tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/country-12328/articles
Country – The Conversation
2023-12-26T20:30:13Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/212851
2023-12-26T20:30:13Z
2023-12-26T20:30:13Z
‘Rights of nature’ are being recognised overseas. In Australia, local leadership gives cause for optimism
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565351/original/file-20231212-19-ctql05.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=287%2C5%2C3706%2C2233&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/blue-mountains-national-park-landscape-788973853">Denis Doronin/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As each day passes, the need to protect Australia’s environment grows more urgent. As noted in the most recent State of Environment Report in 2021, we are increasingly turning to “<a href="https://soe.dcceew.gov.au/sites/default/files/2022-07/soe2021-biodiversity.pdf">measures of last resort</a>” to prevent species extinctions and the collapse of ecosystems. </p>
<p>In legal theory, the “rights of nature” acknowledges <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fenvs.2023.1175143/full">all Earth’s natural elements as having an inherent right</a> to exist and flourish. </p>
<p>Developments towards recognition of the rights of nature have attracted international attention. In some countries, they have come about through <a href="https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2017/0007/latest/whole.html">legislative reform</a>, <a href="https://www.constituteproject.org/constitution/Ecuador_2021">constitutional amendment</a> and <a href="https://www.ielrc.org/content/e1704.pdf">the courts</a>.</p>
<p>In Australia, federal, state and territory parliaments have not shown much appetite for introducing the rights of nature principle into legislation. The <a href="https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/bills/Pages/bill-details.aspx?pk=3872">Murray-Darling River System (Rights of Nature) Bill 2021</a> in New South Wales and the <a href="https://www.parliament.wa.gov.au/parliament/bills.nsf/BillProgressPopup?openForm&ParentUNID=A83E23DAE4373236482584AB002386A7">Rights of Nature and Future Generations Bill 2019</a> in Western Australia raised the possibility, but did not progress. One exception is Victoria, where a law protecting the Yarra river and <a href="https://www.water.vic.gov.au/waterways/protecting-the-yarra-birrarung/yarra-river-protection-wilip-gin-birrarung-murron-act-2017">its First Nations custodianship</a> was passed in 2017.</p>
<p>Around the globe, lawyers and policy makers have been engaged in finding ways the law can contribute to the protection of ecosystems. Conferring ecosystems with rights is one strategy we can use to prevent species extinctions and ensure a “voice” for nature.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/three-rivers-are-now-legally-people-but-thats-just-the-start-of-looking-after-them-74983">Three rivers are now legally people – but that's just the start of looking after them</a>
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<h2>Rivers as legal persons</h2>
<p>Central to these efforts has been realising the rights of nature based on legal personhood, which confers entitlements and duties on an entity. There are benefits, <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/transnational-environmental-law/article/can-nature-hold-rights-its-not-as-easy-as-you-think/3FF2901E0FA5EF1A2E37CCB7C403E190">complexities</a> and risks involved in this approach.</p>
<p>Indeed, the use of legal personhood as a mechanism to give natural entities like rivers or wetlands rights has been criticised <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13200968.2019.1802154">from a First Nations perspective</a>.</p>
<p>At a time when we are seeing threats to the environment turn into <a href="https://wwf.org.au/what-we-do/australian-bushfires/in-depth-australian-bushfires/">catastrophes with alarming frequency</a>, the law can be an inflexible tool and slow to respond. </p>
<p>In Australia, the rights of nature idea is emerging in social and political debate. Ultimately, the success of the rights of nature vision depends on effective broad legal frameworks combined with local action.</p>
<p>Sometimes, we can overlook the significant role local-level reform can play. So it is encouraging to see communities and councils leading the way.</p>
<p>The rights of nature principle provides a framework a local community can use when wanting to show its respect for nature and ensure due care for the local ecosystem.</p>
<h2>Two examples of local governance</h2>
<p>Two examples of such local leadership are the Blue Mountains City Council in NSW and the Shire of Augusta Margaret River local government area in WA. </p>
<p>In 2021, the Blue Mountains City Council received a <a href="https://www.centerforenvironmentalrights.org/local-recognition-of-rights">Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights Local Recognition Award</a> for its commitment to embedding rights of nature principles into its operations. The rights of nature principle is reflected in the <a href="https://www.bmcc.nsw.gov.au/sites/default/files/document/files/CommunityStrategicPlan2035.pdf">Blue Mountains Community Strategic Plan 2035</a>: “natural environment is valued for its intrinsic nature and role in maintaining all forms of life”.</p>
<p>In rights talk, “intrinsic value” means that a thing or being has value “in itself”, or “<a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/value-intrinsic-extrinsic/">for its own sake</a>”.</p>
<p>For example, a tree has intrinsic value for its own sake because it is a living thing and the tree’s life has value in and of itself. The tree’s value is not based on how it can be used by humans.</p>
<p>With some exceptions, Western philosophers have confined intrinsic value to human beings alone. The same notion permeates the law. Yet recognising the intrinsic value of other species and our broader environment is a pathway to ethical reflection and has the potential to transform our perspective. </p>
<p>In Western Australia, following community advocacy, the Shire of Augusta Margaret River has also shown leadership in this regard. Among other things, the shire’s May 2023 <a href="https://www.amrshire.wa.gov.au/getmedia/d02065a4-022b-42ec-b03b-ca9db2f7d4a8/Overarching-Sustainability-Policy-May-2023.pdf">Overarching Sustainability Policy</a> requires due regard for “the needs, rights and wisdom of Traditional Custodians” and “the rights of nature to exist, thrive and evolve”.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-traditional-owners-and-officials-came-together-to-protect-a-stunning-stretch-of-wa-coast-163078">How Traditional Owners and officials came together to protect a stunning stretch of WA coast</a>
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<h2>Caring for Country</h2>
<p>We believe these local examples give cause for optimism and a source of “<a href="https://www.environmentandsociety.org/perspectives/2019/1/slow-hope-rethinking-ecologies-crisis-and-fear">slow hope</a>”. And First Nations leadership sits at the heart of these developments. Community-led approaches are key to caring for Country, <a href="https://soe.dcceew.gov.au/indigenous/management/caring-country">something that’s also noted</a> in the latest State of the Environment report.</p>
<p>Best-practice local policy development can actively enable caring for Country and integrate it into the regulatory conversations that inform the operational plans of councils. </p>
<p>For the CSIRO First Nations Australian Peoples led research initiative <a href="https://www.csiro.au/en/research/indigenous-science/indigenous-knowledge/our-knowledge-our-way">Our Knowledge, Our Way</a>, connection to Country is a cultural must. For First Nations peoples, Country already has “rights”: to be cared for, respected and listened to. This is a relationship that arises organically and is entwined in the experience of being human.</p>
<p>From a Western perspective, enshrining rights of nature thinking in environmental stewardship at all levels of society is something <a href="https://www.routledge.com/A-New-Environmental-Ethics-The-Next-Millennium-for-Life-on-Earth/III/p/book/9780367477998">environmental ethicists</a> describe as essential.</p>
<p>Local communities can draw upon these two convergent lines of thinking to inform culturally sensitive collaboration. While higher levels of government are yet to introduce the principle of rights of nature into legislation, leadership at local levels is showing us it can be done. State and federal governments should take note.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/212851/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alexandra McEwan is a member of the Australian Earth Laws Alliance. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Hewson undertook a sabbatical at the Rachel Carson Centre for Environment and Society (Ludwig Maximillian University Munich Deutschland) from September 2022 to February 2023.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rolf Schlagloth does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
One way to protect our ecosystems is to confer legal rights on them. This idea is at the heart of the ‘rights of nature’ movement – but Australia has few examples of this principle in action.
Alexandra McEwan, Lecturer: Law, CQUniversity Australia
Michael Hewson, Senior Lecturer Geography, CQUniversity Australia
Rolf Schlagloth, Koala Ecologist, CQUniversity Australia
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/211501
2023-09-05T02:50:28Z
2023-09-05T02:50:28Z
Virtual reality is helping Olkola Traditional Owners get back on Country
<p>The Olkola people from Queensland’s very remote Cape York Peninsula gained their land back through a native title claim <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2014/dec/12/australias-largest-native-title-claim-lodged-cape-york-peninsula">in 2014</a>. Since then, they have undertaken land management using <a href="https://carbonmarketinstitute.org/projects/olkola-ajin-olkola-fire-project/">traditional fire techniques</a>, <a href="https://www.bushheritage.org.au/places-we-protect/queensland/olkola">habitat protection and restoration</a> and <a href="https://olkola.com.au/tourism/">cultural tourism</a>. </p>
<p>The Olkola are in the process of building a <a href="https://www.arup.com/projects/olkola-cultural-knowledge-centre-cape-york">Cultural Knowledge Centre</a> on their Country. The centre will support the Olkola people’s practices and showcase their culture to the world. During the Cultural Knowledge Centre design process, the Olkola identified the need to find, repatriate, document and share their cultural stories and archives. </p>
<p>In support of this vision, they formed the Traditional Owner-led project, <a href="https://socialequity.unimelb.edu.au/research/getting-back-on-country#:%7E:text=Getting%20Back%20On%20Country%20establishes,media%20exhibition%20of%20the%20collection.">Getting Back on Country</a>. The project is led by the Olkola Aboriginal Corporation and the Olkola Rangers in collaboration with researchers at the University of Melbourne, including authors Hannah Robertson and Rochus Urban Hinkel.</p>
<p>In partnership with the researchers, the Olkola are using digital technologies including virtual reality and augmented reality to capture their cultural stories. These digitised stories, as well as Olkola artefacts, are to be kept and shared at the Cultural Knowledge Centre. </p>
<p>These digital technologies will also help to bring Country to Olkola Traditional Owners with dementia or disabilities who are unable to travel to Country. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/rising-seas-and-a-great-southern-star-aboriginal-oral-traditions-stretch-back-more-than-12-000-years-211114">Rising seas and a great southern star: Aboriginal oral traditions stretch back more than 12,000 years</a>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Nukakurra Walking Trail from the air. Source: Olkola Aboriginal Corporation with the University of Melbourne.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Nukakurra: a new way to visit Country</h2>
<p>This is important work for Olkola people. Today we have a lot of people who can’t move, are in hospital or can’t get back on Country. We want to take Country back to them, so if they’re lying in a hospital bed, they’re lonely and nobody’s visiting, they’ve got something there that can take them back on Country and remind them where they came from. We believe this will be a healing medicine for people.</p>
<p>To realise this vision, we decided to create the Getting Back on Country Project. We began our collaboration by focusing on the <a href="https://parks.des.qld.gov.au/parks/olkola-cypal/journeys/nukakurra-lagoon-walking-track#:%7E:text=Walking-,This%20track%20weaves%20through%20a%20significant%20cultural%20area%20for%20the,interpretive%20signs%20along%20the%20way.">Nukakurra Walking Trail</a> as a pilot process for creating a digital cultural story. </p>
<p>Nukakurra is a cultural story place with a loop walk that passes several Olkola significant sites. Some of the sites in Nukakurra include the Blue Tongue Lizard dreaming site, an old Olkola campground and the Crocodile dreaming site. These dreaming sites are sacred to Olkola people because they are the creation places of these animal spirits which continue to walk across Olkola Country. </p>
<p>Author Melissa Iraheta and University of Melbourne researcher Mitch Ransome travelled to Olkola Country with the Olkola Rangers to document Nukakurra. Using 360-degree microphones and cameras, Lidar scanners (a laser used for determining distances between objects that can be used to create 3D landscapes), photogrammetry (which involves collecting overlapping images to build 2D or 3D models) and drones, they spent a week documenting the key sites. </p>
<p>Robertson and Uncle Mike Ross then travelled to Olkola Country with Olkola Elder Uncle Jack Lowdown and other senior elders to document the cultural story audio for Nukakurra in both English and Olkol using a 360-degree microphone. </p>
<p>This process highlighted the power of yarning and the connections between the sites of significance. Uncle Mike created a new story of a grandfather and grandmother walking the Country and passing the sites with their grandchildren and sharing their knowledge as they did – just as it would have happened in the old world prior to colonisation. </p>
<p>The process also highlighted the limitations of the technologies in the remote context, with cameras overheating and the 360-degree microphone struggling to capture audio while walking. Now we have these stories, the final stitching of the Nukakurra cultural story place experience is being developed as a 360-degree film experience. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-people-must-be-at-the-centre-not-the-margins-of-lgbtqia-plans-and-policies-209221">Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people must be at the centre, not the margins, of LGBTQIA+ plans and policies</a>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">A short walk through the Nukakurra Cultural Story Place. Source: Olkola Aboriginal Corporation with the University of Melbourne.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>The importance of preserving story</h2>
<p>The pilot digital experiences for the Nukakurra Olkola cultural story place are still in development. In May, three generations of Olkola people shared their experiences of working with the University of Melbourne on the Getting Back on Country and Olkola Cultural Knowledge Centre projects. </p>
<p>During this yarn, Olkola woman and project manager for the Olkola Aboriginal Corporation, Katherine Samuel, reflected on the data collection process:</p>
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<p>[Uncle Mike] saying welcome [to Nukakurra] in English and Uncle Jack saying it in [Olkol] language and Mitch holding the 3D camera and collecting all that data, it was so much. And when they came up March this year, Grandad Mike put on the VR goggles, wow it was so cool. To be able to sit in the office and feel like you were there. It was really cool; we were able to collect data with multiple technologies.</p>
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<p>There are hopes to continue to expand the collaboration with the Olkola in a larger project. We aim to encompass multiple cultural story sites and find and repatriate Olkola cultural archives. It is our hope this can provide a process for other traditional owner groups to explore and preserve their respective stories on their own Country.</p>
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<p><em>We wish to acknowledge the contributions of all of the Olkola people involved in this project. In particular, we would like to acknowledge Olkola woman Katherine Samuel of the Olkola Aboriginal Corporation, Olkola elder Uncle Jack Lowdown and Mitch Ransome from the University of Melbourne for their contributions.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/211501/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hannah Robertson receives funding from the Australian Research Council for a Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. She is affiliated with the University of Melbourne and Monash University. The Getting Back On Country project is funded with internal seed funding through the Melbourne Social Equity Institute, Chancellery and a Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning Seed Grant. The Cultural Knowledge Centre Project receives construction funding from the Queensland Government through the Growing Indigenous Tourism Queensland Fund and the Indigenous Land and Sea Corporation's Our Country, Our Future' fund. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Melissa Iraheta is affiliated with the University of Melbourne, Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rochus Hinkel has received funding for the Getting Back On Country project, from the Melbourne Social Equity Institute, Chancellery and from the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Deb Symonds and Uncle Mike Ross do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Olkola Traditional Owners are working with researchers to use digital technologies to see how story interweaves with Country. It also aims to bring Country to Olkola people who are unable to travel.
Hannah Robertson, ARC DECRA Fellow & Senior Lecturer in Construction Management, Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning, The University of Melbourne
Deb Symonds, Senior Olkola woman and the CEO of the Olkola Aboriginal Corporation, Indigenous Knowledge
Melissa Iraheta, Melbourne School of Design, The University of Melbourne
Rochus Urban Hinkel, Associate Professor in Architecture and Design, The University of Melbourne
Uncle Mike Ross, Olkola elder and Chairman of the Olkola Aboriginal Corporation, Indigenous Knowledge
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/208170
2023-06-28T12:59:46Z
2023-06-28T12:59:46Z
What is the difference between nationalism and patriotism?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533816/original/file-20230623-4805-h1p42y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=41%2C6%2C4530%2C2755&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Donald Trump, left, and Harry Truman: Two former presidents who had different ideas about nationalism and patriotism.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Donald_Trump_by_Gage_Skidmore.jpg">The Conversation, with images from Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>During his presidency, Donald Trump said, “We’re putting America first … we’re taking care of ourselves for a change,” and then declared, “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lLQ8IEm8PE">I’m a nationalist</a>.” In another <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2018/09/25/trump-un-speech-2018-full-text-transcript-840043">speech</a>, he stated that under his watch, the U.S. had “<a href="https://youtu.be/KfVdIKaQzW8?t=1182">embrace[d] the doctrine of patriotism</a>.”</p>
<p>Trump is now running for president again. When he announced his candidacy, he <a href="https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/former-president-trump-announces-2024-presidential-bid-transcript">stated</a> that he “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hugb9fDXTd8">need[s] every patriot on board</a> because this is not just a campaign, this is a quest to save our country.” </p>
<p>One week later he dined in Mar-a-Lago with <a href="https://www.axios.com/2022/11/25/trump-nick-fuentes-ye-kanye">Nick Fuentes</a>, a self-described <a href="https://www.tribstar.com/news/local_news/fuentes-i-am-an-american-nationalist/article_57dfaf0e-2751-5039-97e2-2ce832bbf870.html">nationalist</a> who’s been banned from Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and other platforms <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/nick-fuentes-live-streamer-white-nationalist-suspended-twitter-1608438">for using racist and antisemitic language</a>. </p>
<p>Afterward, Trump <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/109405826070401204">confirmed that meeting</a> but did not denounce Fuentes, despite <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kejjJyABP0o">calls for him to do so</a>. </p>
<p>The words <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1193192673429131264">nationalism</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/newtgingrich/status/1044633849572077568">patriotism</a> are sometimes used as synonyms, such as when Trump and his supporters describe his <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1347555316863553542">America First</a> agenda. But many <a href="https://academic.oup.com/book/12461">political scientists</a>, <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=vXXZBEkAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">including me</a>, don’t typically see those two terms as equivalent – or even compatible. </p>
<p>There is a difference, and it’s important, not just to scholars but to regular citizens as well.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533517/original/file-20230622-23-ovgndv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A comic depicting Superman talking to people about treating others with respect and dignity." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533517/original/file-20230622-23-ovgndv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533517/original/file-20230622-23-ovgndv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=828&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533517/original/file-20230622-23-ovgndv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=828&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533517/original/file-20230622-23-ovgndv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=828&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533517/original/file-20230622-23-ovgndv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1041&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533517/original/file-20230622-23-ovgndv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1041&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533517/original/file-20230622-23-ovgndv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1041&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">An image from 1950, colorized in 2017, shows Superman – a refugee from another planet and a character created by two Jewish immigrants to the U.S. – teaching that patriotism should drive out nationalism.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.dc.com/blog/2017/08/25/superman-a-classic-message-restored">DC Comics</a></span>
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<h2>Devotion to a people</h2>
<p>To understand what nationalism is, it’s useful to understand what a nation is – and isn’t. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780199599868.001.0001/acref-9780199599868-e-1237">nation</a> is a group of people who share a history, culture, language, religion or some combination thereof.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/country">country</a>, which is sometimes called a <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/state-sovereign-political-entity">state</a> in political science terminology, is an <a href="https://www.economist.com/international/2010/04/08/in-quite-a-state">area</a> of <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-many-states-and-provinces-are-in-the-world-157847">land</a> that has its own government. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/nation-state">nation-state is a homogeneous political entity</a> mostly comprising a single nation. Nation-states <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/theneweurope/wk18.htm">are rare</a>, because nearly every country is home to more than one national group. One example of a nation-state would be <a href="https://www.mhpbooks.com/books/the-cleanest-race/">North Korea</a>, where almost all residents are ethnic Koreans.</p>
<p>The United States is neither a nation nor a nation-state. Rather, it is a country of <a href="https://www.npr.org/2013/11/11/244527860/forget-the-50-states-u-s-is-really-11-nations-says-author">many different groups of people</a> who have a variety of shared histories, cultures, languages and religions.</p>
<p>Some of those groups are <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2022/01/28/2022-01789/indian-entities-recognized-by-and-eligible-to-receive-services-from-the-united-states-bureau-of">formally recognized</a> by the federal government, such as the <a href="https://www.navajo-nsn.gov">Navajo Nation</a> and the <a href="https://www.cherokee.org">Cherokee Nation</a>. Similarly, in Canada, the French-speaking <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Quebecois">Québécois</a> <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/house-passes-motion-recognizing-quebecois-as-nation-1.574359">are recognized</a> as being a distinct “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGuLE7zmcqM">nation within a united Canada</a>.” </p>
<p>Nationalism is, per one dictionary definition, “<a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nationalism">loyalty and devotion to a nation</a>.” It is a person’s strong affinity for those who share the same history, culture, language or religion. <a href="https://academic.oup.com/book/527">Scholars</a> understand <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13511610.1990.9968234">nationalism as exclusive</a>, boosting one identity group over – and at times in direct opposition to – others.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/oath-keepers-founder-sentenced-to-18-years-for-seditious-conspiracy-in-lead-up-to-jan-6-insurrection-4-essential-reads-206482">Oath Keepers</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/proud-boys-members-convicted-of-seditious-conspiracy-3-essential-reads-on-the-group-and-right-wing-extremist-white-nationalism-205094">Proud Boys</a> – <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2023/01/23/oath-keepers-guilty-seditious-conspiracy-jan-6-00079083">10 of whom</a> were convicted of seditious conspiracy for their role in <a href="https://theconversation.com/jan-6-committee-tackled-unprecedented-attack-with-time-tested-inquiry-195999">the Jan. 6 attack</a> on the U.S. Capitol – are both examples of <a href="https://theconversation.com/white-nationalism-is-a-political-ideology-that-mainstreams-racist-conspiracy-theories-184375">white nationalist</a> groups, which <a href="https://theconversation.com/white-nationalism-born-in-the-usa-is-now-a-global-terror-threat-113825">believe</a> that immigrants and people of color are a threat to their ideals of civilization. </p>
<p>Trump has described the events that took place on Jan. 6, 2021, as having occurred “<a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/109401452224192463">Peacefully & Patrioticly</a>”. He has described those who have been imprisoned as “<a href="https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-praises-jan-6-rioters-great-patriots-1773808">great patriots</a>” and has said that he would <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-pardoning-extremists-undermines-the-rule-of-law-207272">pardon</a> “<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/11/politics/transcript-cnn-town-hall-trump/index.html">a large portion of them</a>” if elected in 2024.</p>
<p>There are many other nationalisms beyond white nationalism. <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-nation-of-islam-a-brief-history-198227">The Nation of Islam</a>, for instance, is an example of a <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/black%20nationalist">Black nationalist</a> group. The <a href="https://www.adl.org/resources/profile/nation-islam">Anti-Defamation League</a> and the <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/group/nation-islam">Southern Poverty Law Center</a> have both characterized it as a Black supremacist hate group for its anti-white prejudices.</p>
<p>In addition to white and Black <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/02589340500101741">racial nationalisms</a>, there are also <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/20032578">ethnic</a> and <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/26222195">lingustic</a> nationalisms, which typically seek greater autonomy for – and the eventual independence of – certain national groups. Examples include the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/01/world/canada/Bloc-Quebecois-Nationalism.html">Bloc Québécois</a>, the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/jun/24/snp-leader-general-election-win-mandate-independence-push-humza-yousaf">Scottish Nationalist Party</a> and <a href="https://www.partyof.wales/annibyniaeth_i_gymru_welsh_independence">Plaid Cymru – the Party of Wales</a>, which are nationalist political parties that respectively advocate for the Québécois of Québéc, the Scots of Scotland and the Welsh of Wales.</p>
<h2>Devotion to a place</h2>
<p>In contrast to nationalism’s loyalty for or devotion to one’s nation, patriotism is, per the same dictionary, “<a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/patriotism">love for or devotion to one’s country</a>.” It comes from the word <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/patriot">patriot</a>, which itself can be traced back to the Greek word <a href="https://logeion.uchicago.edu/%CF%80%CE%AC%CF%84%CF%81%CE%B9%CE%BF%CF%82">patrios</a>, which means “of one’s father.” </p>
<p>In other words, patriotism has historically meant a love for and devotion to one’s <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fatherland">fatherland</a>, or country of origin.</p>
<p>Patriotism encompasses devotion to the country as a whole – including all the people who live within it. Nationalism refers to devotion to only one group of people over all others.</p>
<p>An example of <a href="https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/articles/martin-luther-king-jr-model-american-patriot/">patriotism</a> would be Martin Luther King Jr.’s “<a href="https://www.npr.org/2010/01/18/122701268/i-have-a-dream-speech-in-its-entirety#">I Have a Dream</a>” speech, in which <a href="https://theconversation.com/mlks-vision-of-love-as-a-moral-imperative-still-matters-89946">he</a> recites <a href="https://www.classical-music.com/features/works/my-country-tis-of-thee-lyrics/">the first verse</a> of the patriotic song “<a href="https://bensguide.gpo.gov/j-america-my-country">America (My Country ‘Tis of Thee)</a>.” In his “<a href="https://www.npr.org/2013/04/16/177355381/50-years-later-kings-birmingham-letter-still-resonates">Letter from Birmingham Jail</a>,” King describes “nationalist groups” as being “<a href="https://www.csuchico.edu/iege/_assets/documents/susi-letter-from-birmingham-jail.pdf">made up of people who have lost faith in America</a>.”</p>
<p>George Orwell, the author of “<a href="https://theconversation.com/orwells-ideas-remain-relevant-75-years-after-animal-farm-was-published-165431">Animal Farm</a>” and “<a href="https://theconversation.com/guide-to-the-classics-orwells-1984-and-how-it-helps-us-understand-tyrannical-power-today-112066">Nineteen Eighty-Four</a>,” describes patriotism as “<a href="https://www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-foundation/orwell/essays-and-other-works/notes-on-nationalism/">devotion to a particular place</a> and a particular way of life.” </p>
<p>He contrasted that with nationalism, which he describes as “the habit of identifying oneself with a single nation or other unit, placing it beyond good and evil and recognizing no other duty than that of advancing its interests.”</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/smEqnnklfYs?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">In his ‘I Have a Dream’ speech and other works, Martin Luther King Jr. decried nationalism and encouraged patriotism.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Nationalism vs. patriotism</h2>
<p>Adolf Hitler’s rise in Germany was accomplished by perverting patriotism and embracing nationalism. According to <a href="https://theconversation.com/i-understood-you-may-1958-the-return-of-de-gaulle-and-the-fall-of-frances-fourth-republic-93510">Charles de Gaulle</a>, who led <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Free-French">Free France</a> against Nazi Germany during World War II and later became president of France, “<a href="https://www.britannica.com/quotes/Charles-de-Gaulle-president-of-France">Patriotism is when love of your own people comes first; nationalism, when hate for people other than your own comes first</a>.” </p>
<p>The tragedy of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/5-websites-to-help-educate-about-the-horrors-of-the-holocaust-152702">Holocaust</a> was rooted in the nationalistic belief that certain groups of people were inferior. While Hitler is a <a href="https://theconversation.com/quantifying-the-holocaust-measuring-murder-rates-during-the-nazi-genocide-108984">particularly extreme example</a>, in my own research as a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=vXXZBEkAAAAJ&hl=en">human rights scholar</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0219409">I have found</a> that even in contemporary times, countries with nationalist leaders are more likely to have bad human rights records.</p>
<p>After World War II, President Harry Truman signed the <a href="https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/marshall-plan">Marshall Plan</a>, which would provide postwar aid to Europe. The intent of the program was to help European countries “<a href="https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/special-message-the-congress-the-marshall-plan">break away from the self-defeating actions of narrow nationalism</a>.”</p>
<p>For Truman, putting <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/110537721192978858">America first</a> did not mean <a href="https://theconversation.com/trumps-foreign-policy-is-still-america-first-what-does-that-mean-exactly-144841">exiting the global stage</a> and sowing division at home with nationalist actions and <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-field-guide-to-trumps-dangerous-rhetoric-139531">rhetoric</a>. Rather, he viewed the “principal concern of the people of the United States” to be “the creation of conditions of enduring peace throughout the world.” For him, patriotically <a href="https://theconversation.com/america-cant-be-first-without-europe-75109">putting the interests of his country first</a> meant fighting against nationalism.</p>
<p>This view is in line with that of French President <a href="https://theconversation.com/president-macron-marches-to-parliamentary-majority-in-france-79245">Emmanuel Macron</a>, who has stated that “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-t-QIqsCTr8">patriotism is the exact opposite of nationalism</a>.” </p>
<p>“<a href="https://www.axios.com/2018/11/11/emmanuel-macron-nationalism-patriotism-donald-trump">Nationalism,” he says, “is a betrayal of patriotism</a>.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/208170/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joshua Holzer does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Nationalism and patriotism are sometimes treated as synonyms, but they have very different meanings.
