Heather Burke facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Heather Burke
FAHA
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| Born | 1966 (age 58–59) |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Alma mater | University of New England |
| Scientific career | |
| Institutions | Flinders University |
| Thesis | Investments of Meaning: An Archaeology of Style, Social Identity, Capitalism and Ideology in a Nineteenth Century Australian Town |
Heather Burke is an Australian archaeologist who studies history. She is a professor at Flinders University. She was born in 1966.
Contents
Early Life and School
Heather Burke went to Mount Cotton State School and Marymount College in Queensland. She studied archaeology at the University of New England. She earned her first degree in 1987 and her PhD in 1997. For her PhD, she studied how building styles in the city of Armidale, New South Wales showed ideas and beliefs between 1830 and 1930. Her research was later published as a book.
Family and Personal Life
Heather Burke was born in Brisbane in 1966. Her parents were Roma and Peter Burke. She is the youngest of four children. She has an older brother, Terry, and two older sisters, Lyndell and Robyn.
In an interview, Heather Burke shared a fun family tradition. Every Christmas, her family in North Queensland enjoys watching the Sharknado movies together.
Career in Archaeology
Heather Burke became interested in archaeology early in her life. After finishing her PhD, she worked as an archaeologist for different projects. She also taught for a short time at the University of New England. Later, she joined Flinders University, where she is now a professor.
From 2011 to 2015, she helped edit Australian Archaeology, a magazine about archaeology in Australia.
Professor Burke believes it's important to prepare archaeology students for jobs outside of universities. In 2004, she co-wrote The Archaeologist's Field Handbook with Claire Smith. This book is a guide for students learning how to do archaeology in the field. A new version was released in 2017. For their great teaching, Burke and Claire Smith won an award in 2004.
As an archaeologist, Professor Burke teaches classes in labs and lecture halls. She also helps students plan their own research projects. She spends a lot of time traveling to different parts of Australia. In the field, she searches for and records old objects and sites. She also digs up sites and talks to people about why certain places are important to them today.
In 2022, Professor Burke appeared in an SBS documentary called "The Australian Wars". She shared her knowledge about the frontier wars in early Australian history.
Research and Projects
Professor Burke's main research looks at how different cultures met and how colonialism affected Australia. She is a lead researcher on a project funded by the ARC. This project is called "Archaeology of the Native Mounted Police." It studies what life was like for the Queensland Native Mounted Police. It also looks at memories of this group from both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people.
She is also part of a team studying Indigenous food traditions in the Cape York Peninsula in Far North Queensland. In 2021, she was chosen as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities.
Professor Burke is working on several active research projects:
- "Slow" Digitisation, Community Heritage and the Objects of Martindale Hall (2020-2023): This project uses knowledge about Martindale Hall in South Australia and its historical objects. It explores how to better save and share community history and cultural collections using "slow digitisation" methods.
- Fugitive Traces: Reconstructing Yulluna Experiences of the Frontier (2021-2024): This project works with Indigenous people, archaeologists, and historians. It aims to create the first detailed history of an Aboriginal family's experiences during the frontier period. It uses stories from a well-known Aboriginal family connected to the Queensland Native Mounted Police.
- Aboriginal Rock Art and Cultural Heritage Management in Cape York Peninsula (2020-2025): This project documents the history of Aboriginal Australians through rock art in the Laura Sandstone Basin. It shows how people lived from their first settlement, through big environmental changes, to European arrival.
Selected Books
- H. Burke, M. Morrison and C. Smith (2017). The Archaeologist's Field Handbook. This is the second edition of the guide for field archaeology.
- H. Burke and C. Smith (2004). The Archaeologist's Field Handbook. This was the first edition of the guide.
- H. Burke (1999). Meaning and Ideology in Historical Archaeology: Style, Social Identity, and Capitalism in an Australian Town. This book came from her PhD research.
See also
