Dr Sally K. May

• Convenor, Graduate Program in Liberal Arts (Cultural and Environmental Heritage)
• Program Coordinator, Institute for Professional Practice in Heritage and the Arts

T: ( 02 ) 612 55889

F: ( 02 ) 612 52438
E: sally.may@anu.edu.au

Research School of Humanities
College of Arts and Social Sciences

Qualifications:

PhD (ANU); BA (Hons.) (Flinders Uni)

Short biography:

Sally May is convenor of the Graduate Program in Liberal Arts (Cultural and Environmental Heritage) and lecturer in heritage, museums and material culture at the Research School of Humanities (ANU). Previously she was an ARC Postdoctoral Fellow based at Griffith University (Gold Coast) and a lecturer in the Department of Archaeology at Flinders University. Sally’s PhD was in interdisciplinary cross-cultural research and focused on the role of art and community art centres in remote Indigenous Australian communities.

Visit the new Rock Art Research Centre website.

Research Interests:

Indigenous archaeology, rock art studies, archaeology of art, museology, ethnography and ethnoarchaeology, cross-cultural encounters, anthropology of collecting.

Current field research areas: Arnhem Land (Australia), Yunnan Province (China).

Current Research Projects:

Picturing Change: 21st century perspectives on recent Australian rock art, especially that from the European contact period.

ARC Discovery Project (Chief Investigations: Prof. Paul S.C. Tacon, Dr. Sally K. May, Dr. June Ross, Dr. Alistair Paterson). In this five year project (2007-2011) contact period rock art from across Australia is being documented, with fieldwork in western Arnhem Land (NT), Wollemi National Park (NSW) and central Australia, west of Alice Springs (NT). Working closely with Australian Aboriginal colleagues, we also are recording contemporary stories, oral history and significance for recent rock-art sites, especially those from the contact period. More generally, we are examining contact accounts and imagery from archaeological, archival, ethnographic, historical and material culture points of view.

Kunwinjku Language Project

This project was initiated in 2007 and is funded by the Federal Government program 'Maintenance of Indigenous Language and Records' through the West Arnhem Land Shire Council. The project was established in order to strengthen and promote the cultural identity of Kunwinjku language speakers in Arnhem Land through activiites relating to language and culture. In the first year of this project we focused on community consultation and the collection of recordings to produce resources for Kunwinjku language speakers including publications, CDs, and short films. Website: http://www.kunwinjku.org/

Selected Publications:

Books and Monographs

2009 Collecting Cultures: Myth, Politics, and Collaboration in the 1948 Arnhem Land Expedition. California: Altamira  - View Cover

Edited volumes

2008 Domingo Sanz, Ines, Danae Fiore, and Sally K. May (eds), Archaeologies of Art: time, place and identity. Walnut Creek: Left Coast Press. View Cover

Chapters in books

2008  ‘The Art of Collecting: Charles Pearcy Mountford’. In Nicholas Peterson, Lindy Allen, and Louise Hamby, The Makers and Making of Indigenous Australian Museum Collections. Melbourne: Museum Victoria.

2008 Domingo Sanz, Ines, Danae Fiore, and Sally K. May, ‘Archaeologies of Art: Time, Place, and Identity in Rock Art, Portable Art, and Body Art’ in Ines Domingo Sanz, Danae Fiore, and Sally K. May (eds) Archaeologies of Art: time, place and identity. Walnut Creek: Left Coast Press.

2008 ‘Learning Art, Learning Culture: Art, Education, and the Formation of New Artistic Identities in Arnhem Land, Australia’ in Ines Domingo Sanz, Danae Fiore, and Sally K. May (eds) Archaeologies of Art: time, place and identity. Walnut Creek: Left Coast Press.

2008 Domingo Sanz, Ines and Sally K May, 'La pintura y su simbología en las comunidades de cazadores-recolectores de la Tierra de Arnhem (Territorio del Norte, Australia)'. En Salazar, J.; Domingo, I.; Azkárraga, J. y Bonet, H. Mundos tribales: una visión etnoarqueológica. Valencia, Servicio de Publicaciones de la Diputación de Valencia.

2005 May, Sally K. with Donald Gumurdul, Jacob Manakgu, Gabriel Maralngurra and Wilfred Nawirridj. 2005. 'You Write it Down and Bring it Back… That's What We Want" - Revisiting the 1948 Removal of Human Remains from Gunbalanya (Oenpelli), Australia', in Smith, Claire & Wobst, H. Martin (eds). Indigenous Peoples and Archaeology. London: Routledge.

2005 ‘Collecting the ‘Last Frontier’’, in Hamby, Louise (ed). Twined Together. Melbourne: Museum Victoria.

2005 ‘Injalak Arts and Crafts: A Brief History’, in Hamby, Louise (ed). Twined Together. Melbourne: Museum Victoria.

2005 May, Sally K, Anthony Murphy, Murray Garde, with Thompson Yulidjirri, Bruce Nabegeyo, Garnbaladj Nabegeyo, and Jill Nganjmirra. 2005. ‘Some Baskets are Special Ones’ in Hamby, Louise (ed). Twined Together. Melbourne: Museum Victoria.

