Resettlement and caring for the country: the Anmatyerre experience

Caring for country, the carrying out of traditional responsibility for the land, is a process of great importance for Aboriginal people. If the country is neglected it will become infertile and fail to provide sustenance; and the integrity of its spirit guardians and progenitors will no longer be maintained. Such truths are essential to the fabric of Aboriginal society. They form the basis for definition of Aboriginal traditional land ownership, conventionally understood by non-Aborigines to conform to recognised principles of inheritance, of which descent is perceived to be the most important. But adequately caring for country means being able to visit it and witness its presentation, living in close proximity to it where practical. This has not always been possible. Environmental, economic, political and social factors have, both before and since non-Aboriginal settlement, caused shifts in Aboriginal population and have forced people to adapt their systems of land inheritance accordingly.