Jenna Walsh

PhD Candidate, archaeology. My doctoral thesis research explores technological trajectories in Australian Indigenous stone artefacts (Northern Territory), and connections to Country and place through stone materials. My Honours degree focused on beliefs and material culture in mortuary archaeology (in an Australian colonial context), comparative hominin anatomy, and human osteology. 

Current Student Officer for the Australian Archaeological Association.

I lecture and tutor in various areas such as cultural anthropology, ritual and human behaviour, the archaeology of 'death' (including physical anthropology), archaeological field methods, and experimental archaeology. Along with some of my colleagues, we introduced an Australian-first Experimental Archaeology unit to the undergraduate degree in 2022: we replicated a Neolithic-era firepit using Australian materials, and had students create clay artefacts to 'bake'. Our team was awarded a CHASS Innovation in Teaching Award for this approach to using hands-on methods and experimentation to deliver core theoretical and practical concepts to first-year archaeology students. Our new EA unit in 2025 explores material, cultural, and ritual elements of weaving, including Australian Indigenous perspectives (taught by an Adnyamathanha Elder), with a field unit demonstrating taphonomic processes and the formation of the archaeological record.

I deliver archaeology outreach workshops and open day events for Flinders University, encouraging young people and potential students to explore archaeology and cultural heritage as viable careers. Our next Archaeology Day is on May 23rd as part of National Archaeology Week. 

Side interests include dark history and haunted heritage, the archaeology of colonial Gaols and Asylums, and representations of gender and LGBTQIA+ people in the archaeological record. 

I am privileged to live and work on Traditional Kaurna Land, and study material culture from Marra Country in the Northern Territory.