Professor Michael Westaway
Professor
School of Social Science
+61 7 336 54483
Researcher biography
I am an Australian Research Council Future Fellow working in the field of bioarchaeology in Australia and New Guinea.
Book Chapters
Kerkhove, Ray C., Silcock, Jennifer L., Williams, Douglas, Kotarba-Morley, Ania, Keenan-Jones, Duncan, Wright, Nathan J., Morley, Mike W., Gorringe, Joshua, Scholz, Glen, Lowe, Kelsey M., Cemre Üstünkaya, M., Stephens, Samantha, Moss, Patrick T. and Westaway, Michael C. (2024). Fish Traps, Seed-Grinding and Food Stores : Reconstructing Complex Mithaka Indigenous Economic and Water Management Technologies. The Oxford Handbook of Global Indigenous Archaeologies. (pp. 1-69) Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780197607695.013.60
Kariwiga, Jason, Wrobel, Gabriel and Westaway, Michael C. (2024). Papuan pasts: the origins of Papuan human remains collections in the world's museums, the issue of repatriation, and telling new stories with skeletal data. The Routledge handbook of museums, heritage, and death. (pp. 177-190) edited by Trish Biers and Katie Stringer Clary. London, United Kingdom: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781003195870-17
Wright, Martin, Faulkner, Patrick and Westaway, Michael (2023). Evaluating mid-to late Holocene economic intensification through analysis of a mollusk assemblage on the tropical North Australian coast. Human behavioral ecology and coastal environments. (pp. 199-228) edited by Heather B. Thakar and Carola Flores Fernandez. Gainesville, FL, United States: University Press Florida. doi: 10.5744/florida/9780813069586.003.0009
Westaway, Michael C., Durband, Arthur and Lambert, David (2015). Human evolution in Sunda and Sahul and the continuing contributions of Professor Colin Groves. Taxonomic tapestries: the threads of evolutionary, behavioural and conservation research. (pp. 249-276) edited by Alison M. Behie and Marc F. Oxenham. Acton, ACT, Australia: ANU Press.
Westaway, Michael C. and Lambert, David (2014). First Australians: Origins. Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology. (pp. 2787-2800) New York, NY United States: Springer New York. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4419-0465-2_667
Durband, Arthur C. and Westaway, Michael C. (2013). Perspectives on the Origins of Modern Australians. The Origins of Modern Humans: Biology Reconsidered. (pp. 123-150) edited by Smith, F. H. and Ahern, J. C. M.. Chichester, West Sussex, United Kingdom: John Wiley & Sons.
Journal Articles
Westaway, Michael C., Wright, Nathan, Crowther, Alison, Silcock, Jennifer, Carter, Rodney, Moss, Patrick and Henry, Robert (2023). Transdisciplinary approaches to understanding past Australian Aboriginal foodways. Archaeology of Food and Foodways, 2 (1), 47-74. doi: 10.1558/aff.18161
Adams, Shaun, Collard, Mark, McGahan, David, Martin, Richard, Phillips, Susan and Westaway, Michael C. (2023). The impact of contact: isotope geochemistry sheds light on the lives of Indigenous Australians living on the colonial frontier in late 19th century Queensland. Archaeologies, 19 (2), 299-341. doi: 10.1007/s11759-023-09469-2
Westaway, Michael C. (2023). The dawn of everything: a new history of humanity. Archaeology in Oceania, 58 (1), 132-134. doi: 10.1002/arco.5288
Lowe, Kelsey M., Williams, Doug, Wright, Nathan, Gorringe, Shawnee, Gorringe, Josh, Andrews, Ian, Ustunkaya, Meltem Cemre, Gorringe, Betty and Westaway, Michael C. (2023). Ula Thirra: a case study in the geomagnetic detection of combustion features in Channel Country of far south-western Queensland. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, 15 (3) 30, 1-17. doi: 10.1007/s12520-023-01722-7
Westaway, Michael C. (2023). Connections across the Coral Sea. Antiquity, 97 (394), 1-7. doi: 10.15184/aqy.2023.83
Martin, Sarah, Chanson, Hubert, Bates, Badger, Keenan‐Jones, Duncan and Westaway, Michael C. (2022). Indigenous fish traps and fish weirs on the Darling (Baaka) River, south‐eastern Australia, and their influence on the ecology and morphology of the river and floodplains. Archaeology in Oceania, 58 (1), 91-114. doi: 10.1002/arco.5279
