Country Under Concrete: Enduring Indigenous Connections to Country amidst Development

Journal article - by Fredericks, B., & Bywater, E. (2024)

Dr Bob Morgan writes ‘my culture and worldview is centred in Gumilaroi land and its people, it is who I am and will always be. I am my country’ (Morgan 202).

Morgan and other Indigenous Australian scholars (see Moreton-Robinson, The White Possessive; Dodson; Rose, Nourishing Terrains) identify themselves through their cultural and spiritual connections to specific areas of land and the peoples of those lands. Since the colonisation of Australia, Indigenous peoples have been dispossessed of their land through squatting, land grants, leasehold, purchase, or via violence. Over time, land has been farmed, and exploited, and many prime locations developed into industrial and housing estates. This has had a lasting impact on Indigenous people who have witnessed their land harmed via development, which has often involved the damage and destruction of sacred and significant sites and the extinction of some species. The impacts of this are far-reaching. However, as Quandamooka artist Megan Cope points out, this has never severed Indigenous peoples’ relationship or obligation to the land, which she and other Indigenous people call Country. This article explores how development has impacted on Indigenous Australians and their relationship to Country. We discuss how Indigenous artists are resisting development, exercising resilience, and restoring their connection to Country.