This paper has two aims: (1) to introduce the broader project of Monster Anthropology that my colleague Geir Presterudstuen and I have been working on for over a decade now; and (2) to illustrate how an anthropological focus on monsters can add new perspectives on the ways in which we live with, in, and through, crises. Specifically, I focus on three monsters haunting Warlpiri people in central Australia and three types of crisis they respectively are associated with. I begin with Jarnpa, a murderous kind of monster who has traditionally been held responsible for ‘un-natural’ deaths and who has adapted with the settler colony to expand its killing among sedentised Warlpiri people, increasing contemporary high mortality rates. I then explore what the Pangkarlangu (a child-eating hairy giant) can tell us about Warlpiri experiences of the Sixth Extinction. Finally, I examine the issue of space pollution through Warlpiri monster knowledge, and conclude by considering some of the implications of what it means to live in a haunted present.

Associate Professor Yasmine Musharbash, School of Archaeology and Anthropology, College of Arts and Social Sciences, ANU