2019 ASHA Conference – Colonial Futures

The 2019 ASHA Conference will be held in Port Macquarie, on the NSW Mid North Coast, between Sunday 13 and Wednesday 16 October.LocationPort Macquarie, NSW Mid North CoastDatesSunday 13 to Wednesday 16 October 2019Conference Theme -Colonial FuturesHistorical archaeology in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific is intertwined with the colonial legacies of our countries. From the often coercive and entangled colonialism of the frontier, through to the subtle yet pervasive transfer and transformation of British material culture and technology across society, or the distinctive contribution of non-British migrants – Australasian historical archaeology deals with the physical remains of colonial pasts.Yet what is the future of these colonial pasts? What new stories can we tell about past lives and places? What new methods can we apply? How do we manage the physical remains of the past for the future? How can the archaeology of the colonial past be interpreted or presented to future audiences? How can we integrate colonial histories with Indigenous histories? What relevance does local archaeology have to our culturally-diverse contemporary societies? How can the archaeology of our colonial past inform broader contemporary debates?Port Macquarie, on the NSW mid-north coast, provides an ideal venue to discuss these issues – a former convict settlement and place of secondary punishment, it later became an important coastal river port, a family holiday destination, and growing regional centre.