Paper short abstract:

Given the legacy of anthropological research in Cape York Peninsula, most residents have engaged with research in some form. This paper is a mid-fieldwork reflection on how a variety of people have responded to the idea of anthropological research on intercultural land relations in Cape York.

Paper long abstract:

The Aboriginal population of Cape York Peninsula has attracted significant anthropological interest since the late 19th century. Today, a large proportion of Cape York has been determined as Aboriginal land and is subject to complex management agreements involving multiple tenure-types, levels of government and stakeholders. These structures have precipitated the creation of new kinds of relationships between Aboriginal traditional owners, National Parks and pastoralists. My research investigates how a variety of Cape York residents relate to land and how this is manifested in their practical connections to land. Given Cape York's status as a site of significant anthropological and scientific research, this has entailed entering a field in which most residents have engaged with researchers in some capacity and 'research' is a charged word.

As such, commencing ethnographic research in this region has meant grappling with a variety of expectations around what anthropology is, what it can achieve and who ought to be the subject of anthropological research. This paper questions the impacts of anthropological and scientific research and how an inexperienced researcher such as myself should define her 'role' in a situation where anthropological research has been a part of the social landscape for a considerable time.