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This paper analyzes the functions of interactional devices used by co-tellers in multiparty stories in Umpila and Kuuku Ya'u, two closely related dialects of a Paman language of Cape York Peninsula, Australia. Within the Umpila and Kuuku Ya'u speech community there is a strong cultural preference for multiparty storytelling – a preference which has been noted in a number of Aboriginal Australian contexts. This paper seeks to understand the mechanisms through which co-tellers in these multiparty narratives contribute to the story. It first discusses co-teller roles, and distinguishes three key narrator roles and orders of conduct associated with each. The analysis then focuses on the use of questions and evaluative comments used by one type of co-teller, supporting narrators. The following discussion demonstrates that questions and evaluative comments go beyond immediate functions of seeking information or spontaneous expressive reactions. They help to fulfil expectations on supporting narrators to engage actively in the talk. It is additionally shown that these devices have functions in highlighting key aspects of the story and developing stance in intricate ways that complement the main line of the storytelling. The analysis demonstrates the close coordination of co-tellers in constructing a story; piece-by-piece they collaboratively describe and evaluate the story events as a group, prioritizing a local and situated shared telling over other potential story goals like performance and progressivity of a plot. The analysis of Umpila and Kuuku Ya'u storytelling contributes to the field of interaction and narrative studies by furthering our understanding of the organization of storytelling in different cultures and languages contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The diurnal cycle of precipitation and its associated land‐sea breeze circulation over coastal northern Australia are investigated using surface wind speed and enthalpy (latent and sensible heat) fluxes from the Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System. Composite results during the austral summer of 2018–2022 show that diurnal precipitation propagates westward from the Cape York Peninsula into the Gulf of Carpentaria. The diurnal cycle of precipitation and surface wind speed are strongly coupled, with the wind speed maximum slightly leading the precipitation maximum. Additionally, analysis of the moist static energy budget shows that surface fluxes help support the westward‐propagation of diurnal precipitation. These results—based on novel satellite data and reanalysis—are consistent with previous studies that have examined the impact of the land‐sea breeze on the diurnal cycle of precipitation. The results provide a benchmark for model representation of this important atmosphere‐ocean‐land interaction. Plain Language Summary: The modulation of the diurnal cycle of precipitation over coastal northern Australia by surface winds was studied using the recently launched NASA Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS). Results show a strong connection between the daily cycles of precipitation and surface wind speed, with an offshore wind speed maximum leading the precipitation maximum by a few hours. Westward propagation of diurnal precipitation and wind speed signals occurs from the Cape York Peninsula into the Gulf of Carpentaria. A thermodynamic analysis supports the importance of the wind speed signal and associated surface fluxes for fostering offshore precipitation propagation. The novelty of this paper lies in the use of the new CYGNSS retrievals, which provide better space and time coverage of surface wind speed than previous satellite‐based measurements and are not as negatively affected by precipitation contamination. Key Points: Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System wind speeds and latent heat fluxes are used to study the diurnal cycle over the northern Australia coastal regionEnhanced diurnal precipitation is associated with enhanced surface wind speed and convergenceDiurnal precipitation and surface wind speed signals propagate westward in tandem from the Cape York Peninsula [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global processes associated with the expansion of colonialism and the emergence of capitalist economies after 1500 were often driven by a desire to create new capital via the acquisition of land and resources, with severe implications for Indigenous peoples. These processes were highly variable, and strongly shaped by the local circumstances encountered at the periphery of European networks of commerce and trade. A number of researchers have suggested that a particularly acute phase of violence and landscape expropriation, sometimes referred to as war capitalism or terra nullius colonialism, underpinned the establishment of colonial settlements and new economic enterprises. This paper characterises processes of colonization and the establishment of capitalist industry within a discrete study area in Cape York Peninsula, northeastern Australia. In particular, we aim to examine in an holistic fashion the nature of encounters and interactions between Indigenous custodians and settler-colonists between 1860 and 1939, using a documentary archaeology approach combined with qualitative data analysis methods. We demonstrate that while violence of various forms was a routine aspect of interactions, a holistic approach to analysis of available data enables the development of a more nuanced understanding of the contours and pattern of colonialism and the nature and implications of different forms of violence for Indigenous peoples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Complex intersecting social, economic and environmental