Joshua Holzer, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Westminster College
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/201571
2023-06-13T20:05:24Z
2023-06-13T20:05:24Z
Brenda Matthews was ripped from a loving family twice. But she was born too late to be officially recognised as Stolen Generations
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531497/original/file-20230613-15-fmujwv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=62%2C80%2C1061%2C641&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Brenda Matthews</span> </figcaption></figure><p>The woman’s face is in profile, her eyes looking into the distance – or the past, or the future. This is a quiet woman, a thoughtful one; possibly one who also carries sadness in her soul. This woman’s face is natural, a face with features as familiar as my own – a strong brow, deep-set and dark eyes, and full unvarnished lips set with an appealing cupid’s bow. Her hair is swept up, the background is purple-blue – evocative of a beautiful night sky. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531261/original/file-20230612-154575-laev6g.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531261/original/file-20230612-154575-laev6g.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531261/original/file-20230612-154575-laev6g.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=918&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531261/original/file-20230612-154575-laev6g.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=918&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531261/original/file-20230612-154575-laev6g.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=918&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531261/original/file-20230612-154575-laev6g.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1153&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531261/original/file-20230612-154575-laev6g.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1153&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531261/original/file-20230612-154575-laev6g.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1153&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<p>I don’t know why it takes me the full read of her book before I see the photograph of two children superimposed on her right cheek: one child white-skinned with blonde hair, the other dark-skinned with dark hair. It’s a happy photo, as natural as they come. </p>
<p>Before this photograph of the children came into focus, my mind’s eye assumed it was white ochre, placed ready for a ceremony of some sort. The book, <a href="https://www.textpublishing.com.au/books/the-last-daughter">The Last Daughter</a>, recounts the woman’s life to a certain midlife point. It ends with insight into the making of a <a href="https://www.thelastdaughter.com.au/">documentary feature film</a>, released this week. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>Review: The Last Daughter – Brenda Matthews (Text Publishing)</em></p>
<hr>
<p>The book is a ceremony of sorts: a bringing together of the woman’s story of families, Country, love, separation, heartache. And at its centre, a truth-seeking quest to right the wrongs perpetrated by a government hell-bent on doing “as they saw fit” when it came to Aboriginal peoples, with little regard for the consequences. The woman is Brenda Matthews, née Simon, born 1970.</p>
<p>This birth year renders her officially ineligible for being recognised as part of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/stolen-generation-redress-scheme-wont-reach-everyone-affected-by-the-policies-that-separated-families-166499">Stolen Generations</a>: the New South Wales Aborigines Protection Act was repealed and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/capturing-the-lived-history-of-the-aborigines-protection-board-while-we-still-can-46259">Aboriginal Welfare Board</a> abolished in 1969. She was removed from her family four years later, in 1973.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531508/original/file-20230613-29-fkv5cx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531508/original/file-20230613-29-fkv5cx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531508/original/file-20230613-29-fkv5cx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=318&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531508/original/file-20230613-29-fkv5cx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=318&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531508/original/file-20230613-29-fkv5cx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=318&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531508/original/file-20230613-29-fkv5cx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531508/original/file-20230613-29-fkv5cx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531508/original/file-20230613-29-fkv5cx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Last Daughter ends with insight into the making of a documentary feature film, released this week.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Stolen, again and again</h2>
<p>Brenda was one of eight children, seven of whom were heartbreakingly removed from and then haphazardly returned to their parents, Brenda Simon née Hammond and Gary Simon. Brenda was the last to be returned home: after five years. She was two years old when she was taken and seven when she was returned.</p>
<p>She describes her mother’s memory of doing the household chores with a friend one day, “a few days” after she took her sick child Karla to the local hospital. “A car pulled up outside and two Welfare Department officers got out.” Her friend asked if they’d come to inspect the house. “Welfare officers were often inspecting Aboriginal homes to check if they were clean, which was often an excuse and a precursor to taking the children.” </p>
<p>But they had arrived “to take the kids”, on mysterious charges of neglect. Local knowledge about collusion between the local hospital matron and the Welfare Department does not escape mention.</p>
<p>After three months in a home, Brenda was fostered by a White family, who had a daughter of a similar age. “She is my younger sister and I love her,” recalls Brenda in the book. They believed they had adopted Brenda, and that a single mother had given her up. Five years later, she was returned home, with almost no transition. “I was ripped from both these families,” she writes later in the book, looking back.</p>
<p>This memoir reveals Brenda reconciling with this past, 40 years later, bringing her “Black family” and her “White family” together. The trauma impacts of these separations can be read through this life story, not least when 18-year-old Brenda tells no one she is pregnant and ends up giving birth alone in her bedroom: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I think deep down inside, I’m scared of this baby being taken from me because I was taken away from my Mum and Dad. I don’t want history to repeat itself.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Baby Keisha enjoys unbroken bonds with her parents and both extended families. Later, she is joined by four brothers, then by four more siblings, through her mother’s marriage to stepfather Mark. By the end of this book, Keisha has two children of her own – who become central to Brenda’s commitment to her story, her families, and a future free from cruel intervention. </p>
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<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Brenda with her children.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>History as told in The Last Daughter – family separation and its resulting trauma – does not repeat for future generations. But its effects continue to find sad reverberation in the life experiences of Brenda, her parents and her siblings. </p>
<p>Before her own children were “shoved” into a government car, Brenda’s mum had lived in fear of exactly this – as a teenager, she witnessed a cousin taken from her Aunty Greta.</p>
<p>Thinking about these removals under false charges, Brenda wonders what other lies are recorded as fact in government files about other family members, particularly after uncovering – with the help of historian and Wiradjuri woman Kim Burke – that Brenda’s maternal grandmother and great-grandmother were also stolen. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>What chance did we have? Stolen, again and again and again. This is one family heirloom that didn’t need passing down, and the only blessing is that Mum was not stolen.</p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/vince-copley-had-a-vision-for-a-better-australia-and-he-helped-make-it-happen-with-lifelong-friend-charles-perkins-192097">Vince Copley had a vision for a better Australia – and he helped make it happen, with lifelong friend Charles Perkins</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>‘This is real history’</h2>
<p>Members of Brenda’s White family are also left affected by the brutality of government policy: they provided a home to a little girl they fell in love with and whom their biological children considered a sibling. The youngest of this family, Brenda and Rebecca, are the girls on the cover image. And while there was nothing natural about how they became siblings, the love and joy between them is impossible to ignore. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531262/original/file-20230612-202521-sv7e7c.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531262/original/file-20230612-202521-sv7e7c.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531262/original/file-20230612-202521-sv7e7c.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531262/original/file-20230612-202521-sv7e7c.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531262/original/file-20230612-202521-sv7e7c.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531262/original/file-20230612-202521-sv7e7c.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531262/original/file-20230612-202521-sv7e7c.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531262/original/file-20230612-202521-sv7e7c.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This photo of Brenda with her ‘White sister’ Rebecca is part of the book’s cover image.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Brenda tells the story of reconnecting with her White family. The young ones – Mark’s daughters – prove pivotal in this; their internet sleuthing and Facebook friend requests prove the bridge to the reconnection. Kiara gets a notification ping while in class and her teacher “reminds her that she is in a history lesson”. Kiara replies, “this is real history”, as she walks out. Later, she is able to confirm with Brenda that her White mum wants to see her. </p>
<p>Brenda’s ability, with the help of her husband Mark, to blend a new family across culture and history – despite the intergenerational trauma – is another feature of this life story. </p>
<p>There are many moments in The Last Daughter that make a reader pause and reflect on the power of love and belonging. When Brenda and her mum uncover, with the help of historian Kim Burke, that they are Wiradjuri rather than Wailwan, it’s a difficult adjustment to make. But after much work, Brenda is now comfortable saying she is a proud Wiradjuri woman. </p>
<p>“I can see her wrestling with this new information and who she thought she was all along,” writes Brenda of watching her mother in their moment of discovery. “This is common for a lot of Indigenous people who were taken from their Country and placed somewhere else,” Kim tells them.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531507/original/file-20230613-17-awxc1v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531507/original/file-20230613-17-awxc1v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531507/original/file-20230613-17-awxc1v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531507/original/file-20230613-17-awxc1v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531507/original/file-20230613-17-awxc1v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531507/original/file-20230613-17-awxc1v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531507/original/file-20230613-17-awxc1v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531507/original/file-20230613-17-awxc1v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Brenda with her mother (centre left) and her ‘White parents’, Mac and Connie.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Reconnecting with Country and culture is part of Brenda’s story. She learns the ancient art of weaving and works with Mark running camps on Country, in northern New South Wales and South East Queensland (with the endorsement of influential Indigenous figure <a href="https://40stories.com.au/people/kyle-slabb/">Kyle Slabb</a> from Fingal). This informs and deepens Brenda’s strength of Aboriginality.</p>
<p>It is at one of these camps where Mark encourages Brenda to tell her story: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I walk up to the line that Mark has drawn in the sand where he’d like me to stand, and I rub it out with my foot, drawing a new one a bit further back where I’m more comfortable. I am about to tell my story to strangers for the first time in my life. I’m fiddling with my hands and fingers. I take a deep breath and as the words start coming out of my mouth, memories come flooding back, and tears roll down my cheeks.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531509/original/file-20230613-17-o7nsp1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531509/original/file-20230613-17-o7nsp1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531509/original/file-20230613-17-o7nsp1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=453&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531509/original/file-20230613-17-o7nsp1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=453&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531509/original/file-20230613-17-o7nsp1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=453&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531509/original/file-20230613-17-o7nsp1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=569&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531509/original/file-20230613-17-o7nsp1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=569&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531509/original/file-20230613-17-o7nsp1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=569&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Learning the ancient art of weaving has been part of Brenda’s process of reconnecting with Country and culture.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-we-are-the-voice-why-we-need-more-indigenous-editors-182222">Friday essay: we are the voice – why we need more Indigenous editors</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Countering lies and bearing witness</h2>
<p>Finding voice, being heard and validated, is part of the human condition. The Last Daughter expresses it so well.</p>
<p>Brenda tells her story simply, with nothing exaggerated for effect; known facts, recalled memory and renewed encounters are drawn together in spare, first-person prose. A memoir born from journal entries reproduced as exposition throughout, The Last Daughter is inspired by Brenda’s need to know and share the truth. </p>
<p>She is motivated to counter lies about her parents, grandparents and great-grandparents – recorded as fact in government files. In just one example, the files record Brenda’s mother requesting a photograph and progress report on Brenda while she was with her White family; it says these were supplied, but Brenda’s mother never received anything. Even the date Brenda was returned to her family was incorrect.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/q29vqBO1CM0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Trailer for Brenda Matthews’ feature film, The Last Daughter.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Brenda’s motivation increases when she and her siblings are excluded from formal recognition as being part of the Stolen Generations. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The letter leaves me feeling like a microcosm of this land. It has been declared <a href="https://theconversation.com/pastoral-ponderings-and-settler-politics-how-a-colonial-judge-and-poet-wrote-terra-nullius-into-law-199962">terra nullius</a> – empty land – despite my people living here. Now my emotions, my memories, my trauma don’t exist in the eyes of the government.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Brenda’s pursuit of truth is reflected in the difficult conversations she has with herself, and with so many others in her Black, White, own (and eventually blended) family. </p>
<p>I can’t fully imagine the courage, fear, heartache and dedication it took for Brenda to peel back the years and the layers to find truth for so many. The book is a project of love and reconnection. </p>
<p>Keeping everyone inside the warmth of that fire cannot have been easy. That fire and its warmth are offered with immense grace to readers – and now viewers – of Brenda’s story. It is up to us to step inside that embrace and bear witness. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>The documentary feature film, <a href="https://www.thelastdaughter.com.au/film/">The Last Daughter</a>, will screen in cinemas Australia-wide from 15 June 2023.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/201571/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sandra Phillips receives funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p>
Brenda Matthews’ story is a truth-seeking quest to right the wrongs perpetrated by a government hell-bent on doing ‘as they saw fit’ when it came to Aboriginal peoples, writes Sandra Phillips.
