1 Chapter Published in Caroline Miller and Michael Roche (Eds.), (2007), Past Matters: Heritage and Planning History— Case Studies from the Pacific Rim , Cambridge Scholars Press. URBAN ABORIGINAL PLACE VALUES IN AUSTRALIAN METROPOLITAN CITIES: THE CASE STUDY OF BRISBANE 1 by Kelly Greenop and Paul Memmott Aboriginal Environments Research Centre University of Queensland INTRODUCTION “The notion of a precolonial, indigenous intelligence persisting in 'settled' eastern or south-eastern Australia in the form of a signified landscape 'inside' the colonial landscape is in some ways subversive; that this signification might include the borrowing and recontextualisation of elements of the coloniser's own culture threatens the perceived solidity of that culture and hence, in a sense, its right to be there.” (Byrne 1996:87) A broad research question which we begin to explore in this chapter is how Aboriginal cultures have changed and persisted in urban centres during the postcolonial period. Our aim is to better understand cultural connections to place and to formally recognise the ongoing Aboriginal culture which exists largely unseen, or unread, by the wider Australian society within the urban environment. In 1981 the Aboriginal anthropologist Marcia Langton lamented upon the lack of research into urban Aboriginal life, and indeed the lack of acknowledgment of Aboriginal culture within urban environments. She stated clearly however that Aboriginal people “have rejected the notion that we are assimilating into the European population and adopting white lifestyles” (Langton 1981:16). Throughout this chapter we argue that continuing aspects of Aboriginal cultures with expressions in values of place, have persisted from the time of initial contact with European explorers, and have evolved, through many transformations and adaptations until the present day. Contemporary urban Indigenous cultures exist today in Australian metropolitan settings although they are not always acknowledged by various planning authorities and governments. Such persistent cultures find expression in many forms: politics, music, dance, socialisation, art, and also in place values, our central topic of examination. We argue that whereas many changes have been forcibly imposed upon the Indigenous people of Australia’s cities, they have also been active participants in the process of cultural change, and that the modern urban Indigenous culture is just as valid and important, and deserving of recognition, as the Aboriginal culture witnessed by the earliest British colonial explorers and settlers in the late 18 th and early 19 th centuries. 2 In making these claims, we recognise that place values manifest themselves in physical (including architectural) ways, but a building or monument is by no means the sum of all meaning for a place. Places are also constructed from activities, memories and mental associations symbolising particular events (Lowenthal 1975:6), such as the place of action of an ancestral being from the ancient Dreamtime, or the location of a significant Indigenous protest march during the 20th century. Places are points of orientation from which one can move out into the world with confidence of a fixed location, but are also social references in being identified with a particular group and thus provide a sense of grounded social stability. In this way a place can form an important part of a person's identity, central to their sense of self and their group or family, and situated within a network of places, identified with other related groups in the wider cultural landscape. Physical alterations to a place may reveal or conceal these properties of place, which could include buildings, but also more subtle alterations such as temporary constructions, the