Cirrus@Austlit

'The power of knowledge, the resonance of tradition is a ground-breaking critique of the concept of ‘tradition’ applied in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander context. The authors offer a refreshing new style of analysis. In writing that is rich in detail, strong in analysis and informed by their research experience they argue for a deeper appreciation of the creativity inherent in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social life, and the way that knowledge is constructed and deployed in complex intercultural contexts in contemporary Australia.'

'Each chapter draws on detailed local inter-cultural information which includes Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander land and sea ownership and management, native title processes, service delivery arrangements for health and outstation management, and representations in art, song and broadcasting. In each arena there are multiple engagements with broad global processes.'

'The advent of Native Title legislation has led Indigenous communities across the country to demonstrate their ‘traditional’ connections to country. For many, their experiences of these processes are increasingly at odds with the complex inter-cultural realities of their contemporary lives. They feel the constraining effect of outmoded frameworks of ‘tradition’ in legislation and policy where social and cultural innovation are characterised as inauthentic.' (Source: Publisher's website)

The power of knowledge, the resonance of tradition draws together key scholars in Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander social research and amplifies the work of an earlier AIATSIS conference. The authors provide productive ways of characterising Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social life and develop a multi-disciplinary theoretical critique to the concept of tradition.

'The man instrumental in establishing the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies (subsequently AIATSIS), former federal Member of Parliament and the Commonwealth’s first Minister with responsibility for Aboriginal Affairs, the Honourable WC Wentworth AO, died in June this year. Mr Wentworth—‘Bill’ to many—had championed the rights of Indigenous Australians throughout his long political career.' (Introduction)

'Rhys was born in Wales, attended a grammar school in Cardiff and won a scholarship to Cambridge University in 1959 where he studied basic sciences and mathematics, and archaeology and anthropology, participating in excavations and travelling in Europe and southwestern Asia (Meehan 2001). He was appointed as teaching fellow in the Department of Anthropology of the University of Sydney in 1963, graduating with a doctorate from there in 1971, and as research fellow in prehistory at the then Research School of Pacific Studies of the Australian National University in 1968. He held the visiting chair of Australian Studies at Harvard University, was appointed to a personal chair at ANU in 1993, and was a fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities and of the Society of Antiquarians. Rhys retired in June 2001, when he was presented with a festschrift contributed to by many of his numerous colleagues and friends (Anderson et al 2001). Rhys Jones died in September last year of leukaemia.'  (Introduction)