Sandra Phillips, Associate Professor of Indigenous Australian Studies, School of Humanities and Communication Arts, Western Sydney University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/192097
2023-01-10T03:41:27Z
2023-01-10T03:41:27Z
Vince Copley had a vision for a better Australia – and he helped make it happen, with lifelong friend Charles Perkins
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503740/original/file-20230110-20-f2g4xr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C0%2C3988%2C2000&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Clockwise from left: Curramulka Community Club, St Francis House, book cover (ABC Books), Flinders University, State Library of New South Wales</span> </figcaption></figure><p><em>Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this article contains names and images of deceased people.</em></p>
<p>In his memoir’s final chapter, Vince Copley wonders: if the first legal marriage of an Aboriginal woman and a white man had been socially accepted in the 1850s, would his own wife have been spared being pushed to the end of the 1970s bank queue because she was with him, a blackfella? Would that real estate agent have considered their application instead of throwing it straight in the bin? Would their daughter have been spared the schoolyard bullying and their son the name-calling? </p>
<p>Copley is descended (through his grandmother Maisie May Edwards, nee Adams) from <a href="https://theconversation.com/hidden-women-of-history-kudnarto-the-kaurna-woman-who-made-south-australian-legal-history-185390">Kudnarto</a>, the Kaurna woman who married shepherd Thomas Adams on 27 January 1848, in South Australia’s first legal marriage between an Aboriginal woman and a colonist. His ancestral connections included Ngadjuri, Narungga, and Ngarrindjeri.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Review: The Wonder of Little Things – Vince Copley and Lea McInerney (ABC Books)</em></p>
<hr>
<p>Readers of <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com.au/9780733342448/the-wonder-of-little-things/">The Wonder of Little Things</a> (2022) will find it hard to think of Vince Copley in the past tense. Crafted from oral storytelling of around about 300 recollections, Copley’s voice in this first-person memoir brings you close, almost as if you are sitting at a table with him, drinking his fabled cups of tea. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503730/original/file-20230110-12-chvss7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503730/original/file-20230110-12-chvss7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503730/original/file-20230110-12-chvss7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=361&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503730/original/file-20230110-12-chvss7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=361&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503730/original/file-20230110-12-chvss7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=361&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503730/original/file-20230110-12-chvss7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=453&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503730/original/file-20230110-12-chvss7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=453&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503730/original/file-20230110-12-chvss7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=453&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Vince with Lea McInerney, co-writer of his memoir.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">ABC Books</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A humble man who met kings, queens and heroes</h2>
<p>Born on a government mission in 1936, Vince died at home on January 10 2022, aged 85, after the complete manuscript he had prepared with writer Lea McInerney was written and the publisher had despatched questions for final revision. His beloved wife Brenda had passed in 2020 and it was she who had lovingly “bullied” him into telling the story of his life, so their kids would know what he had done. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503731/original/file-20230110-21-xy6ds0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503731/original/file-20230110-21-xy6ds0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503731/original/file-20230110-21-xy6ds0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=917&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503731/original/file-20230110-21-xy6ds0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=917&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503731/original/file-20230110-21-xy6ds0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=917&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503731/original/file-20230110-21-xy6ds0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1153&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503731/original/file-20230110-21-xy6ds0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1153&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503731/original/file-20230110-21-xy6ds0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1153&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The book is dedicated to his children, Kara and Vincent. Many generations appear within its covers – the book itself now an important part of family storytelling and knowledge. Lea McInerney is recognised for her dedication to Copley’s voice and vision; Copley said “I’m the storyteller, you’re the writer, and this is our book”. </p>
<p>There were many other pre-publication readers too, all of them thanked in the book’s acknowledgements. Reconstituting this life story was its own winding journey. Copley’s niece Kath’s documenting of that journey through photos and video could be considered as the basis for another form of media about the making of this memoir. </p>
<p>The inclusion of photographs and further reading, including a well-researched timeline of significant events in Australian and Indigenous history, enhances the book’s educational appeal.</p>
<p>But what might you find in The Wonder of Little Things? </p>
<p>A man who met the King of Jordan, the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-queen-has-left-her-mark-around-the-world-but-not-all-see-it-as-something-to-be-celebrated-190343">Queen of England</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/muhammad-ali-rewrote-the-rule-book-for-athletes-as-celebrities-and-activists-60513">Muhammad Ali</a>; a man of humble origins who travelled the world and whose greatest joy seemed to be returning home and eventually knowing more of his own Country. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503742/original/file-20230110-18-1hgvej.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="man looking at engraved large rock" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503742/original/file-20230110-18-1hgvej.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503742/original/file-20230110-18-1hgvej.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503742/original/file-20230110-18-1hgvej.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503742/original/file-20230110-18-1hgvej.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503742/original/file-20230110-18-1hgvej.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503742/original/file-20230110-18-1hgvej.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503742/original/file-20230110-18-1hgvej.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Vince Copley at the engraved stone that acknowledges the Ngaduri people as the original custodians of the land, at Sevenhill, near Clare.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lea McInerney</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Towards the end of the book, there is a moment where Copley reads his own Country, standing near an ancient Ngadjuri rock engraving, seeing other sites he’d visited in the distance. It’s told in understated fashion, so it could be easy to miss the significance of this among the other recollections quilted together in the book. </p>
<p>Connection to Country is widely understood to be a key <a href="https://www.sahealth.sa.gov.au/wps/wcm/connect/public+content/sa+health+internet/about+us/about+sa+health/health+in+all+policies/public+health+partner+authorities/the+department+of+environment+water+and+natural+resources+dewnr/connection+to+country">determinant</a> in health and wellbeing; it can also be difficult to maintain. Indeed, this phase in Copley’s life was initiated from a chance encounter with archaeologists!</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/hidden-women-of-history-kudnarto-the-kaurna-woman-who-made-south-australian-legal-history-185390">Hidden women of history: Kudnarto, the Kaurna woman who made South Australian legal history</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Riding shotgun through Australian history</h2>
<p>Through the prism of Copley’s life story, we ride shotgun on some of the most important moments in Indigenous – and therefore Australian – history. We see the movement of Aboriginal people from missions into towns and cities, and the hardship (but also the opportunities) encountered. </p>
<p>Aboriginal people weren’t allowed to drink or be served in hotels then, but the women found ways to socialise. Vince’s mum married his stepfather in 1942; he recalls “Mum’s photo on the front page of a newspaper called The Truth and that not very nice things had been written about her”. </p>
<p>Some family members applied for and received exemption from the restrictive provisions of the Aborigines Act, which meant less control of their every movement, and was granted to Aboriginal people who <a href="https://aboriginalexemption.com.au/">were deemed to be</a> “worthy”. (If <a href="http://www.hass-sa.asn.au/files/1415/5442/9962/Timeline_of_legislation_affecting_aboriginal_people.pdf">not exempted</a>, Aboriginal people could not open a bank account, buy land or legally drink alcohol. However, exempted people were not supposed to have contact with non-exempt Aboriginal people any more.) Vince’s mum’s 1946 exemption certificate appears in the book. </p>
<p>Voluntarily living at <a href="https://www.stfrancishouse.com.au/">St Francis House</a> in Adelaide, a boys’ home where Aboriginal kids from remote areas could get an education in the city, was a striking example of the opportunity afforded by urban movement. Much later, in 2014 in the same city, Vince was presented with the Member of the Order of Australia by then-governor of South Australia, Hieu Van Le. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503735/original/file-20230110-24-zqkpb5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="schoolboys on their way to school" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503735/original/file-20230110-24-zqkpb5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503735/original/file-20230110-24-zqkpb5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503735/original/file-20230110-24-zqkpb5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503735/original/file-20230110-24-zqkpb5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503735/original/file-20230110-24-zqkpb5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503735/original/file-20230110-24-zqkpb5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503735/original/file-20230110-24-zqkpb5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">St Francis House boys in 1950, on their way to school. Left to right: Laurie Bray, Desi Price, Kenny Hampton, Richie Bray, Malcolm Cooper, Gordon Briscoe, Ron Tilmouth, Vince Copley, Gerry Hill and Wilf Huddleston.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">St Francis House</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As a young man, Vince spent time living and working in country towns where the racism took the breath away. (For example, travelling for work to buy a grain elevator, Vince had to leave Wee Waa without the equipment because he could not get a white person to speak to him, let alone give him directions.) </p>
<p>And then there was Curramulka, on South Australia’s Yorke Peninsula, where Vince was recruited to play football, and initially worked as a shearer. He came and went over the years, boarding with a family, the Thomases (whose members included his future wife Brenda), on a farm just outside the town. He lived with the Thomases, “all up”, for 13 or 14 years.</p>
<p>“The Currie” holds a very special place in Vince’s heart: he became his own man here and he experienced a different social life from the one he’d been used to. In the Currie, Vince was invited to dinner at white folks’ homes. He could ask a woman to dance and not be rebuffed. He became coach and captain of the local AFL team, which he took to premierships in 1957, 1958, and 1959. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503733/original/file-20230110-18-mrta08.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="a football team, an Indigenous man smiling in front row, holding a ball" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503733/original/file-20230110-18-mrta08.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503733/original/file-20230110-18-mrta08.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503733/original/file-20230110-18-mrta08.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503733/original/file-20230110-18-mrta08.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503733/original/file-20230110-18-mrta08.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=629&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503733/original/file-20230110-18-mrta08.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=629&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503733/original/file-20230110-18-mrta08.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=629&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Vince Copley, aged 21 (pictured holding the ball, front-row centre) with the Curramulka A Grade Premiers AFL team, in his second year as captain-coach.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Curramulka Community Club</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The footy-mad towns of country South Australia found themselves in a dilemma only some of them could overcome: racist stereotyping couldn’t hold itself together if an Aboriginal person could live up close and be seen as fully human. Copley tells us his life, and through it we get to see the fabric of Australian life forming. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/charles-perkins-forced-australia-to-confront-its-racist-past-his-fight-for-justice-continues-today-139303">Charles Perkins forced Australia to confront its racist past. His fight for justice continues today</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Lifelong friendships</h2>
<p>Copley tells of a lifelong friendship with Charles Perkins, which began when they were both residents of the <a href="https://www.wakefieldpress.com.au/product.php?productid=1477">St Francis Home for Boys</a>. </p>
<p>There are other St Francis boys he also calls family: academic and activist <a href="https://ia.anu.edu.au/biography/briscoe-gordon-17784">Gordon Briscoe</a> (the first Indigenous person to be awarded a PhD from an Australian university), <a href="https://moriartyfoundation.org.au/people/john-moriarty/">John Moriarty</a> (co-owner with wife Ros Moriarty of Balarinji, the design studio that created the Wunala and Nalanji Dreamings painted on two Qantas jumbos and the first Aboriginal player selected to play soccer for Australia), Wilf Huddleton, Richie Bray, Malcolm Cooper, Kenny Hampton, Ron Tilmouth and more. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503737/original/file-20230110-22-chvss7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503737/original/file-20230110-22-chvss7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503737/original/file-20230110-22-chvss7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503737/original/file-20230110-22-chvss7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503737/original/file-20230110-22-chvss7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503737/original/file-20230110-22-chvss7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503737/original/file-20230110-22-chvss7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503737/original/file-20230110-22-chvss7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">One of many reunions of the St Francis boys, for Vince’s son VIncent’s baptism in 1976. From left to right: Desi Price, John Moriarty, Charles Perkins, Vince Copley, Mrs Smith, Father Smith (founder of St Francis Home for Boys), Les Nayda and Gordon Briscoe.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.stfrancishouse.com.au">Courtesy of the P. McD. Smith MBE and St Francis House Collection</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The friendship with Perkins, though, is what shapes much of Copley’s working life through the 1970s, 80s and 90s. Many times, he mentions Charlie would ask him to step in for him when he couldn’t make a meeting, a conference or a trip. Thus, Copley was there at the formation of key organisations and movements in the contemporary Aboriginal world. </p>
<p>These include: rights organisation the <a href="https://dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/federal_council_for_the_advancement_of_aborigines_and_torres_strait_islanders">Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders</a>, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Council_for_the_Advancement_of_Aborigines_and_Torres_Strait_Islanders">National Aboriginal and Islander Liberation Movement</a>, the first federal Department of Aboriginal Affairs, the <a href="https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/2000081">Aboriginal Development Commission</a>, the <a href="http://www.kooriweb.org/foley/images/history/1970s/nacc74/naccdx.html">National Aboriginal Consultative Committee</a>, <a href="https://www.ahl.gov.au/">Aboriginal Hostels Limited</a>, the inaugural Barunga Festival and the <a href="https://deadlystory.com/page/culture/history/Barunga_Statement">Barunga Bark Petition</a>, the <a href="https://www.naidoc.org.au/">National Aboriginal and Islander Day of Celebration</a> (NAIDOC), inaugural co-chair of Cricket Australia’s <a href="https://www.ntcricket.com.au/news/vale-vincent-copley/2022-01-17">National Indigenous Cricket Advisory Council</a>, inaugural chair of <a href="https://www.tandanya.com.au/">Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute</a>, and more.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503728/original/file-20230110-14-q0phr5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503728/original/file-20230110-14-q0phr5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503728/original/file-20230110-14-q0phr5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503728/original/file-20230110-14-q0phr5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503728/original/file-20230110-14-q0phr5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503728/original/file-20230110-14-q0phr5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503728/original/file-20230110-14-q0phr5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503728/original/file-20230110-14-q0phr5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Charles Perkins, fourth from left, on the Freedom Ride in 1965.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mitchell Library State Library of NSW</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It would be a mistake to think Copley’s influence was defined by Perkins: he too had magnetism, his own charisma and intelligence, his own vision for a better Australia and vision for better lives for his own people.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-who-owns-a-familys-story-why-its-time-to-lift-the-berndt-field-notes-embargo-94652">Friday essay: who owns a family's story? Why it's time to lift the Berndt field notes embargo</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Loss and a long life</h2>
<p>It’s hard to see how Vince Copley could have fitted any more into his life, but he does recall in The Wonder of Little Things some regret that he didn’t get to know more about his paternal grandfather Barney Waria. (Warrior in the book, matching Vince’s father, Frederick Warrior – the name <a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-who-owns-a-familys-story-why-its-time-to-lift-the-berndt-field-notes-embargo-94652">was anglicised</a> at some stage). </p>
<p>His memoir deals with the contentious issue of <a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-who-owns-a-familys-story-why-its-time-to-lift-the-berndt-field-notes-embargo-94652">the 30-year embargo</a> on the field notes of anthropologists Catherine and Ronald Berndt, which include information about and from Barney Warrior. As we keep moving into a future of democratised archives and changed power relationships in all aspects of life, one wonders if that embargo created unnecessary missed opportunity and heartache for Vince Copley. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503736/original/file-20230110-448-breuxu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503736/original/file-20230110-448-breuxu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503736/original/file-20230110-448-breuxu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503736/original/file-20230110-448-breuxu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503736/original/file-20230110-448-breuxu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503736/original/file-20230110-448-breuxu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503736/original/file-20230110-448-breuxu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503736/original/file-20230110-448-breuxu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Vincent Copley with his son Vincent Copley junior. They are holding Ngadjuri book, with their grandfather and great-grandfather, Barney Waria, on the cover.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Flinders University</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Vince Copley knew loss. His mother died when he was 15 and before that, four other members of his immediate family had also died prematurely, including his beloved big brother, Colin. We meet Colin on the opening page: Vince is four and Colin six years older than him. It’s clear that Vince is in awe of his brother, a “really fast runner”, and by page three (set in “the 1940s”), Colin is dead of an untreated infection from tearing his knee on barbed wire. </p>
<p>“The closest hospital is ten miles away in Maitland, but that’s taboo for us – they don’t take Aboriginal people,” Copley writes. The next-closest hospital is 50 miles away, in Wallaroo, but the family can’t access a car and the quickest route to a hospital is by bus, to Adelaide. When they arrive, “the infection’s set in too far”.</p>
<p>Vince, too, could have died early (at the age of 15) of appendicitis, if not for the third hospital he visited, in Wallaroo, which admitted and treated him after hospitals in Ardrossan and Maitland refused to. Vince writes: “Later they told me that if my appendix had burst, I would have been history.” </p>
<p>From an early sporting and very physical working life, Copley became a bureaucrat in this new and emerging Australia – he was often in cars and planes, sitting in meetings, smoking, and eating out. He attributes his need for open-heart surgery at the age of 45 to that lifestyle, and this proves yet another turning point in the life of this incredibly interesting person, whose humility and passion were hallmarks of a long life, lived well. </p>
<p>While the St Francis boys who as men were central to Copley throughout his life, he also often refers to the strong women in his family – his sisters Josie and Winnie and his Aunty Glad (Aboriginal community leader <a href="https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/elphick-gladys-12460">Gladys Elphick</a>, whose achievements included founding the Council of Aboriginal Women of South Australia and the Aboriginal Medical Service). He is loving about his mother, whose life was cut so cruelly short. </p>
<p>We see a man of his time and we might wonder how he would have managed without his courageous and loyal wife Brenda at home, holding down the fort and raising their beautiful children. But Copley provides a sense of a man who knows the worth of women and who could never deny their strength, intelligence, and significance to the making of the world – to the making of his world. </p>
<p>There is so much story told – and waiting to be read and heard – from the pages of The Wonder of Little Things. It would be a shame for readers to miss out. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>Associate Professor Sandra Phillips is guest editing, with Associate Professor Corrinne Sullivan, a special issue of international, peer-reviewed open access journal, Genealogy. Dedicated to Indigenous Auto/Biographies, the <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/journal/genealogy/special_issues/0W8FNRL13Y">call for papers</a> is open until 30 April, 2023.</em></p>
<p><em>Correction: this article originally stated that Vince Copley took the Curramulka AFL team he coached and captained to premierships in 1957, 1958, and 1950, but it was in 1957, 1958 and 1959; this has now been amended.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/192097/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sandra Phillips receives funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p>
Vince Copley lived a long, impressive life, helping to make a better world for Aboriginal people. Born on a mission in 1936, he died aged 85, just after finishing his memoir, on 10 January 2022.
Sandra Phillips, Associate Professor of Indigenous Australian Studies, School of Humanities and Communication Arts, Western Sydney University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/192504
2022-11-14T00:30:22Z
2022-11-14T00:30:22Z
Bell frogs, dugong bones and giant cauliflowers: water stories come to life at Green Square
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494783/original/file-20221111-21-8gu7av.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4031%2C2673&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Sheas Creek runs into Alexandra Canal.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo: Ilaria Vanni</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Did you know the Sydney suburb Rosebery was home to the now-endangered <a href="https://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/threatenedspeciesapp/profile.aspx?id=10483">green and golden bell frogs</a>? That enormous cauliflowers were nourished by fresh water springs? And that <a href="https://dictionaryofsydney.org/event/excavation_of_sheas_creek_1896">dugong bones</a> were found during excavation for the <a href="https://dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/from_sheas_creek_to_alexandra_canal">Alexandra Canal</a>?</p>
<p><a href="https://www.mappingedges.org/projects/water-stories-activating-water-civic-ecologies-in-green-square/">Research</a> has revealed these and other water stories in a project that maps and brings to life the histories and practices of water in Green Square. For Traditional Owners, the Country now known as Green Square is nadunga gurad, sand dune Country, known for millennia for its nattai bamalmarray, freshwater wetlands and ephemeral ponds.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/may-you-always-taste-the-sweetest-fruit-uncovering-the-history-and-hidden-delights-of-your-neighbourhood-179308">'May you always taste the sweetest fruit': uncovering the history and hidden delights of your neighbourhood</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Illustration of factories alongside a canal" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493410/original/file-20221103-22-1dn4qf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493410/original/file-20221103-22-1dn4qf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493410/original/file-20221103-22-1dn4qf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493410/original/file-20221103-22-1dn4qf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493410/original/file-20221103-22-1dn4qf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493410/original/file-20221103-22-1dn4qf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493410/original/file-20221103-22-1dn4qf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sawtooth factories on the Alexandra Canal.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Illustration: Ella Cutler</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Green Square is Australia’s <a href="https://www.urbanagendaplatform.org/best-practice/i-green-square-rich-industrial-past-vibrant-sustainable-and-connected-community">largest urban renewal project</a>, spanning the inner eastern Sydney suburbs of Beaconsfield, Rosebery, Zetland, Alexandria and Waterloo. During the <a href="https://theconversation.com/no-not-again-a-third-straight-la-nina-is-likely-heres-how-you-and-your-family-can-prepare-188970">La Niña</a> event in 2021-22, the wetlands and ephemeral ponds became visible to Green Square residents and visitors over the first year of the research project. Yet the histories of water that shaped and continue to shape Green Square remained largely invisible. </p>
<p>Researchers from the University of Technology Sydney brought some of these stories to the surface in a storymap. We used a software package (ESRI’s ArcGIS) to integrate maps, archival text, expert voices, photos, videos and illustrations for the <a href="https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/cbfa956dc8744b4cbe7db5696eaff619">Water Stories</a> project. Telling these water stories allows us to explore the ever-changing relations between Country, development and urban imagination. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="ibis illustration" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493412/original/file-20221103-17-ghtx4o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493412/original/file-20221103-17-ghtx4o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=573&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493412/original/file-20221103-17-ghtx4o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=573&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493412/original/file-20221103-17-ghtx4o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=573&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493412/original/file-20221103-17-ghtx4o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=720&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493412/original/file-20221103-17-ghtx4o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=720&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493412/original/file-20221103-17-ghtx4o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=720&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Australian white ibis is a common wetland bird in Green Square.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Illustration: Ella Cutler</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Where do these stories come from?</h2>
<p>We went to a range of archives. Some were official, such as the State Library of NSW, the National Library Trove, the City of Sydney Archives and strategy documents, the <a href="https://dharawalstories.com/dharawal-dictionary/">Dharawal Dictionary</a>, state government policy documents and federal and state parliamentary Hansards. And some were grassroots records, such as the online archive of FrogCall, the newsletter of the Frog and Tadpole Society. We also spoke to experts such as zoologists, engineers and landscape architects. </p>
<p>However, the largest archive we explored is Green Square itself. To understand Green Square as a living archive we identified “portals” in the landscape: visible objects that provide entry points into water stories. A pub, a plaque, a frog pond, a maintenance hole, a hoarding, a canal, a creek, a blue tongue lizard and a native flower are translated into the storymap as geolocated icons on a base map. Clicking on each of these icons transports you to a new story.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493408/original/file-20221103-18-vixwqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="hand-drawn map with illustrations drawn in circles" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493408/original/file-20221103-18-vixwqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493408/original/file-20221103-18-vixwqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493408/original/file-20221103-18-vixwqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493408/original/file-20221103-18-vixwqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493408/original/file-20221103-18-vixwqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493408/original/file-20221103-18-vixwqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493408/original/file-20221103-18-vixwqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Water Stories map has nine ‘portals’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Illustration: Ella Cutler</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We pieced together fragments found in the archives into narratives that recover both well-known and little-known histories. These stories reveal the multiple and changing relations with water in this area.</p>
<p>What, for example, is the story of the pub? Perhaps you have been to the Cauliflower Hotel, one of the oldest pubs in Sydney. It was founded by George Rolfe, a well-known market gardener. Rolfe had prospered from growing a bumper crop of cauliflowers watered from springs during a drought.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/move-over-suburbia-green-square-offers-new-norm-for-urban-living-57633">Move over suburbia, Green Square offers new norm for urban living</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Stories of Country and colonialism</h2>
<p>For millennia this area was a refuge on the route between Sydney’s two harbours, Gamay (Botany Bay) and War'ran (Sydney Cove). The presence of water led settler-colonial land owners to choose this place. Thus began the colonial history of Green Square as a site of agriculture, manufacturing, industry and now residential development. </p>
<p>This narrative is dominant in contemporary descriptions of Green Square, but it is not the only direction these stories flow.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Green and gold frog on a log" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494778/original/file-20221110-23-dvznv7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494778/original/file-20221110-23-dvznv7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=595&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494778/original/file-20221110-23-dvznv7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=595&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494778/original/file-20221110-23-dvznv7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=595&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494778/original/file-20221110-23-dvznv7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=747&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494778/original/file-20221110-23-dvznv7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=747&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494778/original/file-20221110-23-dvznv7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=747&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The green and golden bell frog.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo: JJ Harrison/Wikimedia Commons</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The endangered green and golden bell frog, we discovered, prefers to make its habitat in disturbed landscapes, such as the water pooling from sand mining, rather than in custom-made nature reserves. This may dampen enthusiasm for the small frog pond established at <a href="https://foxrelocations.com.au/fun-things-to-do-in-kimberley-grove-reserve-in-rosebery-2018/">Kimberley Grove Reserve</a>. But it is important to understand the complexity of how such histories intersect if we are to make better decisions about cities in the face of climate change. </p>
<p>Some of the other stories surfaced by the project include:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Gunyama, the name of the new aquatic centre means “stinky wind”, which could describe the smell of both ancient mangrove swamps and the noxious trades of the 1800s</p></li>
<li><p>a huge <a href="https://www.outdoordesign.com.au/news-info/stormwater-drain-keeps-green-square-dry/7754.htm">stormwater processing plant</a> lies underneath Green Square. Built as part of the development, it delivers up to 320 million litres of recycled stormwater each year to new buildings and open spaces.</p></li>
</ul>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="three men, one digging" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493409/original/file-20221103-24-i5k0l7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493409/original/file-20221103-24-i5k0l7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=329&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493409/original/file-20221103-24-i5k0l7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=329&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493409/original/file-20221103-24-i5k0l7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=329&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493409/original/file-20221103-24-i5k0l7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493409/original/file-20221103-24-i5k0l7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493409/original/file-20221103-24-i5k0l7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Dugong remains were found during excavation at Sheas Creek in 1896.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo: Australian Museum (AMS351/V9817)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/not-if-but-when-city-planners-need-to-design-for-flooding-these-examples-show-the-way-157578">Not 'if', but 'when': city planners need to design for flooding. These examples show the way</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>On the storymap, watery words from the Dharawal Dictionary guide your interactive experience, because the premise for telling these water stories is that we understand the city as Country. Country is often misunderstood as being synonymous with land, but it comprises every aspect of the “natural” environment and ecology, including water and relationships between water and land. </p>
<p>We understand water is always present, even if not visible. And that care for cities means care for Country, which also means care for water. </p>
<p>As we collect and rearrange stories, we also create new ones. We are interested in hearing how as a resident, worker or visitor to Green Square you perceive the presence and histories of water in the neighbourhood.</p>
<p>By sharing your own water story you can contribute to the living archive on the <a href="https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/cbfa956dc8744b4cbe7db5696eaff619">Water Stories website</a>. Simply click on the eel at the end of each story and add some text to share your story about how you experience water at Green Square.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>The <a href="https://107.org.au/event/water-stories/">Water Stories exhibition</a>, featuring illustrations by Ella Cutler printed on site at the <a href="https://rizzeria.com/">Rizzeria</a>, opens November 16 at 6pm.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/192504/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ilaria Vanni receives funding from The City of Sydney. She is a member of the Climate, Society and Environment Research Centre (C_SERC) and of the Creative Practice Research Group at the University of Technology Sydney.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alexandra Crosby receives funding from The City of Sydney. She is member of The Frog and Tadpole Study Group of New South Wales (FATS) </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shannon Foster does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Long before Green Square was a huge urban renewal project it was Country known to Traditional Owners for its wetlands. Until now, those water stories have remained largely invisible.
