Themes
Language, kinship and heritage
Language revitalisation and education
Conference Papers
Session MM1: Mobility and urban settings
1. Jenine Godwin: Perspectives of transient populations from their regional/remote country life, to urban life - ‘housing, health & living experiences’
Full paper | Audio | Video | Slideshow 
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Abstract
In this paper I identify the transient population of regional and remote Aboriginal people, in this case the Dajarra, and the humbug of having to move or travel from their county to Mt Isa in order to access services such as those relating to housing, health or family. I explore their adaptive nature, in that no matter where Aboriginal people dwell, i.e. in urban or remote locations, they adapt their lifeways with family and patterns of living to their surrounding environments. I highlight the distinctive relationships between lifestyle, housing, health and environment, and seek to understand how well Aboriginal people can fit their culturally distinct lifestyles to the available housing structures within the urban area. I also discuss stressors that affect their health and cultural well-being. The levels of differences and links within these relationships, are reflective of Aboriginal worldviews. This paper is intended to achieve the following:
• A greater understanding of transient populations of regional and remote Aboriginal people, and their determination to keep culture and family strong;
• A clearer idea of how such populations are forced to travel or move to urban areas, despite their kin and links to country;
• An insight into reconnecting from living on country to travelling or moving family to ‘urban’ areas, and significant perspectives in relation to culture and well-being caused by such change;
• Identification of relevant policy directions, and how they have or have not influenced Aboriginal contexts that reflective these lifeways.
2. Sarah Prout: Aboriginal mobilities and urban settings: understanding the dynamics and their policy implications
Full paper | Audio | Video | Slideshow 512KB
Abstract
Indigenous Australians have often been described as highly mobile people – particularly in historical and remote ‘wilderness’ contexts. A number of scholars have conducted detailed research regarding Indigenous spatial mobility in rural and remote parts of Australia. Taken together, these studies weave a narrative of regular, short-term population movement within and between desert, hinterland and tropic regions of Australia. Such movements are shaped and driven by a complex web of factors, including (but not limited to) various forms of engagement with mainstream social and economic institutions. As the literature attests, Indigenous temporary mobilities, therefore, have significant implications for the targeting and delivery of a range of health, housing, and education services in these regions. To date though, very little research has examined the nature of Indigenous temporary mobility in urban environments. The consequent tendency is to strongly associate Indigenous temporary mobility only with central, northern and more sparsely populated regions of Australia. The characteristics of mobility and movers in urban areas are largely unknown and obscured, and a holistic and comparative picture of Indigenous mobility remains elusive. This paper draws on the existing (albeit sparse and dated) literature, as well as findings from recent research in Western Australia’s northwest to explore the nature of Indigenous short-term mobility in urban environments. In so doing, it develops narratives of connection to and alienation from urban centres amongst various Indigenous populations, and identifies key implications for the delivery of services to Indigenous populations in urban settings.
3. David Thompson: Promises and perils of transition to urban living
Full paper (131Kb) | Audio | Video | Slideshow 133KB
Abstract
The paper will examine the complexities of continuity and change in the contemporary movements and interactions of Aboriginal people between a remote community on Cape York Peninsula and the urban context of the city of Cairns. Aspects of discussion include the varieties of movements from resettlement to casual urban visits to return to home base, the retention and extension of community by new technologies of transport and communication, the underlying strength of kinship networks, the revitalising of culture through native title claims, the broadening of cultural values at a distance from country and the pressures of the western economic, social and political context.
Author Bio:
David Thompson lived at Lockhart River Aboriginal Community on Cape York Peninsula from 1969-1977 as an Anglican priest. He studied linguistics with the Summer Institute of Linguistics and published An Outline of Kuuku Ya’u and Umpila in 1988. His MA (Anthropology) thesis “Bora Belonga White Man” (1995) is a view of Missionaries and Aborigines at Lockhart River Mission (1924-67). Since 1995 he has been a consultant anthropologist with the Cape York Land Council. His current PhD research concerns Aboriginal mobility and culture shifting between Lockhart River and Cairns.