What is rock art?
Rock art consists of paintings, drawings, stencils, engravings, bas-relief and beeswax figures. Australia has at least 100,000 rock art sites and many new discoveries are made each year. The oldest surviving Australian rock art is at least 15,000 years of age.
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What is the problem?
Within 50 years half of Australia’s rock art could be gone forever; Within 10 years thousands of precious sites could be damaged forever.
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State of the art
Today there are some incomplete state, museum and personal registers and databases of Australian rock art but no central archive. It is estimated that less than 30% of known sites are listed in government registers.
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What is Protecting Australia’s Spirit about?
Australia has some of the most stunning and powerful rock art images in the world. Protecting Australia’s Spirit is about documenting, conserving and managing Australia’s Indigenous rock art.
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How is rock art used?
To communicate, to pass on knowledge first hand and across generations, to record history and events and much more. It truly is our nation’s crown jewels, an utterly unique visual archive of Australia’s history giving us a clear window back into our recent and ancient pasts
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Why protect Australia’s spirit?
Australian rock art sites provide unique insight into extinct species, climate change, Indigenous knowledge, culture contact, spirituality, history and relationships to land.
A fully resourced research centre and national register-archive is needed to bring together diverse forms of information about rock art sites
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Who is leading the campaign?
The Protecting Australia’s Spirit campaign is led by Professor Paul S.C. Taçon FSA with the support of a range of Indigenous Australians and celebrities. Prof. Taçon has conducted archaeological and ethnographic fieldwork since 1980 and has over 75 months field experience in remote parts of the world.
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Where will happen?
The register and digital archive will be a joint initiative between Griffith University's Place, Evolution and Rock Art Heritage Unit (PERAHU), the Australian National University’s Rock Art Research Centre (RARC), Canberra and the University of Western Australia's Centre for Rock Art Studies (CRAS). It will have strong links with Indigenous communities, museums and other universities.
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When will it happen?
It can happen now with your help. You can create your own legacy by helping to protect Australia’s.
How can you help?
$6 million will get the project under way. This is virtually nothing in real terms to protect Australia’s Spirit forever.
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You can be a part of this exciting project. We urgently seek suitable industry and corporate partners, help from philanthropists and government agencies.
For more information as to why see the NEW video of Jack Thompson AM and Prof. Paul S.C. Tacon at www.youtube.com/protectrockart
Please contact:
Prof. Paul S.C. Tacon FAHA FSA,
PERAHU, School of Humanities, Gold Coast campus,
Griffith University, Queensland 4222 Australia
Phone: 61-(0)7-55529074; 0432981552
Email: p.tacon@griffith.edu.au
And also see: http://www.griffith.edu.au/humanities-languages/school-humanities/research/perahu
Do you want an amazing one week rock art experience in remote parts of the Northern Territory? If so, see http://www.worldexpeditions.com/au/index.php?section=trips&id=397514
All photographs of rock art on this website were taken with permission from relevant Aboriginal communities. The original artists and their descendants are gratefully acknowledged.
AFTER 15,000 YEARS THE TIME TO ACT IS NOW! - PROTECT AUSTRALIA’S SPIRIT!
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