Abstract: This seminar paper will present preliminary insights from a doctoral research project that examines the economic development of caring for country in remote Indigenous Australia from an anthropological perspective. The seminar will briefly explore the historical development of caring for country initiatives and provide insights from recent ethnographic fieldwork undertaken with Aboriginal ranger groups in the West Kimberley and in Arnhem Land. The paper will also provide some preliminary critical analysis.

The historical development of caring for country initiatives has coincided with the rise and fall of self-determination and with the growth in influence of neoliberalism. Viewed over the past 30-40 years, caring for country can be seen as a project of both Indigenous Australians and of the state; of self-determination; and of conservation-as-development. Bringing together theory, history and ethnography, the seminar paper will critically examine some of the ways in which relations between country, culture and economy have influenced (and been influenced by) articulations between the customary, the state and the market over time.

Geoff Buchanan is a PhD Candidate in Anthropology at CAEPR, ANU. His doctoral research focuses on the economic development of caring for country in remote Indigenous Australia. Geoff has worked on a number of research projects at CAEPR since 2004, focusing on the environmental significance of the Indigenous estate, the contribution of the customary sector within Indigenous hybrid economies, and the socioeconomics of Indigenous people's use and management of wild resources.