Gija art and material culture: Succession and externality in Northern Australia

This article examines the dynamism of art and material culture within the Gija community of Warmun, in the East Kimberley region of Western Australia, and how it is used to sustain continuing traditions and negotiate change. Ethnographic accounts of events surrounding the creation, use and circulation of artworks and material culture reveal how they operate within networks of kinship and custodial responsibility. An analysis of the Warmun Community Collection introduces the categories of enculturation, acculturation, and hybridity to illustrate how Gija people have responded to internal and external socio-cultural systems amongst socio-historical change. Drawing on the concept of relative autonomy, the article argues that in Warmun, cultural succession through artwork and material culture is a relational process that maintains degrees of independence, whilst being shaped by internal and external forces.