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the area for one or two seasons, but this occurred either a long time ago or involved
distinctive experiences (such as being there during a heavy wet season). The Indigenous
research participants included:
Robert Burns
Fred Coleman
Alan Creek
Edwin David
Ivan Jimmy
Wilfred Jimmy
Ezra Michael
Louie Native
Philip Port
Michael Ross
Paddy Yam
Philip Yam (Brolga)
Robert Murray
The non-Indigenous research participants comprised of men from the Hughes family with
experience of the property during Hughes family ownership (Cecil, Colin, Brian and David
Hughes), and Viv Sinnamon, long-term coordinator of the KALNRMO who has experience of
the property dating from the period of its sale to Kowanyama in the early 1990s. Robert
Murray, Brian Hughes and David Hughes were all consulted following the drafting of the
primary report, and any corrections and additions were incorporated into the existing draft.
As was first noted in the executive summary, the research participants for this study were all
men. This reflects the orientation of residence during the pastoral era, and to a lesser degree
the pattern of residence (particularly wet season residence) by Indigenous people since the
property passed back to Kowanyama. This residential orientation, combined with the
unavailability of some key potential female research participants early in the research, led to
a deliberate decision to focus the study on men‟s knowledge, leaving space for a
complementary and comparative study of women‟s knowledge of the Oriners area in the
future. The current study documents and qualitatively models work-related cross-cultural
environmental knowledge about water flows, animal movements, erosion processes, and so
on. Women were integral to pastoral homestead life and some were also experienced
horsewomen and cattle workers, giving them important knowledge about such topics and
making the overall „working knowledge‟ orientation appropriate to them. However a
subsequent complementary study of women‟s knowledge would also be free to choose a
different focus or orientation, one that could be appropriate to, and defined in consultation
with, the participants of such a study.
1.5 Existing archival resources
1.5.1 Introduction
Oriners is hard to access and has had a low residential population during recorded history,
and so there are relatively few resources available about the specific geographic area and/or
its people. However the Mitchell River and the Kowanyama community have both had
considerably more attention paid to them. A number of those works provide useful context for
an Oriners study both from a natural and a social sciences perspective. Recent Kowanyama
management and/or knowledge retention aspirations regarding Oriners have also generated
resources focused on specific issues, and this report is the most recent of those. Some key
resources, and their relevance, are reviewed below.
Working Knowledge at Oriners Station, Cape York
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