural Archaeology Studies

A team of Elders and community officials from the island of Mua in the Torres Straits got together with archaeologists from Australia to study an episode which occurred on the island before the coming of Christianity in 1871. Oral tradition located the burial place of the father of an ancestral islander named Goba, and the investigation of a rock shelter nearby gave a dated sequence of occupation and a fresh sighting of rock paintings, all relating to the period. Each type of evidence gave context to the other, and the project offered a vivid example of how history is fashioned.