[Anthropgrad] Anthropology Seminar Wednesday 7 May

[Melinda Hinkson]

Anthropology Seminar Series, 9.30 am Wednesday 7 May, Seminar Room A, Coombs

Sarah Prout, Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research, ANU
 
Security and Belonging: reconceptualising Aboriginal spatiality in Yamatji
country, Western Australia
 
Throughout Australia¹s colonial history, Aboriginal mobility practices have
been poorly understood within the Anglo-Australian consciousnesses. Many
Aboriginal Australians continue to be marginalised by a Eurocentric spatial
ordering which privileges and normalises sedentarism, and renders frequent
movement deviant or mysterious. This paper examines current discourses and
explanations of Aboriginal spatiality in Yamatji country, Western Australia.
Finding none of these singularly sufficient to encompass the diverse lived
experiences of Aboriginal people in the region, the paper proposes a
reconceptualisation of Aboriginal spatial practices: an alternative
framework for interpreting and understanding Indigenous population dynamics.
Central to this framework is a conscious shift away from generalised and
pejorative interpretations of Aboriginal spatiality toward a more holistic
framework that considers historical and geographical context, cultural
identity, and individual aspirations. It argues that contemporary Aboriginal
spatialities reflect the processes of procuring, contesting, and cultivating
security and belonging. This reconceptualisation unsettles two dominant
discourses of Aboriginal spatiality: first, that Aboriginal mobilities are
somehow abnormal or irrational, and second, that all Aboriginal people
conform to the same Œnomadic¹ spatialities. Using the framework of security
and belonging, the paper argues that contemporary Aboriginal mobility
practices are the product of complex interplays between socio-cultural
expression and engagement with mainstream institutions.
 
All welcome.

____________________________________
Melinda Hinkson
School of Archaeology & Anthropology
A.D. Hope Building
The Australian National University
Canberra ACT 0200

T: +61 2 6125 8246
F: +61 2 6125 2711
W: http://arts.anu.edu.au/AandA/

Information about the Master of Visual Culture Research
is available at: http://rsh.anu.edu.au/vcr.php





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