Dreamings and connections to country : among the Ngaanyatjarra and Pintupi of the Australian western desert

Abstract

In broad terms, this thesis has a two-fold aim. Firstly, it is a study of Aboriginal connectedness to country over a large area of the Australian Western Desert, sufficiently large that it embraces the main country of two recognised desert peoples, the Ngaanyatjarra and the Pintupi. This breadth of coverage enables me to undertake a comparison in respect to certain aspects of culture, social organisation and the relationship to land. There have previously been few detailed studies of these matters in the desert, and none in which two large scale groupings have been able to be compared in this way. Secondly, the thesis sets out to fill a 'gap' in the anthropological record, inasmuch as it provides the first detailed ethnography of the Ngaanyatjarra. Of the two peoples, these are the ones with whom I have predominantly worked, and about whom I have by far the greater amount of material. The aims of the thesis in regard to the Pintupi,who have already been the subject o fa major ethnographic work by another author, are more modest. Their connectedness to country is something that is of vital importance in the life world of the desert people, but it is a complex and elusive matter that has proven baffling to many scholars. The thesis reviews this earlier work, and also shows that while in recent decades there have been major improvements in the level of understanding, many questions still remain. This thesis grapples with some of these questions, in the process also problematising some areas that had previously been unexamined. A major focus of the thesis is on the tjukurrpa (Dreaming). While every account of the Aboriginal relationship to the land has necessarily addressed this subject, the coverage provided here is more broad-ranging and more detailed than most. I saw it as essential to address this phenomenon in all its aspects that I could think of. The Dreaming permeates desert life so thoroughly that it is hard to gain a clear analytical perspective on it without this exhaustive approach. For the same reason, there is also a tendency to assume that the Dreaming provides reasons, prescriptions or justifications for virtually every aspect of life, which I am able to show is not the case. This makes it possible to tackle the subject of the Dreaming on another level, considering questions not only about its achievements as a system of thought and practice, but also about its limitations. In other words, a more critical perspective becomes possible. The other major focus is on the forms of social organisation that are related to country. After the abandonment of earlier, inappropriate models of patrilineal descent organisation, the desert has come to be seen as an essentially 'structureless' place. I consider this proposition at length, and on the basis of my ethnographic evidence and analysis of the Dreaming, suggest that in fact two 'modes' of social organisation and relationship to country are to be found here, one having much more 'structure' than the other.