Life Down Under: Water and Identity in an Aboriginal Cultural Landscape. GARP7

Focusing on water resources this paper traces the conceptual relationships between the formal characteristics of water, the ways in which these are experienced and observed, and the imaginative use made of these qualities in the representational imagery which describes each aspect of Aboriginal life. It considers how these relationships provide systemic coherence in Aboriginal cosmology, and how they are used to define Aboriginality internally and to other groups. It argues that the consistent location of linked conceptual models in 'real world' material objects and processes gives great resiliance to Aboriginal cultural forms, enabling indigenous groups to maintain ideational continuities in a challenging political context.