'For many years the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies has attempted to conduct or direct research that is not simply responsive to Aboriginal views, but is directed and structured by them. This book epitomizes the research strategy and its results manifest the contradictions that are inherent in it. As an archive of photographs of the seventeen selected communities it is deliberately partial, highly selective and multi-faceted—for there are many public faces for each community and Aborigines have diverse languages and voices.' (Introduction)