indigenous politics
8 Apr 2009
Blacker Than Thou
From Sarah Maddison's extensive interviews with Indigenous activists emerges a sense of just how complex politics can be in that community
The rejection of Aboriginal identity by other Aboriginal people can be devastating.
According to Kungarakan elder and long-time social justice advocate Tom Calma, Aboriginal people in urban areas "have a stronger sense of need to assert their identity" than do their "traditional" counterparts, whose identity is less often challenged. There is particular risk, as South Australian policy officer Alwyn McKenzie points out, that this lack of recognition will mean that Aboriginal people in urban areas will not have their needs met. McKenzie says, "We know there’s great need there", but the overwhelming policy and service focus on remote communities can sometimes obscure this fact.
This dichotomy was reinforced under the Howard government’s policy of "practical reconciliation", which redirected resources away from urban-dwelling Aboriginal people and towards those living in rural and remote areas.
It is one thing to have your Aboriginality challenged by non-Aboriginal people, but it is quite another to have to fight for acceptance from other Aboriginal people. Aboriginal academic and writer Larissa Behrendt has experienced this antagonism first hand, telling me in our interview:
"I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been in meetings with people who aren’t from the southeast who like to imply that because I’m from here, I’m not as culturally legitimate as they are because I haven’t lived on an outstation and I don’t speak my language fluently. And it’s very hard not to resent the way that your Aboriginality, which I feel inherently no matter where I am, is somehow being dismissed."
This has not deterred Marcia Langton, herself an urban-based academic, from drawing a political distinction between remote and urban Aboriginal people, which she says also reflects divisions about concerns to do with the "practical" versus the "symbolic" in debates about the Northern Territory intervention. Langton draws a distinction between "those who have lived through the many tragedies and their aftermath in remote Australia, committed to preventing the destruction of their societies in a haze of alcohol and drug abuse; and those with cosmopolitan urban experience who have allowed libertarian leanings, and deep political disappointment, to confuse their logic."
Langton here is relating urbanisation to the class differences that have emerged as a relatively new cleavage among Aboriginal people as many have taken up opportunities for education and training available in cities and towns. While status differences have long been a feature of many rural towns, with differences in lifestyle and values evident between "town dwellers" and "fringe dwellers", these categories have been somewhat porous and poorly defined. Recent years, however, have seen the emergence of what Behrendt referred to in our interview as "a middle-class black Australia". Behrendt sees this new class structure as something that will be a "huge challenge to Indigenous politics and identity" for several reasons.
First of all, the emerging middle class completely breaks the stereotype that is dominant within the Aboriginal community, of people who are socio-economically disadvantaged. There’s a real challenge in seeing people who are middle class, who have successful careers in professions that are quite influential in mainstream society, and then having to figure out: What does self-determination mean for an Indigenous person who has that profile?
It is apparent that the emerging black middle class is, in part, fuelling jealousy among the less well-off majority. However, even successful people like Noel Pearson — himself an educated lawyer — have attacked the newly emerging middle class for manufacturing "black urban glamour" through, for example, the launch of a new Indigenous television network.
Such criticism seems to fly in the face of the knowledge that elites are an important resource in political culture. Chief executive of the New South Wales Aboriginal Land Council, Geoff Scott, agrees, pointing out that, "A substantial portion of the Aboriginal population has yet to realise the potential benefit [a middle class] can have." Aboriginal activist Warren Mundine also acknowledges the importance of the emerging middle class, claiming it is hard to "name a revolution that was started without the middle class." Deep suspicion about the new black middle class remains, however, with fellow activist and academic Gary Foley declaring in a radio interview, "They’re screwing us."
One further layer of complexity in the area of Aboriginal identity concerns the relationship between black and white — in families and within individuals. Several of my interviewees had at least one white relative, whether a parent, a spouse or partner, or a more distant relationship. Aboriginal activist Sam Watson is one who finds considerable joy in his relationships with non-Aboriginal Australians, most notably his wife Catherine, who has been his partner since they were both 15. Watson feels that his relationship with Catherine, with whom he lives in "the broader white community", helps him to keep some "distance from the Murri community", which in turn makes him "an effective community operator".
Colleen Hayward, a Noongar woman and associate professor at Curtin University, understands both the complex history and the contemporary reality of these relationships, saying, "Were too many of our women raped? Yeah, they were. So lots of the initial instances of babies who became children who became adults who became parents of mixed cultural heritage was violent and not by choice." Yet Hayward has a simple response when she is asked by colleagues whether any of her experiences with non-Aboriginal Australians have been positive. Hayward says simply, "My mother is white. Absolutely every experience I have with her is positive."
Despite the growing confidence with which many Aboriginal people negotiate multi-layered identities, there is still a degree of what several people described as "internalised racism", which manifests itself in the charge that someone is "not black enough". Former ATSIC commissioner Kim Hill sees the question being asked "in most communities" about "who’s a real blackfella?" In the Tiwi Islands, where Hill grew up, the lease signed with the Howard government raised new questions about "who’s real Tiwi?" Since colonisation, Hill says, "people have married the wrong way, and married people who are from the mainland" creating a situation where "white people judge us" but, more crucially, "our own mob judge us."
