Tracy Ireland

Current position

Professor of Cultural Heritage, Director, Centre for Creative and Cultural Research, University of Canberra

Where did you study?

University of Sydney

How did you become interested in archaeology?

I became interested in archaeology as a child given free range of the local library in Lismore, where I grew up. I think I started with Greek, Roman and Norse mythology and quickly moved to highly dubious romantic, gothic and historical fiction. Victoria Holt's Shivering Sands made a deep impression...and I modelled myself on the character of a 19th century, eccentric young woman archaeologist called Roma who wore chunks of amber as beads and bracelets of clattering metal antiquities. When I arrived at Sydney Uni, fresh off the train from Lismore, and had my first lecture with Judy Birmingham (who used to wear startling Indian jewellery) I knew I had found my people!

What archaeological projects are you working on at the moment?

I am working with a fantastic team on my contemporary archaeology project Heritage of the Air.

Tell us about one of your most interesting archaeological discoveries.

I have had moments of great empathy, rather than great discoveries, and perhaps the first was excavating a young bronze age woman's burial in Bahrain. I encountered the tiny bones of her foetus lying across her pelvis, she had died in child birth.

Tell us about a funny / disastrous / amazing experience that you have had while doing archaeology.

I had a galvanising encounter with the gorgeous Keanu Reeves in 1998 when excavating Busby's Bore on the old Sydney Showground site - he was filming the Matrix. He was very interested in the stratigraphy...

What’s your favourite part of being an archaeologist?

Apart from meeting film stars, its definitely the collaboration and interaction with wonderful scholars, students and local communities.

Follow up reading.

My current project Heritage of the Air  https://heritageoftheair.org.au/
Recent papers include Situating (in)significance, Affective Aprons and Last Drinks at the Hibernian.