Linguistic Organisation and Native Title The Wik Case, Australia

• Main Authors: Hale, Ken, Sutton, Peter
• Format: eBook
• Language: English
• Published: Canberra ANU Press 2021
• Edition: 1
• Series: Asia-Pacific Linguistics
• Subjects: Aboriginal Australians; Aboriginal languages; Australasian & Pacific history; Australasian and Pacific history; Book Industry Communication; Cape York; Dictionaries; Ethnic studies; Historical & comparative linguistics; Historical and comparative linguistics; History; History and Archaeology; Humanities; Interest qualifiers; JBSL1 Ethnic groups and multicultural studies; JBSL11 Indigenous peoples; JFSL9 Indigenous peoples; Land tenure; Language; Language and Linguistics; LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES; Language: history & general works; Language: history and general works; Language: reference & general; Language: reference and general; Languages; Linguistics; Multilingualism; Native title (Australia); Regional & national history; Relating to Indigenous peoples; Relating to peoples: ethnic groups, indigenous peoples, cultures and other groupings of people; Relating to specific groups and cultures or social and cultural interests; Social groups; Social groups, communities and identities; Society & culture: general; Society & social sciences; Society and culture: general; Society and Social Sciences; thema EDItEUR; Wik people
• ISBN: 1760464473; 9781760464479; 9781760464462; 1760464465
• DOI: 10.22459/LONT.2021

Classical Aboriginal societies in Australia have commonly been described in terms of social organisation and local organisation. This book presents rich detail on a third and related domain that has not been given the same kind of attention: linguistic organisation. Basing their analyses on fieldwork among the Wik peoples of Cape York Peninsula, north Australia, Peter Sutton and Ken Hale show how cosmology, linguistic variation, language prehistory, clan totemic identities, geopolitics, land use and land ownership created a vibrant linguistic organisation in a classical Aboriginal society. This has been a society long in love with language and languages. Its people have richly imbued the domain of rights and interests in country—the foundations of their native title as recognised in Australian law—with rights and interests in the abundance of languages and dialects given to them at the start of the world.