It is over 35 years since Langford (1983) called for archaeologists to recognise Aboriginal people's right to control their heritage. Although there have been enormous changes since then in the way Australian archaeologists engage with Traditional Owners in the practice of archaeology and cultural heritage management, several metanarratives that privilege Western knowledge constructs over Indigenous ways of knowing persist. Although such metanarratives continue to be challenged, pockets of entrenched resistance remain. This is seen most clearly in the divide between oral history/Indigenous narrative and science, often expressed as a disconnect between "myth" and "reality" (Ingold 2013; Porr and Matthews 2016). In this paper, I provide an introduction to the papers in this issue, set within a reflection on the challenges to metanarratives that are evolving as a result of the engagement between archaeologists and Indigenous owners of heritage. I emphasise our increasing recognition of the poly-vocality of "truth" and the validity of Indigenous interpretations of their archaeology and heritage.

中文翻译：

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具有挑战性的元叙事：过去活在当下

自兰福德 (1983) 呼吁考古学家承认原住民控制其遗产的权利以来，已经过去 35 年了。尽管此后澳大利亚考古学家在考古学和文化遗产管理实践中与传统所有者接触的方式发生了巨大变化，但一些将西方知识结构置于土著认识方式之上的元叙事仍然存在。尽管此类元叙事继续受到挑战，但根深蒂固的阻力仍然存在。这在口述历史/土著叙事与科学之间的鸿沟中表现得最为明显，通常表现为“神话”与“现实”之间的脱节（Ingold 2013；Porr 和 Matthews 2016）。在本文中，我对本期的论文进行了介绍，由于考古学家和遗产的土著所有者之间的接触，这些挑战正在演变，这反映了对元叙事的挑战。我强调我们越来越认识到“真相”的多重声音以及土著对其考古学和遗产的解释的有效性。