We Are Yanyuwa, No Matter What: Town life, family and country

This dissertation is an anthropological case study of identity, social change and cultural continuity for Yanyuwa families living in and around the remote township of Borroloola and the Sir Edward Pellew Islands, in the south-west Gulf of Carpentaria in the Northern Territory, Australia. The research explores shifting social and cultural dynamics of experience and knowledge transfer throughout the last five decades, focused on changing conceptions of being Yanyuwa and what this implies for current and future generations. Ongoing colonial power relationships, cross-generational contrasts in socialisation and shame pertaining to a perceived failure in fulfilling cultural expectations are core themes of the study.