Children Have Big Stories: An Ethnographic Multi-Sited Study of Contemporary Ngaanyatjarra and Pintupi Early Years Practices. ...

• Main Author: Holmes, Catherine
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: The Australian National University 2023
• Subjects: First Nations
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.25911/38wt-w210; https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/handle/1885/292222

This thesis explores children's practices in three remote Australian First Nations communities in the desert region of Western Australia. Based on ethnographic research with 30 Ngaanyatjarra and Pintupi children aged 0-6 years old and their caregivers, contemporary childhood is examined across a variety of contexts. The overall purpose of this study is to contribute to the understanding of children's practices in this environment. Contemporary child-related policy discourses in this context overemphasise deficit and mainstreaming. Anthropological accounts rarely focus on children's lives prior to school or child-and-family practices. Mediascapes perpetuate stereotypes with representations of 'traditional' practices that exotify and fail to engage with the complexity of contemporary young children's lives. There is a current paucity of serious engagement with the early years of Ngaanyatjarra and Pintupi children's lives prior to schooling. To address these concerns, the following questions are investigated: ...