Diet and Dust in the Desert : Life in the early years of Oak Valley community, Maralinga Lands, South Australia

Abstract

This is a reprint with a new foreword from Jeremy Lebois, the Chair of Maralinga Tjarutja. The original research into the diet and lifestyle of Pitjantjatjara-speaking people living at an embryonic outstation on the Maralinga Lands, was part of Technical Assessment Group studies into the options for rehabilitation of the lands contaminated by British nuclear tests in the 1950s and 1960s. The two anthropologist co-authors examined hunting and foraging activities, camp life, the health of children, use and distribution of bush and store foods as they were taking place in the late 1980s. The book gives a picture of life in the Great Western Desert being reclaimed by people reestablishing a presence on the Maralinga Lands, from which they were dislocated by the atomic testing program. Show more