Ilaria Vanni, Associate Professor, International Studies and Global Societies, University of Technology Sydney
Alexandra Crosby, Associate Professor, School of Design, University of Technology Sydney
Shannon Foster, D'harawal Knowledge Keeper, PhD Candidate and Lecturer, School of Architecture, University of Technology Sydney
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/186295
2022-08-07T20:42:04Z
2022-08-07T20:42:04Z
Sparks fly for these bold, culturally connected romantic heroines in a ‘very Aboriginal’ love story and a Lebanese Looking for Alibrandi
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476848/original/file-20220801-73371-ffc3a4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=44%2C0%2C4985%2C3313&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Romance is a genre of tropes — enemies to lovers, friends to lovers, stuck together, fake relationships — with a preference for a certain type of heroine: a young woman <a href="https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/qut/reader.action?docID=918752&ppg=12">who is</a> idealistic yet flawed, and “white, middle-class, heterosexual, young and single”. </p>
<p>But a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/jun/08/lockdown-exploded-tiktok-books-revolution-booktok">TikTok rom-com boom</a> and recent reader demands for diverse storytelling seem to be having an effect. New romance titles starring bold, culturally connected heroines – who manage to break genre moulds while remaining faithful to what readers love about romance – are starting to hit the market. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>Review: Sixty-Seven Days by Yvonne Weldon (Penguin); Something Blue by Alex Sarkis (Ultimo)</em></p>
<hr>
<p>There’s been a flood of diverse romance coming out every month internationally, with titles like Akwaeke Emezi’s <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/You-Made-a-Fool-of-Death-with-Your-Beauty/Akwaeke-Emezi/9781982188702">You Made a Fool of Death With Your Beauty</a> and Nisha Sharma’s <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com.au/9780063001107/dating-dr-dil/">Dating Dr. Dil</a>. Australian publishers have so far been slow to catch up. But two new debut novels, <a href="https://www.penguin.com.au/books/sixty-seven-days-9780143777144">Sixty-Seven Days</a> by Yvonne Weldon and <a href="https://www.ultimopress.com.au/somethingblue">Something Blue</a> by Alex Sarkis, could herald a new boom of diverse Australian romantic heroines.</p>
<h2>Sparks fly in the wake of trauma</h2>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/yvonne-weldon-1247005">Yvonne Weldon</a> is a proud Wiradjuri woman with an impressive list of credits to her name. She is the 2022 Aboriginal Woman of the year, the first ever Aboriginal councillor for the City of Sydney, and the <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/indigenous-leader-yvonne-weldon-enters-race-for-sydney-mayoralty-20210514-p57rvx.html">first Aboriginal candidate</a> to nominate for Lord Mayor of Sydney. Now, she adds author to her list of achievements.</p>
<p>Sixty-Seven Days is the story of Evie, a 19-year-old Wiradjuri woman who struggles with depression after experiencing a traumatic assault as a girl. Although she has strong family and cultural ties, Evie has struggled to work through what she experienced and has moved between jobs and university courses feeling unsettled, struggling with dark thoughts and sometimes wishing she were no longer alive. </p>
<p>Recovery is made even more difficult by the fact that the man who attacked her in her youth, a man she refers to as her predator, is also connected to the close-knit Redfern Aboriginal community. This means he’s an often unavoidable presence in her own family.</p>
<p>One summer day, Evie meets electrician’s apprentice James, and they fall deeply in love. It’s a magical connection where sparks almost literally fly whenever they’re in each other’s presence, in a way that neither of them can quite understand.</p>
<p>Their extraordinary romance fills the dark corners of Evie’s world with light. James’s presence often helps her feel protected (even when faced with her predator). His love helps to draw Evie from hopelessness and despair to a place where she is happy and excited about her future. But this is a romantic tragedy, and James and Evie’s love story lasts just 67 days before a heartbreaking turn of events tears them apart.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/love-and-a-happy-ending-romance-fiction-to-help-you-through-a-coronavirus-lockdown-133784">Love and a happy ending: romance fiction to help you through a coronavirus lockdown</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Appetite for diverse voices</h2>
<p>It’s no secret that there’s an <a href="https://www.killyourdarlings.com.au/article/diverse-publishing-isnt-just-about-writers/">increased appetite for more diverse voices</a> in Australian literature. As an emerging Blak writer myself, it’s exciting to see new works published in genres where there hasn’t been a strong presence before. <a href="https://theconversation.com/love-in-the-time-of-racism-barbed-wire-and-cherry-blossoms-explores-the-politics-of-romance-64126">Anita Heiss</a> paved the way in Aboriginal romance with her “choc lit” titles, such as <a href="https://www.penguin.com.au/books/not-meeting-mr-right-9781863255110">Not Meeting Mr Right</a> and <a href="https://www.penguin.com.au/books/manhattan-dreaming-9781864711288">Manhattan Dreaming</a>. But here, Weldon is working in niche territory – a contemporary (if the 1990s can be “contemporary”) tragic love story, with a central plot driven entirely by culture and spiritual practice. When Weldon writes Country and Culture, the words seem to sing from the page:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We are being hugged from the grey mangroves where the trunks reach out over us and under us […] We take each step as if we are floating again to the sounds of the birds, the breeze and the ocean hitting the rocks in the background. We blindly walk but our feet do not hit the path – the dirt touches our feet.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476853/original/file-20220801-20-53b8k4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476853/original/file-20220801-20-53b8k4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476853/original/file-20220801-20-53b8k4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=918&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476853/original/file-20220801-20-53b8k4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=918&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476853/original/file-20220801-20-53b8k4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=918&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476853/original/file-20220801-20-53b8k4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1153&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476853/original/file-20220801-20-53b8k4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1153&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476853/original/file-20220801-20-53b8k4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1153&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>James — a descendant of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/first-nations-families-need-support-to-stay-together-before-we-create-another-stolen-generation-159131">stolen generations</a>, whose family line and connections are uncertain — isn’t connected to culture in the same way as Evie. But his respect for her family, their ways, and their Country is a lovely touch that will ring true for many disconnected Indigenous peoples. He has a gentle hunger for her knowledge that (more than his role as her protector – which can get a little overbearing at times) will make readers fall for him as her love interest. He says:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I can’t say I’ve seen anything like this before, but I can feel the spirituality of this […] I’ve grown up without knowing my people and haven’t been immersed into culture with mob like you: what we are seeing is what I have waited my whole life for.</p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-30-years-after-mabo-what-do-australias-battler-stories-and-their-evasions-say-about-who-we-are-187110">Friday essay: 30 years after Mabo, what do Australia's battler stories – and their evasions – say about who we are?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Drawing from ‘very real’ cultural beliefs</h2>
<p>This is a love story written in a <em>very</em> Aboriginal way – a way non-Indigenous readers might describe as having a touch of the supernatural – but to describe the book as such (or as myth, or magic realism for that matter) <a href="https://www.killyourdarlings.com.au/article/why-culturally-aware-reviews-matter/">would be structural racism that disrespects</a> moe than 60,000 years of culture. </p>
<p>This is a book that draws from very real cultural beliefs. The way Weldon has woven Dreaming and Wiradjuri spirituality into the narrative allows for ancestors and family, even those who have long passed, to be very present throughout – in a way that will become intrinsically important for Evie.</p>
<p>Weldon beautifully expresses ideas of non-linear time and the way in which the Dreaming, past, and future work for Blakfullas. I often send non-Indigenous readers looking for a deeper understanding of our connection with time to Nardi Simpson’s <a href="https://www.hachette.com.au/nardi-simpson/song-of-the-crocodile">Song of the Crocodile</a>. I know that I will now add Sixty-Seven Days to my recommendation list.</p>
<p>Culture, for me, is the book’s strongest quality. But when Evie and James travel to her ancestral Country in the middle of the story, the pace slows substantially. The tension of the impending tragedy and the darkness of Evie’s past almost completely drops away – and without this, the story lacks a hook to keep readers engaged. </p>
<p>Similarly, the short, sharp chapters divided into each of the couple’s 67 days together don’t allow the reader a lot of connection to the characters, or the deep relationships they’re forming with Evie’s family and culture. Unfortunately, this means some of the book’s more heartbreaking aspects don’t quite hit the satisfying emotional peak that readers long for in romantic tragedies.</p>
<p>Evie and James’s love becomes all-encompassing very quickly. Romance readers, particularly those who are a fan of the tragic, doomed love story (think <a href="https://theconversation.com/baz-luhrmanns-romeo-juliet-at-25-is-this-the-best-shakespeare-screen-adaptation-154801">Romeo and Juliet</a>, or perhaps more contemporarily, <a href="https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/book-list/every-nicholas-sparks-book-in-order/">Nicholas Sparks’</a> oeuvre), will love this book. But the constant sweet-talking, pet names, and inability to spend time apart sometimes feels overbearing:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>When we’re together there’s this glow of wanting to do as much as we can because the love we feel makes us want to grow it more, to expand it to all of us and what we do. It blends when we are together and contracts when we are apart. I can’t describe the intensity of it because there is a compounding light of one female soul and one male soul, our bodies enmeshed.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>With Evie’s traumatic past, I found myself wanting to see her make her own way in the world: to bring herself from darkness into recovery with the support of her culture and family. But when recovery happens, it’s born of Evie’s reliance on James. Perhaps it’s because as a reader, I favour romantic comedies over tragedy, but I found the latter, more plot-driven chapters – where Evie has to make her own way through the world – the most satisfying parts of the story.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/more-than-half-of-australians-will-experience-trauma-most-before-they-turn-17-we-need-to-talk-about-it-159801">More than half of Australians will experience trauma, most before they turn 17. We need to talk about it</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>The millennial answer to Looking for Alibrandi</h2>
<p>Alex Sarkis’s Something Blue is billed as the millennial answer to <a href="https://www.penguin.com.au/books/looking-for-alibrandi-9781761047206">Looking for Alibrandi</a>. Sarkis was born and raised in <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-new-australian-literary-frontier-writing-western-sydney-37284">Sydney’s West</a>, to Lebanese immigrant parents. Her book reads as a love letter to her culture and her home town – and the people who live there.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476857/original/file-20220801-13683-myziuz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476857/original/file-20220801-13683-myziuz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476857/original/file-20220801-13683-myziuz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476857/original/file-20220801-13683-myziuz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476857/original/file-20220801-13683-myziuz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476857/original/file-20220801-13683-myziuz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476857/original/file-20220801-13683-myziuz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476857/original/file-20220801-13683-myziuz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Alex Sarkis’s debut novel reads as a love letter to the Western Sydney suburbs she was raised in.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Part romance, part coming-of-age story and part social comedy, the story follows 26-year-old Nicole Najim. Nicole is nursing a recent heartbreak. Her appetite is gone, she feels stuck in her job at her family’s luxury car dealership, and now that her boyfriend has cheated and left her, the expectation (from her family and culture) that she get married, settle down and start a family seems almost impossible to meet.</p>
<p>It’s difficult to talk about Nicole’s love interest without spoiling the book, but I can say he’s as complex a character as any other. While he is every bit the romantic hero – rich, handsome, enigmatic; in plain sight all along — readers will definitely have lots of conflicting feelings about him.</p>
<p>There’s a huge cast of characters: Nicole’s parents, grandmother, aunties, uncles, cousins, childhood friends, and their families – even their hairdressers. But despite the volume of characters, Sarkis introduces each person perfectly and readers won’t have any problem distinguishing between them – even one of the hairdressers, who only pops up three times and is referred to as “the idiot with the eyebrows”, feels distinct. These very minor characters and the Western Sydney suburbs they inhabit play important roles in Nicole’s story.</p>
<p>Once an aspiring photographer with dreams of capturing images of “ordinary people in extraordinary places” like Paris and Rome, Nicole instead finds herself taking pictures of the cars for sale at her family’s dealership. But after she falls ill at work and is forced into a period of leave, she finds direction by documenting the lives of her community. She hopes to take pictures that tell her story and submit them to a selective workshop program run by a famous photographer she’s long admired.</p>
<p>By taking photos of her family and community, Nicole begins to truly see those around her in a way she didn’t before. It’s through truly knowing her community that Nicole is able to capture it. The plotline risks cliche, but Sarkis avoids this potential trap by making Nicole’s interactions feel deeply authentic. </p>
<p>For example, there’s the overconfident, rich DJ-turned-real-estate-developer Dave Dollaz, who is “heaps keen” on Nicole after seeing her at a family wedding. Reluctantly, Nicole agrees to a date, where Dave pulls out every stereotypical (and some not-so-stereotypical) move from the alpha male dating handbook: ordering food for her, bragging about his money. </p>
<p>Later, Dave shows Nicole his softer side and though he (almost disappointingly) doesn’t become the romantic lead, he does grow as a character before his moment comes to be photographically captured.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476852/original/file-20220801-24154-idd4ae.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476852/original/file-20220801-24154-idd4ae.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476852/original/file-20220801-24154-idd4ae.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=917&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476852/original/file-20220801-24154-idd4ae.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=917&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476852/original/file-20220801-24154-idd4ae.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=917&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476852/original/file-20220801-24154-idd4ae.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1153&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476852/original/file-20220801-24154-idd4ae.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1153&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476852/original/file-20220801-24154-idd4ae.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1153&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption"></span>
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</figure>
<p>As with Sixty-Seven Days, place and culture are some of the strongest elements of Something Blue. It’s refreshing to read about Sydney from the perspective of suburbs like Granville and Bankstown, with their tight-knit cultural communities.
To be shown into the Maronite Church for a variety of events, to see a Lebanese wedding reception, go to a glamorous fashion launch, and then a backyard barbecue where the host’s family mingles with a bunch of criminals – it feels like being invited into the community. </p>
<p>Walking through the streets of ultra-religious Granville <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-social-conservatism-among-ethnic-communities-drove-a-strong-no-vote-in-western-sydney-87509">to see</a> <em>Vote No</em> billboards during the marriage equality debate is hard, but eye-opening. And it’s heartbreaking to see how the <a href="https://theconversation.com/can-our-cities-thriving-creative-precincts-be-saved-from-renewal-83042">gentrification</a> of suburbs like Bankstown affects residents who have found refuge, safety and community there – displacing people who are often in Australia because they were displaced in their birth countries. </p>
<p>It’s clear Sarkis loves the place she comes from: every suburb, street, home and hair salon is written with affection for the people and culture it represents.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-writers-craft-a-conversation-with-melina-marchetta-42244">A writer’s craft: a conversation with Melina Marchetta</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>More please!</h2>
<p>These two very different novels share similar strengths. Both writers embed stories about what it’s like to fall in love within loving portrayals of their cultures, the places they come from, and family. I’m looking forward to seeing where both of these authors go with their storytelling – carrying their obvious connection to, care, and love for culture into future works.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/186295/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>I am a recipient of a 2021 Penguin Random House Write-It Fellowship and have worked with the editorial team who produced Weldon's novel 'Sixty-Seven Days'. </span></em></p>
These two new romances starring bold, culturally connected heroines from Redfern and Western Sydney break the genre mould – but remain faithful to what readers love about romance.
Melanie Saward, Associate Lecturer, Creative Writing, Queensland University of Technology
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/182228
2022-05-31T20:12:35Z
2022-05-31T20:12:35Z
The first Australian First Nations anthology of speculative fiction is playful, bitter, loud and proud
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466164/original/file-20220531-26-eoybgi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">shutterstock</span> </figcaption></figure><p>This is not “just” an anthology of Australian First Nations <a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-science-fictions-women-problem-58626">speculative fiction</a>, but also the <em>first</em> Australian anthology of First Nations speculative fiction. And what an entry onto the scene it is! </p>
<hr>
<p><em>Review: This All Come Back Now: An Anthology of First Nations Speculative Fiction edited by Mykaela Saunders (University of Queensland Press)</em></p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465671/original/file-20220527-21-w6ca4m.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465671/original/file-20220527-21-w6ca4m.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465671/original/file-20220527-21-w6ca4m.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=896&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465671/original/file-20220527-21-w6ca4m.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=896&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465671/original/file-20220527-21-w6ca4m.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=896&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465671/original/file-20220527-21-w6ca4m.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1126&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465671/original/file-20220527-21-w6ca4m.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1126&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465671/original/file-20220527-21-w6ca4m.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1126&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<p>In my view, speculative fiction – the narrative exploration of “what-ifs”, the creative probing into latent possibilities, the imaginary voyaging into potential futures – is the genre of our times. We are on the brink of … something. Environmentally, for sure. But also socially, politically, economically. </p>
<p>What this something is, when it will happen, how it will shape the future: these are the questions at stake. This collection of Australian <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-way-we-talk-about-first-nations-issues-is-striking-as-our-analysis-of-82-million-words-of-australian-news-and-opinion-shows-179480">First Nation</a> voices exploring these very questions – creatively, through storytelling – is a most welcome addition to the scene. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-how-speculative-fiction-gained-literary-respectability-102568">Friday essay: how speculative fiction gained literary respectability</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Country with a capital ‘C’</h2>
<p>What makes the contributions to <a href="https://www.uqp.com.au/books/this-all-come-back-now">This All Come Back Now</a> distinct – and distinctly First Nations? </p>
<p>First, Country with a capital “C”, in that very First Nations sense of something utterly fundamental and intimately related to the self, is centrally present across these pages. Many of these stories are fully immersed in Country. </p>
<p>It’s often being restored after catastrophe, or is restorative. For example, in Larrakia, Kungarakan, Gurindji and French writer Laniyuk’s piece, “Nimeybirra”: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I want justice. I want retribution. I want vengeance. I want the ugly. I want the wrong. […] In the quiet calm, in conversation with Country, I hear the whispers of another way of being, and that is the call I must follow. That is the only reason and voice that makes sense in the world.</p>
</blockquote>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465963/original/file-20220530-16-84t9za.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465963/original/file-20220530-16-84t9za.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465963/original/file-20220530-16-84t9za.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465963/original/file-20220530-16-84t9za.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465963/original/file-20220530-16-84t9za.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465963/original/file-20220530-16-84t9za.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465963/original/file-20220530-16-84t9za.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465963/original/file-20220530-16-84t9za.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Laniyuk: Country is ever-present in her story, ‘Nimeybirra’.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Throughout, Country’s ever-presence is suggested in little phrases or metaphors (the moths in Martu author Karen Wyld’s “Clatter Tongue”, the mangroves in Bardi writer Kalem Murray’s “In His Father’s Footsteps”). And it’s there in myriad deeply meaningful references to smoke, birds, sand, water, wind, light, air and trees. </p>
<p>Sometimes, the contrast between a story’s setting and Country is incongruent – but at first glance only. A gripping example is Nyungar technologist and digital rights activist Kathryn Gledhill-Tucker’s startling piece “Protocols of Transference”. </p>
<p>It consists of shards of monologue directed towards an unspecified electronic technology, from when it “first spoke” to its final days. </p>
<p>The narrator observes that the collapse predicted by data that had “overwhelmed our scientists” was “avoidable, had they paid attention to our country and kin.”</p>
<blockquote>
<p>By country and kin, we mean all of it. We encompass the ground and all its substrate, sand, rare earth minerals, craters left from old meteors that make their way into old stories, hidden river systems, animals fossilised in place, tracks tracing paths from trees to waterholes; trade routes and songlines that have made way for worn paths, widened by horses, then lanes of cars, paved with bitumen, that leave scars of old stories in the geometry of people and protocol.</p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/ancient-stories-and-enduring-spirit-loving-country-reminds-us-of-the-wonders-right-under-our-noses-151571">Ancient stories and enduring spirit: Loving Country reminds us of the wonders right under our noses</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Cheeky and ‘bitter-funny’</h2>
<p>Another recurring element in this anthology is a particular kind of humour. It’s playful: Noongar writer Timmah Ball’s “An Invitation” is set in a time that references the “era before buildings disappeared”. </p>
<p>It’s cheeky and tongue-in-cheek, as shown in Gomeroi poet <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/alison-whittaker-506872/articles">Alison Whittaker</a>’s “The Centre”: “I remember my first time in the digital coolamon”. (A <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coolamon_(vessel)">coolamon</a> is an Australian Aboriginal carrying vessel.)</p>
<p>And it’s often bitter-funny. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465964/original/file-20220530-22-t704ru.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465964/original/file-20220530-22-t704ru.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465964/original/file-20220530-22-t704ru.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465964/original/file-20220530-22-t704ru.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465964/original/file-20220530-22-t704ru.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465964/original/file-20220530-22-t704ru.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465964/original/file-20220530-22-t704ru.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465964/original/file-20220530-22-t704ru.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Adam Thompson.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In pakana writer Adam Thompson’s “Your Own Aborigine”, a “Sponsorship Bill” requires Aboriginal people to be personally sponsored by an Australian taxpayer in order to receive welfare money. </p>
<p>In a story within a story in “Five Minutes”, Kalkadoon writer John Morrissey presents a mocking play on the the relative <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-new-artistic-call-for-us-to-recognise-the-connections-of-country-is-a-testament-to-the-power-of-aboriginal-knowledge-169102">connection to Country</a> for settlers (200 years) compared to Aboriginal Australians (50,000 years), as aliens invade. </p>
<p>They incinerate settlers in an instant – but apologetically grant Aboriginal people an extra five minutes to say goodbye to Country. </p>
<p>Or consider Wonnarua and Lebanese author Merryana Salem’s play on temporalities in “When From?”, a story about a clandestine time-travel mission, in a world where <a href="https://theconversation.com/time-travel-could-be-possible-but-only-with-parallel-timelines-178776">time travel</a> is possible (but has been banned), to collect “reference footage” of <a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-but-we-already-had-a-treaty-tom-griffiths-on-a-little-known-1889-peace-accord-182511">frontier violence</a>, for historical accuracy in filmmaking. </p>
<p>When traveller Ardelia Paves, instructed not to interact with “the population”, protests that “they’ll be massacred”, she’s told:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Even if you were permitted to interact with the population, Miss Paves, how would you warn them? Last I checked, the dialect was lost […] I acknowledge your anger, I do, but we’re making a film that will tell their story, and we need you to do this so that we can.”</p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/supernovas-auroral-sounds-and-hungry-tides-unpacking-first-nations-knowledge-of-the-skies-178875">Supernovas, auroral sounds and hungry tides: unpacking First Nations knowledge of the skies</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>‘Loud and proud’ First Nations voice</h2>
<p>Finally, what sets this anthology apart is its sense that though each “what-if?” story is wildly different from the next, they come together as a whole that is bigger than its parts. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465965/original/file-20220530-16-bnftsc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465965/original/file-20220530-16-bnftsc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465965/original/file-20220530-16-bnftsc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465965/original/file-20220530-16-bnftsc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465965/original/file-20220530-16-bnftsc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465965/original/file-20220530-16-bnftsc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465965/original/file-20220530-16-bnftsc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465965/original/file-20220530-16-bnftsc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mykaela Saunders, editor of This All Come Back.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To some considerable extent, this is due to Koori writer and editor Mykaela Saunders’ exceptional editing. Each story stands alone as a unique exploration of its “what-if” premise – set in its own imaginative time and place, with its own original story arc, delivered in its own style. Yet these stories segue seamlessly from one to the next. </p>
<p>Each story is connected to its precedessor through one theme and to its successor through another: they come together like notes in a song. While there are many original voices in this anthology, it also speaks with one loud and proud overarching First Nations voice. </p>
<p>I recommend this anthology to readers interested in good fiction generally and speculative fiction in particular. But most emphatically, I recommend it to anyone who might wonder what a First Nations response to the question of our potential future might look like. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>Correction: this article originally stated this anthology was the first First Nations anthology of speculative fiction. However, First Nations anthologies that come under the ‘speculative fiction’ umbrella have been found to exist in other countries, so we have amended the text to make clear it is the first in Australia.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/182228/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Yasmine Musharbash received funding from the ARC. </span></em></p>
What might our future look like? Together, these speculative fiction stories offer a First Nations response to this burning question.
