Gretchen Burgess

Freedom (a set of unusual skills)

Field technical assistant in mineral exploration before the advent of occupational health and safety was extremely challenging work. I brought with me good organisational skills but everything else was learned through experience. With long rosters (six weeks on, one week off) and small teams, living and working in remote areas throughout Australia required high levels of tolerance and the ability to communicate with a wide variety of people.

Operating in remote environments, living and working from a swag, cooking on fires and moving constantly across a magnificent landscape before the advent of satellite communications required exceptional levels of pre-planning and preparation.

 

Mining and Exploration

1988 – 1989    Technical and Further Education

                                Associate Diploma in Geoscience

 1989 – 2001    Mineral Exploration Field Technician

                                Gridding and surveying

                                Soil and rock sampling

                                Drilling (air, diamond and auger)

                                Light plane and helicopter surveys

                                Off road 4WD operation, recovery and maintenance

                                Remote logistics

 

Culture and respect (Listen Kungka)

1995                    Project managing a soil sampling program on Pitjantjatjara/Yankunytjatjara Lands.

This project was unique for the times as it included camping and working on Country with the Traditional Owners under their Lore. Here I met Mona, a stoic, gently proud and endlessly patient Yankunytjatjara woman who would completely change my world view and show me acceptance, teach me patience and respect in ways I had never known before. 

Over the next thirty years we would share our families and our lives, learning something of each other (Ngapartji Ngapartji). I would travel with Mona and her family on Country hunting, collecting and storytelling. In return, Mona would bring her children and grandchildren to my place, and we would visit the zoo, cinema and share Christmas. Our families became entwined.

                                In 1999 Mona encouraged me to apply for university.

 

Discipline (an academic education)

2000 – 2020  Academic Education

                                Bachelor of Social Work

                                Bachelor of Arts (Honours), double major in Archaeology and Anthropology

                                Masterclass in Native Title

                                Assisting in delivery of Forensic Archaeology Workshops

                                Cross Cultural exchange in Laos, including excavation

                                Cross Cultural exchange in Thailand, including excavation

 

My Honours Thesis (Wild and Undomesticated – Stories of the ‘Australian’ Camel) was a tribute to Mona, her life and the unconditional love she had for her family, friends and the world around her.

In the final days of completing my Thesis, Mona took a fatal turn, it was time for her to leave us. I went home to Coober Pedy to be with her and the family during her final days. Her passing was devastating and it took several years before I found my feet again.

 

Bringing it all together

(respecting what Mona had taught me and encouraged me to achieve)

I may not sit at the fire with Mona anymore, but she is there with me always. Whenever there is a question to be answered I hear her usual response, ‘it must be something’ which I learned take as, it was my responsibility to find out what that something was, explore it, and share it!

Field Archaeology

As I begin to share new relationships with the Traditional Owners of new Country’s I continue to pay my respects to the resilience and commitment Aboriginal and Torres Strait People give to their Cultural Heritage responsibilities and I am honoured to be a part of that wherever needed.

 2024 – 2026  Field Archaeology

Gugu Badhun Aboriginal Corporation (GBAC)

• Test Pitting
• Cultural heritage surveys (Windlabs)
• Cultural heritage surveys (Defence)
• Cultural heritage surveys (Mineral exploration companies)

 

Warrgamay Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation (WTOAC)

• Breach of Cultural Heritage Act (Council)
• Cultural heritage survey (Council)
• Cultural heritage survey (TMR)

 

Ngrragoodna Aboriginal Corporation (NAC)

• Cultural heritage survey (Defence)

 

Barunggam, Cobble Cobble, Jarowair, Western Wakka Wakka, and Yiman (BCJWY) at Chinchilla

• Cultural heritage surveys (QGC Pty Ltd)

 

Widi Aboriginal Corporation RNTBC at Hail Creek

• Curation (Glencore Australia)
• Cultural heritage survey (Glencore Australia)

Widi Aboriginal Corporation RNTBC at Eungella

• Cultural heritage survey (ETSI)
• Cultural heritage survey (Capricornia/Peabody)