Place Theory And Place Maintenance In Aboriginal Australia Case Study

Place theory and place maintenance in Indigenous Australia by Paul Memmott and Stephen long explores the way the Indigenous Australians have and continue to use the land of Australia. It explores the key themes of the cultural differences of the Indigenous Australians to the people of Australia and the way their cultural beliefs have been downtrodden over the years. The fact that the Aboriginal Australians have had their cultural beliefs belittled is a common understanding of the Australian community of today, including myself, this can be seen by the many condolences for the numerous barbaric acts which were undergone including the removal demolition of the places of which held great importance.

As Paul Memmott and Stephen Long state “place

Many believe that their land and the creatures that inhabit it are shaped by ancestral heroes, resulting in ‘Dreaming places’.

It was discovered that the aboriginal community settled along corridors, pathways and travel routes, by following the many rivers and creaks which run through the continent. By having communities with easy access to river systems the areas were provided with local economic resources, residential areas and sacred sites.

The aboriginal committee was a unique one. For instance time is a very perceptual thing and can be perceived differently due to many different things including; seasonal, solar and lunar rhythms, animal behavior, births and deaths, catastrophes, seasonal changes and many more. The aboriginals also have another time construct- the concept of ‘Dreamtime’ which is the concept of having two separate universes with properties which overlap the two universes providing links to the other

Complete places were lost and destroyed which resulted in placelessness. An example given in the reading was the non-indigenous forces attempting to suppress indigenous hunting, something which had been partaken in for many years. The indigenous people have not only had their traditions torn away from them but they also had western culture imposed into them.
Another way the aboriginal people were acculturated was through the shifts in densities of place-properties within the aboriginal communities. The colonial contact also shifted the densities of place-properties by creating new town cemeteries where aboriginal burials started to take place aswell as schools, stores etc. Not only did they enforce new rulings but they also destroyed many aboriginal houses and sites many of which held