'Contemporary Aboriginal communities spend vast amounts of time and resources on ceremonies connected with death. This important book with its sensitive portrayals and insightful analyses enables readers to see why. It is essential for understanding how Aboriginal control of events at the end of life supports both grieving individuals and cultural integrity.' Nancy Williams, University of Queensland, Australia 'This volume is an important contribution to the anthropology of death. It provides both timely and thorough ethnographic accounts and analyses of how Indigenous Australians handle and manage extremely high mortality rates. These studies offer a much better understanding of the social consequences and human dimensions of dealing with bereavement in everyday life than bare statistics ever will.' Eric Venbrux, Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands 'By raising the question of why indigenous people make so much of death, this collection portrays the use of mortuary practices as symbols for a struggle for the preservation and affirmation of indigenous lives and identity...these studies address criticisms of the anthropological tendency to prioritize ritual at the expense of the grieving individual.' BSA Network 'This book contains some beautifully written ethnography...It is the kind of work that can be read again and again from different angles, as it touches on cross-cultural relations and policy issues, psychology, theology and that most fundamental of human questions of what constitutes a good life and a good death.' Aboriginal History '...a timely and informative book that will enrich Aboriginal Studies and, potentially, refine and challenge popular views about the "unviable" state of Indigenous communities.' Oceania 'These essays should be read by a large audience both in Australia and elsewhere.' Reviewed in Athropological Forum '...a valuable contribution to anthropological understandings of indigenous experience in Australia.' The Journ