ABSTRACT
This article focuses on the history of a group of people who identify as Yanyuwa. It analyses the move the Yanyuwa made from bush to town in terms of the more standard question of why they came in. The chapter shows that it is possible to map how the Yanyuwa came in. Coming in involved a gradual process of longer and longer stays in town with an associated growing attitude that Borroloola was home. A turning point in each person’s life came when that person came to regard Borroloola and not the bush as home. The move from bush to town life was a gradual process and not a ‘one or the other’ decision. Sometimes the stepping-stones in this process were Europeans living away from Borroloola carrying out labour-intensive economic activities. To understand why people stayed, once they had moved in, it is necessary to examine the cycles of dependency that were created by moving into town.
