Rising up: Digital traces and performative Indigenous culture in Australian rock art

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dc.contributor.authorWalshe, Keryn
dc.contributor.authorNowell, April
dc.date.accessioned2026-06-19T14:46:52Z
dc.date.available2026-06-19T14:46:52Z
dc.date.issued2025
dc.description.abstractIndigenous Australian art relies on motifs and figures to visually symbolise a traditional story, myth and/or ritual, encompassing a narrated performance. In contrast, digital tracings or ‘finger flutings’ impressed into the soft precipitate covering cave surfaces are not typically considered visually symbolic expressions. Using Koonalda Cave in southern Australia as a case study, the authors argue that digital tracings also operate within a performative space, but without their narrator these undulating lines are rendered silent. Here, emphasis is placed on ritual maintenance or the spiritual propagation of a prized food or trade item that would then ‘rise up’.
dc.description.reviewstatusReviewed
dc.description.scholarlevelFaculty
dc.description.sponsorshipThis research was funded in part by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada [435-2019-0656].
dc.identifier.citationWalshe, K., & Nowell, A. (2025). Rising up: digital traces and performative Indigenous culture in Australian rock art. Antiquity, 99(405), 624–637. https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2025.16
dc.identifier.urihttps://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2025.16
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1828/24002
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherAntiquity
dc.rightsAttribution 4.0 Internationalen
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.subjectAustralasia
dc.subjectNullarbor Australia
dc.subjectrock art
dc.subjectIndigenous art
dc.subjectspiritual propagation
dc.subjectperformance art
dc.subjectIndigenous
dc.subject.departmentDepartment of Anthropology
dc.titleRising up: Digital traces and performative Indigenous culture in Australian rock art
dc.typeArticle

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