Eric Michaels' controversial book is published, arguing that the culture of the Central Australian Warlpiri people was "itself information, and [that] kinship structures are communication systems which bring certain people together, but exclude others protecting communications pathways and the value of the information they carry".

Eric Michaels, The Aboriginal Invention of Television in Central Australia, 1982-1986: report of the Fellowship to Assess the Impact of Television in Remote Aboriginal Communities, Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, 1986.