Alternative aboriginal economies: Martu livelihoods in the 21st century

In the western deserts of Australia, hunting and gathering endures as an important social and economic activity. That foraging persists within the boundaries of developed industrialized nation states may come as a surprise to those who evaluate foraging as less profitable than agricultural, wage or market alternatives (or to those who see it as a somehow inferior economic mode, e.g., Morgan 1877). However, the tendency to dismiss foraging as a less viable mode of production may be an error given the evidence that foraging can sometimes be the best option within constraints (e.g., Tucker et al 2010, Kramer and Greaves, chapter 2, this volume). If this is the case in Australia, then the maintenance of foraging into the twenty-first century may be as much an economic decision as one aimed at maintaining social relations, identity and connections to traditional lands and practices.