Contemporary Western Desert Society: Sorrow, the State and the Dreaming in the Lands of the Pitjantjatjara and Yankuntjatjara People
Peter Stewart, Anthropology, James Cook University
The aim of this paper is to provide a history of people living in Pitjantjatjara country, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous. It will explore the historical relationship between discourses of social dysfunction and the governance of the Pitjantjatjara: from first colonial contact, reserves, missions and pastoral times and the recent 1970-2007 the development phase or phase of independence. The intention is to trace the changes in national and regional concerns and policy that occurred prior to the current intervention. Of particular interest is the importance of analysing how “dysfunction” has created specific understandings of the Pitjantjatjara. This could contribute to a new kind of history during a liminal social time.
