Berghahn Books Growing Up in Central Australia: New Anthropological Studies of Aboriginal Childhood and Adolescence

"This excellent volume presents... a rich and timely collection of essays on contemporary Aboriginal childhood and youth, each chapter being grounded on extensive ethnographic experiences and studies...It is an original contribution to a growing field, namely the anthropology of childhood and youth...and offers 'food for thought' and a range of perspectives which allow the reader to better appreciate Aboriginal lives, challenges and points of view." · Sylvie Poirier, Université Laval, Québec Surprisingly little research has been carried out about how Australian Aboriginal children and teenagers experience life, shape their social world and imagine the future. This volume presents recent and original studies of life experiences outside the institutional settings of childcare and education, of those growing up in contemporary Central Australia or with strong links to the region. Focusing on the remote communities - roughly 1,200 across the continent - the volume includes case studies of language and family life in small country towns and urban contexts. These studies expertly show that forms of consciousness have changed enormously over the last hundred years for Indigenous societies more so than for the rest of Australia, yet equally notable are the continuities across generations.