Yasmine Musharbash, Senior Lecturer and Head of Anthropology, Australian National University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/168688
2021-10-06T10:06:21Z
2021-10-06T10:06:21Z
England has managed its countryside badly for a century – what has gone wrong and how it can be fixed?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424061/original/file-20210930-22-1td8sd1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Views of the Yorkshire Dales seem idyllic but farmers are dealing with economic and environmental problems.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source"> albinoni/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A century of managing the English countryside badly has led to <a href="https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/news/2020/september/uk-has-led-the-world-in-destroying-the-natural-environment.html">collapsing ecosystems</a>, growing <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jul/26/flash-floods-will-be-more-common-as-climate-crisis-worsens-say-scientists-london-floods">threats from flooding</a>, more <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-36764592">farms going bust</a> than ever before and a global climate crisis still lacking any coherent and <a href="https://www.foei.org/press_releases/cop23-rich-countries-show-poor-leadership-climate-crisis-people-power-shines">practical approach</a> to sorting it out. </p>
<p>As the UK hosts the <a href="https://ukcop26.org/">COP 26</a> conference in Glasgow, where the world’s leaders discuss plans for addressing climate change, it would be an excellent time to signal a new approach to countryside management.</p>
<p>A recently published Parliament Office for Science and Technology <a href="https://post.parliament.uk/research-briefings/post-pb-0042/">report</a> on sustainable land management proposes a new approach to countryside management in England, based on 18 months of research, over <a href="https://ndcpartnership.org/toolbox/nature-based-solutions-nationally-determined-contributions-synthesis-and-recommendations">500</a> <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-64668-z">scientific</a> <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969720300620">studies</a> and interviews with researchers, <a href="https://gov.wales/sustainable-farming-and-our-land-simplifying-agricultural-support">public policy executives</a> and key <a href="https://landscapesforlife.org.uk/download_file/view/1039">practictioners</a> in the <a href="https://knepp.co.uk/home">field</a>. </p>
<p>Solving this crisis will take massive and radical shifts. This will involve hundreds of decisions by different groups: farmers, national and local governments, banks, land agents, industry and the public; and they all need to <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-018-0070-8">work together</a>. </p>
<h2>How did it get so bad?</h2>
<p>The UK, and particularly England, is one of the most <a href="https://royalsociety.org/topics-policy/publications/2020/commissioned-report-history-uk-land-use-decision-making/">crowded countries in Europe</a>, which places significant pressures upon land and land use. Unlike the rest of Europe, the last time England experienced a major redistribution of land ownership was the dissolution of the monasteries in the 16th century.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/423325/original/file-20210927-21-16rt1hu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/423325/original/file-20210927-21-16rt1hu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423325/original/file-20210927-21-16rt1hu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423325/original/file-20210927-21-16rt1hu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423325/original/file-20210927-21-16rt1hu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423325/original/file-20210927-21-16rt1hu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423325/original/file-20210927-21-16rt1hu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">British National Ploughing Championships held at Marden, Kent.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Smudge 9000/flickr</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The second world war marked a huge change how land was managed. Today’s farming in England is still largely shaped by 1947 Agriculture Act, which pushed self‐sufficiency in food production. Industrialised agriculture led to a reliance on diesel vehicles, inorganic fertilisers and chemical pesticides. This led to the end of horse-drawn ploughing and leaving fields fallow to recover. Efficiency went up, but the environmental costs were hidden until recently. </p>
<h2>Today’s problems</h2>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/423331/original/file-20210927-3333-4fr0m8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/423331/original/file-20210927-3333-4fr0m8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423331/original/file-20210927-3333-4fr0m8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423331/original/file-20210927-3333-4fr0m8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423331/original/file-20210927-3333-4fr0m8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423331/original/file-20210927-3333-4fr0m8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423331/original/file-20210927-3333-4fr0m8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Farmland birds like the European turtle dove numbers have declined.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Smudge 9000/flickr</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The <a href="http://publications.naturalengland.org.uk/file/97021">Nature Conservancy Council</a> estimated that by 1984, only 3% of Britain’s natural grasslands were left undamaged by agricultural intensification. Over the same time, the amount of land farmed in the England has grown to around 75%. As a result, both habitat diversity on farms and biodiversity across the country have been dramatically reduced. </p>
<p>Over the 20th century, the nation’s priority was to feed everyone, but not to protect the natural environment. Arguably, this was successful – farm productivity rose sharply (though food imports also grew after the UK <a href="https://www.chathamhouse.org/sites/default/files/publications/research/2019-01-10-BentonFroggattWrightThompsonKing.pdf">joined the EU in 1973</a>).</p>
<p>Trying to feed the nation and solving a biodiversity crisis would always be a challenge. Unfortunately, governments of the world are now also dealing with a global threat of human-caused climate change, flooding caused by bad river management, and widespread destruction of culture and heritage. <a href="https://www.bto.org/our-science/publications/research-reports/winter-farmland-bird-survey">Farmland biodiversity decline</a> shows that when attention is focused on just one issue (food security), it is easy to cause more harm elsewhere.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/423384/original/file-20210927-27-1nq4cmm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/423384/original/file-20210927-27-1nq4cmm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=369&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423384/original/file-20210927-27-1nq4cmm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=369&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423384/original/file-20210927-27-1nq4cmm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=369&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423384/original/file-20210927-27-1nq4cmm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423384/original/file-20210927-27-1nq4cmm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423384/original/file-20210927-27-1nq4cmm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Great Ridge from Mam Tor, Derbyshire.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Pete Quinn/Flickr</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The problem has been that governments and land managers have always tried to fix problems individually. Only by considering each area’s connection to others can sustainable change be achieved.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-gardeners-are-reclaiming-agriculture-from-industry-one-seed-at-a-time-128071">How gardeners are reclaiming agriculture from industry, one seed at a time</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Working together</h2>
<p>Fortunately, there are many excellent examples of this kind of practice happening in England today.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/423369/original/file-20210927-19-x6khlf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/423369/original/file-20210927-19-x6khlf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423369/original/file-20210927-19-x6khlf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423369/original/file-20210927-19-x6khlf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423369/original/file-20210927-19-x6khlf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423369/original/file-20210927-19-x6khlf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423369/original/file-20210927-19-x6khlf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Haweswater reservoir, Cumbria.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Pat Neary/flickr</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the Lake District, around the Haweswater reservoir, there are two Herdwick sheep farms managed by farmers, wildlife charity the RSPB and the water company United Utilities. Here, the three parties maintain the land and their interests by working together. They manage the land to ensure higher water quality downstream by limiting sheep on the fells where rivers surface. This land is now a haven for endangered species, including <a href="https://www.ceh.ac.uk/haweswater-reservoir-uk-lake-restoration-case-study">England’s rarest fish</a>, and birds like the Firecrest.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/423383/original/file-20210927-21-7gbzud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/423383/original/file-20210927-21-7gbzud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423383/original/file-20210927-21-7gbzud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423383/original/file-20210927-21-7gbzud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423383/original/file-20210927-21-7gbzud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423383/original/file-20210927-21-7gbzud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423383/original/file-20210927-21-7gbzud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">London floods 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Francisco Antunes/flickr</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The reasons for floods (like those in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/jul/13/london-floods-we-had-water-gushing-at-us-from-all-angles">July 2021 in London</a>) happen along the whole length of the river. Community businesses like <a href="https://www.ucmcic.com/">Ullswater CIC</a> take what is known as a “catchment approach” to flood management, planting trees and managing channels across the river’s length. Lancaster University research shows taking this bigger picture approach, combined with <a href="https://www.gov.uk/flood-and-coastal-erosion-risk-management-research-reports/working-with-natural-processes-to-reduce-flood-risk">natural flood management strategies</a>, is more effective in preventing flooding than any man-made barrier.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/423382/original/file-20210927-3333-lt8k52.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/423382/original/file-20210927-3333-lt8k52.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423382/original/file-20210927-3333-lt8k52.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423382/original/file-20210927-3333-lt8k52.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423382/original/file-20210927-3333-lt8k52.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423382/original/file-20210927-3333-lt8k52.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423382/original/file-20210927-3333-lt8k52.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Burnett moth.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Cécile Boulanger/flickr</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We need to reverse global biodiversity loss, improve ecosystem resilience and stabilise the environment. Although bigger areas are often better for wildlife, research shows wildlife corridors can be very effective. These are ways of connecting areas of habitat for wildlife, massively increasing space for endangered animals, insects and plants, like a network of sites all working together. Natural England plans to create local and <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nature-recovery-network">national networks</a>) of these spaces. </p>
<p>Sites such as the <a href="https://knepp.co.uk/home">Knepp Estate</a> in West Sussex bridge environmental and agricultural thinking. Farming intensity has been hugely reduced to allow for regeneration of the natural environment, without compromising the bottom line. </p>
<p>Government must integrate nature restoration with other landscape benefits (food, water, climate, biodiversity), while considering historical and cultural factors that have shaped the land. Examples of planting broadleaf <a href="https://www.forestryengland.uk/blog/protecting-peatlands">forests on ancient peatlands</a>, <a href="https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/press-centre/2020/03/hs2-digging-up-ancient-woodland/">relocating ancient woodland</a> are the result of not <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/288329/11-546-future-of-food-and-farming-report.pdf">listening to local knowledge</a> and experience. Changing this approach will help England keep producing clean water and enough food to feed everyone, limit flood damage, restore ecosystems and become more resilient to global climate change. If not, the risk of another 100 years of bad land management will continue to impede any progress in solving environmental catastrophes.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/168688/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Philip Donkersley receives funding from an ESRC Impact Acceleration Account fund. This research was undertaken as part of a Parliamentary Academic Fellow programme associated with the Parliamentary Office for Science and Technology (POST), which has now concluded. Views expressed are based on the author's own opinions and interpretations and not those of POST.</span></em></p>
British countryside management needs a new co-ordinated approach, a researcher argues.
Philip Donkersley, Senior Research Associate in Entomology, Lancaster University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/155941
2021-02-24T19:07:18Z
2021-02-24T19:07:18Z
Beyond Juukan Gorge, the relentless threat mining poses to the Pilbara cultural landscape
<p>Just as the <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Joint/Northern_Australia/CavesatJuukanGorge">parliamentary inquiry</a> into Rio Tinto’s destruction of the Juukan Gorge rock shelters was reconvening in Canberra, another culturally significant site was <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/feb/23/aboriginal-rock-shelter-in-pilbara-damaged-after-bhp-promised-not-to-disturb-heritage-sites">damaged</a> at one of BHP’s iron ore mines in the Pilbara.</p>
<p>This latest rock shelter, a registered site for the Banjima peoples, was reportedly damaged by a rockfall in late January. BHP said the site was not part of its current mining operations and the cause of the rockfall was not known. </p>
<p>Both incidents make clear the invidious and relentless threat to Aboriginal cultural heritage in the Pilbara (and elsewhere in Australian mining regions). </p>
<p>The destruction of one ancient and sacred rock shelter is, of course, devastating. But there’s a greater and as yet unrecognised loss to cultural heritage that is occurring from the “cumulative impacts” of mining activities in the Pilbara. It’s destruction by a thousand cuts. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1364351865933103104"}"></div></p>
<h2>A heavily industrialised landscape</h2>
<p>It is difficult for most people to imagine the scale of the iron ore and gas operations in the region. Large swathes of this remote and ecologically delicate environment (a global <a href="http://museum.wa.gov.au/sites/default/files/WAM_Supp78(B)_HALSEetal%20pp443-483.pdf">biodiversity hotspot</a> for <a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=wa+museum+subterranean+fauna+stygofauna&FORM=SSRE">subterranean fauna</a>) have been transformed over the last several decades into a heavily industrialised landscape.</p>
<p>There are more than 25 industrial-scale iron ore mines in the Pilbara. Of these, Rio Tinto owns 16. They are part of an <a href="https://www.riotinto.com/en/operations/australia/pilbara">integrated network</a> to transport iron ore out of the region, which includes four independent port terminals, a 1,700-kilometre rail network and other related infrastructure.</p>
<p><a href="https://cmewa.com.au/about/wa-resources/iron-ore/">Western Australia’s iron ore sales</a> have more than doubled over the past decade from 317 million tonnes in 2008-09 to 794 million tonnes in 2018-19. This was worth more than A$4.4 billion in royalties to the WA government in 2018. </p>
<h2>Ancestral paths are being ‘boxed up’</h2>
<p>As a submission to the parliamentary inquiry from the <a href="http://wintawariguruma.com.au/">Wintawari Guruma Aboriginal Corporation</a> stated, more than 93% of their Country is covered by mining tenements. There are seven mines in total, most owned by Rio Tinto. </p>
<p>This group is not unusual. The neighbouring Yinhawangka have four Rio Tinto mines on their Country, plus others owned by different companies, including FMG.</p>
<p>Under the current <a href="https://www.legislation.wa.gov.au/legislation/statutes.nsf/main_mrtitle_3_homepage.html">WA Aboriginal Heritage Act</a>, the focus of heritage protection efforts is on tangible (often archaeological) sites defined as discrete “way-points” on a map and separated from the cultural landscape that supports them. </p>
<p>But this is a core misunderstanding of cultural heritage management. <a href="https://australia.icomos.org/resources/australia-icomos-heritage-toolkit/intangible-cultural-heritage/">Intangible</a> or ethnographic sites, which are rarely visible to non-Indigenous people or those who are not customary knowledge holders, struggle to find recognition. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-masters-of-the-future-or-heirs-of-the-past-mining-history-and-indigenous-ownership-153879">Friday essay: masters of the future or heirs of the past? Mining, history and Indigenous ownership</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>These intangible sites are part of the interconnected spiritual journey known as “dreaming tracks” and “<a href="https://www.commonground.org.au/learn/songlines">song-lines</a>”. For the knowledge holders, these ancestral paths represent a fundamental truth of connection to Country.</p>
<p>However, as mining activity intensifies in the Pilbara, even if certain “sites” are protected, these ancestral paths are being “boxed up” and cut off from one another. </p>
<p>This is because the WA Aboriginal Heritage Act assesses applications and projects on an individual basis, without reference to the cumulative impacts of mining activities or the bigger picture of regional and national heritage. </p>
<h2>What are cumulative impacts?</h2>
<p>These cumulative impacts <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Joint/Northern_Australia/CavesatJuukanGorge/Submissions">include such things as</a> </p>
<p>1) loss of access to sacred sites, cultural places (including customary harvest grounds) and cultural materials </p>
<p>2) loss of cultural integrity of cultural places through destruction of Country in close proximity </p>
<p>3) loss through indirect effects, such as increased dust, vibration and noise</p>
<p>4) diminished amenities and visual integrity.</p>
<p>In 2015, BHP prepared <a href="https://www.bhp.com/-/media/bhp/regulatory-information-media/iron-ore/western-australia-iron-ore/0000/impact-assessment-report/160316_ironore_waio_pilbarastrategicassessment_commonwealth_appendix4_part1.pdf">a “cumulative impact assessment”</a> of its direct and indirect mining footprint in the Pilbara. The authors indicated it was the first of its kind for the region. </p>
<p>Though the focus was purely on the environmental effects of mining activities — not cultural effects — the results are nonetheless revealing. </p>
<p>The authors listed five species from the region, including the olive python and the northern quoll, that are now considered “vulnerable” or “endangered”. These species also have great significance for traditional owners. Yet, they were not engaged in the cumulative impact assessment process.</p>
<p>To the best of our knowledge, none of the major mining companies in the Pilbara have undertaken cumulative impact assessments for Indigenous cultural heritage that encompass the entirety of their operational footprint. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/can-a-mining-state-be-pro-heritage-vital-steps-to-avoid-another-juukan-gorge-146211">Can a mining state be pro-heritage? Vital steps to avoid another Juukan Gorge</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Land access protocols, locked gates and PPE</h2>
<p>The ability of traditional owners to access Country to care for it, maintain their obligations to it, monitor the effects of mining operations and ensure inter-generational knowledge transfer is another sensitive issue. </p>
<p>Many groups in the Pilbara have “land access protocols” with the companies operating on their land. A <a href="http://www.yinhawangka.com.au/wp-content/uploads/Land-Access-Protocol-Greater-Paraburdoo-2020.pdf">publicly available protocol</a> between the Yinhawangka and Rio Tinto gives insight into the strict visitation parameters for the company’s mining leases and tenements.</p>
<p>For instance, the “general conditions” require visitors to have vehicles fitted with a suitable UHF radio set to the sign-posted channels. </p>
<p>The requirements also include </p>
<blockquote>
<p>providing information of all the areas that you plan to visit within the … mining lease area, the number of people/vehicles in your group, the date and time that access is required and the duration of your trip. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Each person entering a mining lease must also “meet the minimum PPE requirements”. </p>
<p>Though we recognise the need to manage for occupational health and safety, such intensive requirements would make access extremely difficult and unrealistic for many people, especially the elderly and children.</p>
<p>Land access protocols do not just apply to mining leases, but also to pastoral leases, which are owned by the companies to facilitate the development of mining operations and ensure land access. Rio Tinto owns six such leases in the Pilbara. </p>
<p>The visitation rights for these pastoral leases are similarly strict. The protocols for <a href="http://www.yinhawangka.com.au/wp-content/uploads/Land-Access-Protocol-Rocklea-Station-2020.pdf">Rocklea station</a>, for instance, allow native title holders to camp for no more than three nights.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/juukan-gorge-inquiry-puts-rio-tinto-on-notice-but-without-drastic-reforms-it-could-happen-again-151377">Juukan Gorge inquiry puts Rio Tinto on notice, but without drastic reforms, it could happen again</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>The importance of conservation agreements</h2>
<p><a href="https://consultation.dplh.wa.gov.au/aboriginal-heritage/aboriginal-heritage-bill-2020/">WA’s draft new heritage laws</a> contain the phrase “cultural landscapes”, which is a step in the right direction. </p>
<p>However, to truly protect cultural heritage and accommodate Aboriginal rights and interests requires conservation agreements, similar to the <a href="https://theconversation.com/can-a-mining-state-be-pro-heritage-vital-steps-to-avoid-another-juukan-gorge-146211">Murujuga</a> agreements made between the Commonwealth and both Rio Tinto and Woodside in the Pilbara. </p>
<p>The state government would have to forgo some mining royalties and, in line with recommendations by the parliamentary inquiry, native title holders would have the right to protect sites and declare areas “no-go zones”. </p>
<p>This has been the successful model under the <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2019C00117">Aboriginal Land Rights Act</a> in the NT for more than 40 years. Such a model <a href="https://www.academia.edu/4539641/Nourishing_Terrains_Australian_Aboriginal_views_of_Landscape_and_Wilderness_Australian_Heritage_Commission_Canberra_1996_">recognises</a> </p>
<blockquote>
<p>the interdependence of all life within Country constitutes a hard but essential lesson – those who destroy their Country ultimately destroy themselves.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The risk is that if decisive and strong measures aren’t taken, large swathes of the Pilbara will become desecration zones, or “sterilisation” zones, as some Aboriginal groups have termed the industrial mining landscape. </p>
<p>This will be the legacy, not only for the mining companies, but for Australia and most painfully, for the traditional owners who remain long after the miners have gone.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/155941/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah Holcombe is a Senior Research Fellow at CSRM which conducts applied research with communities and Indigenous representative bodies, governments, mining companies and, currently, the Cooperative Research Centre for Transitions in Mining Economies (CRC TiME). </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bronwyn Fredericks was the BHP Chair in Indigenous Engagement at CQUniversity from 2013-2018. </span></em></p>
The destruction of one ancient rock shelter is devastating. But there’s a greater loss to cultural heritage that is occurring from the ‘cumulative impacts’ of mining operations in WA.
