Dr Mirani Litster

Mirani is a Lecturer in Archaeology at Flinders University, with research interests in early globalisation, intercultural encounters and island and coastal archaeology. Her regional focus is Australia and the Indian Ocean, and she has been involved in research projects from the Maldives, Timor-Leste, Indonesia, Australia and Palau. 

Mirani specialises in archaeomalacology (the analysis of molluscan remains) and has worked on a wide range of assemblages, including material from the Wallacean sites of Laili Cave in Timor-Leste (c. 44,000 years BP) and Ratu Mali, the earliest known funerary context in Wallacea. Her research also extends to the early Buddhist archaeological sites of the Maldives and the distribution of cowrie shells from the archipelago. In Australia, Mirani has made contributions to glass bead archaeology, analysing key assemblages from Madjedbebe, the Wellington Range, and Native Mounted Police camps in Queensland.

Mirani is currently a Chief Investigator on the ARC Discovery Project Before Cook: Contact Negotiation and the Archaeology of the Tiwi Islands. This project seeks to reconcile divergent narratives of early cultural encounters between Tiwi Island Traditional Owners, Makassan trepangers, Dutch explorers, and other European visitors. In 2024, she co-led international collaborations with the Wereldmuseum (Leiden), the Anima Mundi Museum (Vatican City), and the Musée du quai Branly-Jacques Chirac (Paris). These partnerships prioritised Tiwi participation and collaboration. 

Prior to joining Flinders University, she held lecturing appointments at the University of Canberra (2020-2021) in heritage studies and at the Nguma-bada Campus (Cairns) of James Cook University (2021-2024) in archaeology.