A First Nations Perspective

Stories of Nanda Resilience as Told by Elders

Steven Kelly

$305

Hardback

Forthcoming
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English

Routledge
30 May 2025

linguistics; Communication studies; History; Cultural studies; Anthropology

This book is an extrapolation of the research I conducted for my doctoral thesis about my people’s struggle to come to terms with native title claim processes, in which we are required to prove our connection to land, culture and kin.

This book offers a compelling and profound journey of Nanda people’s existence over time. It gives a robust understanding of the kinship and culture of my family group. It differs from others in the same field as it has been produced from an insider’s perspective; it is about my family, who are of the Murchison region of Western Australia. The book presents the ways in which my family continues to hold strong connection to kin and Country through traditional practices that have survived and flourished, regardless of colonialism. This has been achieved through the privileging of my family’s lived experiences and perceptions as told by Elders. In addition, I focus on the small details of our everyday lives to capture aspects of Country and kin. Further, insider positioning is incorporated in a critically reflexive way, based on auto-ethnographic accounts. Each chapter of the book focuses on particular ideas that were developed over the course of the study. The research provides examples of the historical and contemporary struggle of this Nanda family group’s survival and recognition as traditional owners in a native title claim. Particular themes were recurrent features in many of my conversations with Elders. The theme of identity, pertaining to how members of this family group identify with each other and with others, was consistent throughout the process and is based on the love and respect between family members.

Readers interested in Australian history, anthropology, cultural studies and Indigenous studies will appreciate this book.

By: Steven Kelly
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm,
ISBN: 9781032882420
ISBN 10: 1032882425
Pages: 130
Publication Date: 30 May 2025
Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , Primary , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Steven Kelly is a Nanda man from the Murchison region in the mid-west of Western Australia. In 2017, he completed a PhD dissertation on his family’s connection to kin and Country at Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia. He is a senior lecturer in Aboriginal Studies.