Sarah Holcombe, Senior Research Fellow, The University of Queensland
Bronwyn Fredericks, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Indigenous Engagement), The University of Queensland
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/148004
2020-12-17T19:08:45Z
2020-12-17T19:08:45Z
Friday essay: how a long-lost list is helping us remap Darug place names and culture on Dyarubbin, the Hawkesbury River
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372749/original/file-20201203-21-1qddzwb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Darug women Leanne Watson, Rhiannon Wright and Jasmine Seymour at Dorumbolooa. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Avryl Whitnall</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 2017, I came across an extraordinary document in Sydney’s Mitchell Library: a handwritten list of 178 Aboriginal place names for Dyarubbin, the Hawkesbury River, compiled in 1829 by a Presbyterian minister, the Reverend John McGarvie. I was stunned. I stared at the screen, hardly believing my eyes.</p>
<p>After years of research, <a href="https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/books/academic-professional/cultural-studies/People-of-the-River-Grace-Karskens-9781760292232">my own</a> and others, I thought most of the Aboriginal names for the river were lost forever, destroyed in the aftermath of invasion and dispossession. Yet, suddenly, this cache of riches.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373489/original/file-20201208-23-evuvjo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373489/original/file-20201208-23-evuvjo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373489/original/file-20201208-23-evuvjo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373489/original/file-20201208-23-evuvjo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373489/original/file-20201208-23-evuvjo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373489/original/file-20201208-23-evuvjo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373489/original/file-20201208-23-evuvjo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373489/original/file-20201208-23-evuvjo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A page from Rev McGarvie’s 1829 list of Aboriginal names for places on Dyarubbin, the Hawkesbury River.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I could see McGarvie had taken a lot of care with this list, correcting spelling and adding pronunciation marks. The names appear in geographic order, so they also record where he and his Darug informant/s travelled along the riverbanks. Perhaps most important of all, McGarvie often included locational clues, like settlers’ farms, creeks and lagoons. </p>
<p>An extraordinary idea dawned on me: what if we could restore these names to their places on the river? And then: what if these beautiful, rolling words — like <em>Bulyayorang</em> and <em>Marrengorra</em> and <em>Woollootottemba</em> — came back into common usage?</p>
<h2>Naming Country</h2>
<p>Place names have enormous significance in Aboriginal society and culture. As in all societies, they signal the meanings people attach to places, they encode history and geography, they are way-finding devices and common knowledge. Place names are crucial elements of shared understandings of Country, history, culture, rights and responsibilities. </p>
<p>Often place names are parts of larger naming systems — they name places on Dreaming tracks reaching across Country. Singular names can also embed the stories of important events and landmarks involving Ancestral Beings in places and memory. Anthropologist and linguist <a href="https://www.newcastle.edu.au/profile/james-wafer">Jim Wafer</a> points out their use in songs, which are memory devices, or “audible maps … travelling song cycles that narrate mythical journeys”.</p>
<p>Dyarubbin, the Hawkesbury River, flows through the heart of a vast arc of sandstone Country encircling Sydney and the shale-soil Cumberland Plain on the east coast of New South Wales. The river has a deep human history, one of the longest known in Australia. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373492/original/file-20201208-21-c9gwjm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373492/original/file-20201208-21-c9gwjm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373492/original/file-20201208-21-c9gwjm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373492/original/file-20201208-21-c9gwjm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373492/original/file-20201208-21-c9gwjm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373492/original/file-20201208-21-c9gwjm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373492/original/file-20201208-21-c9gwjm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373492/original/file-20201208-21-c9gwjm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Axe grinding grooves on Dyarubbin.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Joy Lai</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The ancestors of Darug, Darkinyung and Gundungurra people have lived in this region for around 50,000 years. Their history, culture and spirituality are inseparable from their river Country. A mere two centuries ago, ex-convict settlers took land on the river and began growing patches of wheat and corn in the tall forests. Darug men and women resisted the invasion fiercely and sometimes successfully. </p>
<p>Between 1794 and 1816, Dyarubbin was the site of one of the longest frontier wars in Australian history. Invasion and colonisation kicked off a slow and cumulative process of violence, theft of Aboriginal children, dispossession and the ongoing annexation of the river lands. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373495/original/file-20201208-17-6shxrq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373495/original/file-20201208-17-6shxrq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373495/original/file-20201208-17-6shxrq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373495/original/file-20201208-17-6shxrq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373495/original/file-20201208-17-6shxrq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373495/original/file-20201208-17-6shxrq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373495/original/file-20201208-17-6shxrq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373495/original/file-20201208-17-6shxrq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jasmine Seymour, Women of Dyarubbin.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jasmine Seymour</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Yet despite this sorry history, Dyarubbin’s people managed to remain on their Country, and they still live on the river today.</p>
<p>McGarvie’s list contrasts strikingly with the modern landscapes of the Hawkesbury and Western Sydney. Once, every place on this river and its tributaries had an Aboriginal name. Now only a handful survive on maps and in common usage.</p>
<p>With some important exceptions, the Traditional Owners, the Darug, rarely see themselves represented in key heritage sites, or in the everyday reminders and triggers of public memory – like place names.</p>
<p>Yet Western Sydney is now home to one of the biggest populations of Darug and other Aboriginal people in Australia. Could McGarvie’s list be a way to begin to shift the shape of our landscapes towards a recognition of Darug history and culture?</p>
<h2>Living on Country</h2>
<p>This idea stayed with me, so I contacted Darug knowledge-holders, artists and educators Leanne Watson, Erin Wilkins, Jasmine Seymour and Rhiannon Wright: the response was instant and enthusiastic. We designed the project together and were thrilled when it won the NSW State Library’s <a href="https://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/about-library/fellowships/coral-thomas-fellowship">Coral Thomas Fellowship</a> </p>
<p>The project’s Darug researchers want most of all to research, record and recover environmental and cultural knowledge and raise awareness of Darug presence and history in the wider community.</p>
<p>Because the Darug history of Dyarubbin is continuous, the project includes an oral history component, recording 20th century Darug voices and stories of the river. </p>
<p>Looking back, it seems uncanny that McGarvie’s list reappeared when it did — after all, we are in the midst of an extraordinary period of Aboriginal cultural renewal and language revitalisation.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-state-of-australias-indigenous-languages-and-how-we-can-help-people-speak-them-more-often-109662">The state of Australia's Indigenous languages – and how we can help people speak them more often</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>It was obvious that McGarvie’s words could be more than a list of names: it could be the key to a bigger story about the Dyarubbin, the Darug history that was lost, submerged below what historian Tom Griffiths calls <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=xQMK8c82OQ8C&q=white+noise#v=snippet&q=white%20noise&f=false">“the white noise of history making”</a>. </p>
<p>But to do this, we needed to put the words in their wider context: we needed to see the river whole. So, besides reconnecting the list to Traditional Owners, the project explores Dyarubbin’s history, ecology, geography, archaeology and languages. </p>
<p>Early maps showing the old river farms helped us work out where the Darug place names belong and digitally map them. They also record long-lost landscapes of swamps, lagoons and creeks — important places for Aboriginal people that have since been modified or disappeared altogether. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373491/original/file-20201208-15-3ao7cp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373491/original/file-20201208-15-3ao7cp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373491/original/file-20201208-15-3ao7cp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=591&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373491/original/file-20201208-15-3ao7cp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=591&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373491/original/file-20201208-15-3ao7cp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=591&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373491/original/file-20201208-15-3ao7cp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=743&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373491/original/file-20201208-15-3ao7cp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=743&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373491/original/file-20201208-15-3ao7cp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=743&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Brown’s Lagoon Wilberforce 1844.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">NSW State Archives and Records</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The <a href="https://search.records.nsw.gov.au/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=ADLIB_RNSW111304527&context=L&vid=61SRA&lang=en_US&search_scope=Everything&adaptor=Local%20Search%20Engine&tab=default_tab&query=any,contains,Returns%20of%20Natives&offset=0">“Returns of Aboriginal Natives”</a> are lists of Aboriginal people living in New South Wales in the 1830s, including the groups who lived on various parts of Dyarubbin and its tributaries. Reverend McGarvie’s diaries show he knew many of these Darug people. </p>
<p>The letters and journals of Hawkesbury settlers are thoroughly colonial-centred, yet they contain hints about the ways Darug people continued to live on their Country throughout the 19th century.</p>
<p>For example, they befriended some of the settlers, like the Hall family at Lilburndale, and cultivated these relationships over generations. <a href="https://search.sl.nsw.gov.au/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=ADLIB110359597&context=L&vid=SLNSW&lang=en_US&search_scope=MOH&adaptor=Local%20Search%20Engine&tab=default_tab&query=any,contains,Hall%20family%20%20Hawkesbury&offset=0">The Hall family papers in the Mitchell Library</a> hold some powerful and poignant traces: store receipts for goods Darug people were purchasing from them, and lists of the work they did at Lilburndale.</p>
<p>The archaeological record for this region is astonishingly rich. Dyarubbin and its tributary Gunanday (the Macdonald River) are part of a much larger archaeological zone, reaching from the Blue Mountains and the Wollemi in the west, up to the Hunter Valley and Lake Macquarie in the north. Many of the major recorded archaeological sites have sacred, spiritual and ceremonial significance, especially those located on high places. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372751/original/file-20201203-23-4wl0dr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372751/original/file-20201203-23-4wl0dr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372751/original/file-20201203-23-4wl0dr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372751/original/file-20201203-23-4wl0dr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372751/original/file-20201203-23-4wl0dr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372751/original/file-20201203-23-4wl0dr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372751/original/file-20201203-23-4wl0dr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372751/original/file-20201203-23-4wl0dr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Gunanday (the Macdonald River).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Joy Lai</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Closer to the river, Paul Irish’s archaeological mapping has revealed how much Darug cultural landscape survives today, within the “settler” landscape. </p>
<p>From Richmond in the south to Higher Macdonald in the north, the river corridors alone are lined with more than 200 archaeological sites, including engravings, grinding grooves and rock shelters, some with scores or hundreds of images in ochre, white clay and charcaol. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373490/original/file-20201208-17-rwtyra.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373490/original/file-20201208-17-rwtyra.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373490/original/file-20201208-17-rwtyra.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373490/original/file-20201208-17-rwtyra.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373490/original/file-20201208-17-rwtyra.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373490/original/file-20201208-17-rwtyra.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373490/original/file-20201208-17-rwtyra.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373490/original/file-20201208-17-rwtyra.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Darug women Jasmine Seymour and Rhiannon Wright visit a painted rockshelter.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Joy Lai</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Perhaps the most important aspect of the project are the field trips — getting out on Country, following in the footstep of McGarvie and his Darug friends, to see how all of this comes together. For Aboriginal people especially, visiting Country is a spiritual experience: they sense past and present converging, and the presence of their Ancestors.</p>
<h2>Words for Country</h2>
<p>What about the words on McGarvie’s list? What can they tell us? Linguist Jim Wafer and I worked with the Darug team members on a glossary, scouring dictionaries of seven local and adjacent Aboriginal languages for glosses, or meanings.</p>
<p>Many of these remain tentative; some words have two possible glosses. This project is, after all, only the beginning of what will hopefully be a much longer journey of discovery.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, McGarvie’s list has unlocked a wealth of information as well as intriguing and suggestive patterns — the place names open a marvellous word-window onto the Darug world of Dyarubbin in late 1820s. </p>
<p>They can be roughly grouped in four interrelated and often overlapping categories: the natural world of plants and creatures, geography and landforms, stone and earth, salt and fresh water; the social world of corroboree and contest grounds, camps and places to source materials for tools and implements; a metaphoric pattern — using words for parts of the body (mouth, arm, finger, eyes) for places on the river; and names with spiritual meanings, signifying sacred places.</p>
<p>Are there larger patterns in McGarvie’s list of place names? Here again, mapping the names, relocating them on Country, revealed something about how Darug people thought of Dyarubbin: as a series of zones, each which particular characteristics. </p>
<p>For example, on the west side of the river between Sackville and Wilberforce are 16 named lagoons or words meaning lagoons, including four different words which appear to signify different types of lagoons: <em>Warretya</em>, <em>Warang</em>, <em>Warradé</em>, <em>Warrakia</em>.</p>
<p>It was <em>Warretya</em> (lagoon) Country. Rich in birdlife, fish, turtles, eggs and edible plants, lagoons were very important places for Darug people, especially women, who harvested the edible roots and shoots of water plants such as cumbungi, water ribbon and common nardoo.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373500/original/file-20201208-23-6kwaue.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373500/original/file-20201208-23-6kwaue.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373500/original/file-20201208-23-6kwaue.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373500/original/file-20201208-23-6kwaue.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373500/original/file-20201208-23-6kwaue.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373500/original/file-20201208-23-6kwaue.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373500/original/file-20201208-23-6kwaue.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373500/original/file-20201208-23-6kwaue.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Aunty Edna Watson, Yellamundi.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Aunty Edna Watson</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There were lagoons on the opposite side of the river, too, but here the series of place names around Cattai Creek tell us that this was <em>Dugga</em> (thick brush/rainforest) Country. </p>
<p>Massive Riverflat forest once lined all of Dyarubbin’s alluvial reaches; in sheltered gullies this forest graded into rainforest. Other place names in this area suggest the tree species which grew in these forests: <em>Boolo</em>, coachwood, <em>Tamangoa</em>, place of Port Jackson figs, <em>Karowerry</em>, native plum tree, <em>Booldoorra</em>, soft corkwood. And there are places named for implements, like clubs (<em>Kanogilba</em>, <em>Berambo</em>), and fish spears (<em>Mating</em>), which may have been fashioned from the fine, hard timbers of some of these trees. </p>
<p>These <em>Dugga</em> place names suggest something significant about Dyarubbin’s human and ecological history, too. The settler invasion is often assumed to have completely destroyed earlier landscapes, converting the bush to cleared, farmed fields. But these tree and forest names suggest that parts of the great forests survived for over three decades, and that Darug people went on using them.</p>
<p>Perhaps most significant and evocative are the place names which signal sacred zones on Dyarubbin. There are two different words meaning “rainbow”: <em>Dorumbolooa</em> and <em>Gunanday</em>.</p>
<h2>The great Eel Being</h2>
<p>Both are located in places with dramatic cliffs and sharp river bends. These words are probably linked with Gurangatty, the great Eel Being, who is associated with rainbows, and who created the river and its valley in the Dreaming, leaving awesome chasms and sinuous bends in his wake. McGarvie’s list reconnects us with the sacred river.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373498/original/file-20201208-13-1yf79fi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373498/original/file-20201208-13-1yf79fi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373498/original/file-20201208-13-1yf79fi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=668&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373498/original/file-20201208-13-1yf79fi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=668&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373498/original/file-20201208-13-1yf79fi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=668&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373498/original/file-20201208-13-1yf79fi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=840&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373498/original/file-20201208-13-1yf79fi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=840&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373498/original/file-20201208-13-1yf79fi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=840&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Leanne Watson, Big Eel.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Leanne Watson</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Such words remind us of something obvious, and profound. If Aboriginal people are to be at the centre of their own stories, we need to look beyond European history and landscapes, beyond European knowledge and ways of thinking, and towards an Aboriginal sense of Country — the belief that people, animals, Law and Country are inseparable, that the land is animate and inspirited, that it is a historical actor.</p>
<p>Leanne Watson’s painting Waterholes, inspired by the project, expresses this sense of Country. Her painting represents the beautiful lagoons around Ebenezer near Wilberforce and all the nourishment and materials they offered people. Now we can name some of those lagoons: <em>Boollangay</em><em>, Marrumboollo</em>, <em>Kallangang</em>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372752/original/file-20201203-17-1tcuicl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372752/original/file-20201203-17-1tcuicl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372752/original/file-20201203-17-1tcuicl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372752/original/file-20201203-17-1tcuicl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372752/original/file-20201203-17-1tcuicl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372752/original/file-20201203-17-1tcuicl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=623&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372752/original/file-20201203-17-1tcuicl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=623&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372752/original/file-20201203-17-1tcuicl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=623&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Leanne Watson, Waterholes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Leanne Watson</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>What now? Two exhibitions are planned for 2021: one at the State Library of NSW, and the other at Hawkesbury Regional Gallery. Staff at NSW Spatial Services/the NSW Geographic Names Board have generously offered their skills and time to create a digital Story Map, which will allow readers to virtually explore Darug Dyarubbin. </p>
<p>A series of illustrated essays, or “story cycle”, to be published on the online <a href="https://home.dictionaryofsydney.org/">Dictionary of Sydney</a> at the State Library of New South Wales, will present more in-depth narratives. Ultimately, we plan to launch dual naming projects, which will restore these names to Dyarubbin Country.</p>
<p>These are truth-telling projects: they will tell the story of invasion, dispossession and frontier war. But they will also explore Darug history, culture, places and names, and the way Dyarubbin and its surrounding high lands still throb with spiritual meaning and power, and the <a href="https://ulurustatement.org/the-statement">“ancient sovereignty”</a> of Aboriginal people.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/148004/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Grace Karskens received funding from the Coral Thomas Fellowship administered by the State Library of New South Wales.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Erin Wilkins, Jasmine Seymour, Leanne Watson, and Rhiannon Wright do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
It was once thought the Aboriginal names for the Hawkesbury had been lost forever. But after a remarkable find in the Mitchell Library, almost 100 place names will be restored to Dyarubbin Country.
Grace Karskens, Emeritus Professor of History, UNSW Sydney
Erin Wilkins, Aboriginal Cultural Educator, trainer and facilitator, Indigenous Knowledge
Jasmine Seymour, Artist, writer, illustrator, primary school teacher, Indigenous Knowledge
Leanne Watson, Artist, educator, book illustrator, Indigenous Knowledge
Rhiannon Wright, Aboriginal Education Officer, Indigenous Knowledge
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/151571
2020-12-15T19:11:34Z
2020-12-15T19:11:34Z
Ancient stories and enduring spirit: Loving Country reminds us of the wonders right under our noses
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374690/original/file-20201214-19-ovjpk1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Albany on the south coast of Western Australia, just under five hours’ drive from Perth.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photographer: © Vicky Shukuroglou taken from Loving Country</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Review: Loving Country by Bruce Pascoe and Vicky Shukuroglou (Hardie Grant Travel)</em></p>
<p>Travelling through the Australian landscape is an often breathtaking experience raising many questions in the traveller’s mind — none of which can be answered by an online search engine when your internet connection fails. </p>
<p>What everyone needs is a travel companion like Loving Country, co-authored by Aboriginal Elder Bruce Pascoe and artist Vicky Shukuroglou. At first glance, it is a travel guide to some of Australia’s most beautiful Country but on closer inspection, it reveals honest, riveting yarns about the true stories of Country told by the people who know her best: the local Aboriginal people with ancestral connections.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374691/original/file-20201214-22-10g20r4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374691/original/file-20201214-22-10g20r4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374691/original/file-20201214-22-10g20r4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374691/original/file-20201214-22-10g20r4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374691/original/file-20201214-22-10g20r4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374691/original/file-20201214-22-10g20r4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374691/original/file-20201214-22-10g20r4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374691/original/file-20201214-22-10g20r4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bruce Pascoe.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Linsey Rendell</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In Loving Country, the pair travel across the continent visiting 19 locations including Bruny Island in Tasmania, the Western Desert region, Margaret River, Alice Springs, Broome and Kangaroo Island. </p>
<p>Connecting with local Aboriginal people sounds common sense but in so many instances, visitors will grab the closest Aboriginal person, even if they are not from the area, and with a “you’ll do” mentality, recklessly erase local knowledges.</p>
<p>Loving Country highlights the inadequacy and tokenism of this “tick-a-box” approach, as it tells the rich and complex stories of local Aboriginal peoples and their unique understanding of Country, born of thousands of generations connected to place. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.wiluna.wa.gov.au">Wiluna</a>, at the edge of the Western Desert, the local Martu ladies love a yarn, telling ancient stories as readily as they share the contemporary love story of Warri and Yatungka, a couple who fell in love despite their relationship being forbidden by tribal laws. In Queensland’s Laura Basin, local Indigenous rangers and Elders share their living culture, teaching the young ones how to catch cherabin (yabbie).</p>
<p>The generosity of custodians and storytellers at each location is what makes Loving Country unique. The book also provides invaluable information on how to connect with local people and knowledge: a necessity for meaningful experiences with Country and culture.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374689/original/file-20201214-20-estl2o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374689/original/file-20201214-20-estl2o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374689/original/file-20201214-20-estl2o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374689/original/file-20201214-20-estl2o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374689/original/file-20201214-20-estl2o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374689/original/file-20201214-20-estl2o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374689/original/file-20201214-20-estl2o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374689/original/file-20201214-20-estl2o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mparntwe (Alice Springs) in the heart of Australia, roughly 1500 kilometres south of Darwin. Arrernte language group.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photographer: © Vicky Shukuroglou taken from Loving Country by Bruce Pascoe and Vicky Shukuroglou</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Complex and nuanced</h2>
<p>Loving Country consistently reiterates that Aboriginal cultures are as complex and nuanced as the Country we call “Mother”. The subtext here is that there is no pan-Aboriginality. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374708/original/file-20201214-20-1h43g02.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374708/original/file-20201214-20-1h43g02.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374708/original/file-20201214-20-1h43g02.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=774&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374708/original/file-20201214-20-1h43g02.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=774&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374708/original/file-20201214-20-1h43g02.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=774&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374708/original/file-20201214-20-1h43g02.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=972&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374708/original/file-20201214-20-1h43g02.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=972&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374708/original/file-20201214-20-1h43g02.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=972&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In any given place it is not one people, one place, one language. Single ownership is founded in the Eurocentric possession of land and resources — a colonial imposition on the complex kinship systems of Indigenous cultures and their approaches to care and custodianship of Country.</p>
<p>Loving Country will be important for Aboriginal people connected to a common body of Country but who come from multiple nation and clan groups. For others, if you are hearing just one group name, please look beyond it and take the time to find out if there are others. You will find contradictions, ambiguities and inconsistencies but that’s OK. Embrace them all. Country means different things to different people but it will always be the one uniting force between us.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-this-grandmother-tree-connects-me-to-country-i-cried-when-i-saw-her-burned-129782">Friday essay: this grandmother tree connects me to Country. I cried when I saw her burned</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>My only disappointment in the book was that Country was not capitalised. For Aboriginal people, the word Country is a proper noun, a name for the spiritual entity we understand her to be. Country does not just describe the physical landscape as it would for others. Country is our mother, we do not own her, we belong to her. </p>
<h2>Rage and frustration</h2>
<p>In Australia, we collectively idolise overseas tourist destinations for their apparent “antiquity”. Loving Country points out that as a nation, we give heritage listing to fence wire and bronze memorials to genocidal murderers. We then <a href="https://theconversation.com/juukan-gorge-how-could-they-not-have-known-and-how-can-we-be-sure-they-will-in-future-151580">destroy sacred sites</a> containing evidence of Aboriginal culture tens of thousands of years old. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/juukan-gorge-how-could-they-not-have-known-and-how-can-we-be-sure-they-will-in-future-151580">Juukan Gorge: how could they not have known? (And how can we be sure they will in future?)</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Pascoe’s rage and frustration at Australia’s ambivalence towards the astounding Country and culture right under our noses is palpable.</p>
<p>He writes that <a href="http://www.moyjil.com.au/">Moyjil (Point Ritchie) in Warrnambool</a>, for instance, has memorials to colonial heritage and agriculture, the success of which relied heavily on the exquisitely fertile soils created and managed by Aboriginal communities for millennia prior. </p>
<p>The local Gunditjmara people have always spoken of an ancient site on the Hopkins River. Pascoe describes recent research undertaken on the blackened stones of an ancient hearth there providing evidence of human occupation for 80,000 years. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374688/original/file-20201214-15-k4of0l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374688/original/file-20201214-15-k4of0l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374688/original/file-20201214-15-k4of0l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374688/original/file-20201214-15-k4of0l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374688/original/file-20201214-15-k4of0l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374688/original/file-20201214-15-k4of0l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374688/original/file-20201214-15-k4of0l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374688/original/file-20201214-15-k4of0l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Brewarrina on the banks of the Barwon River in north-west New South Wales. Ngemba, Murrawarri, Yuwaalaraay, Wayilwan Language groups.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photographer: © Vicky Shukuroglou taken from Loving Country by Bruce Pascoe and Vicky Shukuroglou</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In <a href="https://www.visitnsw.com/things-to-do/tours/brewarrina-aboriginal-fish-traps-guided-tour">Brewarrina, north-west New South Wales</a>, 40,000-year-old stone fish traps are, he writes, “arguably the oldest human construction on earth”. </p>
<p>Just 80kms south-east, in Cuddie Springs, writes Pascoe, a stone dish was being used to grind grain for bread 35,000 years ago. Soon after this find, he notes, a seed-grinding stone was found in Arnhem Land, dated at 65,000 years old.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-dark-emu-and-the-blindness-of-australian-agriculture-97444">Friday essay: Dark Emu and the blindness of Australian agriculture</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Loving Country reveals page after page of both the ancient and contemporary knowledges of these magnificent places, leaving you feeling equal parts wonder and despair. It is a beautifully composed, riveting read scaffolded by Pascoe’s signature commitment to watertight research of the colonial archives. </p>
<p>Shukuroglou’s unpretentious photography showcases the raw, intrinsic beauty of Country. This book will leave you famished for red earth, rainforests, billabongs and big sky Country.</p>
<p>By all means, revel in these far off and dreamy locations but please keep in mind, Sacred Country is everywhere. It doesn’t matter how much concrete, glass or steel you lay down, Country is still here. Her ancient stories and enduring spirit live on in the hearts of local Aboriginal people across the continent.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/151571/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shannon Foster does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
A travel guide to some of our most beautiful Country highlights the complexity of Aboriginal cultures and white Australia’s historic ambivalence towards them.
