IAG Indigenous Issues Study Group

Conference Program

IAG Conference

University of Sydney

September 28 and 29, 1999

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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 28

9:00-10:30 Plenary Session:

3:30-5:00 Conference Session # 3-3:

This panel discussion will bring together both senior and junior researchers from the two disciplines to discuss common conceptual concerns (landscape; place; culture) and issues where debate and further conversation is required. Audience participation and discussion will be welcomed.

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29

9:00-10:30 Conference Session # 4-3:

11:00-12:30 Conference Session # 5-3:

1:30-3:00 Conference Session # 6-3:

3:30-5:00 Conference Session # 6-3:

 

IAG Professional Service Award Citiation -

Dr Bill Jonas

Bill Jonas is an exceptional geographer. He is a Woromi man who grew up in difficult conditions in Karuah in the Hunter region. After studying at UNSW and Newcastle University, Bill went to Papua New Guinea, where his doctoral thesis on the forest industry foreshadowed many current concerns about the interplay of ecological, economic and social issues in renewable resource industries. His work at UPNG also established links to education, museums, artistic communities and research institutes that have been reflected in his later career. This career spans an impressive range of academic, community service and public sector activities that few in the discipline can match. As Australia's most senior indigenous geographer in Australia, Bill has inspired and guided a generation of younger people in developing our discipline's contribution to social justice.

 

Bill was appointed as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner in the Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission in March this year. This followed his work as Director of the National Museum of Australia, which involved negotiation of the development of the Acton Peninsula site. As Principal of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, Bill nurtured the Institute's emergence as a significant force in supporting indigenous rights and participation in legal, academic and cultural debates.

 

In addition to these important positions, Bill served as a Royal Commissioner in an extraordinary international inquiry, The Royal Commission into British Nuclear Tests in Australia exposed the duplicity of British and Australian governments in exposing Aboriginal people to radiation risks and a cover-up of their failure to rehabilitate weapons test sites. The report of that Commission remains as an outstanding monument to Bill's exceptional intellect and diplomacy.

 

In all his public sector and community work, Bill has left a legacy that reflects his humanity and integrity. During his work on the Australian Heritage Commission he undertook a review of consultative processes on heritage management with indigenous peoples that remains an important benchmark in the field. He has also held positions on the Immigration Review Tribunal and the NSW Joint Ministerial Taskforce on Aboriginal Heritage and Culture.

 

This impressive record followed his academic career in Geography and Aboriginal Studies. Bill was appointed to a teaching post at the Department of Geography at Newcastle in the 1970s, and was responsible for teaching research methods and economic geography courses. An inspiring teacher, Bill often drew the very best out of students who were struggling to harness their studies to a wider concern for social justice. In 1990 he was appointed as Director of Aboriginal Education at Newcastle, and contributed enormously to the development of an exceptional program, currently led by John Lester and Laurel Williams.

 

Bill Jonas's contributions to Australian geography and public life are genuinely exceptional. Many of those who were touched by the magic of the Newcastle Department during his tenure there will confirm that, but this wider career in public life has brought great credit to the discipline. As a Woromi man of enormous talent, integrity and commitment, Dr Jonas continues his outstanding professional service in his work at the Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission and we are grateful to him making time to return to his intellectual roots in Geography to consider the interplay of native title, Australian identity and public life, and the contributions that geographers might make in this field.

 

citation for Institute of Australian Geographers Professional Service Award

presented to Dr Jonas at the IAG Conference 1999, University of Sydney

26 September, 1999

 

Forum Session: Dialogues between Geography and Anthropology

(R Howitt, Chair)

This forum session will bring together a panel of both senior figures from the two disciplines and early career researchers. The intention is to build on discussion initiated with Debbie Rose and David Trigger at Fremantle, where the topic was specifically native title, and to explore issues of tension and cooperation between geography and anthropology (and geographers and anthropologists). The scope of the discussion is intended to include issues related to:

Panelists will speak for 7-10 minutes on the common ground, areas of debate and different perspectives each discipline brings to key concepts (eg landscape, territory, identity, embodiment, emplacement) and to consider prospects for dialogue, conflict and cooperation. Following brief presentations, there will be opportunity for comment between the panelists and questions and debate from the floor.

 

The panel consist of:

Abstracts

Anthropology and Geography - conversations and debates

Opening the margins: nurturing discursive spaces in fieldwork, writing and teaching

Richie Howitt

Macquarie University

 

Within and beyond the disciplines of Geography and Anthropology ideas about landscape, boundaries, territoriality and identity are hotly debated, yet there is relatively little dialogue between these disciplines. This paper reflects on the 'marginal comments' that geographers and anthropologists working on indigenous issues in Australia make on each other's work in various settings including informal discussions in the field, comments on texts (including comments in the margins of draft papers), and in joint teaching, supervision and examination of students. The paper discusses the value for geography of opening up these margins as active discursive spaces, and argues the importance of critical geographical voices in conceptual and policy debates on these issues.

