Animals, Place, People and Story: Relational Identities in Sacred Australian Country

Abstract

This essay is about relationships: relationships with fauna, with place, and with, what is, sacred country in the Australian context. Beginning with some general questions about fauna and place identity, the discussion then shifts to a particular context wherein which connections with fauna are embedded in a wider network of relationships - including those with stories - of such significance as to be constitutive of identity as it may be broadly conceived. Drawing on Margaret Kemarre Turner's 'Tyerrtye - what it means to be an Aboriginal Person', I will offer a non-indigenous interpretation of the nature of the relationships described in her book; an interpretation which develops an ontology of internal relations.