Past Programs
Indigenous - Sacred Sites - 2008
Aboriginal traditional life and kinship; St Mary's, South Brisbane "out of communion" ?
20/08/2008
Remote indigenous communities in the Top End are often seen as hopeless and dysfunctional places where any sense of community has been destroyed by violence and substance abuse. But what impact is Federal government policy having on communities traditional life and kinship structures remain largely intact?
We speak to three leading anthropologists who have lived and worked for years in remote communities. Frances Morphy from the ANU, and John Bradley and Gwenda Baker from Monash University, say Canberra persistently fails to engage with the sacred in these communities, and that its 'secularist' intervention policies are having a detrimental effect.