 

The cultures of land use in the East Kimberley

Ruth Lane

University of Wollongong

 

The East Kimberley has become a key site where the future of land use in northern Australia will be shaped. The Western Australian Government has proposed a massive expansion of the Ord Irrigation Area that will involve significant land clearance and changes to the catchment hydrology of the lower Keep River. In November last year the Federal Court determined that native title exists on at least a portion of the land proposed for development, necessitating consultations between traditional owners and the various government agencies and corporations involved in the development proposal. There is no history of consultations of this kind in the East Kimberley. These, and other consultative processes involving non-Aboriginal land users, including horticulturalists, pastoralists and tourism operators, are mobilising different cultural narratives of place, time and environment within the political context of native title and land use change. In this paper I explore the way in which environmental concerns are expressed by different groups of land users. I am particularly interested in how different land users conceptualise the temporal dimension of environmental change, their different uses of scientific knowledge and terminology, and the influence of native title on how they think and talk about the past.

 

Boundaries and Space in contemporary indigenous Australia: a meeting place for geography and anthropology

Elspeth Young

Australian National University

 

Until the 1970s conventional non-indigenous understanding of indigenous Australian concepts of territoriality, expressed through definition of boundaries and the use of geographical space, was largely rooted in models developed by anthropologists, linguists and prehistorians. Non-indigenous territorial concepts, visibly exposed through the mapping of land holding and administrative boundaries, essentially formed a separate layer, superimposed on these indigenous systems. Indigenous empowerment, occurring through recognition of land and resource rights and the establishment of legislation such as the Native Title Act, implementation of self-determination measures and the promotion of reconciliation through fostering dialogue and negotiation has, despite its many frustrations, changed that situation. Today issues such as co-existence of indigenous and non-indigenous rights on pastoral leases force these layers to come together. Geographers, for whom issues concerning regionalism and regional definition form essential disciplinary concepts, have much to add to the debate. Their contribution, along with those of the anthropologists, is vital. Focusing primarily on issues related to contemporary indigenous land right in the Northern Territory, this paper explores the nature of these contributions and discusses key aspects of this geographical/anthropological dialogue.

 

Environmental Politics and Indigenous Rights

Law, Policy and Other Lises: charismatic vertebrates vs Aboriginal rights in NSW

Michael Adams

University of Wollongong

The state directs and implements actions through the three levels of law, policy and practice. Policy and practice allow a large amount of latitude for constraining or amplifying legislation.

 

Since 1983, Aboriginal people have been entitled to make land claims to 'Vacant Crown Land' in NSW. This land is also the usual source for new national parks, so Aboriginal communities and conservationists have often been in competition. While government policy insists on consultation and negotiation, litigation is the first process most commonly used to decide these conflicts. New legislation was introduced in 1996 in an attempt to improve this situation.

 

Exploring these conflicts and processes, a number of contested sites in NSW are examined. These sites are used to draw out the complexities of Aboriginal claims to land and the contradictions apparent in government actions.

 

Ecological impacts of Aboriginal landscape burning in western Arnhem Land, northern Australia

David Bowman

Northern Territory University

Although it is widely held that Aboriginal landscape burning was, and in some areas still is, a sophisticated type of land-management, sometimes called ëfire-stick farmingí, there are remarkably few data to support this view. In order to advance this issue I am studying the variation in fire regimes and their ecological consequences across a geographic gradient in the intensity of land-use by Aboriginal people leading semi-traditional lifestyles in western Arnhem Land. There is considerable urgency to carry out this research because of accelerating cultural and environmental changes in the region that are impeding the continuing practice of traditional Aboriginal land management.

The aims of the project are as follows:

  1. Determine how the timing, intensity and spatial distribution of fires vary across a gradient in the intensity of land-use by Aboriginal people (e.g. from homelands to unoccupied country). Satellite imagery and GIS technologies are being used to study fire patterns at two different time scales: variation over one decade and variation within one dry season.
  2. Undertake an intensive field survey to determine the effects of different fire regimes, as determined by the above analysis of satellite imagery, on: fuel loads, plant communities, native and feral macro-herbivores, and important food plants such as fruit trees and yams.
  3. Undertake collaborative studies with traditional owners of sections of the study area to record their use of fire. The assistance of interpreters has been critical in enabling this exchange of knowledge.
  4. Quantify the behaviour and ecological effects of fires lit by Aboriginal land managers during different times in the dry season.
  5. Use chronological sequences of aerial photographs to determine the dynamics of fire sensitive vegetation such as monsoon rainforests in response to different fire histories.

