Suchergebnisse

In 2008, community government was abolished in the remote Aboriginal communities of the Northern Territory and centralised in large shires. It seems safe to assume that, for the foreseeable future, the population of most of these communities will remain predominantly Aboriginal. While such communities will continue to be centres of change, the co-residence of large populations of Aboriginal people also facilitates the reproduction of values and practices, some of which create a 'seemingly intractable gulf between policy goals and actual community life' (M and R Tonkinson 2010, 68). Ignoring this problem is not the answer. Despite past problems with community government, it is one of the few avenues for real community development and a chance to build a notion of civil society.

In 2008, community government was abolished in the remote Aboriginal communities of the Northern Territory and centralised in large shires. It seems safe to assume that, for the foreseeable future, the population of most of these communities will remain predominantly Aboriginal. While such communities will continue to be centres of change, the co-residence of large populations of Aboriginal people also facilitates the reproduction of values and practices, some of which create a 'seemingly intractable gulf between policy goals and actual community life' (M and R Tonkinson 2010, 68). Ignoring this problem is not the answer. Despite past problems with community government, it is one of the few avenues for real community development and a chance to build a notion of civil society.

Between 1921 and 1977 twelve anthropologists worked in coastal communities of Arnhem Land in Australia's Northern Territory, researching and writing about land tenure, among other things, yet not one of them mentioned the existence of a system of customary marine tenure (for the resulting publications see: Tindale 1925-6; Warner 1937; Worsley 1954; Berndt 1964,1970,1976; Rose 1960; Hiatt 1965; Shapiro 1969; Turner 1974; Meehan 1982; Morphy 1991; Keen 1994;Williams 1986). Some of them such as Ronald Berndt (1976) actually mapped sites in the sea. Today there is a well developed and dynamic system of indigenous marine tenure along the Arnhem Land Coast. This lack of visibility raises a number of questions including how old these systems are and why if they have any antiquity they have not been more visible. Three possible explanations have been advanced for this lack of visibility. It might be that customary marine tenure systems are fragile (see Palmer 1988) so that they disappear quickly under the impact of colonialism. Why they might be fragile is not clear but one factor could relate to the policing of rights and the difficulties created when outsiders introduce new and radically changed maritime technologies which have not been available to Aboriginal people until recently. However, new technology can also, strengthen and extend relations with the maritime environment as the introduction of the dugout canoe seems to have done in Arnhem Land (see below). The late discovery of marine tenure might be because it is only a recent development that has come about under the impact of land rights legislation that provides for the possibility of closing-off of the seas to non-Indigenous people in the Northern Territory. This could have led to an extension of the land based arrangements out into the sea so that open access has given way to a marine tenure system. Another possibility is that longstanding practices and arrangements of a more informal nature have firmed up under the impact of the growing prevalence of legal and rights discourses in Aboriginal affairs. With a better understanding among Aboriginal people of the way in which the Australian legal system works, the uncodified and relatively informal indigenous modes of expression of these rights of control, may have been translated into the language of the encapsulating society. In this paper I want to consider this issue of visibility of the system of Indigenous marine tenure in the waters surrounding Croker Island off the coast of Arnhem Land, from an historical perspective. I will begin with an outline of the background on which this research is based. I will then look at what sparse evidence there is for the existence of an Indigenous system of marine tenure beginning with the history of the relationship with the Macassan and Buginese fisherman that came to Arnhem Land from the early 18th century onwards before considering more recent history.

