A Q&A with John Carty, anthropologist and co-curator of our new
exhibition, Yiwarra Kuju: The Canning Stock Route. John is
currently Research Associate at the Research School of
Humanities and the Arts, Australian National University. He was
kind enough to talk to us about Yiwarra Kuju, providing us with
some fascinating insights into an already fascinating
exhibition. Q: What is this exhibition about? John: At first
glance, you’d assume the exhibition is about the Canning Stock
Route, an 1800 kilometre droving track that ran through the
heart of Western Australia and was created to provide another
avenue for bringing cattle from the north to the south of the
state. But the stock route, the way it was made, and its impact
on desert waters and people, has had a complicated legacy for
desert people to this day. As surveyor, Canning’s job was to
find water at regular intervals – a days walk apart – to bore
wells for the cattle to drink from. To do this, he needed
Aboriginal guides. Some were willing helpers, but