Paper short abstract:

In this paper I analyse the presence of two invisible ‘monsters’ – germs and Kurdaitcha – at a remote Warlpiri community in central Australia.

Paper long abstract:

This panel presents a welcome opportunity to dwell more closely on a passing observation from my PhD fieldwork with Warlpiri people at Nyirrpi community, central Australia. In brief, it relates to the similar yet sometimes competing ways in which invisibles – in this case germs and Kurdaitcha - were a structuring presence of everyday community life. For Warlpiri people, the most ubiquitous and feared monster are the Kurdaitcha. Invisible to most, I was struck by Warlpiri peoples’ constant alertness to environmental signs of Kurdaitcha lurking nearby, and the degree to which Warlpiri dwelling and mobility was structured by this possibility. There is an interesting parallel to be drawn here, I think, with the invisible presence and potential danger of germs. In this paper I am partly drawn to ponder these invisibles at the interface of Warlpiri and non-Indigenous relations and ways of being in the world. How do concerns about germs or Kurdaitcha differ? How does the presence of germs or Kurdaitcha impact daily life habits differently? Mostly though my aim is to analyse the similarities between germs and Kurdaitcha; to draw on the monster studies literature to analyse them both as ‘monsters’, now inhabiting a lifeworld for which climate change and the Covid-19 pandemic are just the most recent of existential challenges.