meet the team

“I once heard an Traditional Owner describe holding an artefact as like shaking hands with an ancestor.

That feeling is why I do this job; that no matter how distant or different the past may seem, when you are holding the artefacts of the past it is close enough to reach out and touch.”
— Declan Coman, Senior Heritage Consultant

Declan Moore

SENIOR HERITAGE CONSULTANT

Portrait of a man with red hair and beard, wearing a light-colored shirt, standing against a plain gray background.

Declan Coman is an established heritage consultant with 10 years of experience working in Greater Sydney and regional NSW. Declan specialises in Aboriginal archaeological investigation and consultation, historical archaeological excavation and monitoring.

Declan also has established expertise in the use of GIS for archaeological analysis, predictive modelling and reporting and in preparing large scale cultural landscape assessments. He has extensive experience in working with local Aboriginal communities to record, present and integrate oral histories and cultural knowledge interviews into cultural values assessments and policy recommendations.    

A colored old Japanese map with place names and symbols, partially covered by a blue booklet titled 'Old Map' in Japanese.

Declan’s artefact

“Whenever I visit another country, I always buy a map as a souvenir. Old maps, weird maps, geological maps, maps of local bus routes, any map made by and for those who live within its margins.

I love the ways in which we all try to fit vast and everchanging landscapes into nice, neat little rectangles. What we keep and what we cut, what falls off the edge and what gets squished back into frame, what is different from place to place and what symbols always stay the same. 

This one is a recreation of a map from the Genroku period of Japan (1688 to 1704). It’s simple, beautiful, dense with information and character yet clear and concise in its imagery. I haven’t a clue what any of it says, and the shape of the islands is clearly outdated; but from the style to the colour to the neat little envelope it came in, it is the most accurate map of that country I have ever seen.”