This paper is substantially drawn from my PhD research (Glaskin 2002), which would not have been possible without the assistance of the Kimberley Land Council and The Australian National University. I particularly wish to thank my supervisors, Francesca Merlan, Ian Keen and Tim Rowse, for their comments and advice along the long thesis road. I wish also to thank the Berndt Foundation at the University of Western Australia for the postdoctoral fellowship that allowed me to continue writing and thinking about these things. James Weiner and David Trigger provided comments on an earlier draft of the paper on which this chapter is based, and I am grateful to them. I am especially grateful to Geoffrey Bagshaw (my long-term anthropological colleague in this case), and to the many Bardi and Jawi people (including those now deceased) who have generously shared their lives and struggles with me over many years.