Diana Young

Water as country in the Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara lands South Australia

Ancombining low lineangu, Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara people living in the north-western areas of South Australia conceptualize changes in the surface of land as evincing the presence of ancestral power. Rain is one such catalyst of change, though it is by no means a certainty on the Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands. When it does appear, water does not stay long on the surface: it is shimmering and unstable. This paper examines the nature of various water sources in contemporary indigenous life, the spatial relationships between earth and sky and the dialectic between life and death that they mediate.

Anthropology Museum Digital Collection

The digital collection comprises over 5000 images from the ethnographic collectionnand 1500 images from the photographic collection with more being added as the project continues.n The ethnographic collection is made up of over 19,000 items including contemporary art and artefacts from Australia and the Pacific as well as Asia, Africa and the American continents. The Museum also holds over 8000 prints, negatives and slides from the early and mid-twentieth century and includes fieldwork archives and mission photography acquired from various donors, vendors, collectors and photographers. Also included here are early ethnographic items in the Museumrs collection. The collection is an important resource for, among other areas, family research, visual culture studies, histories of anthropology, native title research, cultural history and post-colonial studies.n