Anthropologist

Aimee Brweon

It may have been 1983, but it was an interest in the Stone Age that drew archeologist Stan Florek to Australia. Florek started studying archeology in his home country of Poland back in the early 1970s. He completed his Masters degree in archeology in 1976 and then worked on sites in Poland, Germany, France and what is  now the Czech Republic. During this time, the work of Aboriginal people in Australia came to his attention.

“In the 1960s and ’70s there were still quite a few Aboriginal people who were making stone tools in the traditional way. I’m not saying that they were prehistory but these people had retained the knowledge of making stone tools,” he says. He believed that by closely studying the way some indigenous communities were making their tools, he could gain insight into the traditions of people living during the Stone Age. The more time he spent studying the indigenous communities, the more he became interested in their lives and their history.

His love for archeology led him to volunteer at the Australian Museum and he soon became a staff member in the anthropology branch. The museum houses more than a million different ethnographic and archeological artefacts from Australia, the Pacific, Asia, Africa and America. The Australian indigenous collection is one of the largest in the world.

Florek, who has now been with the museum for 22 years, has to ensure its Aboriginal and Torres Strait collection is properly maintained. He divides his time between providing information on the collection to students and academics, overseeing loans to museums and compiling an electronic database of all the items in the collection. Florek says this has taken six years so far — he is approximately halfway through the job.

While working at the museum he embarked on a PhD in archeology at Sydney University, focusing on the Arabana community in South Australia, who traditionally lived along a natural spring line near the Finders Ranges. “The springs were the focus of occupation,” he says. “At some sites, there were as many as 1000 stone artefacts on the surface of the ground.”
While he could not bring the artefacts he found back to the Australian Museum in Sydney – as they were discovered in South Australia they must go to the South Australian Museum — he says that the process of uncovering them and interpreting how they were used was extremely rewarding.

With a Bachelor’s, Master’s and PhD under his belt, Florek is a self-confessed ‘professional” student. He has also completed a graduate diploma in fine art — as well as a diploma in education.

How to be an anthropologist
Obtain a Bachelor of Arts in anthropology, preferably at honours level, and postgrad qualification in anthropology. For more information, contact the Australian Anthropology Society on
02 6125 3208 or go to its website at aas.asn.au

By Aimee Brown, The Daily Telegraph, June 24, 2006.