The Power of Knowledge

The power of knowledge, the resonance of tradition is a ground-breaking critique of the concept of 'tradition' applied in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander context. The authors offer a refreshing new style of analysis. In writing that is rich in detail, strong in analysis and informed by their research experience they argue for a deeper appreciation of the creativity inherent in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social life, and the way that knowledge is constructed and deployed in complex intercultural contexts in contemporary Australia.

Each chapter draws on detailed local inter-cultural information which includes Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander land and sea ownership and management, native title processes, service delivery arrangements for health and outstation management, and representations in art, song and broadcasting. In each arena there are multiple engagements with broad global processes.

The advent of Native Title legislation has led Indigenous communities across the country to demonstrate their 'traditional' connections to country. For many, their experiences of these processes are increasingly at odds with the complex inter-cultural realities of their contemporary lives. They feel the constraining effect of outmoded frameworks of 'tradition' in legislation and policy where social and cultural innovation are characterised as inauthentic.

The power of knowledge, the resonance of tradition draws together key scholars in Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander social research and amplifies the work of an earlier AIATSIS conference. The authors provide productive ways of characterising Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social life and develop a multi-disciplinary theoretical critique to the concept of tradition.

The book's editors have extensive experience of research with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Production Details

• Paperback
• 215mm x 140mm x 15mm
• 256pp
• Released April 2005
• ISBN 9780855754846

Contents

Contributors
Introduction
Part 1 Land resources and knowledge
1. Unsettled business- Acrylic painting, tradition, and Indigenous being
2. Development options on Aboriginal land- Sustainable Indigenous hybrid economies in the twenty-first century
3. Identity and economy in Aboriginal pastoralism
4. Culture and commerce- The use of fishing traditions to prove native title
5. A sea has many faces- Multiple and contested continuities in Yolngu coastal waters
6. ‘Biodiversity is a whitefella word’- Changing relationships between Aborigines and the New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service
Part 2 Knowledge and colonialism
7. Dependency, technology and governance
8. Rhetoric to reality in sustainability- Meeting the challenges in Indigenous cattle station communities
9. Making use of medics: Overcoming cultural constraints in alcohol interventions
10.The Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet- Knowledge transfer to assist decision making in Indigenous health
Part 3 The resonance of tradition
11. New media projects at Yuendumu- Towards a history and analysis of intercultural engagement
12. Recruiting an Aboriginal voice- The state development of Aboriginal broadcasting
13. Manifestations of the mimih
14. Knowing tradition, dealing with history? On concepts, strategies and practices
15. Gurindji mode of historical practice
16. Culture, change and the ambiguous resonance of tradition in Central Cape York Peninsula
Publications from Conference presentations
Index

About The Cover

Front cover image: ET Returning home (1994) Linda Syddick. 1991/ Licensed by VISCOPY, Sydney 2001. Collection of the Museum and art Gallery of the Northern Territory.