Indigenous lawyer Eddie Cubillo strongly rejects this sort of internalised racism, pointing to his own cultural mix of Filipino and Chinese, along with his Aboriginal family background. Cubillo finds it really upsetting to hear "one mob say they are more black than another", a view he says is "just ignorance". Cubillo’s response is to say: "Look, we’re all the same. We’re just lucky [in the north] that Captain Cook didn’t rock up on our gate first."
Still, Cubillo is optimistic, believing that many Aboriginal people are "getting over that hurdle". If Cubillo is right, it seems an important step for Aboriginal people to insist that more than a "traditional" Aboriginal identity is recognised.
This is an edited extract from Black Politics — Inside the complexity of Aboriginal political culture, 2009, by Sarah Maddison, published by Allen and Unwin
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Hmm! Black politics. Well I am not Black, but I do understand politics, black or white or in between.
As far as I am concerned, Warren Mundine and Noel Pearson are Right Wing Howard type people (yes, I know Mundine was supposed to be Labor!!!!) and can not really be treated with any respect. They are ‘white men’ in black skins, only happy in pursuit of the mighty dollar, and what it can buy.
I listened to Noel Pearson give an interview to an ABC person I think it was yesterday morning, and I got the distinct impression that he was suffering badly from the downfall of his mate, the mining magnate, and once Australia’s Richest man. This man had promised so much to Pearson’s people, and now would not be forthcoming, if indeed he can stay out of gaol. Rudd also must be feeling somewhat upset, he had backed this man’s ideas to the full. Why do our PMs so easily fall for the blandishments of the Very Rich!? Or for that matter, the very Far Right Wing!
In any case, Pearson really did sound most upset, and the interview had to be terminated, seemingly before he did something very rash.
Ah well! Dazza.
Dazza,
perhaps you didn’t read the article correctly. the point was that black people come in all shapes and sizes. just because you are middle class doesn’t mean your not black.
I only listen to Pearson with half an ear since he become the pin-up boy for The Australian newspaper.
Hey Dazza,
i think as a non-indigenous person, it’s kinda distasteful to assume the ability to decide who or who isn’t ‘black’.
just sayin’. WR.
Thanks Sarah
useful survey
http://kmccready.wordpress.com/
i don;t understand what sarah is trying to say here but i’m glad poor old dazza has been given the opportunity for another insane rant. i suppose you as a white lefty dazza, are more black in spirit than pearson and mundine…
and oh for shame andrew forrester for wanting to create jobs for aboriginal people. he should know that progress for aboriginal people will be made by white lefties bitching and moaning at aboriginal people that disagree with them. its worked so far… right dazza??
Collins, I am not the only one, and certainly there are lots of black people who disagree very much with the attitudes and political maneuverings of Pearson and Mundine and their Right Wing backers.
I and others just think that a mad rush to join the insane whites in a race to the bottom of the slippery road to ecological destruction is not the best way to go, and certainly not now when the edifice of Capitalism and Mass Consumerism raping our finite world is collapsing, and not before time. If Pearson and Mundine were more concerned with carving out a long-term economic future more in line with sustainability for the indigenous peoples and their lands, I would be happy for them. But both Mundine and Pearson have been corrupted by the white world they entered and joined so happily and fully. They are more concerned with making profits at the expense of our environment than otherwise.
I also just think that they, the Indigenous peoples will have a lot more to teach us about survival in the not so distant future, when we have taken this world to the brink of total destruction, and millions (possibly billions) are dying from starvation, food poisoning, lack of potable water, land degradation, poisoned air and just plain too many bloody humans on the planet, if they can retain some semblance of their culture, and not become just black consumers. They survived here in Aussie a damned lot longer than the whites and coloureds and believers in insane religions which will not allow population control, before we arrived and commenced to totally destroy them as a culture and a people. They must know something!
I watched the ABC TV 7.30 Report last night, the bit about the fight between the Catholic Church (and the Bishop of Broome) and the indigenous peoples of Kalumburu, a community in NW WA. I was once a frequent visitor to this community, and became mates with Les French, the now Community Chairman. Les was then the Manager of Honeymoon Beach Holiday park, at the end of about 26 km. of absolutely atrocious track between there and Kalumburu.
Each year, this track was wiped out by flooding (cyclones), and each year, the people tried to bring it back into use by using rapidly dying machinery. As their only access to food and supplies was from a barge from Darwin which put in on a beach on this same road, the fight to keep the road open was a necessary one, and not well supported by Government. This track showed how much the WA Govt. cared.
