Lester Hiatt - Primary Ethnographic Research

Primary Ethnographic Research

The part of Australia where Dr Hiatt did most of his primary, detailed ethnographic fieldwork is in, and around, Maningrida, in the Northern Territory's Arnhem Land.

From the late 1950s (at which time the Australian Aboriginal community of Maningrida was first being formed and gazetted as a township), Dr Les Hiatt spent more than 45 years, of and on, researching, learning and recording the views, language, songs, stories, understandings, and practices of the Burarra or Gidjingarli language speakers.

It was here at Maningrida that Les developed some of his deepest, most persevering research relationships, producing at least one film and a book in memory of Frank Gurrmanamana, one of the 'informants' with whom he worked most closely.

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