Hardness and Housing at a Warlpiri Community
Seminar
When Nakamarra, a Warlpiri resident of Nyirrpi (NT) observed, “They getting really hard with the houses” – what did she mean? In this paper I unpack what it means when Warlpiri people describe someone as being or feeling ‘hard’ and ask how this differs to the ways ‘hardness’ resonates at the…
Weedy Finance: Weather Insurance and Parametric Life on Unstable Grounds
Seminar
For commercial sesame farming in northern Paraguay, where insurance companies sell weather derivatives to poor farmers, key financial practices depend less on healthy sesame and more on the weeds that thrive among the profitable plants. Parametric insurance is triggered by certain weather…
Exploring the Impacts of Hunting and Logging on Endangered Gibbons and other Primates in Veun Sai- Siem Pang National Park, Cambodia
Seminar
Looking for a distraction from the perils of lockdown? Look no further, the next instalment of the BIAN Seminar Series 2021 is here! For our next seminar we are thrilled to welcome Sarah McGrath from our very own ANU Biological Anthropology research group. Sarah will be giving a talk…
Of Winds, Worms and Fertility: The Meci Festival in Timor-Leste
Seminar
This seminar focuses on indigenous calendars, environmental practices and ritual feasting in relation to the Meci festival in Timor-Leste. ‘Meci’ is the name given to the Palolo worm in the Fataluku language. The Meci festival takes place when Palolo emerge to spawn along the nearshore of the…
The Marginal Languages of Colonial Belief
Seminar
At what point did colonized peoples come to be recognized as objects of evangelistic attention? When were their languages recognized as media for the transmission of truth? I argue that in certain contexts of Protestant missionization, concepts of speaker sincerity and colonial fears of laborers’…
Jungle Passports: Fences, Mobility and Citizenship at the Northeast India-Bangladesh Border
Seminar
Since the nineteenth century, a succession of states has classified the inhabitants of Northeast India and Bangladesh as Muslim 'frontier peasants', 'savage mountaineers', and Christian 'ethnic minorities', suspecting them of disloyalty. This talk follows the struggles of cattle traders and…
The Repatriation Movement in Aotearoa New Zealand with Dr Amber Aranui
Seminar
Zoom event link: shorturl.at/uCGO8 This presentation will look at the development of the fast growing repatriation Movement in Aotearoa New Zealand. A particular emphasis will be placed on the return of Māori and Moriori human remains from museum and university collections from within both…