Collective Ownership
To a large extent, we assert ourselves as a single group defined by collective ownership of language and responsibility for traditional lands. Since the mid to late 1980s, this group's self definition has increasingly been referred to as "the Jawoyn nation". This concept of nationhood is relatively new, and is in the process of development. It should not be confused with western notions of nationality and the nation state, but rather should be viewed as a contemporary response to political and social pressures on our people. It is a corporate response which, through adopting non-Aboriginal structures such as the Jawoyn Association, allows us to exert political, social and economic influence over a country in which we now find themselves a minority.

Dealing with Government
It is also a unified response to a variety of government - and semi-government - imposed administrative arrangements and boundaries, which cut across traditional lands. For example, although the Jawoyn people have a role in two national parks, we must deal with instrumentalities from two different governments, Territory and Federal, in dealing with land management and other issues in those parks.

Even within the Federal Government, the Jawoyn must deal with different regional offices: for example people at Pine Creek have DEETYA programs administered from Katherine while ATSIC programs are administered from Darwin. The only instrumentality that has consistently dealt with us along traditional country lines is the Northern Land Council.

Mowurrwurr - Representative Groups
According to evidence presented in the Jawoyn (Katherine Area) Land Claim, all of us have collective responsibility for our lands and sites on the land and, by inference, over economic and other developments on our lands. The first time this collective action was seen was during the proceedings of the land claim over Nitmiluk. It led in 1985 to the establishment of the Jawoyn Association and in 1991 to the establishment of the Association's Secretariat. However, we also belong to less inclusive groupings known as mowurrwurr - sometimes referred to by the Ngalkbon term daworo. Membership of these groups is by patrifiliation, that is, one's mowurrwurr is determined by the mowurrwurr membership of one's father. This latter social structure has been thought by some to be falling into disuse by our people, but in reality it is regaining importance in determining who talks for particular areas of country, and therefore has implications for contemporary decision-making processes in our society.