'I would like to introduce myself as the new Director of Research at the Institute and the new General Editor of Australian Aboriginal Studies. I have had an interest in and association with the Institute since 1979, and I'm keen to see the journal maintain its key role in the dissemination of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander studies. I would like to apologise on behalf of the Institute for the lateness of the two previous issues and to note that, with the release of this issue, we will not be experiencing any more delays.' (Luke Taylor, Editorial Introduction)
Contents indexed selectively.
'For a glimpse of life in Central Australia 100 years ago, for a taste of gritty inland reality, you could hardly do better than read this book. And many of the concerns explored in these letters still resonate in our country today. To introduce that idea and some of the book's themes, I'm going to begin by telling of two recent encounters of mine in Central Australia.' (Introduction)
'Laurie Gawanali, a Ngarinyin man of the Brrejalngga clan from the Roe/Moran River area, passed away in August and was buried beside the Barnett River on the central Kimberley Plateau. He was a speaker of Ngarinyin, Wunambal and Worrorra and understood several other languages of the region. Gawanali (as he wrote his name; linguists might represent it as 'Gowanulli'), whose many names included Ngarjno (Nyaj-ngor—'King Brown bit the upper arm') from his Wunggurr (spiritual conception site) place at Merinbini, was the most senior of the Ngarinyin men who have propelled Kamali Land Council as the vehicle of self-determination and land rights in the Northern Kimberley. His long-time associate at Kamali, David Mowaljarlai (Banggal), died in September 1997, and Gawanali, along with Kamali Land Council and Ngarinyin Aboriginal Corporation Chairman, Paddy Neowarra (Nyawarra), directed the traditional funeral proceedings for their much-missed old partner.' (Introduction)
