ABSTRACT
Caring for country is a process of great importance for Aboriginal people. If the country is neglected it will become infertile and fail to provide sustenance; and the integrity of its spirit guardians and progenitors will no longer be maintained. Environmental, economic, political and social factors have, both before and since non-Aboriginal settlement, caused shifts in Aboriginal population and have forced people to adapt their systems of land inheritance accordingly. This chapter relates the stories of some of the Anmatyerre people of Central Australia in terms of responsibility for land. Mount Allan and Ti Tree are the largest Anmatyerre groups and their combined populations of between 450 and 500 would account for about 40 per cent of present-day Anmatyerre. The chapter presents examples that illustrate how Anmatyerre people in Central Australia have dealt with some of the problems affecting their care of the land, problems which have stemmed primarily from their resettlement following non-Aboriginal settlement within their country.
