The Sydney Morning Herald [Print Edition] July 10, 1999 Belittling of culture disguised as debate by Robert Lee RELIGION and politics, a whitefella once told me, are not the subjects of polite conversation. So why is Aboriginal religion such a regular punching bag for commentators? Is it mere impoliteness, or is something else at stake?. Why do my people, the Jawoyn of the Northern Territory, continually have to defend our beliefs against academic "experts” because of our successful campaign to stop mining on our traditional land at Guratba, which you know better as Coronation Hill. Why do we have to fend off accusations of “lies” from people who know nothing about our country and its men and women? We Aboriginal people don’t need outside experts to validate our faith; we don't need them to speak on our behalf to confirm the reality of our beliefs, nor to act as gatekeepers of our ritual knowledge. Yet the attacks continue, although it is almost a decade since the Hawke Government recognised Coronation Hill’s spiritual significance to the Jawoyn people and decided mining should not proceed. The narrow and sectarian views of so-called "dissident” anthropologists – such as the Institute of Public Affairs' Ron Brunton, quoted on these pages last Saturday – are trotted out to “prove” the Jawoyn, aided and abetted by partisan and politically motivated anthropologists, invented the ancestral spirit Bula at Guratba. It is a pity no-one spoke to the Jawoyn – I wonder who is doing the mythmaking? Jawoyn success in protecting the “sickness country” around Coronation Hill was not based on fabrication, as implied by Mr Brunton. It was based on profoundly held views by Jawoyn and other Aboriginal lawmen of the region. The fact that anthropological evidence concerning the Guratba site was not identified until the 1970s merely reflects the fact that there were simply no anthropologists around until then. Does Mr Brunton seriously suggest that the ancestral spirits of my people exist only if affirmed by an external “expert”, a white-fella anthropologist? As it happens, though, a great number of independent "experts” were consulted on the issue of Guratba, some with many years’ experience in the region. None denied the genuineness of the religious belief of the custodians of Guratba, nor claimed we “invented” Bula for financial gain, as has been implied. One of the great unwritten parts of the story of the battle for Guratba was the rejection by senior Jawoyn of cash and other inducements to change their minds. Mr Brunton’s 10,000-word critique of the inquiry into the claim about the “sickness country” near the proposed mine site was an armchair effort. He has never done anthropological fieldwork within cooee of Jawoyn traditional lands. Most offensive is Mr Brunton’s claim that our traditional beliefs and culture allow us to “construct whole incentives around victim-hood” and prevent us from “pulling out of disadvantage”. It is our cultural strength that allows the Jawoyn - despite the Guratba experience - to engage positively with the mining industry to the point where we hold equity in exploration on our traditional lands and are represented on the NT Minerals Council executive. This in turn reflects the level of respect within the industry for our beliefs. We do not need distant theoreticians to improve ourselves. Nor do we need our religious beliefs sneered at and belittled in the guise of academic debates about anthropologists. We reject the paternalist notion that we are doomed to be manipulated by experts. Some anthropologists we agree with, some we do not. We have never instructed them to come up with particular answers. We do not always agree with the anthropologists we employ, just as we may disagree with other advisers, the lawyers, scientists, and economists we use to move towards our goal of economic and social independence. We consider their advice, and then make our own determinations. And that’s no myth. Robert Lee is executive director of the Jawoyn Association, Katherine, Northern Territory. · Adele Horin is on leave. ------------------------------------------------------- RecOzNet2 has a page @ http://www.green.net.au/recoznet2 and is archived at http://www.mail-archive.com/ To unsubscribe from this list, mail [EMAIL PROTECTED], and in the body of the message, include the words: unsubscribe announce or click here mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20announce This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use." RecOzNet2 is archived for members @ http://www.mail-archive.com/
