Editorial.

Veth, Peter ; Harrison, Rodney ; McDonald, Jo 等

This collection of papers was originally inspired by a workshop on native title and archaeology hosted as part of the Australasian Society for Historical Archaeology Conference held in Adelaide in 2000. It received further impetus due to repeated calls for practice guidelines as well as questions about the relevance of archaeological evidence in native title from practitioners, lawyers, native title representative bodies and the requirements of expert witnesses involved in Federal Court trials.

From an original working party established in 2001, I subsequently invited Rodney Harrison and Jo McDonald to co-edit the current collection of papers. Rodney Harrison has published widely on historic and contact archaeology, having recently co-edited (with Christine Williamson) the 2004 volume After Captain Cook: the archaeology of the recent Indigenous past in Australia, Alta Mira Press, New York. This followed on from a collection in 2000 of theory-oriented papers edited by Ian Lilley, entitled Native title and the transformation of archaeology in the postcolonial world, an Oceania Monograph published by Sydney University. Jo McDonald has acted as an expert witness, published papers on the use of art and contact artefacts and contributed to theoretical debate concerning the identification (in the recent past) of 'groups', 'boundaries' and 'identity'--all clearly current and contested issues and terms. What was lacking from previous volumes, however, was a detailed examination of the categories of archaeological evidence most relevant to native title, an exploration of claimant connections to post-contact sites and a critique of how the courts were accepting, modifying or rejecting such evidence. The seven papers presented here hopefully reflect such conside-rations and address the apparently unmet demand of parties involved in native title. I am extremely grateful that Rodney Harrison and Jo McDonald came on board to share the burden of the editing process.

While archaeology has been employed since Mabo, the use of archaeological evidence and claimant connections to sites containing archaeological features has become an increasingly integral part of many land determinations in Australia, as it had been for decades in other 'settler' societies such as Canada and New Zealand. We hope that the scope and content of the seven papers in this volume provide an honest critique of how and when archaeology, and claimant connections to sites with archaeology, may be deployed and conversely where these are less relevant.

We believe that an informed consideration of contact and historic archaeology, and claimant connections to sites with archaeological components, can provide a valuable grounding in country, whereby domestic and totemic landscapes can both be accommodated. Additional 'voice' may be given to the continuities and transformations experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities as colonial regimes, such as pastoralism and mining, were imposed on them. This requires ongoing reform in the way practitioners and native title parties structure both pure and native title oriented research. Such strategies are outlined in the following papers.

Peter Veth, Director of Research, AIATSIS (on behalf of the editors: Rodney Harrison, Jo McDonald and Peter Veth)