ABSTRACT
Traditionally hunters and gatherers, the Alawa people of northern Australia have been subject to a century of colonisation by pastoralists who brought a cattleranching economy to the region. Alawa land use has left a variety of archaeologically visible traces: camp sites with their associated debris of food and stone artefacts, rock paintings, stone arrangements and modification of the plant cover through controlled burning. The distribution of rock art in relation to ecology has been discussed elsewhere (Layton 1989). Pickering (1994) has examined the social landscape of another Gulf Country people, the Garawa, whose country lies about 250 km to the east of the Alawa. Pickering shows how traditional Garawa camp sites have a seasonal patterning. Camps on the Robinson River could be occupied throughout the year, while those on tributary creeks were not normally occupied during the hot, stormy season that precedes the monsoon. Garawa and Alawa land use is, however, mediated by a complex cultural system, much of which is archaeologically invisible. This chapter describes how this system is sustained, considering both traditional procedures and the response to colonial domination, in order to exemplify how cultural practice orders the creation of material residues.
