Robert Skelly

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Women loading pots on a Motu lakatoi trading vessel, in this photograph published in 1887. J. W. Lindt

Men traded wares – but women traded knowledge: what a new archaeological study tells us about PNG sea trade

Robert Skelly, Monash University; Barbara Etschmann, Monash University; Chris Urwin, Monash University; Joël Brugger, Monash University, and Teppsy Beni, University of Southern Queensland

Archaeologists once assumed that men were responsible for seafaring trade in Papua New Guinea. New research shows how women played a fundamental role.
A Motu trading ship with its characteristic crab claw shaped sails. Taken in the period 1903-1904. Trustees of The British Museum

Archaeology is unravelling new stories about Indigenous seagoing trade on Australia’s doorstep

Chris Urwin, Monash University; Alois Kuaso, Papua New Guinea National Museum and Art Gallery; Bruno David, Monash University; Henry Auri Arifeae, Papua New Guinea National Museum and Art Gallery, and Robert Skelly, Monash University

It has often been assumed that Australia was essentially isolated until 1788. But research into the seagoing trade on the south coast of Papua New Guinea suggests otherwise.

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