Shannon Foster, D'harawal Knowledge Keeper PhD Candidate and Lecturer UTS, University of Technology Sydney
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/144577
2020-10-21T18:59:38Z
2020-10-21T18:59:38Z
School of fish: how we involved Indigenous students in our investigation of a 65,000-year-old site
<p>A recent program for school kids in Kakadu and West Arnhem Land, incorporating traditional knowledge and Western science, is a model for teaching Indigenous children on Country. </p>
<p><a href="http://mirarr.net/stories/djenj-project-the-djenj-project-bininj-fishing-past-present-and-future">The Djenj Project</a> (djenj means “fish” in the local language) involved teaching Bininj (Aboriginal) children and rangers about fish, and scientific water research techniques, to improve employment opportunities. </p>
<p>As archaeologists, we wanted to find out how fish populations near the 65,000-year-old Madjedbebe archaeological site have changed over thousands of years. Evidence collected from the rock shelter suggests it’s <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nature22968">one of the oldest sites</a> on the continent.</p>
<p>We wanted to know which fish Bininj inhabitants at the site ate in the past, where and how they caught them, what the environment was like then, and what impact humans and environmental change have had on fish populations. </p>
<p>We needed to gather information about traditional fishing methods and knowledge. We also needed to gather samples of the current fish in the region, to compare them with fish remains excavated from Madjedbebe.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/when-did-aboriginal-people-first-arrive-in-australia-100830">When did Aboriginal people first arrive in Australia?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>To do that meaningfully, we wanted to bring the community on the journey with us, rather than working in our labs in isolation. Dozens of school children between the ages of seven and 17 were involved in the project. They helped us answer our questions and learnt a lot in the process.</p>
<p>Beyond thinking about our scientific aims and questions, we put community-based benefits at the forefront of the research process. At the heart of the project were the core ideas of respect and two-way knowledge sharing, especially giving senior Bininj people the opportunity to share their knowledge and skills. </p>
<h2>What it looked like</h2>
<p>The project included about 80 community members from the small townships of Jabiru and Gunbalanya, and surrounding outstations in the Top End of the Northern Territory. </p>
<p>Bininj Elders shared traditional ecological knowledge with Bininj children, rangers (the <a href="http://www.mirarr.net/what-we-do/djurrubu-rangers">Djurrubu Rangers of Gundjeihmi Aboriginal Corporation</a> and <a href="https://www.njanjma.net.au/njanjma-rangers/">Njanjma Rangers</a>), and Western (Balanda) researchers. Everyone worked together to prepare teaching resources so the project has long-lasting benefits. </p>
<p>Fishing is a favourite activity for Bininj, so participation in the project was high. While word-of-mouth was the main way to reach the community about catching fish for the project, we also shared short videos on social media. These explained what we were doing and how people could get involved. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/356501/original/file-20200904-22-15c2ip8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/356501/original/file-20200904-22-15c2ip8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/356501/original/file-20200904-22-15c2ip8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/356501/original/file-20200904-22-15c2ip8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/356501/original/file-20200904-22-15c2ip8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/356501/original/file-20200904-22-15c2ip8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/356501/original/file-20200904-22-15c2ip8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Djurrubu Rangers Russo Marimowa and Clarry Nadjamarrek off duty, doing some fishing for the project.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Morgan Disspain</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One positive side-effect of the project was providing large amounts of fish for the community to eat, promoting healthy eating.</p>
<p>In between the fishing and the eating was the science and the learning. A key aim was to integrate cultural knowledge into school lessons to <a href="https://australianphilanthropicservices.com.au/the-djenj-project-two-way-knowledge-sharing-in-west-arnhem-land">improve literacy and numeracy skills</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/360175/original/file-20200927-18-1t79hf6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/360175/original/file-20200927-18-1t79hf6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360175/original/file-20200927-18-1t79hf6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360175/original/file-20200927-18-1t79hf6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360175/original/file-20200927-18-1t79hf6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360175/original/file-20200927-18-1t79hf6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360175/original/file-20200927-18-1t79hf6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sharni Dirdi, Imogen Mangiru and Zedekiah Nayilibidj at Gunbalanya School got hands on measuring and processing fish.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Morgan Disspain</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Local teachers interwove The Djenj Project throughout the class curriculum for the entire year. Researchers ran monthly workshops to teach children and rangers how to collect and interpret scientific information from fish, such as species, length, girth and weight, as well as the capture location and the fishing method used. </p>
<p>Fish were then processed to collect otoliths (ear bones), and sometimes their entire skeletons. Otoliths provide <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-were-using-fish-ear-bones-as-time-capsules-of-past-river-health-95369">valuable information</a> about the fish’s life, such as its size, age, season of death, and the water conditions it lived in. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/356500/original/file-20200904-24-5jrdvy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/356500/original/file-20200904-24-5jrdvy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/356500/original/file-20200904-24-5jrdvy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/356500/original/file-20200904-24-5jrdvy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/356500/original/file-20200904-24-5jrdvy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/356500/original/file-20200904-24-5jrdvy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/356500/original/file-20200904-24-5jrdvy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Djurrubu Ranger team processing fish and extracting their otoliths.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lynley Wallis</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Elders shared traditional knowledge about fish and fishing methods with the children. They worked together to construct bone points to use as fish hooks. They also constructed traditional fish traps, which involved making string from plant fibre. </p>
<p>Groups made trips to the rock art (bim) sites, where Elders shared knowledge about djenj, and the children found, recorded and counted djenj images. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/356503/original/file-20200904-24-1c00n75.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/356503/original/file-20200904-24-1c00n75.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/356503/original/file-20200904-24-1c00n75.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/356503/original/file-20200904-24-1c00n75.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/356503/original/file-20200904-24-1c00n75.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/356503/original/file-20200904-24-1c00n75.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/356503/original/file-20200904-24-1c00n75.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bininj Elders Raelene Djandjul, May Nango and Djaykuk Djandomerr and Djurrubu Rangers Martin Liddy and Clarry Nadjamerrek processing fibre to make a traditional fish trap.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lynley Wallis</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While the Elders shared their knowledge about the local waterways, water monitoring specialists provided training in testing water quality for rangers and children. Children also learnt about the importance of water quality to the health of all living things. </p>
<p>Woven throughout all activities was attention to Indigenous languages, with staff from the <a href="https://bininjkunwok.org.au/">Bininj Kunwok Language Resource Centre</a> creating a dedicated language booklet and app focused on djenj. This resource is helping with language maintenance and revitalisation in the Bininj community, as well as providing Balanda with the necessary terms to have productive discussions with Bininj about fish and water.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/359730/original/file-20200924-24-1xynhc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/359730/original/file-20200924-24-1xynhc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359730/original/file-20200924-24-1xynhc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359730/original/file-20200924-24-1xynhc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359730/original/file-20200924-24-1xynhc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359730/original/file-20200924-24-1xynhc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359730/original/file-20200924-24-1xynhc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Students learnt about the fish skeletal system using reference collections created from fish they had captured.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Morgan Disspain</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What we learnt</h2>
<p>Students and rangers gained a new appreciation for how much we can learn from our environment. The project also reinforced the rights of Bininj to engage in water and fish management processes. </p>
<p>The project also laid a foundation for future skills and environmental awareness with children (many of whom will go on to join local ranger teams). They have learnt cultural and scientific knowledge about fish, water, archaeology and rock art.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/356499/original/file-20200904-24-1bgdl2g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/356499/original/file-20200904-24-1bgdl2g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/356499/original/file-20200904-24-1bgdl2g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/356499/original/file-20200904-24-1bgdl2g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/356499/original/file-20200904-24-1bgdl2g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/356499/original/file-20200904-24-1bgdl2g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/356499/original/file-20200904-24-1bgdl2g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Djenj Project increased science learning on Country.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Gunbalanya school student</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As researchers, we have established modern fish reference collections we can use and have learnt about local traditional fishing methods and ecological knowledge. </p>
<p>The Djenj Project is a great example of how grass-roots projects can provide practical benefits for Aboriginal communities, while contributing to scientific research. The model of collaborative teaching and learning from each other can be customised to benefit other communities. </p>
<p>We are planning to do more projects like this in West Arnhem Land over the following years, investigating other species of plants and animals. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/secondary-school-textbooks-teach-our-kids-the-myth-that-aboriginal-australians-were-nomadic-hunter-gatherers-133066">Secondary school textbooks teach our kids the myth that Aboriginal Australians were nomadic hunter-gatherers</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/356504/original/file-20200904-24-whq1nw.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/356504/original/file-20200904-24-whq1nw.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/356504/original/file-20200904-24-whq1nw.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/356504/original/file-20200904-24-whq1nw.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/356504/original/file-20200904-24-whq1nw.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/356504/original/file-20200904-24-whq1nw.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/356504/original/file-20200904-24-whq1nw.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Djurrubu Ranger Clarry Nadjamerrek making a traditional fish trap.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lynley Wallis</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/144577/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Morgan Disspain was contracted by the Gundjeihmi Aboriginal Corporation to work on the Djenj Project.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lynley Wallis is the Cultural Heritage Advisor to Gundjeihmi Aboriginal Corporation. She receives funding from the Australia Research Council and is affiliated with the Australian Association of Consulting Archaeologists Inc. The Djenj Project was funded by the Kakadu West Arnhem Social Trust.</span></em></p>
Archaeologists had some questions about an ancient Aboriginal site. So they involved the community and local school kids on their search for answers.
Morgan Disspain, Adjunct Researcher, Southern Cross University
Lynley Wallis, Associate Professor, Griffith University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/124579
2019-10-17T19:06:42Z
2019-10-17T19:06:42Z
Should I stay or should I go: how ‘city girls’ can learn to feel at home in the country
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/296332/original/file-20191010-188823-17c3vnp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=359%2C0%2C3137%2C2000&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">From city to country girl, but will she stay?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock/The Conversation</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A move to the country is often presented in popular culture as an idyllic life, a <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10371656.2017.1285471" title="Myths and imaginaries: depictions of lifestyle migration in Country Style magazine">place where you can escape</a> the pressures of the city.</p>
<p>It’s in television shows such as <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/tv/programs/escape-from-the-city/">Escape from the City</a>, <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/food/programs/river-cottage-australia">River Cottage Australia</a> and <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/food/programs/gourmet-farmer">Gourmet Farmer</a>, in books such as <a href="https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/books/general-books/biography-autobiography/A-Story-of-Seven-Summers-Hilary-Burden-9781742376844">A Story of Seven Summers</a>, <a href="https://www.penguin.com.au/books/whole-larder-love-9780670076918">Whole Larder Love</a> and <a href="https://www.angusrobertson.com.au/books/a-table-in-the-orchard-michelle-crawford/p/9780857983626">A Table in the Orchard</a>, and in magazines such as <a href="https://www.homestolove.com.au/country-style">Country Style</a> and <a href="https://www.australiancountry.com.au/">Australian Country</a>.</p>
<p>But what’s the reality for those who’ve made the move?</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/imagining-your-own-seachange-how-media-inspire-our-great-escapes-105207">Imagining your own SeaChange – how media inspire our great escapes</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<h2>Welcome to Stanthorpe</h2>
<p>As part of my <a href="https://eprints.usq.edu.au/34713/" title="The phenomenological and discursive practice of place in lifestyle migration: a case study of Stanthorpe, Queensland">research</a> into how people experience this change I spoke in-depth with 12 people who moved to the small rural town of Stanthorpe in Queensland, <a href="https://quickstats.censusdata.abs.gov.au/census_services/getproduct/census/2016/quickstat/SSC32680?opendocument">population 5,406 at the last count</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/296614/original/file-20191011-188787-1inu206.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/296614/original/file-20191011-188787-1inu206.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/296614/original/file-20191011-188787-1inu206.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296614/original/file-20191011-188787-1inu206.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296614/original/file-20191011-188787-1inu206.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296614/original/file-20191011-188787-1inu206.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296614/original/file-20191011-188787-1inu206.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296614/original/file-20191011-188787-1inu206.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Life in rural Stanthorpe is very different from city life.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock/Melanie Marriott</span></span>
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<p>They came from international places as far away as Dublin and London, from Australian cities including Brisbane and Adelaide, as well as the Sunshine Coast.</p>
<p>While the majority moved because they wanted to be in the country, some arrived because visa requirements meant they had to work in a rural place. Others came for their partner, to be nearer family or, in one case, for a career opportunity for themselves.</p>
<p>These circumstances weren’t always entirely within their personal control.</p>
<p>Once they settled in, the majority found they were glad to be there. They enjoyed the level of trust people showed them, or the lack of traffic lights in town.</p>
<p>Others found the idyllic rural life wasn’t all it’s made out to be in media. For them, moving to the country meant limited leisure choices and life opportunities.</p>
<p>Here’s some of what they told me (not their real names).</p>
<h2>City girls</h2>
<p>Natalie moved because she’d been offered her dream job in Stanthorpe, but said she was “a city girl at heart”. </p>
<p>Being in a small country town was challenging for her. She found it really hard to meet people her age. She also mentioned how: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>[…] when you’re in a small town, there’s no getting away from each other […] everybody knows what’s going on in your life.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>She loved her new job and appreciated the way people helped each other out, but she was always seen as an outsider. This was partly due to her accent and the type of clothes she wore, which others commented on.</p>
<p>After several years in her job, she was offered an opportunity in Brisbane and took it, keen to get back to the city.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/new-home-new-clothes-the-old-ones-no-longer-fit-once-you-move-to-the-country-112137">New home, new clothes: the old ones no longer fit once you move to the country</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Christine, a middle-aged woman who moved for her husband, said she was “not a country girl”. While her home was “a very pretty spot”, she often journeyed back to Brisbane and Sydney for things she couldn’t access locally.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>You can’t just make an appointment with a gynaecologist or an ophthalmologist, there are none. The major services aren’t here […]</p>
</blockquote>
<p>But she said she had a better social life now than she had previously because country people “make time […] it’s a lovely community”.</p>
<h2>Country girls</h2>
<p>Rae had mostly grown up in cities but enjoyed the outdoors as a child and had “always been a country girl at heart”.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We love it (Stanthorpe). It ticks all the boxes, big enough that you don’t know everyone, but small enough that you know most people.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Asked if the media show country life as it really is, she said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Those magazines seem far too glitzy for what I know as truth […] it’s more muddy gumboots and bikes out the front of houses.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Lucy said of the magazines “they’re selling the dream”. Even though she tried, she couldn’t quite replicate that dream in her own life.</p>
<p>The participants who accepted the disparity between media idyll and country reality seemed most content.</p>
<p>Kate said her country life was nothing like she envisaged it would be. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>But that’s good, because I can still enjoy reading books and watch McLeod’s Daughters and keep them there as that fantasy of what I’d like it to be in the country.</p>
</blockquote>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/296621/original/file-20191011-188792-vg3ml3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/296621/original/file-20191011-188792-vg3ml3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/296621/original/file-20191011-188792-vg3ml3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296621/original/file-20191011-188792-vg3ml3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296621/original/file-20191011-188792-vg3ml3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296621/original/file-20191011-188792-vg3ml3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296621/original/file-20191011-188792-vg3ml3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296621/original/file-20191011-188792-vg3ml3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Stanthorpe’s not as busy as a city.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/59483343@N04/8046220909/">Flickr/Barbybo</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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</figure>
<h2>A place to call home, or not</h2>
<p>Even though these were all grown women, they used the word “girl” when they described themselves. </p>
<p>This city girl or country girl moniker was used to show how they viewed themselves. It became a shorthand descriptor they and others could use to let people know if they were living in the “wrong” place, without upsetting the rural people around them with criticisms of the rural space.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-moving-house-changes-you-109225">How moving house changes you</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>While some remained in the country even though they weren’t thrilled about it, those who saw themselves as city girls either left or they maintained strong ties to the city in their everyday life, effectively straddling both worlds.</p>
<p>These conversations showed that if a person identified as “not from here”, that became an indicator they would remain feeling <a href="https://tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10371656.2019.1575558" title="Banking on BANJO: business, bias, and belonging in rural social imaginaries">like an outsider</a> and not adapt as easily as those who considered themselves as belonging.</p>
<p>Tania suggested the key to enjoying small town life was to get involved.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>[…] the more involved you can get in things in the community, the quicker you’re going to settle into a country town.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>She suggested local sports and bushwalking groups, classes, churches and other organisations such as the <a href="https://www.cwaa.org.au/">Country Women’s Association</a>, <a href="https://lionsclubs.org.au/">Lions</a>, <a href="https://zonta.org.au/">Zonta</a> and <a href="http://rotaryaustralia.org.au/">Rotary</a>. Others suggested volunteering with groups such as <a href="https://landcareaustralia.org.au/">Landcare</a> or other groups as a way to create belonging. </p>
<p>While this might not work for everyone who makes the move from city to country, it’s a good place to start.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/124579/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rachael Wallis received funding for this project from the Australian Government Research Training Program. </span></em></p>
Life in the country isn’t all it’s made out to be in popular media. That’s what one group of women found who made the move from city life.
