The invasion of the Australian continent by Europeans caused massive disruptions to Indigenous cultures and ways of life. The adoption of new raw materials, often for the production of “traditional” artifact forms, is one archaeological indicator of the changes wrought by “colonization.” Two camp sites associated with the Queensland Native Mounted Police (NMP), a punitive paramilitary government force that operated through the latter half of the nineteenth century in the northeastern part of the continent, contain abundant flaked glass artifacts. These were undoubtedly manufactured by the Aboriginal men who were employed as troopers in the NMP, and/or their wives and children. Produced using traditional stone working techniques applied to a novel raw material, these artifacts are a tangible demonstration of the messy entanglements experienced by people living and working in this particular — and in some ways unique — cross-cultural context. For the Aboriginal troopers stationed in alien landscapes, the easy accessibility of glass afforded a means by which they could maintain cultural practices and exert independence from their employers, unencumbered by traditional normative behaviors.

欧洲人对澳大利亚大陆的入侵对土著文化和生活方式造成了大规模破坏。采用新的原材料，通常用于生产“传统”的人工制品形式，是“殖民化”所带来的变化的考古指标之一。昆士兰土著骑警 (NMP) 是 19 世纪下半叶在该大陆东北部运作的惩罚性准军事政府部队，其中有两个营地包含丰富的碎玻璃制品。这些无疑是由在 NMP 中担任士兵的土著男子和/或他们的妻子和孩子制造的。采用传统石材加工技术生产的新型原材料，这些文物是生活和工作在这种特殊的——在某些方面是独特的——跨文化背景中的人们所经历的混乱纠缠的有形展示。对于驻扎在外星景观中的原住民士兵来说，玻璃的便利性为他们提供了一种手段，使他们可以保持文化习俗并独立于雇主，不受传统规范行为的影响。