Year of the voice: Third space archaeology for decolonised interdisciplinary collaboration

In 2023, a national referendum of Australian citizens was asked if they approved of an amendment to the Constitution to give the First Peoples of the continent a Voice. The referendum challenged doing things the same old way in Australia when it comes to policy and laws impacting First Peoples by asking all Australians to get used to their ways of knowing how to close the gap. The Commonwealth Government responded with a new implementation plan (Commonwealth of Australia 2023). For archaeology in Australia, this extends the philosophy of Voice representation in new ways for First Peoples in academia and practice. First Peoples’ ways of knowing (epistemology), being (ontology) and doing (axiology) the past, history, heritage, material culture, and present has reached its time in Australia. The achievements of the 1967 referendum are akin to the promise of the Voice in 2023 as a metaphor for the ways archaeologists can do relationships differently via a third space with, by, and for, First Peoples now and in the future.

Development of a third space

At a meta level, ‘third space’ in archaeology is an intellectual arena of debate to progress decolonisation of the discipline by engaging in new directions of thought and practice with, by, and for, First Peoples to empower their self-determination in archaeological research. Like Nakata’s (2007) ‘The Cultural Interface’ concept and Rigney’s (2006) ‘Indigenism’, it is a thought zone for challenging prevailing Western concepts, like reductionism on what constitutes research theory and method, by whom, and for what ends.

Reductionism is a method, which takes information from its original context and redefines and reconceptualises it according to Western theoretical frameworks. Third space in archaeology builds on advocacy for challenging universalism by recognising the harm done by centuries of Western research practices on Indigenous peoples and other minorities in the world (Smith 2021). Colonialism, as a lived experience of First Peoples in contemporary Australia, is the legacy of European imperialism vis-à-vis global invasion and colonial diaspora from the seventeenth century onwards (Denzin et al. 2008; Smith 2021). This history has led to research practices of ‘collecting’, studying, and theorising non-white peoples around the world for centuries. It is why Māori scholar Linda Tuhiwai Smith (2021:1) declares ‘research’ to be ‘probably one of the dirtiest words in the Indigenous world’s vocabulary’. In collaborations, Indigenous Voice and non-Indigenous scholars negotiate this history, negotiate contemporary colonialism, and negotiate what to investigate, why, by whom and for whom, how, where, and when.

The notion of a third space for negotiating relationships and innovative epistemologies that challenges perceptions of incommensurability between Indigenous knowledges and Western science (Moreton-Robinson and Walter 2006) is not new in Australian research (Nakata 2007). In archaeology, this concept responds to recent and topical debates over epistemological and ontological challenges (Porr and Bell 2012) that deter making paradigm transformations. But elsewhere in the world, innovative epistemological cutting-edge research is showing how to braid Indigenous knowledges and Western science in archaeology (Atalay 2014). In the Australian context, third space metaphors for decolonised interdisciplinary collaborative research with First Peoples come from Torres Strait Islander academic Martin Nakata’s the ‘Cultural Interface’ (2007:195–212); ‘Indigenous Data Sovereignty’ by Palawa academic Maggie Walter (Walter 2021); ‘Indigenous Standpoint Epistemologies’ and ‘Indigenous Sovereignties’ by Koori academic Dennis Foley (2003), and Quandamooka academic Aileen Moreton-Robinson (2007). Examples of theorising Australian Indigenous philosophies of knowing, being and doing in research include the work of Arabana academic Veronica Arbon (2008), Rak Mak Mak Marranunggu academic Linda Ford (2010) and Tyson Yunkaporta (2019). Each of these approaches can also be thought of as theoretical frameworks for Indigenising research. Australian archaeologists of colour also negotiate whiteness in the third space.

Voice

Voice as a metaphor for third space is a complex zone of thought in which Western science methods and the ways First Peoples prefer to do research orbit each other. The Voice facilitates debate on some of the current pressing intellectual challenges in the relationships between archaeologists and First Peoples in Australia (Pollard et al. 2021). This will directly address social justice issues (Smith et al. 2022). A crucial question of negotiation in third space research for archaeology is: whose method of evidence is truth and reality?

We know from experience that such spaces typify tension and problematics. For example, problem-solving negotiates the inheritance of knowledge systems and continuity; all manner of stereotype perceptions; all configurations of understandings, beliefs and assumptions that inform epistemologies of knowledge production about history, present and future; research methods; theory and theorising; and interpretation-making (Silliman 2008).

Voice engages and challenges longstanding, uncritically accepted, dominant and unproven narratives that dismiss Indigenous knowledges and ways of knowing science as irrelevant to Western scientific archaeology. Scientism, the discourse of defending Western epistemology as the only way to know reality (Wimsatt 2007), relies on a spectrum of claims lacking the rigour of persuasion it demands from Indigenous scholars and their allies to show how Indigenous knowledges are not pseudoscience (Pigluicci 2021). But scientism and science are not one and the same. Method—how we learn what we know is real—is not the prerogative of one and only one way of elucidating what is to be known. Reductionism does not prove unequivocally the supremacy of the Western scientific method above all other methods of knowledge-building practices. Voice third space archaeology can forge new philosophies and principles of critical thinking in archaeological epistemology in Australia.

Consolidate

The 30 years of progress in decolonising archaeology in Australia is directly linked to First Peoples’ activism and involvement (drawing a line in the sand from the 1970s), pivotal to forcing changes to practices and attitudes among archaeologists, new heritage policies, and collaborative partnerships (Langford 1983; McGowan 1990). Voice consolidates decolonisation in the relationship by enunciating First Peoples’ equality in theorising knowledge; new paradigmatic discourses; new pedagogies; new terminologies; languages; categorisations of taxonomy; dictionaries; definitions; conceptualisations; and methods and methodologies based on local First People’s ontologies. In the third space, the Voice and Western science method negotiate challenging epistemic injustices such as in the construction of sovereignty for example.

Emancipation is next level

To continue the trend, the augmentation here is the argument for First Peoples on their Country to conceive and direct the research in archaeology based on their worldviews and philosophies, as a priority and as a distinctive research method in each case. This can be thought of as emancipation, recognising that First Peoples have always had their own ways of knowing and knowledge-making. If empowered, they can lead research into their histories and cultures, past and present.

Reflections

The issue of discouraging the elevation of equality for First Peoples’ conceptualisations of histories, materials, and places is problematic for a range of reasons. Voice as third space in archaeology forges new paths of inquiry working in ways that acknowledge diverse cultural realities of knowledge-making. Third space is consolidated decolonisation. First Peoples’ ways of knowing in context-based conceptualisations—place, materiality, space and spatiality, temporality and time, colour, objects, creativity, imagery, presence, and absence—is progress, but not without challenges. The journal Australian Archaeology has recorded the involvement of First Peoples in archaeology since its earliest editions. Perhaps a future edition could consider different ways of knowing, being and doing archaeology with, by, and for First Peoples in Australia.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).