Do not feel constrained.

Article | Updated 5 years ago

"A woman is sifting through sand during an archaeological dig."
Caption: Dr Moya Smith at a dig site.
Image courtesy Dr Moya Smith

Dr Moya Smith - Head of Department, Anthropology & Archaeology

Caption: Dr Moya Smith at a dig site.
Image courtesy Dr Moya Smith 

As a child, what career path did you want to take?

I am probably going to sound like a nerd (not a nerdette), but from the time I was about eight years old I knew I wanted to be an archaeologist.

I don’t think my childhood plans were based on a very clear understanding of what archaeologists actually did – apart from digging.

I remember clearly the moment I explained that this was what I wanted to do to my parents.

On one of our many family picnics along the Clarence River Valley, with tall shading trees, rippling water, the axe grinding grooves that marked the sandstones exposed along creekbanks were such a seemingly simple memory of people who made them, I thought they were beautiful – I still do.

Is that where you ended up? If so why, or why not?

It is perhaps significant that the archaeologist leading the archaeological research in northern NSW when I made my career decision was a woman; it never occurred to me that being a girl was any impediment to what I wanted to do.

Ironically since my inspirations were people working on the archaeology of northern NSW Aboriginal cultures, my first degree was in Mediterranean rim archaeology.

“I am going to do archaeology” was a childhood mantra that I kept repeating – enrolling eventually in just that field – plus a smattering of useful ‘fall back’ subjects...perhaps I would teach if I didn’t get a job in archaeology.

I did in fact also do a Dip. Ed. still with that sense of “just in case”. And in fact I did teach, while I was doing my Dip. Ed., and interspersed by a year overseas digging.

I realised that a passion for subject matter did not necessarily make the best teacher. Sometimes it seemed that controlling unruly students was the main role of a teacher!

But a year working on excavations in the UK and Jordan taught me what should have been apparent from studying: that archaeology is more than fieldwork!

Do you have a female role model?

I don’t have only one role model.

There are many women who have inspired me: from the first archaeologist I met, Isabel McBryde, to my headmistress at high school, Freda Whitlam.

They taught legions of young women that they should not feel constrained by gender to pursue any goal they selected.

The women in my family, my female work colleagues, and the Nyoongar and Bardi women I have worked with, all continue to inspire me.

How has the workplace changed, if it all, in regards to the treatment and level of respect shown to women?

It is gratifying that workplaces generally, including the public service, have become more reflexive about equality, irrespective of gender.

When I first arrived in WA, some women were still being forced to resign once they married, or were refused financial loans because they were female and single.

Those glaring anomalies are thankfully gone. The pervading sense that one couldn’t comment on even superficially trivial issues of sexism has gone.

I would no longer expect to have people distinguish professions by inserting the descriptor female e.g. female archaeologist, female zoologist, female photographer, female brewer, etc.

What is one of your proudest work-related achievements?

I am most proud of exhibitions I have worked on, whether as lead curator or as a team member – and the two I am most proud of are Katta Djinoong – First Peoples of Western Australia (1999 – 2016) and Lustre: Pearling & Australia (2015 – currently touring).

Exhibitions may seem far removed from the interests of the descendants of people who made material and the physical realm of archaeological fieldwork and discovery, but they are a dramatic framework for engaging with the outcomes of conversations and research.

The processes of working with communities, creating narratives, selecting objects and images, exploring the stories of WA history, and watching designers work their magic to the moments of opening and beyond are intellectually and emotionally invigorating.

An academic colleague once commented: “More people have read your words in exhibitions, than have read my papers!” More than an ego boost, that comment is recognition of the significance of museums in conversations with the public.

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