I will present some preliminary findings and discuss general impedients and opportunities associated with such collaborations between ecologists and Aboriginal landowners. I suggest that the assistance of the Caring for Country Unit of the Northern Land Council and the Djelk Ranger Program coordinated by the Bawinanga Aboriginal Corporation based in Manigrida has been critical for the development of this research program.

 

The Relationship Between Cultural Identity and Environmental Conservation in New Caledoniaís Loyalty Islands

Leah Horowitz

University of Newcastle

Recently, the Provincial Government of New Caledoniaís Loyalty Islands has taken preliminary steps toward the creation of an environmental conservation project on the islands. In order to understand the potential for such a project, it is essential to examine local peopleís perceptions and definitions of what Westerners would call their "natural" surroundings. Loyalty Islandersí constantly evolving relationships to their environment determine their treatment of it and will inevitably affect how they view officially sponsored conservation projects. Also, in the context of New Caledoniaís controversial status as a part of France, cultural identity plays a pivotal role in Loyalty Islandersí perceptions of what Westerners label "environmental conservation".

 

This paper is based on research conducted on the central, largest and most populated of the Loyalty Islands, Lifou. Lifouansí relationships to their surroundings include three components that differentiate them from Westerners. First, links to land, natural features and certain species are essential to their identities as clan members. Secondly, respect for other people and for spirits plays a large role in their behaviour towards the earth in general as well as specific places. Thirdly, a distinction that a person of European origins might make between "natural" and "cultural" heritage is not defined in the same way by Lifouans. Meanwhile, the importance to Lifouans of their cultural identity, especially in the face of political, economic and cultural change, greatly influences their attitudes toward conservation projects. They see these as a potential means of preserving their customs, and are interested in outside intervention only if it reinforces, rather than challenges, their customary practices. In this regard, important lessons may be learned from their historical acceptance of, and current statements about, Christianity. Finally, the desire for economic development, the perceived potential of conservation activities to contribute to that goal, and the growing dependence on funds from metropolitan France also contribute to their definitions and interpretations of "environmental conservation".

 

Landscapes of power

Working Towards Native Title Regional Agreements: Recent Developments in Co-operative Resource Management in Canadaís British Columbia

Cathy Robinson,

University College (ADFA), Canberra

Canadaís experience with ëregional agreementsí has attracted considerable attention in Australia as a means by which Indigenous people can secure their native title rights to land and sea and ensure they can particapte in the development and management of their homeland territories. However, regional agreements implemented in Canada thus far have often taken years to negotiate. To provide a degree of certainty for resource management and decision-making while the native title claims process is underway, Canadian governments have proceeded to establish interim resource use and management agreements with Indigenous communities. While both governments and Indigenous people stress that interim arrangements do not replace or limit the scope for future claim settlements, it is recognised that the development of such co-operative relationships makes long-lasting formal agreements easier to achieve. This paper draws on several recent examples of interim agreements that have been negotiated for forestry, fisheries and park management in North-west British Columbia, and considers how these local experiences offer useful approaches for resource management and native title issues in Australia. These examples not only demonstrate the importance of building shared understandings of resource values and management approaches prior to cementing resource co-management partnerships in formal settlements. They also show some of the problems and prospects facing Indigenous peoples in their efforts to benefit from resource co-management agreements.

 

Multiple knowledges, multiple perspectives: ësituated engagementí as a critique of management, capacity building and institutional strengthening

Sandie Suchet

Macquarie University

Drawing on wildlife management theories and practices in Australia, Canada, Zimbabwe, Namibia and South Africa this paper challenges and unsettles notions of management, capacity building and institutional strengthening. This is achieved by

The paper argues that despite good intentions and effective implementation, wildlife management initiatives, implemented through building capacity and strengthening institutions, are colonising if each component is unproblematically accepted and applied. Situated engagement is outlined as basis for engaging in specific material and conceptual places so that mutual recognition and understanding can lead to more just and effective relationships, processes and outcomes.

