Alistair Paterson and Jeremy Green

Alistair Paterson grew up in northern Tasmania on the lands of the Palawa people, as part of Australia’s western European migrant diaspora, and has lived in Perth since 1999 where he is Professor of Archaeology at the University of Western Australia.  He believes that archaeology is one way we can make sense of who we are and how we got here, and that heritage helps to positively shape our world. Alistair’s research has focussed on revealing the evidence from the last few hundred years which saw Australia and Aboriginal societies radically transformed as a result of European settlement. His work around Australia has been greatly enriched by working with different Aboriginal communities. Alistair is committed to the roles that universities and other cultural institutions in making the world more understandable. He is currently an ARC Future Fellow and lead investigator on several ARC projects: (1) Collecting the West: Reimagining Western Australia from its collections; (2) Coastal Connections: dynamic societies of Australia’s Northwest frontier and (3) Shipwrecks of the Roaring Forties: A Maritime Archaeological Reassessment of some of Australia’s Earliest Shipwrecks.


Jeremy Green started work in maritime archaeology at the Research Laboratory for Archaeology, Oxford in 1966, and was invited in 1971 to set up the Department of Maritime Archaeology at the Western Australian Museum. He has worked in China, Thailand, Korea, Japan, Cyprus, Turkey, the Philippines, Malaysia, Maldives, Kenya, Oman and Indonesia. In the 1970s he led the underwater archaeological excavations of shipwrecks in Australia and was foundation President of the Australian Institute for Maritime Archaeology. In 1996, he was appointed head of the Australian National Centre of Excellence for Maritime Archaeology. In 1992 started the Galle Harbour project in conjunction with the Department of Archaeology and the PGIAR and is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, and was awarded the Rhys Jones Medal, the highest award offered by the Australian Archaeological Association as well as an honorary Doctor of Letters by University of Western Australia. Jeremy hopes to be involved in the “Great Game” for many more years to come.