ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses a particular aspect of the role of myth in the older Aboriginal traditions and the role of history in the construction of cultural identity by Aboriginal people, particularly those in urban and rural centres. This is followed by an analysis of conflict between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal historians over the domain of Aboriginal history. W. E. H. Stanner concentrated on myth as ontology, and R. M. and C. H. Berndt are identified by Hiatt as the key proponents of a functionalist view of myth as moral and social charter. The chapter shows in what ways traditional myth and urban Aboriginal history both resemble each other and differ. The emergence of an urban Aboriginal intelligentsia, however, loosely interlinked and internally competitive, at the core of which have been people with an interest in history, has been accompanied by a clash of their views with those of academics.
