Frances Morphy
The socio-demography of the Fitzroy Valley Aboriginal population
Wednesday, 23 September 2009
This seminar will present some preliminary findings from the Fitzroy Valley Population Project, undertaken for the Fitzroy Futures Forum under the auspices of Marninwarntikura Women’s Resource Centre based in Fitzroy Crossing. The Project’s design reflects a more general research concern with the modelling of local social categories from an anthropological perspective in order to make these categories visible and measurable, and thus available as a basis for constructing socio-demographic variables.
The Blue Mud Bay Case: Refractions through saltwater country
Topical Issue 7 / 2009
May 2009 - The Blue Mud Bay Case: Refractions through saltwater country
Under the Aboriginal Lands Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 (ALRA) Aboriginal freehold land has always extended down to the low water mark. In a historic majority decision on 30 July 2008, the High Court of Australia ruled on appeal in the Blue Mud Bay case that, in effect, the ALRA also applies to the column of water above the intertidal zone. This paper contrasts settler Australian and Yolngu ways of conceptualising and giving meaning to the bodies of salt water that settler Australians call ‘seas’ and ‘oceans’.
Invisible to the state: Kinship and the Yolngu moral order
Wednesday, 29 October 2008
In the Yolngu-matha languages of north-east Arnhem land, the character trait rendered in English as 'self-centered' or 'selfish' is translated by gurrutu-miriw, literally 'kin-lacking' - acting as if one had no kin. Kin-based obligations structure the Yolngu moral order: everyone is classified as kin, and how one ought to behave to others is framed in terms of one's kin relationship to them.
Permits, private property, and cultural survival
Topical Issue 12 / 2008
October 2008 - The Permit System
Permits, private property, and cultural survival', an opinion piece exploring federal attempts to remove the permit system in the Northern Territory, first published in The Age Online on 10 October 2008.
[23 October 2008]
Re-engaging the economic with the social
Topical Issue 9 / 2008
June 2008 - Re-engaging the economic with the social
'Re-engaging the economic with the social', a submission and response to the Australian Government's Increasing Indigenous Economic Opportunity: a discussion paper on the future of the CDEP and Indigenous employment programs. This submission engages with perceived failures in the discussion paper's conceptualisation of the CDEP target population, and provides several case studies from the Yolngu perspective.
[25 June 2008]
Land Rights at Risk? Evaluations of the Reeves Report
Research Monograph 14 / 1999
ISSN 1036 6962
ISBN 0 7315 5106 0 (Print Version)
Abstract:
In Building on Land Rights for the Next Generation: Report of the Review of the Aboriginal Land rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 (the Reeves Report) John Reeves QC proposes fundamental and controversial changes to land rights law in the Northern Territory.
The Indigenous Welfare Economy and the CDEP Scheme
Research Monograph 20 / 2001
ISBN 1 9209420 4 1 (Print Version)
ISBN 0 9751229 3 2 (Online Version)
Abstract:
In recent debates about the Indigenous welfare economy, the Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP) scheme has not been given the attention it deserves. It represents a major adaptation of the Australian welfare system to the particular social and economic circumstances of Indigenous people.
Making Sense of the Census: Observations of the 2001 Enumeration in Remote Aboriginal Australia
Research Monograph 22 / 2002
ISBN 0 9751229 4 0 (Print Version)
ISBN 1 9209420 2 5 (Online Version)
Abstract:
Special enumeration procedures for Indigenous Australians were introduced in the 1971 Census, and have been a feature of the Australian national census ever since. In 2001, as in previous years, the Indigenous Enumeration Strategy (IES) involved the use of locally recruited, mostly Indigenous, interviewers and the administration of modified forms.
Indigenous household structures and ABS definitions of the family: What happens when systems collide, and does it matter?
Working Paper 26 / 2004
ISSN 1442 3871
ISBN 0 7315 4925 2
Abstract:
In August 2001 three CAEPR researchers, each based in a different community, observed the conduct of the national Census in the Northern Territory and Cape York Peninsula. The purposes of this research were twofold: to evaluate the ABS’s Indigenous Enumeration Strategy as it was applied in this particular context, and to assess the quality of the data that were collected. This paper, based on research in a remote Northern Territory outstation community, focuses on the questions that were designed to elicit information about household structure.
Frances Morphy, Fellow CAEPR
Research Interests
The anthropological demography of Australian Aboriginal populations, population structure and dynamics in remote Aboriginal Australia, and the representation of Aboriginal people in the national census. The anthropology and linguistics of the Yolngu-speaking peoples of north east Arnhem Land.
CAEPR Publications & Research Outputs:
Node_staffpublications B_StaffPublics
