Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Aboriginal ‘Difference’ and ‘Autonomy’ Then and Now: Four Decades of Change in a Western Desert Society

2007; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 17; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/00664670601168476

1469-2902

Robert Tonkinson,

Geographies of human-animal interactions

Abstract In just a few decades, Aboriginal people living near Australia's Western Desert fringe have experienced an extraordinarily intense trajectory of change: from a highly autonomous nomadic existence, through 'first contacts', the pastoral and mission frontiers, the devastating impacts of alcohol and of Western lifestyle diseases, the outstation movement, resource exploration and mining, a long but largely successful struggle for native title, and much else. In this paper, notions of 'difference' and 'autonomy' are used to explore these transformations. The situation among the Mardu is here linked to the gulf between government policies and lived Aboriginal experience. If the self‐management thrust of 1970s policies achieved partial restoration of Aboriginal autonomy, recent Federal Government policies are intent on intervention to reduce difference and claw back some of that autonomy. Their determination to force Aboriginal people out of their 'dysfunctional' 'cultural museums' (homeland settlements) and into greater economic engagement ignores the crucial underpinnings of security and identity among remote Aborigines. The retention of difference, albeit at considerable social cost and entrenched disadvantage, is still strongly preferred by Mardu to the kinds of engagement with the dominant society that not only assault their sense of self but also threaten to overwhelm whatever autonomy remains to them. Keywords: Australian AboriginesChangeDifferenceAutonomyGovernment Policies Notes 1. Acknowledgments: This paper is a revised and expanded version of the 2006 Wentworth Lecture, which I presented at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, Canberra, on 30 June. I sincerely thank AIATSIS for honouring me with its invitation to deliver the biennial Lecture. The Mardu have been unfailingly dedicated and patient mentors, to whom I remain deeply grateful. Heartfelt thanks go to my wife and colleague, Myrna Tonkinson, for her editorial comments and unfailing encouragement, and to Nancy Williams, Gillian Hutcherson, Jacquie Lambert, Tim Rowse, Jon Altman, Peter Sutton, David Trigger, Laurent Dousset and Victoria Burbank for their valuable comments. I also thank Dr Randy Spargo of Jigalong for his stimulating ideas about cognitive dissonance. Since 1963, many institutions have supported my research, and I thank them all: The University of Western Australia; Australian Universities Commission; The University of British Columbia; the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies; the Australian National University; and, for research since 2002, ARC‐Discovery Grant DP0210203, received with Myrna Tonkinson and Victoria Burbank. 2. I retain the spelling of Mardu with the voiced 'd', for consistency with my past use of this label (current orthographic convention favours the unvoiced 't'). 3. The basic disjunction between income and work is perhaps the single most vexing aspect of remote Aboriginal communities for policy makers and governments (see Altman Citation2006a; Johns Citation2006). 4. This struggle was detailed in The Jigalong mob (Citation1974), which was based on my master's thesis. My approach, which would now be labelled 'intercultural' (see Merlan Citation1998), used the notion of 'unstable accommodation' between the two groups to examine the forging of new, non‐traditional social entities (such as 'the mob' of my title), successful resistance and ultimate victory for the Mardu side, signalled by the mission's withdrawal in 1969. 5. Returning to the desert to live was not an option until the advent of 'the outstation movement' in northern Australia and of new government policies in the 1970s. See Altman (Citation2006a). 6. Like their challenges in the settlement domain against Whites who severely beat their school‐age children, this was bold action in the early 1960s, since at this time older Mardu believed the killing of Aborigines by policemen to be as legally permissible as their terrifying dawn raids aimed at shooting camp dogs. At that time, fear of the police was palpable, and remained so until the advent of Aboriginal Legal Services brought a more accurate appreciation of where the constable stood in the state's legal hierarchy. 7. These processes, through which the power of mature males was being compromised in the situation of European contact, are detailed in Tonkinson (Citation1990). 8. 'Bossing' is something the Mardu still only partially do, and often with a twist: they have tended to judge the suitability of their employees on the basis of sentiment rather than any evaluation of competence. 9. See Tonkinson (Citation1991, 174–78), on the outstation movement among the Mardu. For an update, see Tonkinson (Citation2007). 10. On the strengths, weaknesses and implications of 'localism', see especially Rowse (Citation2005, 221–26); see also Martin and Finlayson (Citation1996), Smith (Citation2002) and Sanders (Citation2004). 11. Self‐management was always, as Ken Maddock (Citation1985, 50) observed, 'an opaque and fluctuating' notion. As explained by the policy makers, however, it offered Aboriginal people the right to make their own decisions about their future, and to accept responsibility for the results (DAA Citation1983; see Tonkinson and Howard Citation1990b, 67–74). 12. As former AIATSIS Chairman, Ken Colbung (pers. comm.) remarked at the time, 'Are we talking about Aboriginal‐managed organisations or managed Aborigines?' 13. See Rowse (Citation2002) and Sanders (Citation2005) on the CDEP scheme and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission as attempts to base governance in Indigenous Australia on elements of cultural difference. 14. Just as the Mardu use of the word 'teasing' means something more akin to 'bullying' in Western culture, 'jealousing' can connote attempts to pull down those perceived as placing themselves above others, or engaging in self‐interested behaviour in Mardu society. 15. On demand‐sharing, see Peterson (Citation1993, Citation2005); for its salience in Mardu society, see Tonkinson (Citation1988a, 550–51). 16. The growing body of Australian Bureau of Statistics data by geography suggesting that, in relative terms, Indigenous people in metropolitan, outer metropolitan and regional Australia are worse off than in remote and very remote regions raises the question: what are the tangible benefits of migration? Altman (Citation2006b) identifies significant negatives, citing regional and urban Indigenous unemployment rates 3–4 times those of non‐Indigenous, for example. (See also note 19.) 17. See Dodson and McCarthy (Citation2006, 25–26); and Background Briefing (ABC Radio National, 12 March 2006). 18. For a detailed account of the contemporary cultural significance of Mardu funerals, see M. Tonkinson (Citation2005). 19. In a recent speech to the House of Representatives, Federal parliamentarian Dr Carmen Lawrence criticised the 'preferred mode' of governmental response to recurring waves of media‐fuelled moral panic about violence in Aboriginal communities, favouring threats of closure either by the stroke of a pen or starving them of funds. She mentions two significant findings from recent Western Australian research: first, that 'the level of clinically significant emotional and behavioural difficulties amongst children is actually lowest in the most remote communities'; secondly, that 'alcohol consumption is much lower amongst the young people who live in those outermost communities than it is among those in metropolitan areas or areas surrounding agricultural and mining regions' (House of Representatives, Indigenous Communities Speech, 30 May 2006).