{{short description|Australian archaeologist}} {{Use dmy dates|date=May 2017}} {{Use Australian English|date=May 2017}} {{Infobox person | name = Betty Meehan<!-- use common name/article title --> | honorific_suffix = {{Post-nominals|country=AUS|FAHA|size=100%}} | image = <!-- filename only, no "File:" or "Image:" prefix, and no enclosing brackets --> | alt = <!-- descriptive text for use by speech synthesis (text-to-speech) software --> | caption = | birth_name = Betty Francis Meehan<!-- only use if different from name --> | birth_date = 1933<!-- {{Birth date and age|YYYY|MM|DD}} for living people supply only the year with {{Birth year and age|YYYY}} unless the exact date is already widely published, as per WP:DOB. For people who have died, use {{Birth date|YYYY|MM|DD}}. --> | birth_place = Bourke, New South Wales, Australia | death_date = <!-- {{Death date and age|YYYY|MM|DD|YYYY|MM|DD}} (DEATH date then BIRTH date) --> | death_place = | other_names = | occupation = Archaeologist, anthropologist | years_active = 1958–2000s | known_for = Work with Arnhem Land peoples | notable_works = }} '''Betty Francis Meehan''' {{Post-nominals|country=AUS|FAHA}} (born 1933) is an Australian archaeologist and anthropologist who has worked extensively with Aboriginal people in Arnhem Land, Northern Territory.
==Early life and education== Meehan was born and grew up in Bourke, New South Wales, Australia, in 1933. She was the elder daughter of Francis Owen and Olive Jane Meehan. She attended high school in Bourke and trained as a specialist infants' teacher at Bathurst Teachers College, teaching in Bourke, Darwin, Sydney, and Canberra. Meehan travelled with her first husband, Lester Hiatt, to the remote Northern Territory town of Maningrida, in East Arnhem Land, arriving in 1958 on a pearling lugger to find the Aboriginal community had set up camp on the beach and sent out a dugout canoe to bring them ashore.<ref>[http://www.smh.com.au/news/obituaries/a-culture-made-less-remote/2008/02/20/1203467176647.html Obituaries 'A culture made less remote' 21 February 2008 Les Hiatt, 1931-2008]</ref> There she set up the first school for Aboriginal children at Maningrida, returning in the 1970s to undertake her PhD fieldwork with her second husband, Rhys Jones.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Meehan, Betty |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology |url=https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007%2F978-1-4419-0465-2_2406 |date=2014 |pages=4756–4758 |doi=10.1007/978-1-4419-0465-2_2406 |isbn=978-1-4419-0426-3 |last1=Brockwell |first1=Sally|url-access=subscription }}</ref> In 1977, Meehan visited North Arnhem Land to observe the Anbarra people's daily behaviour living on the coast.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Meehan |first1=Betty |title=Hunters by the seashore |journal=Journal of Human Evolution |date=May 1977 |volume=6 |issue=4 |pages=363–370 |doi=10.1016/S0047-2484(77)80005-5|bibcode=1977JHumE...6..363M }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | last=Hiatt | first=Les | title=Obituary - Rhys Jones | website=Obituaries Australia | date=5 October 2001 | url=http://oa.anu.edu.au/obituary/jones-rhys-541|access-date=13 April 2020}}</ref>
She studied anthropology at the University of Sydney from 1962, obtaining an MA in anthropology and a PhD at the Department of Prehistory and Anthropology of the Australian National University.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Bowler |first1=Sandra |last2=Clune |first2=Genevieve |title=That Shadowy Band: The Role of Women in the Development of Australian Archaeology |journal=Australian Archaeology |date=June 2000 |issue=50 |page=32}}</ref>
==Career and recognition== Meehan was president of the Australian Archaeological Association in 1984 and editor of ''Australian Archaeology'' from 1987-1994.<ref>{{Citation |author1=Meehan, Betty |author2=Jones, Rhys |author3=Australian Archaeological Association |title=Archaeology with ethnography: an Australian perspective |date=1988 |publisher=Dept. of Prehistory, Research School of Pacific Studies, The Australian National University |isbn=978-0-7315-0283-7}}</ref>
She focused her research on the subsistence regimes of an Arnhem Land Aboriginal community.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Meehan |first1=Betty |title=Hunters by the Seashore |journal=Journal of Human Evolution |date=1977 |volume=6 |issue=4 |pages=363–370|doi=10.1016/S0047-2484(77)80005-5 |bibcode=1977JHumE...6..363M }}</ref> In 2007 she co-authored an article about this region and the confluence of human culture and the environment.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Bourke |first1=Patricia |last2=Brockwell |first2=Sally |last3=Faulkner |first3=Patrick |last4=Meehan |first4=Betty |title=Climate variability in the mid to late Holocene Arnhem Land Region, North Australia: Archaeological archives of environmental and cultural change |journal=Archaeology in Oceania |date=October 2007 |volume=42 |issue=3 |pages=91–101 |doi=10.1002/j.1834-4453.2007.tb00022.x}}</ref>
She was made an Honorary Associate of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University (1995-1996), was director of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Environment Section of the Australian Heritage Commission from 1991 to 1995, head of the Aboriginal Section National Museum of Australia (1990-1991), and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities (1987).<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.humanities.org.au/Fellowship/FindFellows/tabid/123/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/1236/Meehan-Betty.aspx |title=Australian Academy of the Humanities Fellows |access-date=27 May 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150527082720/http://www.humanities.org.au/Fellowship/FindFellows/tabid/123/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/1236/Meehan-Betty.aspx |archive-date=27 May 2015 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
Her work is described and lauded in Billy Griffiths' 2018 award-winning book ''Deep Time Dreaming: Uncovering Ancient Australia''.<ref>{{cite book|title=Deep Time Dreaming: Uncovering Ancient Australia|date=26 Feb 2018|first=Billy|last=Griffiths|publisher=Black Inc.|isbn=9781760640446}}</ref><ref name=aaadtd>{{cite web | title=Billy Griffiths, Deep Time Dreaming: Uncovering Ancient Australia (Black Inc., 2018) | website=Australian Archaeological Association | url=https://australianarchaeologicalassociation.com.au/billy-griffiths-deep-time-dreaming-uncovering-ancient-australia-black-inc-2018/ | access-date=10 April 2020 | archive-date=10 April 2020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200410090046/https://australianarchaeologicalassociation.com.au/billy-griffiths-deep-time-dreaming-uncovering-ancient-australia-black-inc-2018/ | url-status=dead }}</ref>
== References == {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Meehan, Betty}} Category:Australian anthropologists Category:Australian women anthropologists Category:Australian archaeologists Category:1933 births Category:Living people Category:People from Bourke, New South Wales Category:Australian National University alumni Category:Australian women archaeologists Category:Fellows of the Australian Academy of the Humanities