Solid and Liquid Modernities in Regional Australia

Abstract

This chapter focuses on mobile and fluid identities in performance in Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory and in the Kimberley region of Western Australia: territories and regions with unique geographical and cultural features; that are closer to Asia than the large population centres of the nation; are both ancient and modern; and connected to local and global flows of culture, trade, technology and finance. Solid and liquid modernity cohabit in these regions in the form of iron ore, copper and gold and in the stocks and shares that circulate ‘free of fences, barriers, fortified borders and checkpoints’ in the global marketplace (Bauman, 2000: 14).