Attenuated, transformed and re-inscribed sacra: Towards an ethnography of traditional land tenure in the Northern Territory now

Abstract

This paper identifies the probable features of contemporary traditional land tenure in the Northern Territory. The fragility of the intergenerational transmission of detailed knowledge of traditional country in current circumstances leads to a hollowing out of the previous concomitants of dreaming sites (stories, songs, rituals, designs). Concurrently, traditional ideas of the spirits of the Old People and associated rituals of announcement and introduction become ascendent, as does claimant archival research, processes of sacralising sites of previous quotidian human activity, strictly biological ideas of descent, and the inclusion of select individuals into traditional owner groups by means other than descent. All these developments seem to raise questions of what can be considered ‘traditional’ under the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976. Only some of these changes may be accommodated under the limited flexibility in the current definition of traditional owner. Does the definition need revision to prevent disenfranchising the younger generation?