dilemmas in Australia's Cape York Peninsula present a number of challenges for planners seeking to develop and implement land use and natural resource management (NRM) plans. There have been five different attempts at land use and NRM planning in Cape York Peninsula over the last 20 years. These processes have (to greater or lesser extents) failed to deliver community-owned and government-supported plans to guide development and/or the management of the region's natural resources. The region is remote, sparsely populated, and home to a significant Indigenous population. Much of the contestation within the region surrounds the access, use and ownership of the region's internationally valuable natural resources. This paper reviews, from the literature, the relevancy and applicability of criteria for best practice planning and governance. A range of identified best practice governance and planning principles are applied to assess the governance arrangements for planning in the Peninsula. The paper finds that decision-making arrangements for land use and NRM planning in the Peninsula are still in their infancy and are inadequate to support effective outcomes. The paper concludes that broader attention to best practice principles in governance for planning is needed to improve planning outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Large mounded deposits of shell are prominent archaeological features across much of the north Australian tropical coast. Many of the shell mounds are composed almost entirely of the bivalve Anadara granosa (Linnaeus 1758), a food source for Aboriginal people in the past. A relatively long history of inquiry into the nature and significance of the shell mounds has focussed primarily on analysing the shell component as clues to Australian Aboriginal coastal economies in the past. This paper presents results of new analyses on the non-shell sediments, examining the physical and chemical signatures of depositional and post-depositional processes within shell mounds near Weipa in far north Queensland, Australia, with a view to obtaining insights into how they formed and for what purposes, and how their morphology, structure and content may have changed since they ceased accumulating. We also consider how such changes might relate to past and present environmental conditions. Physical and chemical analyses indicate that the primary purpose of mound building was most likely to discard the large volumes of shell resulting from A. granosa harvesting and consumption. Post-depositional diagenetic alteration has strongly influenced the present day composition and form of the shell mounds, in particular the accession of carbon and silica to the mounds by environmental burning aided by strong leaching under the seasonal high rainfall conditions. As such the mound chemistry is more likely to reflect modern environmental conditions rather than provide an archive of, or an opening to, the past. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two subspecies of Graceful Honeyeater Meliphaga (Microptilotis) gracilis are recognised in north-eastern Queensland: imitatrix inhabiting the Wet Tropics and gracilis inhabiting northern Cape York Peninsula. Vocalisations differ greatly between the two, so the strong possibility emerges that they are distinct species. The ranges of these taxa are separated by ~140 km in the vicinity of Cape Flattery-Princess Charlotte Bay on the eastern coast of Cape York Peninsula. Significantly, a thorough search confirms that there have been no specimens collected from this geographical gap between the two populations and previously suspected intergradation does not occur. This paper describes the considerable differences between the two, especially with respect to vocalisations, and suggests that these taxa represent distinct species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Free prior informed consent is a critical concept in enacting the rights of Indigenous People according to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. This paper outlines a case for the inclusion of free prior informed consent in World Heritage nomination processes and examines issues that are problematic when enacting free prior informed consent. Case research was used to analyse current issues in the potential nomination of certain areas of Cape York Peninsula, Australia. The authors’ reflexive engagement within this case offers insights into the praxis of developing a World Heritage nomination consent process. The outcomes of this research were: preconditions need to be addressed to avoid self-exclusion by indigenous representative organisations; the nature of consent needs to account for issues of representation and Indigenous ways of decision making; the power of veto needs to have formal recognition in the nomination process; and prioritising self-determination within free prior informed consent ensures the intent of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The paper contributes to the human rights agenda of Indigenous People and conservation management processes by helping address the issues that will be raised during a World Heritage nomination process. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper analyses the functions of represented speech and thought (RST) in narratives in Umpithamu, a Pama-Nyungan language of Cape York Peninsula (Australia). The paper first surveys the different mechanisms available for marking a shift from the narrator's deictic centre to a narrative participant, including a number of constructions that use perception and motion predicates to signal RST. The analysis then focuses on the narrative functions of RST, showing that it has a macrostructural function beyond the representation of a specific participant's speech and thought, more specifically highlighting the central episodes of a narrative. The evidence comes from an analysis of three genres with a different macrostructure: one (personal history) for which the classic Labovian schema of complication–resolution works well and two others (both dealing with the supernatural world) that rely on different structuring principles. It is shown that RST is systematically associated with central episodes across the three genres, and that the location and nature of RST co-vary with the different location and nature of these episodes in the three genres. In narratives of supernatural encounter, for instance, RST conveys modal negotiation about the interpretation of the central events in terms of the supernatural world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research on remote nineteenth-and early twentieth-century Indigenous missions in northern and central Australia point to their often tenuous existence and the complex nature of engagements between Christian Missionaries and Indigenous people. This paper explores the contribution and significance of Indigenous production of wild foods in the context of one such settlement located at Weipa on Cape York Peninsula, north eastern Australia. It is premised on the assertion that investigation of the economies of these often remote settlements has the potential to reveal much about the character of cross-cultural engagements within the context of early mission settlements. Many remote missions had a far from secure economic basis and were sometimes unable to produce the consistent food supplies that were central to their proselytizing efforts. In this paper it is suggested that Indigenous-produced wild foods were of significant importance to the mission on a day-to-day basis in terms of their dietary contribution (particularly in terms of protein sources) and were also important to Indigenous people from a social and cultural perspective. We develop this argument through the case study of culturally modified trees that resulted from the collection of wild honey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bauxite mining operations are increasingly sited on Indigenous-owned land, particularly in tropical areas, including northern Australia. The environmental impacts of bauxite mining are significant. Native vegetation, including commercially valuable forests, is cleared and typically windrowed and burnt. For many Indigenous Australians, mining of their land creates much concern about biocultural, community health and livelihood impacts from the loss of access to traditional lands and resources, and the ability to 'care for country'. Improved pre-mining utilisation of forest resources and effective mine rehabilitation can mitigate some of these impacts and it is important to Indigenous communities that they are engaged in these processes. But Indigenous peoples' expectations are rarely considered or adequately addressed in site clearing activities or mine completion criteria, and there is limited guidance on how their expected outcomes can be monitored and evaluated for mine closure and relinquishment. This paper reports on a case-study of the Western Cape York Peninsula bauxite mining region in northern Australia. The paper reviews mine rehabilitation in the case-study region, including related Indigenous forest livelihoods initiatives, presents local Indigenous peoples' expectations for pre- and post-mining forest and landscape management as an integrated mining-community forestry 'vision', and discusses implications for mine completion criteria, mine closure and relinquishment. The findings highlight the need for Indigenous peoples' full and transparent free, prior and informed consent participation in all aspects of mine closure planning, and for further research to trial the development and assessment of mine completion criteria linked to local biocultural landscape restoration and Indigenous livelihoods. The findings can inform mining policymakers, regulators and industry professionals on the design, implementation and monitoring of mine completion criteria and associated pre- and post-mining management that will improve environmental outcomes and socio-cultural benefits for Indigenous communities impacted by mining. • Bauxite mining impacts Indigenous Traditional Owners (TOs). • TOs expect improved pre- and post-mining forest and landscape management. • Mine rehabilitation via Indigenous community forestry can support TO livelihoods. • Mine completion criteria must consider biocultural landscape restoration. • How to evaluate successful biocultural landscape restoration and livelihood outcomes? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sediment budget modeling has become a widely used management tool for setting priorities for natural resource management in Australia and globally. Two of the most widely used models in Australia, SedNet, and its more recent successor Source Catchments, rely on the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) to predict sediment production from hillslope erosion. In Australia, however, very little empirical data exists with which to test the hillslope sediment yields predicted by the RUSLE, particularly in the more remote savannah woodlands of northern Australia that are used by the cattle grazing industry. These savannah woodland landscapes comprise the vast majority of the catchment area draining into key ecological assets such as the Great Barrier Reef lagoon. In this paper we present the design and evaluation of a simple, low cost hillslope sediment trap (HST) that requires little to no maintenance across an entire wet season. It can consequently be deployed in remote, inaccessible areas to collect sediment generated through hillslope erosion processes as a means of testing predictions of erosion. Using these traps, it