Conversations and material memories : insights into household practices at the Old Kinchega Homestead

Since 1996, the Kinchega Archaeological Research Project (KARP) has been conducting a household archaeology project at the late-19th- to mid-20th-century Old Kinchega Homestead in outback New South Wales, Australia. The research is driven by investigations of the homestead’s material remains, but interactions with the local community are providing oral and documentary evidence that play a significant role, both as a contextual framework and in steering the project’s research agenda. This article discusses how different people, and different types of interactions and processes involved in gathering personal histories throughout the project, are impacting the interpretative procedures used for investigating household consumption practices at Old Kinchega Homestead.