Role in the Project
As one of the Chief Investigators in the project Bryce’s principal role is in regard to coordinating – along with the other CIs – the project overall, and participating in the field work, supervising post-graduate students and working on publications to come out of the project.
Why He’s Excited About the Project
When Bryce first began doing his PhD research on the Aboriginal past in the Whitsunday Islands he was struck by how often he came across accounts of violence against Aboriginal people on the frontier in newspapers, official documents, diaries and letters and yet at this time it seemed to him that almost nothing was known about this publicly. Bryce did an Australian history course as part of his undergraduate degree and this was barely mentioned. His is excited by this project as it provides the opportunity to more accurately reflect what actually occurred when Europeans expanded northward into Aboriginal owned land and to bring greater awareness of the cost to Aboriginal societies for European expansion.
His Background
Bryce has a series of long standing and ongoing research projects on the central Qld coast with the Ngaro, Gia and Juru communities. He is also part of the ‘Connecting Country’ project with Monash University, University of Saviore, the University of Bordeaux (France) and the Jawoyn Association, and projects in Papua New Guinea. He has experience in historical archaeological projects on the Darling Downs in southeast Queensland. Although principally working in academia Bryce also has extensive experience in undertaking cultural heritage consultancies both in Australia and Papua New Guinea.
Qualifications
- BA Hons (Archaeology/Anthropology) University of Queensland (1987)
- PhD (Archaeology) University of Queensland (1995)
Memberships
- Australian Archaeological Association
- Fellow Australian Anthropology Society
Theses
- Barker, B. 1987 Narcurrer: An Analysis of the Vertebrate Faunal Assemblage. Unpublished BA(Hons), Department of Anthropology, University of Queensland, St Lucia.
- Barker, B. 1995 The Sea People: Late Holocene Maritime Specialisation in the Whitsunday Islands, Central Queensland. Unpublished PhD thesis, Department of Anthropology, University of Queensland, St Lucia.
Select Publications
- Barker, B., L. Lamb and T. Manne 2016 Baikaboria ossuary and the origins of the Kesele clan, upper Kikori River, Papua New Guinea. Journal of Pacific Archaeology 7(1):89-105.
- Barker, B., L. Lamb, B. David, R. Skelly and K. Korokai 2015 Dating of in situ longhouse (dubu daima) posts in the Kikori River delta: refining chronologies of island village occupation in the lower Kikori River delta, Papua New Guinea. Quaternary International 385:27-38.
- David, B., K. Aplin, F. Petchey, R. Skelly, J. Mialanes, H. Jones-Amin, J. Stanisic, B. Barker and L. Lamb 2015 Kumukumu 1, a hilltop site in the Aird Hills: implications for occupational trends and dynamics in the Kikori River delta, south coast of Papua New Guinea. Quaternary International 385:7-26.
- David, B., B. Barker, F. Petchey, J.J. Delannoy, J.M. Geneste, C. Rowe, M. Eccleston, L. Lamb and R. Whear 2013 A 28,000 year old excavated painted rock from Nawarla Gabarnmang, northern Australia. Journal of Archaeological Science 40(5):2493-2501.
- Delannoy, J.J., B. David, J.M. Geneste, M. Katherine, B. Barker, R.L. Whear and R.G. Gunn 2013 The social construction of caves and rockshelters: Chauvet Cave (France) and Nawarla Gabarnmang (Australia). Antiquity 87(335):12-29.
- David, B., J.M. Geneste, F. Petchey, J.J. Delannoy, B. Barker and M. Eccleston 2013 How old are Australia’s pictographs? A review of rock art dating. Journal of Archaeological Science 40(1):3-10.
- Barker, B., L. Lamb, B. David, K. Korokai, A. Kuaso and J. Bowman 2012 Otoia, ancestral village of the Kerewo: modelling the historical emergence of Kerewo regional polities on the island of Goaribari, south coast of mainland Papua New Guinea. In S. Haberle and B. David (eds), Peopled landscapes: Archaeological and Biogeographic Approaches to Landscapes, pp. 157-176. Terra Australis 34. Canberra: ANU E Press.
- Barker, B. and L. Lamb 2011 Archaeological evidence for South Sea Islander traditional ritual practice at Wunjunga, Ayr, central Queensland coast. Australian Archaeology 73:69-72.
- David, B., J.M. Geneste, R.L. Whear, J.J. Delannoy, M. Katherine, R.G. Gunn, C. Clarkson, H. Plisson, P. Lee, F. Petchey, C. Rowe, B. Barker, L. Lamb, W. Miller, S. Hoerle, D. James, E. Boche, K. Aplin, I.J. McNiven, T. Richards, A. Fairbairn and J. Matthews 2011 Nawarla Gabarnmang, a 45,180±910 cal. BP site in Jawoyn Country, southwest Arnhem Land plateau. Australian Archaeology 73:73-77.
- Thangavelu, A., B. David, B. Barker, J.M. Geneste, J.J. Delannoy, L. Lamb, N. Araho, and R. Skelly 2011 Morphometric analyses of Batissa violacea shells from Emo (OAC), Gulf Province, Papua New Guinea. Archaeology in Oceania 46(2):67-75.
- Moffat, I., B. David, B. Barker, A. Kuaso, R. Skelly and N. Araho 2011 Magnetometer surveys in archaeological research in Papua New Guinea: Keveoki 1, Gulf Province. Archaeology in Oceania 46(1):17-22.
- Skelly, R., B. David, I.J. McNiven and B. Barker 2011 The ritual dugong bone mounds of Koey Ngurtai, Torres Strait, Australia: investigating their construction. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 21(1):32-54.
- David, B., I.J. McNiven, T. Richards, S.P. Connaughton, M. Leavesley, B. Barker and C. Rowe 2011 Lapita sites in the central province of mainland Papua New Guinea. World Archaeology 43(4):576-593.
Select Unpublished Reports
- Barker, B. 2014 A Cultural Heritage Assessment of the Proposed Gas Pipeline Access Corridor from the Head Waters of the Fly River to Lake Kutubu, Western and Southern Highlands Provinces, Papua New Guinea. Unpublished report prepared for SIMP, Brisbane.
- Barker, B. 2013 A Cultural Heritage Assessment within the PRL03 License Area and the PRL03 Access Road at the Head Waters of the Fly River, Western Province, Papua New Guinea. Unpublished report prepared for SIMP, Brisbane.