Part One.
CONTEXT. SOME GLOBAL CONSIDERATIONS.
by
Bruce Reyburn
Draft (E.& O.E) March 1992
NOT FOR PUBLICATION, CITATION OR DISTRIBUTION
WITHOUT WRITTEN CONSENT OF AUTHOR
Copyright 1992
Bruce Reyburn
P.O. Box 257
Thirroul NSW 2515
CONTENTS
The Missing Ground Painting.........................1
Entering Warumungu Country..........................11
The Singing String..................................26
The Sacred Cow......................................36
Transcendental Encounter............................52
'Mangaiism'.........................................69
Warumungu Cosmology.................................94
Radcliffe-Brown and Warumungu People...............112
Anthropologist in the mine field...................141
Inside the pith helmet.............................162
THE MISSING GROUND PAINTING.
In November, 1982, senior law men of the Warumungu-Alyawarra
alliance prepared a ground painting in the bush to the east of the
Mulga Aboriginal town camp in the Northern Territory outback town
of Tennant Creek. The painting was specially prepared by the men
to be shown to the Aboriginal Land Commissioner, Justice Sir
William Kearney, and the other significant members of the
Commissioner's party.
With the exception of the First People themselves, the ground
painting was the single most important piece of 'evidence'
presented in the Warumungu land claim. And yet the twists of
events resulted in it being consigned to a non-existent realm - put
out of sight and out of consideration. The key evidence was 'over-
looked' in a land claim process which produced over six thousand
pages of transcript, several trips to Courts of Appeal (two to the
High Court), untold amounts of tax-payers funds for legal costs,
and unknown costs to the well-being and life of the First People.
The examination of how this situation came about requires the
examination of social processes underway in contemporary Australian
life.
Interestingly, there appears to be a clustering of interests - an
alliance of sorts - which shares one common denominator. They deny
the reality of the role played by senior Aboriginal lawmen in
maintaining social and ecological balance.
It is ironic that this message of denial should emerge from a
process - a 'traditional' land claim process - which has as part
of its rationale the recognition of rights of the First People.
Those rights, it appears, will only be recognised to the extent
that the Anglo-Australian formation can do so without incurring
real cost to itself.
These costs are not merely financial. The most expensive costs
would involve changing the Anglo-Australian norms from
monoculturalism to a working bi-culturalism. This would require a
genuine acceptance of the validity of a non-European way of
interpreting experience and relating to life. It is clear that
Anglo-Australia does not presently see the value of making this
move.
First People are to be recognised only to the extent that they are
prepared to be dressed up in European fashions. Under the guise of
recognition, then, we find a continuation of the pattern of
subjection which has accompanied the European invasion of
Australia.
WHOSE GROUND RULES?
In 1982 Justice Kearney was conducting an official Hearing, under
the terms of the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act
of 1976, into a traditional land claim in the Tennant Creek area
of the Northern Territory. Under the terms of that Act, Aboriginal
people may bring traditional land claims to areas of unalienated
(vacant) Crown land.
To obtain recognition as 'traditional owners' (as defined by that
Act) they must be able to satisfy the Commissioner that they
belong to a 'local descent group' with primary spiritual
responsibility for the land under claim. The Land Rights Act
defines 'traditional Aboriginal owners' of land to mean:
...a local descent group of Aboriginals who
(a) have common spiritual affiliations to a site on the land,
being affiliations that place the group under a primary
spiritual responsibility for that site and for the land; and
(b) are entitled by Aboriginal tradition to forage as of right
over that land.
If the Commissioner is satisfied that the claimants meet these and
other criteria as set out in the Land Rights Act, he may recommend
to the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs that the claimant peoples
be recognised as traditional owners for the unalienated Crown land.
The findings of the Commissioner are not binding on the Minister.
It is usual, however, for the Minister to eventually accept the
recommendations of the Commissioner and to recommend the granting
of a form of title to a land trust (not the traditional owners).
A trust, apparently, is an acceptable means of recognising
Aboriginal ownership by the concerns for property which lie at the
heart of the Westminster system of government.
Being granted title to the wastelands of the Crown, by this
complicated process, falls a long way short of the objectives of
the senior lawmen of the First People. In the opinion of this
writer, based on several years association with senior Warumungu
and Alyawarra men, they seek recognition of the vital role their
system of law plays in the government of the affairs of life.
The participation of the senior lawmen in the Warumungu land claim
did not merely involve an attempt to gain recognition for the
desert country lying between the extensive leases, from the Crown,
to the cattlemen. It involved a statement of claim to the very
waters of life itself. They were not passive players in a game in
which the ground rules originating from Westminster - as laid down
in various Acts - were accepted without challenge.
The senior lawmen were active players with ground rules of their
own. Universal proclamations in distant Houses did not extinquish
their system of law. Life had selected them as its representatives
for the country. Their problem is to obtain recognition of this.
The senior lawmen participated in the Warumungu land claim in yet
another attempt to establish diplomatic relationships with the
officials of Anglo-Australia. It was not their first attempt. They
had tried in 1901 to communicate with representatives of the Anglo-
Australian order - the anthropologists Spencer and Gillen.
