ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces notions of community and why they matter in academic discourse. I present an introduction to Injalak Arts and its artists, their networks of interaction, and the methodologies adopted for this study. The premise of this book is that the group of people (not solely artists) that interact with and through Injalak Arts form a unique community. This is based on the argument that “community” is a condition in which individuals are enmeshed in a web of “meaningful” relationships with others. In this chapter, I introduce the concept of “embodied ethnography” as a theoretical alternative to traditional anthropological practices. This chapter presents some of the background to this book including motivations, choices relating to study area, and theoretical agendas.
