‘Born is noth ing: Roots, family trees and other attachments to land in the Victoria River District and the Kimberleys

Work is nothing. Born is nothing. That grandfather is roots just like grass split up and go all over the place. If they claim the wrong place, they can kill them. N.Waterloo, 1992 2 In this quotation a respected lawman, living at Bulla, articulates a very common view among Aboriginal people in the Victoria River District, Northern Territory, about rights to land. Where you have worked or lived is irrelevant to these rights, he says. Where you were born is irrelevant. What is important is the inheritance of rights in land from the grandfather a term which covers both father's father (kaku in G urindji/M alngin/ Ngarinyman) and mother's father (jaiviji in G urindji/M alngin/Ngarinym an). He uses a plant metaphor for this relationship, which in various forms is also very common cur­ rently in discussions of relationships between people and land in the Victoria River Dis­ trict ('VRD'), which will be analysed in detail below. The final sentence of the quotation underlines the grave penalties which traditional law can mete out to people who claim rights in any other way than through such inheritance.