Chinese History, Indigenous Identity and Mixed Ancestry in Australia’s Gulf Country

North Australia’s early history and post-settler society have encompassed lived experiences of ‘definable polyethnic spaces’ where fast-growing populations with mixed Aboriginal and other ancestry rapidly became the norm (Ganter 2006a). In presenting research on a location in the Gulf Country, a region straddling the Queensland/Northern Territory border, we focus here particularly on the significance of Chinese and other Asian men in relationships with Aboriginal women, producing contemporary families who negotiate identities drawing on either or both aspects of family heritage.