I am an archaeologist who specialises in rock art, graffiti, heritage politics, Indigenous knowledge, intellectual property issues, landscape, creolisation & cross-cultural contact, monuments, origins, and understandings of time. In terms of intellectual arc, I studied for my BA and BA Honours at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa (1988-1992). I then worked as the Head of the Rock Art Department at National Museum in Bloemfontein (1994-2002) before reading for an MA and PhD at UC Berkeley in California (2002-2006; PhD conferred 2008). While studying there I also taught Ancient African History at San Quentin Prison outside San Francisco. I returned to South Africa as a Senior Lecturer at the University of Pretoria’s Department of Anthropology & Archaeology (2006-2011) before becoming Curator of Archaeology at Iziko South African Museum (2011-2013). On 1 July 2013 I joined the Centre for Rock Art Research + Management at the University of Western Australia as a Kimberley Rock Art Research Fellow and have been Discipline Chair of Archaeology (2016-2018) and have co-ordinated the Honours programme (2015-2018, 2022 Mentor). I currently co-ordinate the Archaeology Major (2015-2022) and am Director of Learning, Teaching + Student Matters for the School of Social Sciences (2020-present). I am a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. 

I have directed research in Australia, Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa, documenting over 2500 rock art sites and producing 234 site reports and conducting 7 excavations. I have produced >50 academic >100 other publications; established 6 rock art and heritage site museums; curated 8 exhibitions and trained 53 people.

2011-2013: Curator: Archaeology, Iziko South African Museum
2006-2011: Senior Lecturer, Department of Anthropology & Archaeology, University of Pretoria, South Africa
1994-2002: Head: Rock Art Department, National Museum, South Africa

* Kimberley Visions: Rock Art Style Provinces of North Australia. 2015-2019. ARC Linkage Project.

* Dating the Aboriginal rock art sequence of the Kimberley in north west Australia. ARC Linkage Project 170100155. * An Archaeology of Origins in Australia

* Rock Markings of the Kimberley

* Human - stone relationships

* An archaeology of prints and pathways

* An archaeology of graffiti and homelessness

* Pseudo-Archaeology

* Rock art dating and pigment analysis

* South-South knowledge encounters and responses to colonialism

Current

1. 2015-2020 - Kimberley Visions: Rock Art Style Provinces of North Australia. ARC Linkage Project 150100490.   $865,905 in direct funding.

2. 2017-2020 - Dating the Aboriginal rock art sequence of the Kimberley in north west Australia. ARC Linkage Project 170100155.  $880,000 in direct funding.

Past

51 awards including National Research Foundation (1995-2000, 2005, 2009, 2012-2015), Australian Museum Fellowship (1996 & 2000), Fulbright Amy Biehl Prize (2002); Wenner-Gren Foundation (2003, 2006, 2008), UC Berkeley (2002-2008)

I have taught >40 undergraduate and 5 postgraduate Units/Courses in Australia, South Africa and the United States of America; with primary curriculum development in 32 of these, usually in multi-cultural contexts. I have been Major and Honours Co-ordinator at the Universities of Pretoria (2006-2011) and Western Australia (2015-present). I have initiated a major infrastructure project - the UWA Archaeology, Forensic Anthropology and Rock Art Experimental Facility nad designed and delivered UWA’s first Archaeology Summer School in 2018.  I have won one Student (2018) and one Faculty (2017) teaching award.

Units taught at UWA

Great Discoveries in Global Archaeology (ARCY 1001)

Archaeology A, B + 14 C (ARCY1002) 

Colonisation & Contact (ARCY2002) 

Archaeology of Death (ARCY2004)

Archaeological Field Skills (ARCY3002)                                                                                               

Archaeological Laboratory Skills (ARCY3003) 

Indigenous Archaeology (ARCY3005) 

Archaeological Method & Theory (ARCY3008, with Ben Smith)   

Experimenting with Archaeology (ARCY3013, Summer School)  

Making History (HIST3001, with Nadia Rhook)  

Archaeological Professional Practice (ARCY4102)      

Archaeological Research Training (ARCY4104) 

The Business of Sustainable Heritage (HERI5103)

Honours Research Skills (SOCS4100, with Loretta Baldassar)