Prideaux, Gavin J., Kerr, Isaac A. R., van Zoelen, Jacob D., Grün, Rainer, van der Kaars, Sander, Oertle, Annette, Douka, Katerina, Grono, Elle, Barron, Aleese, Mountain, Mary-Jane, Westaway, Michael C. and Denham, Tim (2022). Re-evaluating the evidence for late-surviving megafauna at Nombe rockshelter in the New Guinea highlands. Archaeology in Oceania, 57 (3), 223-248. doi: 10.1002/arco.5274
Franklin, Natalie R., Giorgi, Marisa, Habgood, Phillip J., Wright, Nathan, Gorringe, Josh, Gorringe, Betty, Gorringe, Brett and Westaway, Michael C. (2021). Gilparrka Almira, a rock art site in Mithaka Country, southwest Queensland: cultural connections, dreaming tracks and trade routes. Archaeology in Oceania, 56 (3), 284-303. doi: 10.1002/arco.5244
Adams, Shaun, Westaway, Michael C., McGahan, David, Williams, Doug, Zhao, Jian-Xin, Feng, Yuexing, Nguyen, Ai, Pearce, John, Flinders, Clarence and Collard, Mark (2021). Isotopic analyses of prehistoric human remains from the Flinders Group, Queensland, Australia, support an association between burial practices and status. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, 13 (7) 121. doi: 10.1007/s12520-021-01376-3
Webb-Gannon, Camellia, Westaway, Michael, Swift, Jaime, Wright, Nathan and Adams, Richard (2021). What can Australia do to prevent human rights abuses in West Papua?. Asia-Pasific Journal: Japan Focus, 19 (10) 5601, 1-15.
Wasef, Sally, Wrobel, Gabriel, Wright, Nathan, Wright, Joanne L., Adams, Shaun, Kariwiga, Jason, Leavesley, Matthew, Collard, Mark and Westaway, Michael C. (2021). A contextualised review of genomic evidence for gene flow events between Papuans and Indigenous Australians in Cape York, Queensland. Quaternary International, 603, 1-9. doi: 10.1016/j.quaint.2021.02.011
Westaway, Michael C., Williams, Douglas, Lowe, Kelsey, Wright, Nathan J., Kerkhove, Ray, Silcock, Jennifer, Gorringe, Joshua, Miszkiewicz, Justina, Wood, Rachel, Adams, Richard, Manne, Tiina, Adams, Shaun, Miscamble, Tony, Stout, Justin, Wrobel, Gabriel D., Kemp, Justine, Hendry, Brooke, Gorringe, Max, Gorringe, Betty, Lander, Keiron, Gorringe, Shawnee, Andrews, Ian and Collard, Mark (2021). Hidden in plain sight: the archaeological landscape of Mithaka Country, south-west Queensland. Antiquity, 95 (382) PII S0003598X21000314, 1-18. doi: 10.15184/aqy.2021.31
Adams, Shaun, Collard, Mark, Williams, Doug, Flinders, Clarence, Wasef, Sally and Westaway, Michael C. (2020). A Community Bioarchaeology Project in the Flinders Group, Queensland, Australia. Archaeologies, 16 (3), 436-459. doi: 10.1007/s11759-020-09411-w
Wasef, Sally, Wright, Joanne L., Adams, Shaun, Westaway, Michael C., Flinders, Clarence, Willerslev, Eske and Lambert, David (2020). Insights Into Aboriginal Australian Mortuary Practices: Perspectives From Ancient DNA. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 8 217. doi: 10.3389/fevo.2020.00217
Rizal, Yan, Westaway, Kira E., Zaim, Yahdi, van den Bergh, Gerrit D., Bettis, E. Arthur, Morwood, Michael J., Huffman, O. Frank, Grün, Rainer, Joannes-Boyau, Renaud, Bailey, Richard M., Sidarto,, Westaway, Michael C., Kurniawan, Iwan, Moore, Mark W., Storey, Michael, Aziz, Fachroel, Suminto,, Zhao, Jian-xin, Aswan, Sipola, Maija E., Larick, Roy, Zonneveld, John-Paul, Scott, Robert, Putt, Shelby and Ciochon, Russell L. (2020). Last appearance of Homo erectus at Ngandong, Java, 117,000–108,000 years ago. Nature, 577 (7790), 381-385. doi: 10.1038/s41586-019-1863-2
Collard, Mark, Wasef, Sally, Adams, Shaun, Wright, Kirsty, Mitchell, R. John, Wright, Joanne L., Wrobel, Gabriel, Nagle, Nano, Miller, Adrian, Wood, Rachel, Pietsch, Timothy J., Van Holst Pellekaan, Sheila, Flinders, Clarence and Westaway, Michael C. (2019). Giving it a burl: towards the integration of genetics, isotope chemistry, and osteoarchaeology in Cape York, Tropical North Queensland, Australia. World Archaeology, 51 (4), 602-619. doi: 10.1080/00438243.2019.1686418
