Skip to main content
Presented to you through Paradigm Publishing Services

John Benjamins Publishing Company

Visit our Partner Page See all our books
Chapter
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

Shared country, different stories

A post-settler vignette

Abstract

In 2000 Bruce Rigsby presented a seminar titled ‘Not Indigenous, merely born here’, borrowing from Australian poet Les Murray’s verses. The issues canvassed the application of the concept of nativeness in biology as well as in anthropology and the particular circumstances of this question in the post-settler society of Australia. Around the same time, Rigsby provided an expert opinion in an American legal case about skeletal remains that raised related matters. This chapter presents my own reflections on indigenous identities and overlapping shared histories in the Gulf Country of northern Australia. The vehicle for the discussion is an innovative experimental workshop that brought together writers and locals to consider issues of ancestry, story telling and senses of belonging in the Gulf Country.

Abstract

In 2000 Bruce Rigsby presented a seminar titled ‘Not Indigenous, merely born here’, borrowing from Australian poet Les Murray’s verses. The issues canvassed the application of the concept of nativeness in biology as well as in anthropology and the particular circumstances of this question in the post-settler society of Australia. Around the same time, Rigsby provided an expert opinion in an American legal case about skeletal remains that raised related matters. This chapter presents my own reflections on indigenous identities and overlapping shared histories in the Gulf Country of northern Australia. The vehicle for the discussion is an innovative experimental workshop that brought together writers and locals to consider issues of ancestry, story telling and senses of belonging in the Gulf Country.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Preface and acknowledgements vii
  4. General maps ix
  5. Land and language in Cape York Peninsula and the Gulf Country 1
  6. Appendix 27
  7. Reconstructions
  8. Connecting Thaypanic 39
  9. Regions without borders 61
  10. The Flinders Islands and Cape Melville people in history 85
  11. Fission, fusion and syncretism 105
  12. World views
  13. Groups, country and personhood on the upper Wenlock River, Cape York Peninsula 139
  14. Hyponymy and the structure of Kuuk Thaayorre kinship 159
  15. Possession in Kuku-Thaypan through a comparative lens 179
  16. Correlation of textual and spatial reference 199
  17. Contacts and contrasts
  18. Botanists, Aborigines and native plants on the Queensland frontier 221
  19. ‘There is no truth whatever as regards any Aboriginal being flogged by the Police’ 241
  20. Multiple views of paradise 263
  21. Shared country, different stories 285
  22. Transformations
  23. Born, signed and named 305
  24. The problem of ‘tribal names’ in eastern Australia 337
  25. Going forward holding back 361
  26. Same but different 383
  27. The story of Old Man Frank 409
  28. Repatriations
  29. On the edges of their memories 435
  30. Making gambarr 455
  31. Index of places 481
  32. Index of languages, language families and groups 483
  33. General index 487
Land and Language in Cape York Peninsula and the Gulf Country
This chapter is in the book Land and Language in Cape York Peninsula and the Gulf Country
https://doi.org/10.1075/clu.18.14tri

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Preface and acknowledgements vii
  4. General maps ix
  5. Land and language in Cape York Peninsula and the Gulf Country 1
  6. Appendix 27
  7. Reconstructions
  8. Connecting Thaypanic 39
  9. Regions without borders 61
  10. The Flinders Islands and Cape Melville people in history 85
  11. Fission, fusion and syncretism 105
  12. World views
  13. Groups, country and personhood on the upper Wenlock River, Cape York Peninsula 139
  14. Hyponymy and the structure of Kuuk Thaayorre kinship 159
  15. Possession in Kuku-Thaypan through a comparative lens 179
  16. Correlation of textual and spatial reference 199
  17. Contacts and contrasts
  18. Botanists, Aborigines and native plants on the Queensland frontier 221
  19. ‘There is no truth whatever as regards any Aboriginal being flogged by the Police’ 241
  20. Multiple views of paradise 263
  21. Shared country, different stories 285
  22. Transformations
  23. Born, signed and named 305
  24. The problem of ‘tribal names’ in eastern Australia 337
  25. Going forward holding back 361
  26. Same but different 383
  27. The story of Old Man Frank 409
  28. Repatriations
  29. On the edges of their memories 435
  30. Making gambarr 455
  31. Index of places 481
  32. Index of languages, language families and groups 483
  33. General index 487
Downloaded on 4.5.2026 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1075/clu.18.14tri/html?lang=en
Scroll to top button