ABSTRACT
As an interactive component of the ideological, spiritual, and material culture practices of indigenous Australians, rock art production is a particularly potent expression of socio-cultural identity. In light of its communicative function and its dual role as a reflectional and intervening force directing the course of social action, rock art offers an informative and expressive indigenous view of the process of change and continuity brought about by culture contact (McDonald 1994; Smith 1994). The principal aim of this chapter is to examine the graphic implications and shifting social contexts of rock art production arising from culture contact between an indigenous society and European (or AngloAustralian) colonists. The source of my investigation is the rock art of Watarrka National Park, central Australia. My intention is to provide a broad geographical, archaeological, anthropological and historical model of this area to provide a setting within which the social contexts of rock art production may be adequately understood. The approach I have taken in constructing this framework is informed by studies of social landscapes (Baker 1989; Bender 1993; Gosden and Head 1994; Ingold 1993; Tilley 1994). Landscape is an appropriate concept for the examination of socio-cultural change during contact because it was the stage upon which cross-cultural engagements were set and the vehicle through which these experiences were mediated. Indeed, the land itself lies at the heart of the
long and difficult history of Aboriginal-European relations and it holds the power to future reconciliation.