European categories of understanding had prevented their messages
from being received.
It was not the first time, either, that Warumungu messages would
be subject to an enormous amount of interference to prevent them
from being received and understood.
For the Warumungu men, subjected to a testing century long
'affirmation drought', making contact - real contact - was a task
of the highest priority. Making the attempt would involve taking
a calculated risk. Things which are normally not shown to
'outsiders' would be put on display.
Failure of this initiative would rebound on the senior men in ways
which remain invisible to those outside the system of
reciprocities. The system of give and take between living people
comprises the real workings of life in First Australia. Their
continued struggle would be made more difficult if their initiative
failed. Their authority and standing would be questioned by the
younger people.
The erosion of traditional authority is itself a central factor in
the processes of destruction presently running amok in life.
Social and ecological breakdown affects both the Anglo-Australian
and Aboriginal peoples. The healing process requires that we become
critical of the outcomes of the application of 'scientific' thought
(as opposed to banking on its promises) and that we develop a real
understanding of the role played by traditional authority and the
operation of First law in fine tuning the forces of life.
The messages which are derived from direct experience with
Warumungu people by Anglo-Australians are usually rendered 'unreal'
by the operations of a sort of remote control imperial order. The
mechanisms for this are buried deep within the system of order
which we construct as part of the process of socialisation.
While the representatives of the Warumungu continue to pursue 'deep
equality' - dialogue - with Anglo-Australia, the cultural
enterprises of Western life continue to deny this voice and insist
that the First People be dressed and housed in categories of the
middle-class/wage-slave imagination. There is money in housing
contracts but not, apparently, in acknowledging the place of First
Australians as possible partners in life.
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PAINTING.
The significance of the ground painting can be assessed from at
least two levels. Firstly, from the level of its significance
within First life. Secondly, from its position vis-a-vis the Anglo-
Australian formation.
It may well be possible for others to decode the messages of the
ground painting as part of a visual language employed by life in
Central Australia. The development of a semiotic approach to such
paintings is still in a rudimentary stage. Interestingly enough,
one claim to being able to decipher the language comes from a non-
anthropological study which relates the designs to those employed
by the ancient Egyptians and the Masonic Lodge.
This is not the place to explore the richness of such a
relationship relationship, except to comment that First Law
probably predates anything as recent as the Egyptian experiments.
The interpretation of ground designs requires access to the
esoteric song/chants which accompany their preparation. Both
designs and song/chants are part of the complex known amongst the
Warumungu as the Wirnkarra (Dreaming). The senior lawmen are the
experts in this interpretation, and it would be completely
inappropriate for novices to attempt to usurp their position.
One general principle which can be applied to order the otherwise
baffling degree of complexity, is to assume as axiomatic that First
law treats respect for life as a total social fact. Respect is the
key which transforms the complexity created by the imposition of
European understanding into simple sense.
What can be said is that the presentation of such a design is a
means, within the original system of Australian law, of proving the
credentials of people claiming to have a preordained relationship
to aspects of the cosmos. These aspects include features of the
country.
The so-called 'totemic' system is one in which the foundations of
consciousness are linked with features of the world as signified
by the Wirnkarra cosmology. Both people (Being) and country
(Cosmos) are related metaphorically. The country provides the basis
for consciousness. Life, as signified and not as objectified by
Western thought, aligns with forces which lie outside of a European
notion of 'humanity'.
Gillen provides a telling account from the Warumungu of the
controls associated with the reproduction of designs:
At one time during the progress of decorating the performers
we thought there was going to be a serious row. One old
fellow, always a promiment man, suddenly started off to his
camp after the men began painting and returned in a short time
armed to the teeth, a couple of boomerangs in his hand also
a murderous looking butchers knife - and half a dozen
boomerangs in his belt. He came forward waving and shouting
out in a voice hoarse with passion and paused assuming a
threatening attitude about 30 yards from where the men were
grouped. His language was decidedly vigourous ... On enquiry
we found that another man had dared to decorate without the
old warriors permission a man who should have been decorated
by him. This and this only was the cause of the trouble.
(Gillen 1968:220 - emphasis added)
The process of bestowal demonstrates that the use of these designs
is not a simple matter of 'Blackfellows' painting themselves up for
a meaningless song and dance. Rather, the situation is subject to
strict controls. The metaphor which comes to mind is that the
procedure involved is similar to that associated with the
experiments of physicists - except in this case it is not subatomic
particles which are being manipulated but living forces.
It may be worth drawing attention to the fact that First People did
not 'dress up' in the European sense for everyday life. It is
European life which insists that ceremonial dress will be worn at
all times in public. When First People make visible their identity,
as determined by cosmological considerations, it is an occasion
charged with great significance. Then they truly become their
eternal selves.
The designs associated with these highly charged situations are not
mere play things. Within the system of First law the designs are
transcendental credentials. Their importance is of a higher order
than anything 'ordinary' - including title deeds on paper.
The semi-public display of these credentials provides significant
others with the opportunity to provide better credentials. Failure
to be able to do so renders any verbal claims by competitors empty
and, in so doing, strips legitimacy from any corresponding action.
