Community-focused research, considering sites susceptible to sea-level rise in the Torres Strait region, Kelsey M. Lowe

Join us for the final seminar presentations by Anthropocene Exhibition project contributors Kelsey M. Lowe & Benjamin Schoville.

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The Torres Strait Islands cover an area of 50,000 sq km and include 300 islands, with 17 islands as home to community settlements. Although this regional maritime culture includes seascapes rich in cosmological and spiritual meaning (intangible heritage), many sites (tangible heritage) that constitute an important component of cultural identity are under threat due to rising sea levels resulting from climate change.

Home to the Kuarareg people, Murulag Island was significantly impacted by this sea-level rise, including burial sites exposed through king tide activity. The impact of sea-level changes on burial sites and the destruction of cultural sites, affects First Nations groups globally. Kelsey will share collaborative community-focused research carried out by UQ archaeologists with Kaurareg people including salvage excavation and a ground-penetrating radar (GPR) surveys carried out as part of this study; GPR was used to locate other potential burials within the neighbouring dune of the burial. Coastal modelling of shoreline loss is also being undertaken. This study is the first time an archaeological investigation has commenced in a sensitive site region. The project collaborators hope this research will lead to an enhanced strategy for managing similar sites susceptible to sea-level rise in the Torres Strait region.

Kelsey Lowe is an archaeologist and researcher located in Brisbane. She has over 22 years' experience in field and laboratory-based archaeology, specialising in archaeological geophysics, geoarchaeology, remote sensing and geographic information systems (GIS). Her work has taken her to places in Queensland, New South Wales, Northern Territory, South Australia, Tasmania and Western Australia, and internationally on archaeological sites in Africa, the Caribbean, Europe, Indonesia, Myanmar, and North and South America. Currently, she works as a Principal Program Officer for the state government; however, she is also affiliated with the University of Queensland.