Caring for country, médiation et aboriginalité en Australie du Nord

This paper focuses on the effects of the recent formalisation of indigenous customary responsibilities in relation to the natural environment in the form of mainstream jobs for Aboriginal rangers in northern Australia. It endeavours to describe and discuss the mediating position and role of this new category of actors in the Australian Top End's indigenous communities. The paper argues that the ambiguous status of these rangers, who are at the interface between their local indigenous communities' aspirations and economic and ecological national and global stakes, may cause their «Aboriginality»to come under scrutiny. Based on an ethnographic case study, it analyses practices of fire management as undertaken by rangers in Ngukurr, an indigenous community in Arnhem Land.