ISOBEL WHITE is an anthropologist who has lived with Aboriginal people in South Australia while studying women's social and ceremonial life. Since her retirement from Monash University she has been a visiting fellow in the Research School of Pacific Studies at the Australian National University. DIANE BARWICK is an anthropologist who has done years of research on the history of Aboriginal administration in Victoria and New South Wales, described in many articles and the forthcoming book Rebellion at Coranderrk. BETTY MEEHAN is an anthropologist who has lived at intervals over the last twenty years with the Anbarra community in Arnhem Land. Her book Shell bed to shell midden describes some of her experiences with the women of that community. The other contributors to Fighters and Singers represent a group of writers who combine a distinguished list of publications with deep first-hand knowledge of the Aboriginal way of life.