The religious bases of Aboriginal connections to country

Dr John Morton in conversation with Carmen Cummings

Summary: John Morton is an anthropologist who has worked with Aboriginal people across much of Australia, including in particular Arrernte people in Central Australia, and has lectured and researched at several Australian Universities. He is widely published on such matters as Aboriginal religion. He has considerable experience in land rights and native title matters. Carmen Cummings is an applied anthropologist with interests in psychological anthropology and the relationships between people and places. She has been conducting native title research in Western Australia since 2007.

In these two videocasts and podcasts, John Morton and Carmen Cummings in conversation explore the fundamentally religious basis of classical Aboriginal societies, including local organisation, the nature of descent groups, the nexus between Aboriginal people and their country, and the very meaning of life itself. These are of considerable significance to anthropologists’ roles in Native Title matters regarding the basis of the ‘laws and customs’ under which the Aboriginal people concerned have ‘connections’ to their country.