Don't Forget to Ask: Working with Women and with Men in Aboriginal Australia

Abstract

Until fairly recently, and with some notable exceptions, there was an absence of substantive data on the nature of Aboriginal women's lives, gender relations and women's relationships to land in Australian anthropology. This historical circumstance resulted in inadequate documentation of women's role and status, and interpretations which often confined women to domestic and secular domains and pursuits. Similarly to early data recorded in other subsistence economies such as Canada, America and Africa, the productive and reproductive roles of women (their food gathering and preparation responsibilities, and ability to give birth and to lactate) were often given precedence over women's involvement in land-based ritual and religious ceremonies (Endicott, 1999:411-418).