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2024 -  Collectively Navigating Ocean Horizons

Conference Theme:

The vastness of the Pacific holds immense potential for sustainable development, scientific discovery, global well-being through connecting peoples and their origins through underwater cultural heritage. As we sail into uncharted waters, it is crucial that we unite our efforts to both bridge gaps (geographical and knowledge based) to chart a course toward a more informed and resilient ocean future and management of Underwater Cultural Heritage. Let us gather under the banner of “Navigating Ocean Horizons,” by committing to fostering collaboration, nurturing curiosity, and steering our collective efforts toward a healthier, more resilient ocean planet by exploring and understanding the wealth of our shared Underwater Cultural Heritage. Together, we can unlock the mysteries of the deep blue and ensure a legacy of collective stewardship for generations to come.

 A downloadable pdf of the full conference program can be found here.

Location:

New Zealand Maritime Museum, Auckland New Zealand, 26 & 27 September 2024.

Conference Paper Awards:

Paper best embodying the conference theme:
Rebecca Cox - "HMS Buffalo: A journey of collections, connections & community"

2023 -  Connected by Water

Conference Theme:

Joint Conference held with the International Council of Underwater Cultural Heritage

AIMA, which is partially funded through the AUCHP, has made significant progress in recent years by supporting scholars from regional, non-Western countries to attend the conference and share their research and perspectives. Attendees from these areas are often excluded by cost, timing inconvenience or seeming irrelevance to their research activities. The Conference Committee believes that it is particularly important to bring together specialists from across the region, and to work to break down barriers to attendance and participation. This Conference strives to be a platform for increasing the visibility of regional maritime research to the larger international community of specialists by promoting information exchange and shared management. In line with this principle, conference sponsors, the Australian Government Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW) and the AUCHP have committed to sponsoring several regional delegates’ attendance. The Conference Organising Committee particularly wishes to welcome delegates from Timor Leste, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Fiji.

A downloadable pdf of the full conference program can be found here.

Location:

National Film and Sound Archive, Canberra, 14 & 15 September 2023.


2022 - Decolonising Maritime Archaeology, Heritage and Museums in Australia

Conference Theme:

The conference will address inclusiveness in our field and the decolonising of our discipline. It will provide an opportunity to engage into dialogue around the meaning, approaches and lessons for ‘decolonising’ maritime archaeology, maritime history, maritime museums, and underwater cultural heritage. This Conference brought together attendees from all over the world to enable voices and perspectives that are not usually heard. In particular, it considered the ways that privilege and access affect how we approach our discipline and how we can move forward. It was also a platform for the exchange and dissemination of information about maritime archaeological projects from the greater Australasian region.

The 2022 AIMA conference was organised in cooperation with the Flinders University Maritime Archaeology Program and the Australian Association for Maritime History.

Location:

Flinders in the City, Adelaide, 21 -23 September 2022.


2021 -  Oceans of Heritage: The Next Decade

Conference Theme:

For many reasons, we are facing change: change in our climate, change in our oceans, and change in our everyday life in reaction to a global pandemic. However, we are also at the start of the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development 2021-2030 and its global focus on marine research. It was a perfect time to come together as a community, to embrace the scientific aspects of our research, to strengthen collaborations with other scientists, to empower social science research, and to bring attention to the often-overlooked role of heritage in the environment. The 2021 AIMA conference looked to the difficulties and opportunities that the next decade may bring across the full range of underwater cultural heritage in Australasia.

Details:

The 2021 AIMA conference was held in Townsville over the two days of 12th and 13th November. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic the conference was held as a hybrid event with both online and on-site attendance for audience and presenters alike.

Conference Paper Awards:

Best overall paper:
Katie Woo - "Middeningly Difficult: Methodological Advances in the Identification and Analysis of Submerged Midden Sites"
 
Best student paper:
Erika Gress - "Marine biodiversity thriving at the SS Yongala"
 
Paper best embodying the conference theme:
Cami Plum - "Shiver me timbers - microbes, pollutants and conserving our marine cultural heritage"
 
Honorable mention:
Emma Webb - "The feasibility of a La Perouse survivor craft wreck in Torres Strait"

2020 - No conference due to Covid-19