Abstract
This paper examines the relationship between social identity and ‘culturally defined methods of adaptation’ (CDMA) to change. Based on a case study of the Wadandi people of southwestern Australia, the spatial analysis of pre- and postcolonial settlement patterns is examined and integrated with oral histories. The purpose is to understand and document the strategies employed by the Wadandi people to maintain independence and cultural vitality in the face of massive social and economic upheaval associated with intensive colonialism. This paper argues that understanding these strategies is central to understanding both the pre- and post-contact cultural landscape and the associated range of heritage values that includes a central concept of identity. More so, the very process of engaging with archaeologists in this way, it is argued, represents another form of controlling and protecting the heritage process in a manner that strips away at the inherent colonial tendencies of the discipline itself. At a practical level, the process allows archaeologists to incorporate aspects of identity and CDMA, that simultaneously allows for the constant articulation of identity during the assessment process, and ultimately the development of more holistic significance assessments for greater protection of places and the associated values.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Applied Archaeology Australia. (2011). Cultural and ecological values of the Preston river and Vasse-Wonnerup Wetlands, Western Australia. A report for the South West Catchments Council, Bunbury, Western Australia.
Byrne, D., & Nugent, M. (2004). Mapping attachment: A spatial approach to aboriginal post-contact heritage. Sydney: Department of Environment and Conservation (NSW).
Dortch, C. E. (1974). A twelve thousand year old occupation floor at Devil’s Lair. Mankind, 9, 195–205.
Dortch, C. E. (1976). Two engraved stone plaques of late Pleistocene age from Devil’s Lair, Western Australia. Archaeology and Physical Anthropology in Oceania, 3, 32–44.
Dortch, C. E. (2002). Modelling past aboriginal hunter gatherer socio-economic and territorial organisation in Western Australia’s lower south west. Archaeology in Oceania, 37, 1–21.
Goldie, T. (1989). Fear and temptation: The image of the indigene in Canadian, Australian and New Zealand literatures. Kingston, Ontario, Canada: McGill-Queens University Press.
Goode, B. (2003). A desktop preliminary Aboriginal Heritage Survey for Water Corporations proposed development of the Yarragadee Aquifer in the lower south west corner of Western Australia. A report prepared for Gutteridge, Haskins and Davey Pty. Ltd. On behalf of Western Australian Water Corporation.
Guilfoyle, D. R., Bennell, B., Webb, W., Gilles, V., & Strickland, J. (2009). Integrating natural resource management and indigenous cultural heritage: A model and case study from South-western Australia. Heritage Management, 2(2), 149–176.
Guilfoyle, D. R., Webb, W., Webb, T., & Mitchell, M. (2011). A structure and process for ‘working beyond the site’ in a commercial context: A case study from Dunsborough, southwest Western Australia. Australian Archaeology, 73(Dec 2011), 25–32.
Haebich, A. (1992). For their own good: Aborigines and government in the southwest of Western Australia, 1900–1940. Nedlands, WA: University of Western Australia Press.
Hallam, S. J. (1975). Fire and hearth: A study of aboriginal usage and European usurpation in southwestern Australia. Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies.
Liebkind, K. (1989). The identity of a minority. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 10(1), 47–57.
Mudrooroo. (1985). White forms, aboriginal content. In J. Davis, B. Hodge (Eds.), Aboriginal writing today. Canberra: Australian Institutive of Aboriginal Studies.
Nagel, J. (1998). Constructing ethnicity: Creating and recreating ethnic identity and culture. In M. W. Hughey (Ed.), New tribalisms: The resurgance of race and ethnicity. New York: New York University Press.
Omi, M., & Winant, H. (1994). Racial formations in the United States: From the 1960s to the 1990s (2nd ed.). New York: Routledge.
Papastergiadis, N. (2000). The turbulence of migration: Globalization, deterritorialization, and hybridity. Cambridge, England: Polity Press.
Watkins, J. (2005). Through wary eyes: Indigenous perspectives on archaeology. Annual Review of Anthropology, 34, 429–449.
Webb, W. (2011). We Are Wadandi. Dunsborough, online video. Accessed on Sep 1, 2014. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2ornYHcJHU.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2015 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Guilfoyle, D.R., Mitchell, M.B., Webb, W. (2015). Identity and Culturally Defined Methods of Adaptation Amongst the Wadandi People of Southwestern Australia. In: Biehl, P., Comer, D., Prescott, C., Soderland, H. (eds) Identity and Heritage. SpringerBriefs in Archaeology(). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09689-6_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09689-6_9
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-09688-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-09689-6
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawSocial Sciences (R0)