Between 1921 and 1977 twelve anthropologists worked in coastal communities of Arnhem Land in Australia's Northern Territory, researching and writing about land tenure, among other things, yet not one of them mentioned the existence of a system of customary marine tenure (for the resulting publications see: Tindale 1925-6; Warner 1937; Worsley 1954; Berndt 1964,1970,1976; Rose 1960; Hiatt 1965; Shapiro 1969; Turner 1974; Meehan 1982; Morphy 1991; Keen 1994;Williams 1986). Some of them such as Ronald Berndt (1976) actually mapped sites in the sea. Today there is a well developed and dynamic system of indigenous marine tenure along the Arnhem Land Coast. This lack of visibility raises a number of questions including how old these systems are and why if they have any antiquity they have not been more visible. Three possible explanations have been advanced for this lack of visibility. It might be that customary marine tenure systems are fragile (see Palmer 1988) so that they disappear quickly under the impact of colonialism. Why they might be fragile is not clear but one factor could relate to the policing of rights and the difficulties created when outsiders introduce new and radically changed maritime technologies which have not been available to Aboriginal people until recently. However, new technology can also, strengthen and extend relations with the maritime environment as the introduction of the dugout canoe seems to have done in Arnhem Land (see below). The late discovery of marine tenure might be because it is only a recent development that has come about under the impact of land rights legislation that provides for the possibility of closing-off of the seas to non-Indigenous people in the Northern Territory. This could have led to an extension of the land based arrangements out into the sea so that open access has given way to a marine tenure system. Another possibility is that longstanding practices and arrangements of a more informal nature have firmed up under the impact of the growing prevalence of legal and rights discourses in Aboriginal affairs. With a better understanding among Aboriginal people of the way in which the Australian legal system works, the uncodified and relatively informal indigenous modes of expression of these rights of control, may have been translated into the language of the encapsulating society. In this paper I want to consider this issue of visibility of the system of Indigenous marine tenure in the waters surrounding Croker Island off the coast of Arnhem Land, from an historical perspective. I will begin with an outline of the background on which this research is based. I will then look at what sparse evidence there is for the existence of an Indigenous system of marine tenure beginning with the history of the relationship with the Macassan and Buginese fisherman that came to Arnhem Land from the early 18th century onwards before considering more recent history.

Despite the prevalence of an ethic of generosity among foragers, much sharing is by demand rather than by unsolicited giving. Although a behavioristic model of demand sharing can be seen as matching sociobiological expectations, the emphasis here is on the social and symbolic significance of the practice. It is argued that demand sharing involves testing, assertive, and/or substantiating behavior and is important in the constitution of social relations in egalitarian societies.

The question of whether Australian hunter‐gatherer territoriality is natural or conventional is considered. The definition and function of territorial behavior is discussed and its consequences for population control emphasized. A functional analogy is drawn between Aboriginal greeting ceremonies and non‐human boundary maintenance, and it is concluded that even without an innate component in territorial aggression, spacing is basic to Aboriginal society survival and therefore of biological significance.

For most of Australia's colonial history Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders have been denied full membership of Australian society. This book examines the history of indigenous peoples' citizenship status and asks, is it possible for indigenous Australians to be members of a common society on equal terms with others? Leading commentators from a range of disciplines examine historical conceptions of indigenous civil rights, consider issues arising from recent struggles for equality and consider possibilities for multicultural citizenship that recognise difference. Topics include self-determination, the 1967 referendum, resource development, whether Australian Aborigines and white Australians can belong, the international law context, and sovereignty. This book makes a crucial intervention in current debates by providing the context for understanding struggles over distinctive indigenous rights

"Abbreviations" -- "Figures and tables" -- "Maps" -- "Plates" -- "Preface and acknowledgements" -- "Orthography" -- "Contributors" -- "Introduction" -- "1. The German-language tradition of ethnography in Australia" -- "2. German-language anthropology traditions around 1900: Their methodological relevance for ethnographers in Australia and beyond" -- "Part I: First encounters" -- "3. Clamor Schürmann's contribution to the ethnographic record for Eyre Peninsula, South Australia" -- "4. Pulcaracuranie: Losing and finding a cosmic centre with the help of J. G. Reuther and others" -- "5. Looking at some details of Reuther's work" -- "6. German Moravian missionaries on western Cape York Peninsula and their perception of the local Aboriginal people and languages" -- "Part II: Impact of the Aranda" -- "7. Early ethnographic work at the Hermannsburg Mission in Central Australia, 1877–1910" -- "8. Sigmund Freud, Géza Róheim and the Strehlows: Oedipal tales from Central Australian anthropology" -- "9. Of kinships and othert hings: T. G. H. Strehlow in Central Australia" -- "10. 'Only the best is good enough for eternity': Revisiting the ethnography of T. G. H. Strehlow" -- "Part III: Widening the interest" -- "11. The Australianist work of Erhard Eylmann in comparative perspective" -- "12. Herbert Basedow (1881–1933): Surgeon, geologist, naturalist and anthropologist" -- "13. Father Worms's contribution to Australian Aboriginal anthropology" -- "14. Historicising culture: Father Ernst Worms and the German anthropological traditions" -- "Part IV: Academic anthropology" -- "15. Doing research in the Kimberley and carrying ideological baggage: A personal journey" -- "16. Tracks and shadows: Some social effects of the 1938 Frobenius Expedition to the north‑west Kimberley