Westaway, Michael C. (2019). The first hominin fleet. Nature Ecology and Evolution, 3 (7), 999-1000. doi: 10.1038/s41559-019-0928-9
Adams, Shaun, Grün, Rainer, McGahan, David, Zhao, Jian-Xin, Feng, Yuexing, Nguyen, Ai, Willmes, Malte, Quaresimin, Michael, Lobsey, Brett, Collard, Mark and Westaway, Michael C. (2019). A strontium isoscape of north-east Australia for human provenance and repatriation. Geoarchaeology, 34 (3), 231-251. doi: 10.1002/gea.21728
Westaway, Michael C., Price, Gilbert, Miscamble, Tony, McDonald, Jane, Cramb, Jonathon, Ringma, Jeremy, Grün, Rainer, Jones, Darryl and Collard, Mark (2019). A palaeontological perspective on the proposal to reintroduce Tasmanian devils to mainland Australia to suppress invasive predators. Biological Conservation, 232, 187-193. doi: 10.1016/j.biocon.2019.02.002
Wright, Joanne L., Wasef, Sally, Heupink, Tim H., Westaway, Michael C., Rasmussen, Simon, Pardoe, Colin, Fourmile, Gudju Gudju, Young, Michael, Johnson, Trish, Slade, Joan, Kennedy, Roy, Winch, Patsy, Pappin, Mary, Wales, Tapij, Bates, William Badger, Hamilton, Sharnie, Whyman, Neville, Pellekaan, Sheila van Holst, McAllister, Peter J., Tacon, Paul S. C., Curnoe, Darren, Li, Ruiqiang, Millar, Craig, Subramanian, Sankar, Willerslev, Eske, Malaspinas, Anna-Sapfo, Sikora, Martin and Lambert, David M. (2018). Ancient nuclear genomes enable repatriation of Indigenous human remains. Science Advances, 4 (12), eaau5064. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aau5064
Price, Gilbert J., Louys, Julien, Faith, J. Tyler, Lorenzen, Eline and Westaway, Michael C. (2018). Big data little help in megafauna mysteries. Nature, 558 (7708), 23-25. doi: 10.1038/d41586-018-05330-7
Jagoda, Evelyn, Lawson, Daniel J., Wall, Jeffrey D., Lambert, David, Muller, Craig, Westaway, Michael, Leavesley, Matthew, Capellini, Terence D., Lahr, Marta Mirazon, Gerbault, Pascale, Thomas, Mark G., Migliano, Andrea Bamberg, Willerslev, Eske, Metspalu, Mait and Pagani, Luca (2018). Disentangling immediate adaptive introgression from selection on standing introgressed variation in humans. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 35 (3), 623-630. doi: 10.1093/molbev/msx314
Adams, Shaun, Martin, Richard, Phillips, Susan, Macgregor, Colin and Westaway, Michael (2018). Truth-telling in the wake of European contact: historical investigation of Aboriginal skeletal remains from Normanton. Archaeologies, 14 (3), 412-442. doi: 10.1007/s11759-018-9354-x
Westaway, Michael C., Olley, Jon and Grun, Rainer (2017). At least 17,000 years of coexistence: Modern humans and megafauna at the Willandra Lakes, South-Eastern Australia. Quaternary Science Reviews, 157, 206-211. doi: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2016.11.031
Malaspinas, Anna-Sapfo, Westaway, Michael C., Muller, Craig, Sousa, Vitor C., Lao, Oscar, Alves, Isabel, Bergström, Anders, Athanasiadis, Georgios, Cheng, Jade Y., Crawford, Jacob E., Heupink, Tim H. and Willerslev, Eske (2016). A genomic history of Aboriginal Australia. Nature, 539 (7624), 207-214. doi: 10.1038/nature18299
Westaway, Michael, Williams, Douglas, Wright, Richard, Wood, Rachel, Olley, Jon, Swift, Jaime, Martin, Sarah, Kemp, Justine, Rolton, Shane and Bates, William (2016). The death of Kaakutja: a case of peri-mortem weapon trauma in an Aboriginal man from north-western New South Wales, Australia. Antiquity, 90 (353), 1318-1333. doi: 10.15184/aqy.2016.173
Westaway, Michael Carrington and Lyman, R. Lee (2016). The need to overcome risks associated with combining inadequate paleozoological records and conservation biology. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 113 (33), E4757-E4758. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1609950113
Heupink, Tim H., Subramanian, Sankar, Wright, Joanne L., Endicott, Phillip, Westaway, Michael Carrington, Huynen, Leon, Parson, Walther, Millar, Craig D., Willerslev, Eske and Lambert, David M. (2016). Ancient mtDNA sequences from the First Australians revisited. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 113 (25), 6892-6897. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1521066113
