By Kelvin Officer June 2011
On the night of the 7th of June, 2011, our good friend and colleague Lindsay Smith died after a short and one sided conversation with cancer. Lindsay came to archaeology in the latter part of his life, completing a gaggle of award-attracting archaeology qualifications from 1995, culminating in his PhD at the Australian National University (ANU) in 2006. Lindsay joined Navin Officer Heritage Consultants (NOHC) in that year and quickly became a trusted and valued colleague. He worked on both historical and prehistoric sites, with characteristic expertise, rigor and a wry sense of humour. We have missed him greatly since his diagnosis forced his retirement in October, 2010.
Lindsay’s contribution to Australian archaeology is substantial and will be resilient in the face of time. The value of both his MA and PhD research, which revolved around the archaeological record of the Chinese in Australia, was recognised by postgraduate awards by the ANU. In 2008 his PhD thesis was awarded as the best postgraduate thesis for that year by the Australasian Society for Historical Archaeology. Lindsay enjoyed his later role as a Visiting Fellow with the ANU School of Archaeology and Anthropology, and particularly its ‘agreeable juxtaposition’ with his role as a senior consulting archaeologist. The breadth of Lindsay’s archaeology was well exercised and adapted while at NOHC with his conduct of oral history projects, archival recordings and numerous assessments and excavations.
As a believer in mortality and full stops, Lindsay was much taken by the Latin epitaph:
Non fui, fui, non sum, non curo,
‘I was not, I was, I am not, I care not’.
Granted Lindsay, but for those of us still sweating above ground, we will always care, and always miss you.
From his colleagues at Navin Officer Heritage Consultants: Kerry Navin, Kelvin Officer, Nicola Hayes, Deirdre Lewis-Cooke, Rebecca Parkes, Christine Gant-Thompson, Daniel Powell and Rebecca Williams; and former NOHC colleagues: Matt Barber, Tom Knight, Rebecca Yit, Tom Taverner and Lyn O’Brien.
