Paper short abstract:

In this paper, I explore some of the ways the social media platform Facebook is used by Aboriginal people in Central Cape York Peninsula, with attention paid to the particular 'public' arena created by Facebook and expressions of tribal identity and corporate group membership.

Paper long abstract:

Anthropological engagement with social media is a recent development, as is anthropological attention to the diverse ways in which Indigenous Australians utilize social media. Indigenous people in the remotest regions of Australia have now largely breached the 'digital divide', with the ubiquitous use of smart phones and ever-increasing internet access leading to Facebook becoming the most popular social media platform (Carson 2015; Kral 2011). In this paper, I explore the use of Facebook among Aboriginal people living in Central Cape York Peninsula, where it has become one of the most effective means of communication between individuals, families, and the broader world. Following the work of Miller et al (2016), I argue that understandings of social media should necessarily be context-dependent, and that sociality online is related to offline sociality, with particular 'genres' of communication and discourse pre-existing social media platforms. Drawing on participant observation and interview data, I also argue that Facebook is an extension of the local public domain but with the capacity to engage an ever-broader public. In this 'new' public arena, existing at a time in which native title/land claims have been largely successful, Facebook has created the possibility for a unique genre of expression of 'tribal' identity and corporate group membership. I argue that such expressions of corporate belonging and identity are unprecedented: in their visual nature, in their speed and scope in reaching both intended and unintended audiences, and the ways in which such expressions can be strategically fashioned, controlled, and conformed to.