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INDIGENOUS STUDIES It's not just where you dig, but how Skye Krichauff. Nharrungga Wargunni Bugi-buggilu: A Journey Through Narungga History. Moonta, S.A.: Narungga Aboriginal Progress Association, 2011. xii + 203 p. A$39.95 ISBN: 9781862549104
Reflecting upon local farmers who find Aboriginal hammer stones in their gardens, historian Skye Krischauff writes, "When you start digging, the past approaches the present" (4). The statement parallels her own process of researching the Narungga tribe, historical inhabitants of Yorke Peninsula in the state of South Australia. The boot-shaped peninsula between Spencer Gulf and Gulf St. Vincent was first explored by British and French geographers in 1802 and experienced permanent European settlement about the mid-nineteenth century through farming and, later, copper mining. Krichauff s book comes out of a project initiated by the Narungga Aboriginal Progress Association and provides a basic overview of Narungga culture and lifestyle pre-encounter followed by a dynamic analysis of cross-cultural interactions between the Narungga and Europeans throughout the nineteenth century.
The purpose of the book seems twofold. First, to enliven and narrate histories whose outlines heretofore "[sat] boxed and filed, microfilmed and safely stored in South Australian archives" (7). The author pieces together travelogues of early explorers and surveyors, local newspaper articles, and oral and written accounts from Yorke Peninsula residents (both European and Aboriginal) to give a sense of the events, individuals, and attitudes that determined how Narungga negotiated the colonization of...