Journal articles

2010 In press, Taçon, P.S.C., G. Li, D. Yang, S.K. May, H. Liu, M. Aubert, X. Ji, D. Curnoe, D. & A.I.R. Herries. In press. Naturalism, nature and questions of style in Jinsha River rock art, northwest Yunnan, China. Cambridge Archaeological Journal. Accepted June 2009 for publication in February 2010.

2010

In Press. May, Sally K. and Ines Domingo Sanz. Socio-cultural activities in western Arnhem Land rock paintings: making sense of scenes through context, Rock Art Research, accepted September 2009 for publication 2010.

Teaching:

Sally is lecturer as well as convenor of the Cultural and Environmental Heritage graduate program for the the Research School of Humanities. She supervises graduate students in areas relating to cultural heritage. In 2009 Sally will teach:

● HUMN8003 Cultural and Environmental Heritage: key concepts and practices

● HUMN8005 Cultural Landscapes

● ARCH3306 Rock Art Field School

● HUMN8010 Material Culture Studies

● HUMN8007 Cultural and Environmental Heritage Research Project

Conferences:

2008 Taçon, P.S.C., Ji Xueping, Darren Curnoe, Yang Decong, Andy Herries, Li Gang, Scott Mooney, Maxime Aubert and Sally K. May, ‘The Late Pleistocene Peopling of East Asia and Associated Climate-Environment History: Preliminary results of a new field project in Yunnan Province, SW China’, Australian Archaeological Association conference, Noosa, Australia.

2008 Guse, Daryl, Sally K. May, Paul S.C. Tacon, and Ronald Lamilami, ‘Exploring relationships between Indigenous Australian communities and visitors to the north Australia coastline through painted depictions on rock’, Australian Archaeological Association conference, Noosa, Australia.

2008 May, Sally K., Wilfred Nawirridj, and Daryl Guse, ‘Seasonality in Australian Rock Art’, World Archaeological Congress 6, Dublin, Ireland.

2008 Taçon, Paul S.C., Sally K. May, Alistair Paterson, and June Ross, ‘Picturing change and changing pictures: 21st Century perspectives on the contact period rock art of Australia’, World Archaeological Congress 6, Dublin, Ireland.

2007 May, Sally K., Jennifer McKinnon and Jason Raupp, ‘Boats on Bark’, New Ground Australian Archaeological Association Conference. University of Sydney, Sydney.

2006 ‘Charles Pearcy Mountford and the Art of Collecting’, The Makers and Making of Indigenous Australian Museum Collections. Museum Victoria, Melbourne.

2005 ‘Revisiting the Removal of the Kunbarlanja (Oenpelli) human remains 1948 – 2005’, The uses and abuses of archaeology for Indigenous peoples (a World Archaeological Congress intercongress), Auckland, New Zealand.

2004 ‘South Australia’s ‘Floating Coffin’: the diseased, the destitute, and the derelict Fitzjames (1852-c.1900)’, Centre for Cross-Cultural Research Seminar Series, Canberra.

2003 May, Sally K. and Nathan Richards, ‘South Australia’s ‘Floating Coffin’: the diseased, the destitute, and the derelict Fitzjames (1852-c.1900)’, Australian Institute of Maritime Archaeology (AIMA) and Australian Society for Historical Archaeology (ASHA) Conference, Norfolk Island.

2003 ‘Collecting Australia’s Last Frontier: Myth, Politics and American-Australian Scientific Collaboration After 1945’, World Archaeological Congress 5, Washington D.C., USA.

2003 May, Sally K., Gumurdul, Donald & Maralngurra, Gabriel, ‘Revisiting the Removal of the Oenpelli Skeletal Remains’, World Archaeological Congress 5, Washington D.C., USA.

2002 ‘Preserving the Last Frontier? Collections from the 1948 American-Australian Scientific Expedition’, Strehlow Conference, Alice Springs, Australia.

2002 ‘The Roles of Indigenous Art within the Distinctive, Multicultural Environment of Gunbalanya, Northern Australia’, Centre for Cross-Cultural Research Graduate Conference, Canberra, Australia.

2001 ‘Portable Art: a preliminary look at collections and contemporary creations from western Arnhem Land’, Australian Archaeological Association Conference, Hervey Bay, Australia.

2000 ‘Colonial Collection and Recording Strategies’, Australian Rock Art Research Association Conference, Alice Springs, Australia.

2000 May, Sally K, Ouzman, Sven, and Smith, Claire, ‘Decolonising Archaeology in the Public Domain’, Australian Rock Art Research Association Conference, Alice Springs, Australia.

2000 ‘Collecting Cultures’, National Archaeology Students’ Conference, Flinders University of South Australia, Adelaide.

1999 ‘A History of the American-Australian Scientific Expedition Collections’, National Archaeology Students’ Conference, Australian National University, Canberra.

Professional societies:

Member of the Australian Archaeological Association

Member of the American Anthropological Association

Member of the Australian Rock Art Research Association

Member of the World Archaeological Congress