Part of the significance of the ground painting in the Warumungu
claim was to demonstrate that the men staging the display were the
appropriate people, vis-a-vis other First People, for the Anglo-
Australian authorities to be dealing with.
Secondly, in putting on the display, the senior men were also
issuing a direct challenge to the credentials of the Anglo-
Australian authorities. The land categorised by Europeans as being
'under claim', was also categorised by Europeans as 'Crown land'.
This itself is subject to dispute by First People.
By their actions, since they are often (but not always) unable to
directly articulate the question, they ask to see the credentials
of those who claim ownership of their living countries. They ask
to see the credentials as signified by the Wirnkarra/cosmological
law of the country. Distant decrees of sovereignty by other
players do not extinguish the operations of the original system.
What was being claimed in the Warumungu claim was far more than
rights to areas of vacant Crown land. While achieving recognition
of 'ownership' for areas of vacant Crown land was a desirable
outcome, it was not the only outcome nor the most important
outcome. The areas under claim, and this may explain why it
produced such a fierce resistence, included areas of a less
tangible character.
We are not well equipped for dealing with these less tangible
realities. It is not sufficent to say that the claim included a
social and moral component. Nor is it sufficient to say, limply,
that there were a variety of unconscious games in play.
Such language does not capture the true power of the forces
involved.
To adequately convey something of the character of the original
Warumungu land claim requires the use of stronger language. In the
Warumungu land claim we can see no less than the unfolding of a
cosmic drama.
In this drama, two very different life-designs come into contact.
One design is part of life as constituted by the open-ended
Songlines of experience. One design, apart from life, constructs
fences and proclaims the laws of private property.
The present land claim was 'supposed' to be restricted to those
areas of land which, generally speaking, remained unwanted by the
cattlemen and other mainstream Anglo-Australian interests. The
scraps, as it were. It was not an invitation to share and engage
in human dialogue.
The ground painting which the men constructed for the Aboriginal
Land Commissioner demonstrated that, according to the law of First
Australia, their interests extended over a very wide region and
included land leased by the Crown to other parties. It also
demonstrated that, according to the law of First Australia, their
interests extend over areas of life which the assumptions of Anglo-
Australian sovereignty reserve for itself.
Coupled with this statement of priority by First People is a
message of a willingness to engage in cross-cultural dialogue and
discourse with the Anglo-Australian people. There is a motivation
for balanced and genuine power sharing - 'deep equality'. It is
often referred to in Aboriginal-English as 'level'. The two peoples
must become level.
Central to the act of recognition this requires is the appreciation
that the First People are not powerless victims of some mechanical
and inevitable historical process.
Their power is mystified by the motivated system of false
consciousness which pervades European life. The Westminster system
systematically expropriates the power of First People to itself -
the power of providing the stable base for life.
As it lies outside the European way of seeing, the contribution of
Australia's original lawmen remains unacknowledged. Yet the base
laid down and the finer tuning made possible by First Law enables
other games to be played. Without a functioning First Law, flood
and bushfire run rampant. The restoration of the First Law into the
centre of the decision-making process of mainstream life is crucial
for all people.
Restoring First law is not the same as 'raising the living
standards of Aboriginal people'. It does not mean further changing
Aboriginal life to comply with European standards of living. Those
standards are killing people. Rather it means that there has been
enough change on the part of the First People - they drive
vehicles, speak English, wear clothing, and so on - and it is now
time for a demonstration of good will on the part of Anglo-
Australians. It is the time for Whitefellas to change if they want
to have a share - a place - in the scheme of things.
The original Warumungu land claim hearing, with the participation
of the senior lawmen, was itself an expression of the continued
willingness of the senior lawmen to attempt the difficult task of
engaging in dialogue with European Beings seemingly heedless of
their surroundings.
Within the terms of the law of First Australia, this ground
painting - in which every stroke is applied to the accompaniment
of song-chants - constitutes a full and complete statement of the
bona fides of the men as the genuine human representatives for the
surrounding country. The senior men were not merely presenting more
'evidence' for the consumption of the European Court. They were
engaged in negotiations of those ground rules.
If the claim to land (perceived in European terms as a commodity)
is known as 'land rights', then the senior men - who identify land
with life - were making a claim for 'life rights'. These include
the right to continue to govern life according to the directives
of the original system of law.
The living countries of the First People provide both a resource
base for present people and the means of re-incarnation in the
eternal cycle of life. The claim for life rights cuts across
several areas of social justice. It is a claim for a form of truly
comprehensive human rights.
These rights include, in the definition of human well-being, rights
to the resources required to live a properly elaborated life
without being reduced to the landless condition of the European
working class. The definition of human rights, for First People,
must include the rights to their living countries.
This was the true voice of the First People - that of the senior
'claimants' in the Warumungu land claim. It is a voice which lies
outside of the workings of the market place. It speaks of a
different way to that of the owner of capital and that of the
working man.
It is not the voice of the great Aussie Dream of a quarter acre
block. Rather, it is the voice of the Great Australian Dreaming.
As soon as this voice was heard, with all its implications for the
rights of all people, steps were taken to silence that voice...