ABSTRACT
The landscape is characterized by red earth, sand hills, and dense clumps of low-lying eucalyptus trees. Intertwined river systems that rely for their survival on annual rains known locally as “the wet season,” along with a rich spectrum of unique native flora and fauna, add to the biodiversity of the region. The cost of his institutionalization had not consumed all of his fortnightly disbursement, nor had these funds been used for other purposes, primarily because Kumunjayi’s absence from his community meant that he had been uninvolved in the usual cycle of economic exchange and reciprocity in the Kimberley. The work sites discussed here provide, at one level, unique case studies, but they also reveal striking resonances and reflect changing social, economic, and political circumstances, including those within the discipline of anthropology.
