Colin Pardoe

About the work

Colin likes to refer to himself as the token archaeologist at this year’s Biennial. In his words, this moves him up from being an NPC (non playable character) in the artworld. In recent years, Colin has spent time with colleagues on the Murray River where their shared interest in archaeology developed into a conservation project around their traditional villages, centred on productive water bodies. For the project, Colin and his mates use private, environmental and traditional water allocations to manage the area in a manner that mimics the annual variation in water levels on the Murray River floodplain. Their aim has been very local – keeping some of the small-bodied fish species alive, as well as breeding grounds for a variety of migratory waterbirds (cranes, herons, etc). One night Colin was ranting about taking control of Lake Burley Griffin and managing it the same way to keep some fish like Black Bream from going extinct. Colin explained that taking care of Lake Burley Griffin as a functioning ecology is paramount, not as a visual public amenity. The festival team wanted to know more about the Lake issues, and asked Colin to interpret his rant into a coherent public presentation.

 

About the artist

Colin Pardoe is a retired archaeologist. He has pursued archaeology in the Murray-Darling Basin, working with local friends and colleagues. Some of this archaeology is about the use of ground stone tools necessary for making a living on the Plains; some is attachment to land and significance of the evidence of traditional life. The most pressing is the use of this archaeology in the service of conservation.

He is a member of the Australian Archaeological Association, The Australian Association of Consulting Archaeologists, and the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander Studies. He has served as president of the first two and as a member of the Research Advisory Committee of the latter. Dr Pardoe was awarded life membership of the Australian Archaeological Association in 2007 and of AACA in 2011.