Swift, Jaime, Cupper, Matthew L., Greig, Alan, Westaway, Michael C., Carter, Chris, Santoro, Calogero M., Wood, Rachel, Jacobsen, Geraldine E. and Bertuch, Fiona (2015). Skeletal arsenic of the pre-Columbian population of Caleta Vitor, northern Chile. Journal of Archaeological Science, 58, 31-45. doi: 10.1016/j.jas.2015.03.024
Westaway, Michael Carrington, Durband, Arthur C., Groves, Colin P. and Collard, Mark (2015). Mandibular evidence supports Homo floresiensis as a distinct species. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 112 (7), E604-E605. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1418997112
Seguin-Orlando, Andaine, Korneliussen, Thorfinn S., Sikora, Martin, Malaspinas, Anna-Sapfo, Manica, Andrea, Moltke, Ida, Albrechtsen, Anders, Ko, Amy, Margaryan, Ashot, Moiseyev, Vyacheslav, Goebel, Ted, Westaway, Michael, Lambert, David, Khartanovich, Valeri, Wall, Jeffrey D., Nigst, Philip R., Foley, Robert A., Lahr, Marta Mirazon, Nielsen, Rasmus, Orlando, Ludovic and Willerslev, Eske (2014). Genomic structure in Europeans dating back at least 36,200 years. Science, 346 (6213), 1113-1118. doi: 10.1126/science.aaa0114
Westaway, Michael C., Cupper, Matthew L., Johnston, Harvey and Graham, Ian (2013). The Willandra Fossil Trackway: Assessment of ground penetrating radar survey results and additional OSL dating at a unique Australian site. Australian Archaeology (76), 84-89.
Roberts, Amy, Pate, F. Donald, Petruzzelli, Bianca, Carter, Chris, Westaway, Michael C., Santoro, Calogero M., Swift, Jaime, Maddern, Todd, Jacobsen, Geraldine E., Bertuch, Fiona and Rothhammer, Francisco (2013). Retention of hunter-gatherer economies among maritime foragers from Caleta Vitor, northern Chile, during the late Holocene: evidence from stable carbon and nitrogen isotopic analysis of skeletal remains. Journal of Archaeological Science, 40 (5), 2360-2372. doi: 10.1016/j.jas.2013.01.009
Carlson, Kristian J., Jashashvili, Tea, Houghton, Kimberley, Westaway, Michael C. and Patel, Biren A. (2013). Joint Loads in Marsupial Ankles Reflect Habitual Bipedalism versus Quadrupedalism. PLoS ONE, 8 (3), e58811. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0058811
Durband, Arthur C., Westaway, Michael C. and Rayner, Daniel R. T. (2012). Interproximal grooving of lower second molars in WLH 4. Australian Archaeology, 75 (75), 118-120. doi: 10.1080/03122417.2012.11681955
Westaway, Michael C. (2012). Sydney B.J. Skertchly and the early history of Pleistocene archaeology at the Queensland Museum. Bulletin of the History of Archaeology, 22 (1), 14-18. doi: 10.5334/bha.22114
Westaway, Michael C., Thompson, Jessica C., Wood, Walter B. and Njau, Jackson (2011). Crocodile ecology and the taphonomy of early Australasian sites. Environmental Archaeology, 16 (2), 124-136. doi: 10.1179/174963111X13110803260930
Ginn, Geoff and Westaway, Michael (2010). Fortress Queensland 1942-45. Queensland Historical Atlas: Histories, Cultures, Landscapes
Edwards, Phillip C., Meadows, John, Sayej, Ghattas and Westaway, Michael (2004). From the PPNA to the PPNB : new views from the Southern Levant after excavations at Zahrat adh-Dhra' 2 in Jordan. Paléorient, 30 (2), 21-60. doi: 10.3406/paleo.2004.1010
Conference Papers
Habgood, Phillip J., Franklin, Natalie R., Wright, Nathan, Gorringe, Josh and Westaway, Michael C. (2024). The Gilparrka site complex, Mithaka Country, southwest Queensland, Australia. 2024 SEAMEO SPAFA International Conference on Southeast Asian Archaeology and Fine Arts (SPAFACON2024), Bangkok, Thailand, 10-14 June 2024. Bangkok, Thailand: SEAMEO SPAFA. doi: 10.26721/spafa.p663o83rkr-11
Hood Withey, Fletcher and Westaway, Michael C. (2023). Understanding Sedentism and Mobility in Mithaka Country Through the Application of Sr Isotopes. Australian Archaeological Association, Broadbeach, QLD Australia, 6-8 December 2023.
