{"id":343,"date":"2026-03-06T05:41:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T05:41:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aaaconference.com.au\/2025\/?page_id=343"},"modified":"2026-03-06T05:41:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T05:41:07","slug":"keynote-speakers","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/aaaconference.com.au\/2025\/keynote-speakers\/","title":{"rendered":"Keynote Speakers"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"et_pb_section_0 et_pb_section et_section_regular et_block_section section_has_divider et_pb_bottom_divider\">\n<div class=\"et_pb_row_0 et_pb_row et_block_row\">\n<div class=\"et_pb_column_0 et_pb_column et_pb_column_4_4 et-last-child et_block_column et_pb_css_mix_blend_mode_passthrough\">\n<div class=\"et_pb_code_0 et_pb_code et_pb_module\"><div class=\"et_pb_code_inner\"><style>\n  #artworkpage{display:none;}\n<\/style>\n<script>\n  function toggleDivs() {\n    const artwork = document.getElementById(\"artworkpage\");\n    const disclaimer = document.getElementById(\"disclaimer\");\n\n    artwork.style.display = \"block\";\n    disclaimer.style.display = \"none\";\n  }\n<\/script><\/div><\/div>\n\n<div class=\"et_pb_text_0 et_pb_text et_pb_bg_layout_light et_pb_module et_flex_module headertext\"><div class=\"et_pb_text_inner\"><h2>Keynote Speakers<\/h2>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"et_pb_bottom_inside_divider et-no-transition\"><\/div><\/div>\n\n<div class=\"et_pb_section_1 et_pb_section et_section_regular et_block_section\">\n<div class=\"et_pb_row_1 et_pb_row et_block_row\">\n<div class=\"et_pb_column_1 et_pb_column et_pb_column_4_4 et-last-child et_block_column et_pb_css_mix_blend_mode_passthrough\">\n<div class=\"et_pb_text_1 et_pb_text et_pb_bg_layout_light et_pb_module et_block_module et_pb_text_align_justified\"><div class=\"et_pb_text_inner\"><h4><strong>All archaeology is maritime archaeology: Land, sea and story in Western Australia<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>The Western Australian Museum holds a globally significant collection of artefacts from the first archaeologically excavated shipwrecks in the Southern Hemisphere. Among these are the remains of four Dutch East India Company vessels wrecked along the Western Australian coast in the 17th and 18th centuries\u2014sites that continue to shape maritime archaeological discourse more than fifty years after their excavation. The 1980s and 1990s saw a wave of major excavations of colonial shipwrecks and associated maritime places, further expanding the Museum\u2019s holdings and contributing to the development of maritime archaeology as a discipline. This period of excavation has been well documented in existing historiographies (Henderson 1986; Green 1989, 2004; Gibbs 1994; McCarthy 1998, 2006; Staniforth and Hyde 2001). Over the last twenty-five years, the Western Australian Museum\u2019s maritime archaeology program has evolved in response to global shifts in archaeological theory and practice. These include interdisciplinary approaches, maritime landscape and seascape studies and an increased focus on Indigenous and cross-cultural perspectives. Likewise there is a growing commitment to environmental and cultural advocacy, alongside urgent efforts to decolonise collections and narratives. This keynote explores the Museum\u2019s work during this period, highlighting significant project collaborations with universities and government agencies but also those that are centred on public engagement and the active involvement of local communities. Special focus is given to the ongoing research of previously excavated collections\u2014many of which have only received minimal identification\u2014and the stories they reveal. Situating the Museum\u2019s work within national and international archaeological developments, this presentation reflects on the enduring significance of maritime sites\u2014particularly in a region where oceanic movement has profoundly shaped cultural and historical trajectories. It also seeks to amplify voices and histories that have long been overlooked, offering a nuanced appraisal of maritime archaeology that is both inclusive and forward-thinking.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n<div class=\"et_pb_blurb_0 et_pb_blurb et_pb_bg_layout_light et_pb_text_align_justified et_pb_blurb_position_left et_pb_module et_block_module\"><div class=\"et_pb_blurb_content\"><div class=\"et_pb_main_blurb_image\"><span class=\"et_pb_image_wrap et_pb_only_image_mode_wrap\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/aaaconference.com.au\/2025\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/CorioliSouter.jpg\" width=\"250\" height=\"250\" srcset=\"https:\/\/aaaconference.com.au\/2025\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/CorioliSouter.jpg 250w, https:\/\/aaaconference.com.au\/2025\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/CorioliSouter-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\" class=\"et-waypoint et_pb_animation_top et_pb_animation_top_tablet et_pb_animation_top_phone wp-image-345\" \/><\/span><\/div><div class=\"et_pb_blurb_container\"><div class=\"et_pb_blurb_description\"><p><strong>Dr Corioli Souter,<\/strong> <em>Western Australian Museum<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Corioli Souter is an archaeologist, curator and Head of the Department of Maritime Heritage at the Western Australian Museum. She has been a practicing archaeologist since 1992 also contributing to exhibition development, film documentaries, academic teaching, and capacity building both in Australia and internationally. Corioli played a key curatorial role in the development of Boola Bardip, the Western Australian Museum\u2019s landmark redevelopment, helping shape its conceptual and thematic frameworks and curating major content. Her research and community projects align with the Museum\u2019s \u2018people-first\u2019 philosophy, promoting place-based, collaborative interpretation of maritime archaeological sites across Western Australia and the Indian Ocean region. Committed to ethical, inclusive, and sustainable practices, she advocates for greater accessibility to underwater cultural heritage and museum collections.