I ndigenous A ustralian C ulture

1. Indigenous Australian Culture Leah Burns N13 2.16 Ph: 37353649 Leah.Burns@griffith.edu.au

2. Outline • Lecture on Indigenous Australians • Who they are • What is culture? • History • Key Issues • Lunch with Gumurrii Student Support Unit “Sausage sizzle”

3. Readings • Broome, R. 2001 Aboriginal Australians: Black responses to white dominance 1788-2001. 3rd Edition. Crows Nest: Allen and Unwin. Chapter 1. • First Australians. SBS series. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5SCo2xDO6s

4. Not Homogenous

5. Who is an Indigenous person? • Descendant of original inhabitants • Identifies as indigenous person • Is accepted by the community as such

6. What is Culture? • A blue print for the way we live • The sum total of knowledge, attitudes and habitual behaviour patterns shared and transmitted by the members of a particular society

7. History • 2000 generations • Here at least 50 000 years (120 000?)

8. Lived in Diverse Ecologies

9. Hunter-Gatherer Lifestyle • Nomadic • Simple technology • Intimate knowledge of the environment E.g. use of fire

10. Population • Population • low density • thought to be stationary • 300000, living in 500 tribes

11. Organisation • Bands • Kinship • Egalitarian • no specialisation of labour • Reciprocity and sharing • no surplus

12. Religion • The Dreaming • The Dreamtime • Sacred sites • Totemism • Beliefs and practices in which relations are postulated between people or groups of people and natural species, objects or phenomena (Horton 1994:1093).

13. Some Key Dates • 1788 Settlement • (or “invasion”) • 1967 Referendum • 1972 Aboriginal Tent Embassy • 1976 Northern Territory Land Rights Act • 1985 Uluru: Co-management • 1993 Native Title Act

14. Native Title

15. Land Issues

16. ABORIGINAL Birth Descent from owners Birth in a place Knowledge Responsibility EUROPEAN Cultivation Adding value Exclusion Alienability

17. Some Key Issues • Stolen Generation • Land Rights • Health

18. Population

19. 2010

20. Aborigines and the Law • Aborigines • 20 times more likely to be picked up by police • 10 to 20 times more likely to be goaled, often for relatively trivial offences • 20 times more likely to die in custody • Explanations • social dislocation • abuse of discretionary powers of police • institutional discrimination • Remedies • reduce numbers in custody (decriminalisation drunkenness, modified police practice) • reduce risk of death (supervision, monitoring, improved accommodation) • eradicating underlying causes (economic, educational, land, health etc.)

21. The Intervention

22. The Nature of the Intervention • Justified by child abuse rates • (13.7 per 1000, same as Qld non-indigenous) • Quarantining 50% of welfare payments • Cancellation of CDEP schemes • Cancellation of permit system • Suspension of Racial Discrimination Act • No consultation with communities

23. The Apology

24. Multi-choice Questions 1. Since the arrival of Europeans, the population of Indigenous Australians a. has steadily increased • has steadily decreased • decreased at first, but is now thought to be about the same as it was when Europeans arrived d. increased at first, but is now lower than it was thought to be when Europeans arrived • A national referendum, at which 89% of all Australians agreed that Aborigines should be included as citizens and allowed to vote, was held in a. 1958 b. 1967 c. 1972 d. 1976 • Aboriginal culture was undermined by a. The introduction of diseases to which Indigenous Australians were not immune b. A reduction in population numbers due to fighting with Europeans c. Indigenous children being taken from their parents, to be brought up as Europeans in missions d. All of the above 4. The Native Title Act in 1993 a. Gave Indigenous Australians the right to vote b. Gave all land back to Indigenous Australians c. Was the legislation under which Uluru was returned to the Indigenous people of Australia d. Overturned the notion of ‘terra nullius’ in Australia 5. The ‘Stolen Generation’ refers to a. Indigenous children who were taken from their parents, to be brought up as Europeans in missions b. A generation of Indigenous Australians who were not educated c. A process of ‘blackbirding’ during which Indigenous Australians were forcibly removed from the country to work as slave labourers overseas d. None of the above

25. References Broome, R. 2001 Aboriginal Australians: Black responses to white dominance 1788-2001. 3rd Edition. Crows Nest: Allen and Unwin. Horton, D. (ed) 1994 The Encyclopaedia of Aboriginal Australia. Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press. Bringing Them Home report 1997 Videos available in the Griffith Library: SBS. 2008 First Australians. Mabo: Life of an Island Man Brisbane Dreaming: An Aboriginal History of Brisbane Our History: Colonists Arrive After Mabo Frontier Stone Country