Kaurna Culture

In 2011 a burial was disturbed during work in Salisbury, a northern suburb of Adelaide, South Australia (SA). Subsequent archaeological excavation revealed a male human interment in a deep alluvial context with a number of unusual characteristics, including a bone point and several ‘binding’ hearths. A sample of femoral bone was submitted for AMS radiocarbon dating and bone collagen stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis. Dating determined that the burial was relatively recent (380±30 BP), contemporary with proposed shifts in the Kaurna’s
economic systems when ‘mound sites’ were inhabited, that is, over the past 1500 years. Stable isotope results indicated the individual consumed a distinct diet based on terrestrial foods, with an absence of marine protein. The location, mode and stratigraphic context of the burial, coupled with the stable isotope results, suggest this individual had a different diet to contemporary Kaurna men. The ethnographic record and knowledge provided by traditional owners suggested that his diet may have been connected to his status and position within Kaurna society as a ‘medicine man’ or ‘sorcerer’.

The Kaurna Native Title holders of the Adelaide region of South Australia have a rich heritage of mythology, oral and documented history, and an associated physical record of sacred sites, mound villages, cemeteries, and other heritage places. This cultural landscape includes the Edinburgh Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) Super Base and Defence Precinct (EDP), the site of World War II munitions factories, the postwar Woomera Rocket/Weapons Testing Range, Defence Science and Technology Group, and currently also the home base of the Air Warfare Centre, No. 92 Wing's AP-3C Orion and P-8A Poseidon surveillance aircraft, and other RAAF and Army units. Infrastructure development and modernisation at RAAF and the EDP involves frequent interactions with Kaurna heritage, cultural landscape and traditions. This paper describes some aspects of this relationship between the Kaurna people and one of Australia's major defence aviation facilities, which involves modernism and machines in aviation, as well as emphasising the living memories and Kaurna cultural heritage values of this special place. This case study illustrates the many links between intangible and tangible cultural values of place, as well as the multi-layering of diverse cultural values and how these can be mediated and shared for a specific place.