The contribution of German ethnography to Australian anthropological scholarship on Aboriginal societies and cultures has been limited, primarily because few people working in the field read German. But it has also been neglected because its humanistic concerns with language, religion and mythology contrasted with the mainstream British social anthropological tradition that prevailed in Australia until the late 1960s. The advent of native title claims, which require drawing on the earliest ethnography for any area, together with an increase in research on rock art of the Kimberley region, has stimulated interest in this German ethnography, as have some recent book translations. Even so, several major bodies of ethnography, such as the 13 volumes on the cultures of northeastern South Australia and the seven volumes on the Aranda of the Alice Springs region, remain inaccessible, along with many ethnographically rich articles and reports in mission archives. In 18 chapters, this book introduces and reviews the significance of this neglected work, much of it by missionaries who first wrote on Australian Aboriginal cultures in the 1840s. Almost all of these German speakers, in particular the missionaries, learnt an Aboriginal language in order to be able to document religious beliefs, mythology and songs as a first step to conversion. As a result, they produced an enormously valuable body of work that will greatly enrich regional ethnographies.

Outstations, which dramatically increased in numbers in the 1970s, are small, decentralised and relatively permanent communities of kin established by Aboriginal people on land that has social, cultural or economic significance to them. In 2015 they yet again came under attack, this time as an expensive lifestyle choice that can no longer be supported by state governments. Yet outstations are the original, and most striking, manifestation of remote-area Aboriginal people's aspirations for self-determination, and of the life projects by which they seek, and have sought, autonomy in deciding the meaning of their life independently of projects promoted by the state and market. They are not simply projects of isolation from outside influences, as they have sometimes been characterised, but attempts by people to take control of the course of their lives. In the sometimes acrimonious debates about outstations, the lived experiences, motivations and histories of existing communities are missing. For this reason, we invited a number of anthropological witnesses to the early period in which outstations gained a purchase in remote Australia to provide accounts of what these communities were like, and what their residents' aspirations and experiences were. Our hope is that these closer-to-the-ground accounts provide insight into, and understanding of, what Indigenous aspirations were in the establishment and organisation of these communities.

Outstations, which dramatically increased in numbers in the 1970s, are small, decentralised and relatively permanent communities of kin established by Aboriginal people on land that has social, cultural or economic significance to them. In 2015 they yet again came under attack, this time as an expensive lifestyle choice that can no longer be supported by state governments. Yet outstations are the original, and most striking, manifestation of remote-area Aboriginal people's aspirations for self-determination, and of the life projects by which they seek, and have sought, autonomy in deciding the meaning of their life independently of projects promoted by the state and market. They are not simply projects of isolation from outside influences, as they have sometimes been characterised, but attempts by people to take control of the course of their lives. In the sometimes acrimonious debates about outstations, the lived experiences, motivations and histories of existing communities are missing. For this reason, we invited a number of anthropological witnesses to the early period in which outstations gained a purchase in remote Australia to provide accounts of what these communities were like, and what their residents' aspirations and experiences were. Our hope is that these closer-to-the-ground accounts provide insight into, and understanding of, what Indigenous aspirations were in the establishment and organisation of these communities.