I noted at the time that the Church, the Mission, was still very much in control of everyday affairs. The Church well knows that if you get ‘em young, you have them for life, and I see that this still applies to the older generation of community members. It was certainly obvious then, a few years back, when I last visited. It annoyed me very much, and I had a long and sometimes heated (on both sides) argument with one of the Priests, who was then showing me around the Mission Museum. He did not convince me, and I certainly did not convince him. Their attitude to the people was one of total Paternalism. They were absolutely sure that the Natives could never control their own lives, and were certainly never going to try and give them any assistance in doing so. They had never been happy about the Government allowing the Community to govern itself, and their losing control, and were actively still working to white-ant that local government.
The only fuel in town was from the Church outlet, and was more expensive than was usual in an Aboriginal Community. This was purely a profit making venture. In all other Communities I have visited, the fuel outlet was Community owned, and was not there to rip off their own people, with prices commensurate.
At that time, the only store was the Community one, but I see that the Church has opened another in competition since, and using ‘free’ labour, thus being easily able to undercut the Community store. When it closes, the only avenue will be the Church store, and they will charge accordingly. Everything already costs incredibly in these isolated communities, as has come to notice in the Media recently, and fresh fruit and vegetables is always unavailable, or even if it was for one day (when the weekly barge (weather permitting) came in), it cost so much as to be something that most could not afford. I can not see how it is that the WA Government, or the Feds for that matter, can allow what is happening in Kalumburu. Out of sight, out of mind, I suppose.
How is it that the Bishop of Broome can totally ignore communications from the local Member of Parliament? Total arrogance, knowing that they have controlled Aboriginal Affairs in remote communities now for more than a hundred years (with Government consent), and have no intention of being outed. Such an arrangement in Kalumburu (and other Communities) must be very profitable to the Catholic Church, and they are and will fight tooth and nail to keep their evil gains.
Not sure what Les can do, and I was a bit surprised to see him Community Chairman. His wife Ruby was always the boss in their marriage. Also, Les is not of Kalumburu area, he is from One Arm Point, over Beagle Bay area, and does not have ‘traditional ownership’ of any land at Kalumburu. Ruby (who does!) continually reminded him of this, much to Les’ distress. But, good luck to him! This situation of lumping different skin groups into one place under Mission (Church) control was something the Governments of the day did far too much off, and has caused ongoing troubles.
Back when white settlers, cattle barons, were moving into the area, they needed free labour, slaves, to operate their massive ‘runs’ and they always generally gained them from Missions, but I have to give thanks where it is due, the Kalumburu Priests would not co-operate with the cockies, and did not easily give up ‘their’ people to them. Trouble is, they still consider them ‘their’ people, and will not let them go. Dazza.
Thanks Dazza,
Your comments on this subject are always welcomed. It’s refreshing to read a compassionate viewpoint not tainted by patronising/controlling attitudes, but with specific and local evidence.
If ranting is what you do, may I suggest to Collins that we could do with more of it. It’s a hard thing to acknowledge the fact you live on stolen land via the tool of oppression, but the sooner non-Indigenous Australia becomes aware of that, and deals with it maturely (not patronisingly), the better for everyone. As Dazza said, rather than continuing attempts to break up what culture we haven’t already destroyed, we should start learning *respectfully* what we should/can from those left to teach it. Australia is shaping up to be the developed world’s litmus for climate change, and yet we’re still working it as though we’re living on the high weald.
cheers, Derek
Thanks, Derek. Dazza.
Those concerned about the emerging middle class amongst Indigenous Australians need not fear. I can tell them from my work amongst the people of Waterloo, Redfern, Glebe and Marrickville that there are still many working poor and intergenerational welfare recipients in the black urban population.
Why this might be thought of as a good thing is beyond me. The politics are surely supposed to serve the living conditions of the oppressed, not the other way round.
This is not to say I support the political aims of Pearson or Mundine, I find them repugnant, but it must be seen as positive that the Aboriginal community can support the full range of political debate.
As for being ‘black enough’ I learned early on not to make assumptions based on skin colour, it may be that some Aboriginal people will need to do the same.
Maddison incorrectly describes legitimate Aboriginal concerns in relation to identity as some kind of internal racism, and her position as a white women explains her complete lack of grasp (not surprising). Simple fact, Aboriginal people raised by white mothers are raised in the identity and culture of their white mothers - while that may mean they have a lot in common with other white women such as the author - it can and often does mean conflict and difference with Aboriginal people who were raised within Aboriginal culture, whether city or remote. For example, the cultural attribute of individual self pursuit not typically an Aboriginal cultural value but one readily embraced within the non-Indigenous culture. Many years ago Jacki Huggins refuted the Aboriginal as simply a matter of ‘genetic cocktail’, it’s about knowing who you are as Aboriginal person, believing in your culture, despite the hype, this is not really possible for some. Some of my own Aboriginal family who were raised away from the community in white culture claim Aboriginality but the truth is their children have Aboriginal ancestry and they should be proud of it. Many Aboriginal people believe our culture comes from our mothers, akin to the Jewish culture, we have a strong sense of our mothers.