[Anthropgrad] Seminar by John White: 'Peas, beans and river banks: seasonal picking and dependence in the Tuross Valley.' Friday 24th April 2009.

[John White]

Anthropology Friday Seminar Series. Semester 1, 2009. Milgate Room, AD
Hope. Friday, 24th April, 3pm.

 

Seminar by John White:  'Peas, beans and river banks: seasonal picking
and dependence in the Tuross Valley.'

This seminar will be built around a paper that traces the rise of
Aboriginal involvement in the horticultural sector as part of the
historical trajectory of settler capitalism on the NSW south coast.  The
paper draws on a combination of ethnographic and historical evidence of
Indigenous labour, with particular focus on the character of seasonal
picking in the Tuross River valley during the mid-20th century.  Manual
harvesting of peas and beans required a large labour force during the
summer months and provided employment for significant numbers of local
and migrant Aboriginal workers. The paper explores the idea that the
economic relationships that developed were mutually constituted contra
to Castle and Hagen's (1978) study of the seasonal work cycle in the
neighbouring Bega Valley that presents Aboriginal people as occupying a
position of structural dependence.  In approaching the material in this
way, this paper intends to offset the obfuscatory use of the term
'dependence' through an exploration of how Indigenous engagements with
the economy might be rendered socially meaningful for the people
involved.  As a post-fieldwork review, the seminar will also include an
overview of my fieldwork findings, the development of a thesis question
in relation to a body of theoretical literature and a provisional thesis
outline.

 

 

All welcome!

 

 

 

John White

PhD Candidate

A.D. Hope Building #14

The Australian National University

Canberra, ACT 0200

AUSTRALIA

Email: john.m.white at anu.edu.au

Ph: 0419882475