Kariwiga, Jason and Westaway, Michael C. (2023). Utilising Strontium Isotope Mapping to Reconstruct Prehistoric Human Mobility: A New Prehistory of Motupore, an Island on the South Papuan Coast, Papua New Guinea. Australian Archaeological Association, Broadbeach, QLD Australia, 6-8 December 2023.
Westaway, Michael C. (2023). Megasites and villages: rethinking the methodological approach to investigate Mithaka Country. Australian Archaeological Association, Gold Coast, QLD, Australia, 5 - 8 December 2023.
Westaway, Michael C. (2023). Rewilding in Partnership with Australian Aboriginal Communities. International Congress of Archaeozoology, Cairns, QLD Australia, 9-12 August 2023.
Lowe, Kelsey, Tom, Enid, Westaway, Michael C., Swift, Jaime and Lau, Annie (2023). Unearthed burial from rising sea levels: a collaborative community approach for tackling climate change in the Torres Strait Islands, Australia. Society of American Archaeologists, Portland, OR United States, 30 March - 1 April 2023.
Westaway, Michael C. (2022). Investigating the Multi-Regional Emergence of Social and Economic Complexity Across Diverse Australian Environments. Australian Archaeological Association, Darwin, NT Australia, 7-9 December 2022.
Westaway, Michael C. (2022). A multidisciplinary investigation of an Aboriginal 'Centre' of food production. Harlan Symposium, Brisbane, QLD Australia, 31 October - 2 November 2022.
Westaway, Michael (2022). New investigations of Aboriginal huts and village sites in Mithaka Country, Central Australia. World Archaeology Congress, Prague, Czech Republic, 3-8 July 2022.
Westaway, Michael (2022). Community bioarchaeology and its place in repatriation. World Archaeology Congress, Prague, Czech Republic, 3-8 July 2022.
Williams, Douglas, Mithaka Aboriginal Corporation and Westaway, Michael C. (2022). The lost mines of the Mithaka: Hunter-gatherer minig for trade and local use in Channel Country, Far South West Queensland. World Archaeology Congress, Prague, Czech Republic, 3-8 July 2022.
Pappin, Gary, Kelly, Jason, Williams, Doug and Westaway, Michael (2022). The Vermillion Accord and the Willandra Lakes World Heritage Ancestral Remains collection: A tragedy in three acts. World Archaeology Congress, Prague, Czech Republic, 3-8 July 2022.
Westaway, Michael C. (2019). Island South East Asia and its important role in Hominin speciation. European Society for Human Evolution, Liege, Belgium, 19-21 September 2019.
Westaway, Michael C. and Groves, Colin P. (2009). The mark of Ancient Java is on none of them. Conference on Legacy of an Ice Age, Mungo National Park, Australia, 6-9 September 2006 . Richmond, VIC, Australia: Wiley-Blackwell. doi: 10.1002/j.1834-4453.2009.tb00051.x
Moss, Patrick, McGowan, Hamish, Westaway, Michael, Petherick, Lynda and Daus, Tamara (2009). Late Quaternary environments of South East Queensland. 10th INTECOL 2009. Ecology in a Changing Climate: Two Hemispheres - One Globe. The 10th International Congress of Ecology, Brisbane, QLD, Australia, 16-21 August 2009.
Durband, Arthur C., Rayner, Daniel R. T. and Westaway, Michael (2009). A new test of the sex of the Lake Mungo 3 skeleton. Conference on Legacy of an Ice Age, Mungo National Park, Australia, 6-9 September 2006. Richmond, VIC, Australia: Wiley-Blackwell. doi: 10.1002/j.1834-4453.2009.tb00050.x
Westaway, M. and Burns, A. (2001). Investigation, documentation and repatriation of Aboriginal skeletal remains: Case studies from the Goolum Goolum Aboriginal Co-operative Community Boundary, Victoria, Australia. Conference on Human Remains - Conservation, Retrieval and Analysis, Williamsburg, VA United States, 7-11 November 1999. Oxford, United Kingdom: Archaeopress.
Newspaper Articles
Adams, Shaun, McGahan, David, Collard, Mark, Westaway, Michael and Martin, Richard (2023, 05 01). Isotope analysis helps tell the stories of Aboriginal people living under early colonial expansion The Conversation
Adams, Shaun, Westaway, Michael and Martin, Richard (2018, 12 13). Poor health in Aboriginal children after European colonisation revealed in their skeletal remains The Conversation