Exploring ‘Aboriginal’ sites in Sydney: a shifting politics of place?

Abstract

In 2000 I was employed by the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) to write a monograph about Aboriginal sites in Sydney. The brief for the project was very broad: what might constitute ‘a site’ was not pre-determined, nor was any other aspect of the content, although it was stipulated that the book be developed in consultation with Sydney’s peak Aboriginal organisations, most particularly land councils. The research was undertaken collaboratively with Alana Harris, renowned Wiradjuri photographer, and the outcome was Aboriginal Sydney: a guide to important places of the past and present, published by Aboriginal Studies Press in 2001.1 The book is a guide to fifty places in the greater Sydney region, an area bordered by Kuring-gai Chase National Park in the north, Cranebrook and Greendale in the west, and Kurnell and Botany Bay in the south. It is intended for a very broad audience, and designed to be used as a straightforward guide book as well as a selective and short social history of Sydney.