Author Description

This book focuses on the colonial practice of rationing goods to Aboriginal people, arguing that much of the colonial experience in Central Australia can be understood by seeing rationing as a fundamental, though flexible, instrument of colonial government. Rationing was the material basis for a variety of colonial ventures: scientific, evangelical, pastoral and the postwar program of "assimilation." Combining history and anthropology in a cultural study of rationing, this book develops a new narrative of the colonization of Central Australia.