Rachael Wallis, Lecturer and Honorary Research Fellow, University of Southern Queensland
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/101005
2018-10-24T10:40:11Z
2018-10-24T10:40:11Z
Migrant caravan members have right to claim asylum – here’s why getting it will be hard
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/los-migrantes-de-la-caravana-tienen-derecho-de-asilo-en-eeuu-pero-conseguirlo-les-sera-dificil-105636"><em>Leer en español</em></a>.</p>
<p>Roughly 5,000 people, mostly from Central America’s violent and unstable “<a href="https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/central-americas-violent-northern-triangle">Northern Triangle</a>” of Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras are reportedly making their way through Mexico with the intention of claiming asylum at the U.S. border. The so-called “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/18/world/americas/trump-migrant-caravan.html?action=click&module=Uisil&pgtype=Article">migrant caravan</a>” is attracting intense social and political attention, with U.S. President Donald Trump declaring it a “<a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1054351078328885248">national emergency</a>.” He has also claimed, erroneously, that the migrants “<a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1054087893034172418">have to</a>” claim asylum in Mexico first. </p>
<p>Migrants aren’t <a href="http://time.com/5431447/donald-trump-threat-turn-back-caravan-migrants-not-legal/">obligated</a> to claim asylum in any country, but have a <a href="https://www.amnestyusa.org/everyone-has-the-right-to-seek-asylum/">right to seek asylum</a> in a country of their choosing, the <a href="https://www.pri.org/stories/2018-06-26/deporting-asylum-seekers-without-giving-them-chance-make-their-case-would-violate">right to a fair process</a> in that country, and crucially, a right not to be sent back to a country where they will face persecution – or <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/01/15/when-deportation-is-a-death-sentence">even death</a>.</p>
<p>I’ve been working with asylum-seekers in Europe and the U.S. since 2008. Over the last decade I have witnessed firsthand the increasing pressure on the asylum system to manage complex situations at borders. The reality is that even if the migrants currently traveling through Mexico are able to claim asylum at the U.S. border – a big if, considering they are still more than 1,000 miles away – the legal path to safety is challenging. </p>
<p><iframe id="CXYsp" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/CXYsp/2/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>What has always been a difficult process has been made more difficult by growing <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/speech/attorney-general-jeff-sessions-delivers-remarks-executive-office-immigration-review">governmental</a> and <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2018/09/28/652757441/episode-867-special-report-asylum-crackdown">public</a> concern that asylum-seekers are gaming the system or that asylum itself has become a <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/nigel-farage-says-people-fleeing-war-torn-syria-aren-t-necessarily-refugees-10480545.html">backdoor route for economic migrants</a>. </p>
<p>Pressures like these lead to <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2018/07/10/migrant-families-separated-border-crisis-asylum-seekers-donald-trump/">ever-narrowing</a> legal protections for asylum-seekers. </p>
<p>The asylum system is flawed, and ensuring fair access to genuine protection requires making significant improvements to the broader legal, administrative and social contexts.</p>
<h2>The legal framework</h2>
<p>The international legal framework for asylum is the <a href="http://www.unhcr.org/en-us/1951-refugee-convention.html">1951 Convention on the Status of Refugees</a>, which was developed at the end of WWII by the United Nations. </p>
<p>The convention established five categories on which asylum claims can be based: race, nationality, religion, political opinion or membership in a particular social group.</p>
<p>From the beginning, however, these protection categories were political. Much like recent efforts to limit protections for those <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/11/us/politics/sessions-domestic-violence-asylum.html">fleeing domestic or gang violence</a>, these categories have always protected some, but not all persecuted people. For example, the 1951 convention excluded Germans expelled from Eastern Europe and those forced to flee partition of India and Pakistan. </p>
<p>Many of the people displaced or persecuted today also struggle to fit their experiences into the boxes created by the law. For example, despite broad global support for the <a href="http://www.pewglobal.org/2010/07/01/gender-equality/">rights of women</a> and <a href="https://www.care2.com/causes/global-attitudes-about-lgbt-rights-may-be-more-positive-than-we-thought.html">LGBTQ persons</a>, no specific categories exist for gender or sexuality. </p>
<p>The 1951 Convention is not useless – far from it. However, it contributes to a legal environment in which successful asylum-seekers must have rather narrowly defined experiences in order to be protected.</p>
<h2>The administrative process</h2>
<p>When a person seeks asylum – not just in the U.S., but in any country that is a party to the refugee convention – they have to prove they have been persecuted because of their race, nationality, religion, political opinion or membership in a particular social group. What’s more, they have to prove that they cannot live safely in their country of origin. Their proof depends in large part on being able to <a href="https://www.aila.org/infonet/uscis-guidance-to-raio-officers-on-credibility">demonstrate credibility</a>. In other words, they have to share their experiences in such a way that their claim is believed to be true and their fear of persecution is found to be genuine.</p>
<p>This process is made more challenging by suspicions that asylum-seekers are abusing the system. For example, in January 2018, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which manages the administrative process, <a href="https://www.uscis.gov/humanitarian/refugees-asylum/asylum/affirmative-asylum-interview-scheduling">changed their policy regarding interviews</a> so that those who have claimed asylum more recently are interviewed first. </p>
<p>The assumption by USCIS is that newer applications are more likely to be fraudulent and quicker interviews will <a href="https://www.uscis.gov/humanitarian/refugees-asylum/asylum/affirmative-asylum-interview-scheduling">deter people</a> from “using asylum backlogs solely to obtain employment authorization by filing frivolous, fraudulent or otherwise non-meritorious asylum applications.”</p>
<p>In the meantime, those who have been waiting years to be interviewed will wait even longer. In January 2018 more than <a href="https://www.uscis.gov/news/news-releases/uscis-take-action-address-asylum-backlog">300,000</a> people were waiting. USCIS used to publish a bulletin of wait times, but <a href="https://www.aila.org/infonet/uscis-discontinues-affirmative-asylum-interview">discontinued</a> it when the interviewing policy changed in January. The <a href="https://www.aila.org/infonet/processing-time-reports/affirmative-asylum-scheduling-bulletins/2018/affirmative-asylum-scheduling-bulletin-01-04-18">last published bulletin</a> showed that, for example, people in Miami were waiting nearly four and a half years to be interviewed. </p>
<p>In addition to confronting suspicion that they are abusing the system, asylum-seekers face a lack of legal support for making claims, and the reality that decision-makers have a great deal of discretion in deciding their fate.</p>
<p><a href="http://trac.syr.edu/immigration/reports/491/">No legal representation</a> is automatically provided for asylum-seekers. Many manage the entire process, including going before an immigration judge, entirely on their own. Unsurprisingly, those who do have an attorney are <a href="http://trac.syr.edu/immigration/reports/491/">five times more likely</a> to be granted asylum.</p>
<p>Research also regularly shows that the chances of being granted asylum vary considerably <a href="http://trac.syr.edu/immigration/reports/491/">depending on the applicant’s nationality</a> and the <a href="http://trac.syr.edu/immigration/reports/490/include/denialrates.html">location within the U.S. where they seek asylum</a>. In 2017, almost 90 percent of claims from Mexicans were denied, compared to only 20 percent of Chinese cases. All three Northern Triangle countries – El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala – are in the top five most frequently denied, with more than 75 percent of claims being refused. Similarly, a case is more likely to be granted in New York or San Francisco than in those courts closer to the border in Texas or Arizona.</p>
<h2>The social context</h2>
<p>Lastly, asylum has in many ways become an outlet for <a href="http://www.pewglobal.org/2016/07/11/europeans-fear-wave-of-refugees-will-mean-more-terrorism-fewer-jobs/">broader social anxieties</a> about borders, security, terrorism, economic inequality and multiculturalism. Research shows us that migrants and refugees are in fact not more likely to <a href="http://criminology.oxfordre.com/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190264079.001.0001/acrefore-9780190264079-e-93">commit crime than citizens</a>. Nor are they <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=20734">likely to be terrorists</a>. In fact, they <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-05507-0">contribute to local economies</a> in positive ways. But until these social attitudes and assumptions change, the prospect of there being sufficient political will to create workable legal solutions will likely remain low.</p>
<p>The legal and administrative frameworks can only really be addressed once adequate social and political will exists to make the kinds of changes that would support a just and humane asylum system.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/101005/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Abigail Stepnitz receives funding from UC Berkeley's Jurisprudence & Social Policy Program and the UC Humanities Research Institute. </span></em></p>
A scholar who has worked with asylum-seekers for a decade explains why the legal path to safety is challenging for the migrants currently traveling through Mexico.
Abigail Stepnitz, PhD Candidate, University of California, Berkeley
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/81099
2017-08-02T20:21:14Z
2017-08-02T20:21:14Z
Australia’s city/country divide is not as wide as you may think
<p>Many people assume Australia’s regions are getting a raw deal compared to the big cities. But beneath the oft-told “tale of two Australias” is a more nuanced story.</p>
<p><a href="https://grattan.edu.au/report/regional-patterns-of-australias-economy-and-population/">New research released today by the Grattan Institute</a> shows that income growth and unemployment rates are not obviously worse in regional areas. Cities and regions both have pockets of disadvantage, as well as areas with healthy income growth and low unemployment.</p>
<p>But shifts in population are driving a wedge between city and regional Australia. Fewer people are living in remote areas. And because of this, the economy is becoming more concentrated in cities and large regional centres.</p>
<h2>Income growth in the regions has kept pace with the cities</h2>
<p>The gap in incomes between the cities and the regions is actually not getting wider. </p>
<iframe src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/WbGEx/3/" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen" oallowfullscreen="oallowfullscreen" msallowfullscreen="msallowfullscreen" width="100%" height="630"></iframe>
<p>Income growth was particularly high over the past decade in the mining areas of Western Australia and Queensland. But this is not just a mining-state phenomenon: average growth in income per person was similar in cities and regions across every state.</p>
<p>Income growth was high in areas close to the centre of Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide. But suburban parts of these cities did not fare so well – areas in Sydney’s west and Melbourne’s outer ring had some of the lowest income growth in the nation.</p>
<p>The absolute level of income tends to be higher in the cities than the regions - but this has always been so. The highest taxable incomes in Australia are in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, followed by Cottesloe in Perth and Stonnington in eastern Melbourne. The only regional area in the top 20 areas by taxable income is the mining region of Pilbara in WA.</p>
<p>The lowest taxable incomes are in Tasmania and the regions of the east-coast states, especially the far north coast of NSW, central Victoria and southern Queensland.</p>
<h2>Where unemployment is worst</h2>
<p>Unemployment is not obviously worse in the regions than the cities, but both have areas of strong disadvantage. </p>
<p>Parts of Far North Queensland have the highest rates of unemployment: 40% or more, compared to the national average of 6.1% in 2016. Most of these areas have had high unemployment rates for many years.</p>
<p>Unemployment tends to be higher in large regional towns than in surrounding rural areas. In the capital cities, unemployment is concentrated along the “spines” - built-up areas that follow major roads.</p>
<p>Unemployment got worse over the last five years in many areas where the jobless rate was already high. The unemployment rate increased in the northern parts of WA, the Northern Territory and Queensland between 2011 and 2016. Unemployment appears to be entrenched in these areas.</p>
<p>Unemployment also got worse along city “spines”: the Ipswich to Carole Park corridor in Brisbane, and the Dandenong to Pakenham corridor in Melbourne. The exception was the Botany Bay to Liverpool corridor in Sydney, where unemployment improved but remains high.</p>
<p><strong>Interactive map</strong></p>
<p><em>Click on the map below to compare income, income growth, unemployment and population growth.</em> </p>
<iframe width="100%" height="520" frameborder="0" src="https://grattan.carto.com/builder/a928f4b6-b747-47ae-9034-3766e0ecb6a5/embed" allowfullscreen="" webkitallowfullscreen="" mozallowfullscreen="" oallowfullscreen="" msallowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<p><em>The full functionality of this graph is not available on mobile devices/small screens. If so, <a href="https://grattan.carto.com/builder/a928f4b6-b747-47ae-9034-3766e0ecb6a5/embed">click here</a> to open in a new window</em></p>
<h2>Population growth is much stronger in the cities</h2>
<p>The regions are not noticeably falling behind in terms of income growth and employment. But there are big – and growing – differences in the location of economic activity and where people are choosing to live.</p>
<p>A long-term trend in Australia’s economy continued in the past decade: fewer people are working in agriculture and manufacturing, and more are finding jobs in services. The loss of agricultural and manufacturing work is felt most keenly in regional and outer-suburban areas. And many service jobs – particularly professional services – tend to cluster in the centre of cities.</p>
<p>Large regional towns exert a gravitational pull on the populations of smaller rural communities. Major cities have a stronger pull again, drawing younger and more-educated people from the regions as well as the majority of new migrants.</p>
<p>This is evident in the population data over the past decade: in general, populations declined in small towns in the east-coast states and South Australia, but increased in larger regional centres. Population – and unemployment – also tended to increase faster in the towns along the east coast. Populations in the major cities, meanwhile, grew strongly.</p>
<p>Voters in regional areas are <a href="https://grattan.edu.au/news/the-rise-of-protest-politics/">increasingly voting for minor parties</a>. It’s often suggested this is because of the <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/columnists/john-black/one-nation-and-pauline-hanson-tap-into-a-regional-disconnect/news-story/5f13ab8d3d49e0f379a22ee486a1ca5b">deteriorating economic position of the regions</a>.</p>
<p>But given that people in regions have generally fared as well as those in cities over the past decade, major parties may need to look beyond income and employment to discover what is driving dissatisfaction among regional voters.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/81099/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Grattan Institute began with contributions to its endowment of $15 million from each of the Federal and Victorian Governments, $4 million from BHP Billiton, and $1 million from NAB. In order to safeguard its independence, Grattan Institute’s board controls this endowment. The funds are invested and contribute to funding Grattan Institute's activities. Grattan Institute also receives funding from corporates, foundations, and individuals to support its general activities as disclosed on its website.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Carmela Chivers and Danielle Wood do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
New research released today by the Grattan Institute shows that income growth and unemployment rates are not obviously worse in regional areas.
John Daley, Chief Executive Officer, Grattan Institute
Carmela Chivers, Associate, Grattan Institute, Grattan Institute
Danielle Wood, Fellow, Australian Perspectives, Grattan Institute
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/31378
2014-09-15T01:39:10Z
2014-09-15T01:39:10Z
Welcome to my Country: seeing the true beauty of life in Bawaka
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/58725/original/wfq3qdfj-1410396274.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Djapana – sunset – at Bawaka in North-East Arnhem Land.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sarah Wright</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Tony Abbott <a href="https://www.pm.gov.au/media/2014-06-23/visit-north-east-arnhem-land">is spending this week in North East Arnhem Land</a>, part of his <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/federal-election-2013/abbott-calls-for-new-era-of-engagement-with-indigenous-australia-20130810-2rony.html">long-held hope</a> “to be not just the Prime Minister but the Prime Minister for Aboriginal Affairs”. We asked our experts: what stories does the PM need to hear while he’s in the Top End?</em></p>
<blockquote>
<p>When <em>ngapaki</em>, non-Indigenous people, come to Bawaka they see the beauty of the blue sea and the white sand, but they don’t see what really makes our land beautiful. They don’t see the stories, the connections, the patterns, the rhythms, the songlines. – Laklak Burarrwanga</p>
</blockquote>
<p>We are Yolŋu people, from Bawaka in North East Arnhem Land, which is more than 600 kilometres east of Darwin and is down the coast from <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-09-13/abbott-to-camp-in-arnhem-land/5741340">where the Prime Minister is camping this week</a>. </p>
<p>Bawaka is our homeland, our Country. Country means the land, but it means so much more too.</p>
<iframe width="100%" height="500px" frameborder="0" src="https://a.tiles.mapbox.com/v4/editorial-team.jgdfm94i/attribution,zoompan,zoomwheel,geocoder,share.html?access_token=pk.eyJ1IjoiZWRpdG9yaWFsLXRlYW0iLCJhIjoiQ2dCREhsUSJ9.CH7em9Q5WmOSXAy15sPwng"></iframe>
<p><em>Zoom out on the map to see where Bawaka is in northern Australia.</em></p>
<p>For the past eight years, our research group of five Yolŋu (sometimes written as Yolngu) women and three non-Indigenous academics have been working together sharing the Yolŋu women’s knowledge, especially through the women’s <a href="http://www.lirrwitourism.com.au/">tourism business</a> and the book we wrote together, <a href="http://www.allenandunwin.com/default.aspx?page=94&book=9781743313961">Welcome to My Country</a>.</p>
<p>We want visitors to learn from us, so that Indigenous and non-Indigenous people can grow together. We are for unity and for peace. </p>
<p>We are for learning <a href="http://livingknowledge.anu.edu.au/html/educators/07_bothways.htm">both ways</a>. We are for a future where we all learn from each other.</p>
<p>So we invite you now to come with us to Bawaka, to learn a little about what lies beneath the beauty of Bawaka. We invite you, and the Prime Minister, to take off your shoes and walk with us, to feel your feet in the sand and begin to learn. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/58451/original/t72gh3tm-1410172740.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/58451/original/t72gh3tm-1410172740.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/58451/original/t72gh3tm-1410172740.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/58451/original/t72gh3tm-1410172740.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/58451/original/t72gh3tm-1410172740.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/58451/original/t72gh3tm-1410172740.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/58451/original/t72gh3tm-1410172740.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/58451/original/t72gh3tm-1410172740.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The beach at Bawaka.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sandie Suchet-Pearson</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>When <em>ngapaki</em> come to Bawaka, we ask Bawaka Country to welcome you. Bawaka is alive, it talks to us and cares for us. </p>
<p>We welcome you so that the land and the sea, the tides, the currents, the plants, the animals, the winds, the rocks, the songs and the dreams recognise you. </p>
<p>And <em>we</em> are Bawaka Country too, Yolŋu people, our ancestors and our unborn children, with our Yolŋu languages (<em>dhäruk</em>), our Yolŋu knowledge and our Yolŋu Law (<em>Rom</em>). People are Country too. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/58452/original/27359jjv-1410173895.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/58452/original/27359jjv-1410173895.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/58452/original/27359jjv-1410173895.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/58452/original/27359jjv-1410173895.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/58452/original/27359jjv-1410173895.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/58452/original/27359jjv-1410173895.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/58452/original/27359jjv-1410173895.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/58452/original/27359jjv-1410173895.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Laklak gathering <em>gunga</em>, pandanus, for basket weaving.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sandie Suchet-Pearson</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Country will welcome you as long as you respect it, as long as you behave well and care for the land and the nature, care for each other as family, as kin. </p>
<p>Country is everything in balance, everything connected as kin. Country nourishes us, and we nourish Country. We can’t be separated from it. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/58454/original/hqb2zsjv-1410175005.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/58454/original/hqb2zsjv-1410175005.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/58454/original/hqb2zsjv-1410175005.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/58454/original/hqb2zsjv-1410175005.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/58454/original/hqb2zsjv-1410175005.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/58454/original/hqb2zsjv-1410175005.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/58454/original/hqb2zsjv-1410175005.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/58454/original/hqb2zsjv-1410175005.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cutting up <em>miyapunu</em>, turtle.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Matt Webb</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/58400/original/ynr6sj4h-1410142348.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/58400/original/ynr6sj4h-1410142348.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/58400/original/ynr6sj4h-1410142348.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=909&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/58400/original/ynr6sj4h-1410142348.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=909&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/58400/original/ynr6sj4h-1410142348.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=909&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/58400/original/ynr6sj4h-1410142348.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1143&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/58400/original/ynr6sj4h-1410142348.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1143&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/58400/original/ynr6sj4h-1410142348.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1143&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In our most recent book, Welcome to My Country, we share some of our stories and knowledge of Bawaka.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Allen & Unwin</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Everything at Bawaka has and tells a story. Everything communicates, through its own language and its own Law. </p>
<p>At Bawaka, it is now the season of <em>Rarranhdharr</em>. </p>
<p>It is a hot, dry season, the time of year when your feet burn when you walk on the sand. The fruits are ripening and the <em>warrkarr</em>, the white lily, is in flower. The <em>warrkarr</em> tells us that it is the right time to hunt stingray. It is a bountiful season. Everything is ripening and getting fat. </p>
<p>If we listen to the <em>warrkarr</em>, we know it is time to hunt. Country is communicating with us. We are connected, the fruits, the stingray, our hot feet and the <em>warrkarr</em>. </p>
<p>All these things have their knowledge and their Law. They must be respected. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/58439/original/39xnx5wg-1410161649.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/58439/original/39xnx5wg-1410161649.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/58439/original/39xnx5wg-1410161649.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/58439/original/39xnx5wg-1410161649.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/58439/original/39xnx5wg-1410161649.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/58439/original/39xnx5wg-1410161649.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/58439/original/39xnx5wg-1410161649.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/58439/original/39xnx5wg-1410161649.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Shandi and Shyrell preparing stingray at Bawaka.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sandie Suchet-Pearson</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Everything at Bawaka tells a story, and everything communicates, but we must know how to listen. </p>
<p>Remember, Country can’t be pulled apart and people can’t be separated from Country. </p>
<p>We live on Country, we won’t be treated as if we have no strength, no knowledge, no Law, no language. </p>
<p>Country makes us strong. Country cares, Country nourishes, Country is who we are. We are Yolŋu.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>In the Yolŋu world, we have a library in the land. You can’t destroy it. If you burn it, it grows again. This land is full of more knowledge than you can imagine. – Laklak Burarrwanga</p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p><strong><em>Further reading in this <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/abbott-in-arnhem-land">Abbott in Arnhem Land</a> series:<br>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/birthing-on-country-could-deliver-healthier-babies-and-communities-31180">Birthing on Country could deliver healthier babies and communities</a><br>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/pm-for-aboriginal-affairs-abbott-faces-his-biggest-hearing-test-31021">‘PM for Aboriginal Affairs’ Abbott faces his biggest hearing test</a><br>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-7-up-the-revealing-study-tracking-babies-to-adults-27312">Australia’s 7 Up: the revealing study tracking babies to adults</a><br>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/well-connected-indigenous-kids-keen-to-tap-new-ways-to-save-lives-30964">Well-connected Indigenous kids keen to tap new ways to save lives</a><br>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/indigenous-australias-rapid-rise-is-shifting-money-and-votes-26524">Indigenous Australia’s rapid rise is shifting money and votes</a><br>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-crowded-homes-can-lead-to-empty-schools-in-the-bush-30971">How crowded homes can lead to empty schools in the bush</a><br>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/would-you-risk-losing-your-home-for-a-few-weeks-of-work-30911">Would you risk losing your home for a few weeks of work?</a><br>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/listen-to-your-elders-inviting-aboriginal-parents-back-to-school-31300">Listen to your elders: inviting Aboriginal parents back to school</a><br>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/indigenous-australians-need-a-licence-to-drive-but-also-to-work-31480">Indigenous Australians need a licence to drive, but also to work</a><br>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/keeping-indigenous-teens-in-school-by-reinventing-the-lessons-30960">Keeping Indigenous teens in school by reinventing the lessons</a><br>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-can-a-dna-test-reveal-if-youre-an-indigenous-australian-31767">Explainer: Can a DNA test reveal if you’re an Indigenous Australian?</a><br>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-indigenous-constitutional-recognition-means-31770">Explainer: what Indigenous constitutional recognition means</a></em></strong></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/31378/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Laklak Burarrwanga established her family-owned tourism business Bawaka Cultural Experiences and through this business she shares her knowledge with tourists, including government staff in cross-cultural programs. She is an Honorary Associate of the Department of Environment and Geography at Macquarie University and has been working with academics from Macquarie University and the University of Newcastle for nearly eight years. She is a senior knowledge holder in a Australian Research Council-funded project, working with Kate, Sarah and Sandie.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Banbapuy Ganambarr works with Bawaka Cultural Experiences, a successful Yolŋu owned-and-run Indigenous tourism business. She is also a senior knowledge holder in a Australian Research Council-funded project, working with Kate, Sarah and Sandie.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Djawundil Maymuru works with Bawaka Cultural Experiences, a successful Yolŋu owned-and-run Indigenous tourism business. She is also a senior knowledge holder in a Australian Research Council-funded project, working with Kate, Sarah and Sandie.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kate Lloyd receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Merrkiyawuy Ganambarr-Stubbs works with Bawaka Cultural Experiences, a successful Yolŋu owned-and-run Indigenous tourism business. She is also a senior knowledge holder in a Australian Research Council-funded project, working with Kate, Sarah and Sandie.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ritjilili Ganambarr works with her family’s successful Yolŋu owned-and-run Indigenous tourism business, Bawaka Cultural Experiences. She is also a senior knowledge holder in a Australian Research Council-funded project, working with Kate, Sarah and Sandie.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sandie Suchet-Pearson receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah Wright receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>
Tony Abbott is spending this week in North East Arnhem Land, part of his long-held hope “to be not just the Prime Minister but the Prime Minister for Aboriginal Affairs”. We asked our experts: what stories…
Laklak Burarrwanga, Elder for the Datiwuy people and a caretaker for the Gumatj clan; Bawaka Cultural Experiences; Honorary Associate of the Department of Environment and Geography, Macquarie University
Banbapuy Ganambarr, Author, artist, weaver; teacher at Yirrkala school; Bawaka Cultural Experiences; Honorary Associate of the Department of Environment and Geography, Macquarie University
Djawundil Maymuru, Bawaka Cultural Experiences and Honorary Associate of the Department of Environment and Geography, Macquarie University
Kate Lloyd, Senior Lecturer in Human Geography; Director of the Development Studies and Cultural Change Program, Macquarie University
Merrkiyawuy Ganambarr-Stubbs, Principal of Yirrkala Community School; Yolŋu woman; Bawaka Cultural Experiences; Honorary Associate of the Department of Environment and Geography , Macquarie University
Ritjilili Ganambarr, Elder for the Datiwuy people and a caretaker for the Gumatj clan; Bawaka Cultural Experiences; Honorary Associate of the Department of Environment and Geography, Macquarie University
Sandie Suchet-Pearson, Senior Lecturer in Human Geography, Macquarie University
Sarah Wright, Senior Lecturer in Human Geography and Development Studies, University of Newcastle
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.