Abstract
Cultural survival is an everyday struggle for the Kuwarra Aboriginal people. They have lost their land, their original ritual life, and much of their language. They live in poverty on the outskirts of outback Australian towns and have faced European legal and political structures dedicated to assimilating them into European society. The response of the Kuwarra people has been to offer apparent compliance and to maintain ritual ties with more traditional Aboriginal groups whose country is beyond the limits of European settlement. They have retreated into a sacred life whose secrecy protects it from final destruction by the European inhabitants. This study traces the history of contact of the Kuwarra Aboriginal people with European settlers in Australia from the first contacts to the present day. When Captain James Cook set sail for the Southern continent in the Endeavor in 1768, he carried with the ship's papers the following advice regarding the land's inhabitants given to him by the President of the Royal Society, one of the sponsors of his voyage of discovery (Beaglehole 1955:514):
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