is possible to develop locally calibrated hillslope erosion models that will provide far more realistic predictions of erosion than have previously been employed. Laboratory flume evaluations of the HSTs also show that the traps will accurately sample the full particle size distribution of sediment mobilized on a given hillslope, with a suspended sediment (< 63 μm) trapping efficiency conservatively estimated to be 50%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The outstanding natural and cultural values of Cape York have been acknowledged for decades, but those decades have been characterised by deep conflict. Non-government organisation intervention in local politics has seen a forceful push for nominating some or all of the Cape York Peninsula as a World Heritage Site. We illuminate the authorised heritage discourse at work in heritage-making, and highlight contested issues of ownership, governance, authenticity, and value. These themes contribute to the possibility of marginalising the voices of local people who wish to contribute to heritage-making in Cape York. Politics infuses all aspects of heritage-making in Cape York, and the specific experiences on Cape York reflect larger political processes occurring in World Heritage discourse. The paper draws on interviews undertaken in May and June 2012. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marrying into the community whose culture you are studying opens up philosophical and practical quandaries for the researcher and facilitates opportunities that are not otherwise available. Marriage brings with it many subtle shifts in relationships within the community. George Orwell (1937) speaks of class difference but could equally have been talking of cultural difference when he said ‘it is not so much a stone wall as a plate glass pane of an aquarium; it is so easy to pretend that it isn't there, and so impossible to get through it’. Does marriage enable you to cross that barrier? What difference, if any, is there in the nature of the resulting research and its benefits or otherwise to the community? This paper provides a glimpse into the author's journey as a researcher in Northern Cape York Peninsula, Australia and reflects on the way interpersonal relationships influenced her approach to research. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper is a semantic analysis of ''experienced action'' constructions in Umpithamu, a Paman language from Cape York Peninsula (Australia). The basic argument is that these constructions are related to the better-attested category of experiencer object constructions (e.g. Evans, Non-nominative subjects 1: 69--192, 2004), which in Umpithamu describe involuntary experience of bodily processes. Experienced action constructions extend the feature of ''involuntary experience'' from processes within the body to actions originating outside the body, and thus provide a semantically marked alternative for standard transitive clauses. The constructions are typologically interesting because they show the need to identify different loci of experiential semantics in a construction, and they help to clarify the status of control for human Undergoers within semantic typologies of reduced transitivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines invasion of grasslands on Cape York Peninsula, Australia, by Melaleuca viridiflora and other woody species, and the role of storm-burning (lighting fires after the first wet season rains) in their maintenance. Trends in disturbance features, fuel characteristics, ground layer composition, and woody plants dynamics under combinations of withholding fire and storm-burning over a 3-year period were measured on 19 plots in three landscape settings. Population dynamics of M. viridiflora are described in detail and 20-year population projections based on transition matrices under different fire regimes generated. Numerous M. viridiflora suckers occurred within the grass layer, increasing each year regardless of fire regime, and were rapidly recruited to the canopy in the absence of fire. Storm-burning had little impact on fuel, ground layer or woody plant composition, but maintained open vegetation structure by substantially reducing recruitment of M. viridiflora suckers to the sapling layer, and by reducing the above-grass-layer abundance of several other invasive woody species. Population projections indicated that withholding fire for 20 years could cause a sevenfold increase of M. viridiflora density on Ti-tree flats, and that annual to triennial storm-burning should be effective at maintaining a stable open vegetation structure. These findings argue against vegetation thickening being an inevitable consequence of climate change. We conclude that a fire regime that includes regular storm-burning can be effective for maintaining grasslands and grassy woodlands being invaded by M. viridiflora. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The year 2006 marks the quatercentenary of the first known European charting of any part of the Australian coastline, when the Dutch mariner Willem Janszoon explored 300 kms of the north-west coast of Cape York Peninsula. He bestowed seven placenames, two of which, Moent and Dubbelde Ree have ambiguous meanings or referents. This paper attempts to resolve the enigmas behind these names by considering geographic, linguistic and historical evidence. Moent is particularly challenging, with several possible linguistic sources, some more plausible than others. The most compelling evidence points to it either referring to the western entrance to Endeavour Strait, or a Dutch rendition of an Indigenous Australian word. Dubbelde Ree is less problematic. The issue surrounding this name is whether its second element is meant to be Ree, an abbreviation of Reede (‘Roadstead’), or Rev, an abbreviation of Revier (‘River’). The search for the meaning of these placenames has provided credible evidence demonstrating that Janszoon explored the coastline in greater detail than has hitherto been thought, and that, in all likelihood, made contact with the local inhabitants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The issue of personal and family connections to traditional homelands has been the subject of considerable attention—and dispute—in Australia's ‘native title era’. This paper examines contemporary Indigenous connections to country in Central Cape York Peninsula and, in particular, the affective aspects of local and diaspora ties to place. Drawing on recent theorisations of place and locality, I outline some of the ways in which Indigenous attachments to specific localities are becoming both more complex and increasingly inflected by the location of Indigenous people within late modern liberal society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops an alternative interpretation of shell mound phenomena at Albatross Bay, near Weipa on the west coast of Cape York Peninsula. Past researchers have interpreted these distinct mounded middens as functional edifices, constructed to enable small family groups to camp closer to resources during the late wet season. Here I propose that the mounds at Weipa were associated with relatively large groups of people intensively exploiting the shell fish Anadara granosa. This argument is based on a range of factors, including the biological characteristics of Anadara, a species that makes up over 904570360f the composition of shell mounds, as well as archaeological and ethnographic evidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This paper describes the background to, implementation of and evaluation challenges associated with an innovative, arts-based, wellbeing and mental health recovery project in a remote Indigenous setting. Results: Creative Recovery is a community-based arts initiative for Indigenous people with mental health problems. It has been rolled out as a pilot project in a remote Cape York community and is aimed at promoting wellbeing and recovery. The theoretical basis for the initiative is modelled on ideas of the role that social capital plays in improving mental health. This involves both the beneficial impact community participation and the social cohesion it creates can have, not only on an individual's mental health, but also on the social and emotional wellbeing of the communities they are part of. Such initiatives have already been adopted as an integral part of mental health promotion in countries such as the UK, and in other Australian states such as Victoria and Western Australia. The following paper will locate Creative Recovery in the current field of mental health promotion theory and Indigenous social and emotional wellbeing, and will discuss some of the evidence for and challenges inherent in adopting such initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: This paper describes the challenges in implementing an innovative arts-based mental health project in a remote Indigenous community. Method: The author (the Art Centre Manager) presents a personal narrative of the development of the Aurukun Creative Livelihoods project. Results: A partnership between an existing arts and mental health project (Creative Recovery) and the Wik and Kugu Arts and Craft Centre is described. This collaboration aims to enhance the emotional and social wellbeing of vulnerable Aboriginal people in a remote Indigenous community in Cape York - Aurukun. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The health status of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples continues to be significantly poorer than Australia's general population. Clearly there is a need for change, hence the renewed interest in transitioning to a community control model for health services as a health intervention. Yet this requires a significant change management process, which is a process developed using Western business philosophies, and may not be applicable for community-controlled services that need to operate within the Aboriginal cultural domain. This paper examines the literature on organisational change management processes, and features of Aboriginal community-controlled health organisations and Aboriginal management styles. It identifies challenges and synergies that can be used to inform more effective transition processes to a community-control model for health services. The findings also highlight the need for a fundamental systems change approach to achieve such major reform agendas through the creation of a "collective responsibility" to achieve the vision for change, utilising participatory change management processes both internally and externally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Health service delivery model reforms are currently underway in Cape York in an effort to improve health outcomes for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. These reforms include the transition of the Apunipima Cape York Health Council from an advocacy agency to a community-controlled health service provider. This paper investigates the literature on existing community governance models and community-controlled health service delivery models, to guide the choice of the most appropriate model for the Cape York health reforms. The evidence collected suggests a new innovative health service delivery model is emerging that will not only improve Indigenous health status, but may also present a more appropriate model for the health care sector than the existing mainstream health service delivery model provided for other sections of the collective Australian population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]