Professor Jon Altman describes transformations in the customary economy of Aboriginal people in western Arnhem Land over 60 years – a comparative analysis made possible because of research undertaken by Frederick McCarthy and Margaret McArthur in 1948.

Whereas the 1948 Expedition presented vast collections of plant and animal life classified according to Linnaean taxonomy, Emeritus Professor Dr Ad Borsboom explores how the Yolngu organise and present knowledge through mythological Dreaming stories.

For seven decades the Queensland government intercepted Aboriginal people’s wages, child endowment, pensions, inheritances. It controlled their bank accounts, deducted fees, restricted withdrawals. This was wrong. What are the avenues for redress?

Are the Dreaming and the Market mutually exclusive? In economics as in anthropology, ‘animal spirits’ are understood to influence outcomes. Geoff Buchanan explores the hybrid economy (customary, market and state) in the context of caring for country.

Hundreds of Aboriginal men were employed as police trackers from 1862. They enjoyed a regular income, but the work was risky and the pay and conditions terrible. Michael Bennett describes the system and makes the case for a compensatory scheme.

Payments for Environmental Services (PES) are used to simultaneously tackle poverty and environmental degradation. Using data from two field sites, Nanni Concu talks about the potential of PES to promote a natural-resource-based economy in Arnhem Land.

Challenging the idea that equal wages caused mass eviction and unemployment for Aboriginal people, Fiona Skyring looks at other factors such as how government investigations in 1965 and 1966 discouraged station owners from appropriating pension payments.

Deirdre Tedmanson uses Foucault’s notion of ‘governmentality’ to explore impediments to enterprise development in ‘remote’ homelands and communities on the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara lands of South Australia, and ways of overcoming them.

Ian Keen provides a brief, broad view of the discussions over the two-day conference, its themes and its significance, covering hybrid models, empirical studies and the links between research and practice.

Gwenda Baker traces the history of Aboriginal labour on Methodist missions in Arnhem Land, where award wages led to fewer jobs. While resenting the low wages, some Aborigines see their work on the missions as a highlight of enterprise and achievement.