The Australian Rock Art Research Association (AURA) was established in October 1983 to provide an international forum for the dissemination of research findings in rock art studies and cognitive archaeology, and to promote awareness and appreciation of the indigenous cultural heritage. AURA is the largest rock art organisation in the world, and one of the sixty member organisations of the International Federation of Rock Art Organisations (IFRAO). It produces the Federation’s official organ, Rock Art Research, and hosts the premier academic event in the discipline, the AURA Congress. The First AURA Congress was held in Darwin in 1988, the Second in Cairns in 1992. The Third AURA Congress coincided with the beginning of a new millennium and was held in July 2000 in Alice Springs, in the very centre of Australia. It provided a summary of what has been achieved in this discipline so far and an indication of where it may be heading in the new century. Like the First and Second Congress, it was attended by most of the world’s foremost researchers in the field. The oldest surviving word for a convention is ‘corroboree’. For tens of millennia, the Aborigines of Australia have gathered under the timeless cliffs of a dramatic and thoroughly sacred landscape to exchange ideas and information. AURA’s international corroborees, with their five days of multiple academic sessions, continue this ancient tradition with the enthusiastic participation of the land’s traditional custodians. In addition to the three AURA Congresses, six smaller Inter-Congress Symposia were held over the past 34 years.