Dr Mirani Litster

Mirani is an archaeologist with a regional focus on the tropical Indo-Pacific, including the Maldives, Timor-Leste, Indonesia, Australia, and Palau. Mirani specialises in archaeomalacology (the analysis of molluscan remains), and her research engages with First Nations and local communities to address questions concerning past globalisation(s), cultural interaction and the use of islands in the past. 

Mirani is the recipient of an ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (2026-2029). This project will apply innovative methods in archaeological science to investigate how cowrie shell money from the Maldives first developed and went on to sustain globe-spanning trade networks for millennia. She is also a Chief Investigator on the ARC Discovery Project Before Cook: Contact Negotiation and the Archaeology of the Tiwi Islands. This project seeks to reconcile divergent narratives of early cultural encounters between Tiwi Island Traditional Owners, Makassan trepangers, Dutch explorers, and other European visitors. In 2024, she co-led (with Wonu Veys) international collaborations with the Wereldmuseum (Leiden), the Anima Mundi Museum (Vatican City), and the Musée du quai Branly-Jacques Chirac (Paris). These partnerships prioritised Tiwi participation and collaboration. 

Prior to joining Flinders University, she held lecturing appointments at the University of Canberra (Discipline Lead: 2020-2021) in heritage studies and at the Nguma-bada Campus (Cairns) of James Cook University (2021-2024) in archaeology.