Forrest Foundation PhD Scholar
I am currently looking into human-animal interactions in Kimberley rock art and the effects animal had for the construction of social identity of Indigenous Australians.
I am also interested in the ways animal’s perceptions changed through time and how these are translated into artistic representations.
My research interests include Critical Animal Studies, Animals in Art, Indigenous Ontologies, Indigenous Studies, Decolonisation Theory, Ethology, Ethnography, Metaphysics, Animals in Literature, and Cosmological Perspectivism.
Selected Publications:
Motta, A.P., M. Porr, and P. Veth (forthcoming 2020). Recursivity in Kimberley rock art production, Western Australia. In C. Horn, G. Wollentz, A. Haug, and G. di Maida (Eds.) Memory and Landscapes – Approaches to the study of landscapes as places of memory. Oxford: Archaeopress.
2019. Motta, A.P. From top down under: new insights into the social significance of superimpositions in the rock art of Northern Kimberley, Australia. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 29(3): 479-495.