Power courses and pulses across remote Australia. Where once symbols were coded in the land to sustain and guide its guardians, they are now obvious to all. Microwave and satellite dishes have supplanted the wind-powered bore as the technological icons of the outback — remote Australia is no longer isolated Australia. The pulsing rhythms of the generator and the crepitation of distant videos keep the night at bay in even the most remote Aboriginal communities. While power remains central to Aboriginal life, both the cultural symbols, and its negotiation and articulation, are changing. The rerouting of the powerlines within and between Aboriginal groups, and between Aborigines and the wider Australian society, has far-reaching consequences. The Aboriginal flag adorns and bedecks garments and buildings as a communication of a prideful identity, a statement and a challenge. However, these transformations have not taken place without casualties and this work examines some of the behavioural outcomes for this group that have emerged over the last three decades, drawing from one region of remote Aboriginal Australia — the Kimberley.

The Aboriginal informants and subjects, whose cooperation was essential to this work, are too numerous too list. Their help is gratefully acknowledged. Particular thanks are extended to Elsta Foy, Iris Prouse, Richard and Alice Hunter, Jimmy Chi, Susie Gilbert, Jack Mulardy, Nipper Tabagee, Sandy Paddy, Aubrey Tigan, Aboriginal Health Workers, and ex-patients of the Derby leprosarium.