The origins and history of outstations as Aboriginal Life projects

In recent years, there has been an acrimonious debate about the existence and significance of outstations or ‘homeland communities’ as they are sometimes called. These debates have cast various interpretations on the motivations for the establishment and support of these small and remote Indigenous residential formations. For example, outstations have sometimes been characterised by traditionalists as a retreat from modernisation, and from time to time they have been characterised in very negative terms. Indeed, one government minister called them ‘cultural museums’ (Eastley 2005; see Kowal 2010: 182). We hope to show, however, that such views give little hearing for an Aboriginal perspective, and trivialise complex policy issues and deeply held views. In these debates, we fear, something of the lived experiences, motivations and histories of existing communities is missing. For this reason, we invited a number of anthropological witnesses to the early period in which outstations gained a purchase in remote Australia to provide accounts of what these communities were like, and what their residents’ aspirations and experiences were.