 

Gold Country: Colonialism and Mining in the Eastern Goldfields, Western Australia

Leah Gibbs

Macquarie University

 

Despite widespread use of the term ëpostcolonialí to describe the current situation in many parts of the world, a great number of peoples and places continue to face ongoing impacts of colonisation. In particular, Indigenous Peoples face continuing displacement, dispossession and marginalisation. Regardless of intention, attempts to ëdecoloniseí Indigenous spaces, often reinscribe and further entrench processes of colonisation. This paper examines the tension between decolonising and further entrenched or ëdeep colonisingí processes through a case study of relationships being fostered between Placer Domeís Granny Smith gold mine in the Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia and local Aboriginal communities. This paper argues that the tension between decolonising and deep colonising processes may not be a resolvable tension. If this is the case, we must move beyond our thinking of resolution, and towards methods of approaching the tension as productive and creative in moving towards decolonising processes.

 

Resisting reconciliation and Recognising Hidden Histories

Aboriginal youth suicide in New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand

Professor Colin Tatz

Macquarie University

A three-year study of Aboriginal youth suicide in New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand has led to the conclusion that Aboriginal suicide is different. It has different origins, mainsprings, sociologies, patterns, even rituals. The study demonstrates the inadequacy, in the Aboriginal case, of both research methodologies and philosophical premises about suicide among youth in mainstream society. We need an anthropology of suicide rather than a sociology, let alone a psychology, of suicide. We also need a piecemeal approach to alleviation, region by region, often community by community. Historical and geographic legacies help explain the differing prevalences of youth suicide.

 

Sorry People: Reconciliation and the Politics of Apology

Haydie Gooder

University of Melbourne

Reconciliation is the officially sanctioned process by which Australians are attempting to find some resolution to the long standing friction between Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities resulting from colonial circumstances. This paper will explore this process through an examination of non-Indigenous participation in reconciliation initiatives as well as their self-understandings of this 'politics of sympathy'. In particular, the paper will pay particular attention to the performative role of apology - in the language of reconciliation, saying sorry - in reconciliation practices.

 

Symbolic calls for official apologies to communities who have suffered historical wrongs are increasingly commonplace around the world. With certain millenarian urgency, various governments have engaged in formal apologies and reconciliation processes. In Australia, the giving of an apology has been strongly resisted by the conservative government, allowing the 'simple', some would say childish, intentions of this word to become yet another site in the on-going contestations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.

 

In this paper I explore the symbolism of apologising (and not apologising). What are the moral expectations implicit within the gesture of apology? What does this say about the role of the performative in constituting or calling into being something that we might think of as the 'reconciled nation' ? By examining the complex circumstances by which an apology to Indigenous Australians has been simultaneously sought and resisted, this paper will attempt to tease out the complexities of a nation struggling to find a postcolonial subjectivity.

 

The Tasmanian Aboriginal: a political dispersion

Kaye McPherson

University of Tasmania

Recognition of the Tasmanian Aboriginal has been determined in both the european and Aboriginal communities. In the nineteenth century the final solution was to kill off the Tasmanian Aboriginal as this solved a number of political and social problems. Extinction has no come back. Today in Tasmania the definition of Aboriginality is determined by a single political group within Tasmania's diverse Aboriginal communities. Extinction is still the policy for those who do not fit the guidelines. It is the shadow of the past which clearly determines who is Aboriginal in Tasmania's Aboriginal communities of today. The lessons from the nineteenth century have been well learnt. There are three groups of Tasmanian Aboriginal people today. Ö Those descended from sealers and isolated in government missions on the Bass Straight Islands until the 1970s Ö Those descended from the two recorded women Fanny Cochran Smith or Dolly Dalrymple Ö Those descended from the un-named women who integrated and assimilated into Tasmania's nineteenth century european community. This paper will discuss Tasmania's Aboriginal history from the perspective of a Tasmanian Aboriginal historical geographer.

 

Childrenís rights in the Kinchela Training Home for Aboriginal Boys

Christine A. Tandy

University of Newcastle

Geographically, the denial of human rights to Aboriginal boys occurred at a place called Kinchela, located on the North Coast of New South Wales, Australia, yet in real terms it occurred throughout Australia whenever a child was removed from their family to be assimilated into Australian white society.

 

The Kinchela Training Home for Aboriginal boys began operation in 1924 and closed in 1970. Boys as young as three years were sent to Kinchela and for many boys their childhood experiences included physical, emotional and sexual abuse.

 

This paper examines and compares the international concerns for children, as set out in the Declaration of the Rights of the Child, with Australiaís welfare and protection of Aboriginal children through the enactment of the Aborigines Protection Act (1909) and the Aborigines Protection (Amending) Act (1915). These Acts, incorporated into Australian Law, enabled the legal removal of Aboriginal children from their families and effectively nullified their rights according to the international standard. Consequently the outcomes of these patriarchal laws and imperialist attitudes towards Aboriginal children have been a precursor for many contemporary issues relating to reconciliation between indigenous and white Australia.

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