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"et_pb_section_2 et_pb_section et_section_regular et_block_section\">\n<div class=\"et_pb_row_2 et_pb_row et_block_row\">\n<div class=\"et_pb_column_2 et_pb_column et_pb_column_4_4 et-last-child et_block_column et_pb_css_mix_blend_mode_passthrough\">\n<div class=\"et_pb_text_2 et_pb_text et_pb_bg_layout_light et_pb_module et_block_module et_pb_text_align_justified\"><div class=\"et_pb_text_inner\"><h4><strong>Towards the establishment of an Australian Indigenous Heritage Commission: It's about time<br \/><\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>This keynote will explore the need for an independent Commonwealth Government Indigenous\/First Nations\u2019 Heritage Agency (or Australian Indigenous Heritage Commission) with relevant legislation that finally respects and adequately protects the world and nationally significant history and heritage sites and places of Australia and its peoples.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n<div class=\"et_pb_blurb_1 et_pb_blurb et_pb_bg_layout_light et_pb_text_align_justified et_pb_blurb_position_left et_pb_module et_block_module\"><div class=\"et_pb_blurb_content\"><div class=\"et_pb_main_blurb_image\"><span class=\"et_pb_image_wrap et_pb_only_image_mode_wrap\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/aaaconference.com.au\/2025\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/DaveJohnsonPitt250.jpg\" width=\"250\" height=\"250\" srcset=\"https:\/\/aaaconference.com.au\/2025\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/DaveJohnsonPitt250.jpg 250w, https:\/\/aaaconference.com.au\/2025\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/DaveJohnsonPitt250-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\" class=\"et-waypoint et_pb_animation_top et_pb_animation_top_tablet et_pb_animation_top_phone wp-image-346\" \/><\/span><\/div><div class=\"et_pb_blurb_container\"><div class=\"et_pb_blurb_description\"><p><strong>Dave Johnston-Pitt,<\/strong> <em>Australian Indigenous Archaeologists Association and Australian\u00a0National University<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Dave Johnston-Pitt is Australia\u2019s first academically qualified Indigenous Archaeologist, graduating with his Honours degree in Archaeology in 1989 from the Australian National University under the tutelage of Emeritus Professor Isabel McBryde (\u2018ANU\u2019s Indigenous Engagement Champion\u2019 and the collective champion of Australia\u2019s first Indigenous Archaeologists in the late 80\u2019s and early 90\u2019s).<\/p>\n<p>He has worked as a consultant, academic, volunteer Indigenous heritage activist, Co-film producer with Stuart Cohen, Bottle. Brush Media (Films; Millpost Axe Quarry; Gollion Ochre Quarry; I Remember the Dungeon with Dr Matilda House, etc), documentary film host (Foxtel History Channel: Coast Australia Series 4; and various ABC and SBS heritage documentaries), Indigenous Educator and continues to lobby and promote truth telling in Australia\u2019s history and speaking out to further de-colonise our Australian University Archaeology Departments (eg. recruitment of Indigenous archaeologists and Indigenous lecturers teaching \u2018our\u2019 Indigenous content).<\/p>\n<p>In 2014, Dave was awarded the Commonwealth Governments\u2019, \u2018Sharon Sullivan National Heritage Award: for his contribution to the Nations Indigenous Heritage Environment and his continual influence on practice\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>In recent years Dave has experienced the joy of fulfilling his lifetime quest of finding and reconnecting with his Queensland biological family (the Pitt\u2019s) and his home country\/s. He has ancestral decent to Erub (Darnley Is; Torres Strait Islands); the Nunnukul\/Ngugi of the Quandamooka peoples (Stradbroke Is and Moreton Bay Qld); the Inagai\/Goa people of Qld; as well as to England (the Atherton\u2019s of Atherton Tableland) and Jamaica.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-343","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aaaconference.com.au\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aaaconference.com.au\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aaaconference.com.au\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aaaconference.com.au\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aaaconference.com.au\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=343"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/aaaconference.com.au\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/343\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":348,"href":"https:\/\/aaaconference.com.au\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/343\/revisions\/348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aaaconference.com.au\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}