Connecting with Indigeneity

 

by Sylvie Shaw

Travelling to Arnhem Land was an adventure in learning and change.I met a group of Yolngu women who changed the direction of my life and taught me things I felt I should have known since I was a child. To them I am eternally grateful for showing me 'both ways'.

Both ways is reflective of a two way approach to education developed by the Yolngu women in NE Arnhem Land, notably by someone who was central to my knowledge of Aboriginal lifeways and understandings, Raymattja Marika. Along with a group of inspirational women, she gave me a way of seeing which has become central to my understanding of things relationally.

Sitting on the Yirrkala beach she told me about the significant metaphor of ganma, an expression grounded in the interflow and exchange of two waters, salt and fresh which merge and swirl in the confluence of the intertidal zone. In recent times, this ancient metaphor has come to be used in discussions on both ways education, a bicultural and bilingual approach to teaching where Yolngu (Aboriginal) and Western ways of leaning and knowing are brought together.

The metaphor reflects the confluence of the coming together of two peoples, two knowledges, two lifeways and is cited in the glorious book (and now online site), Singing the land, signing the land by Helen Watson, the Yolngu community at Yirrkala, and David Wade Chambers.

Taken from the text, ganma refers to the place:
'where a river of water from the sea (Western knowledge) and a river of water from the land (Yolngu knowledge) engulf each other on flowing into a common lagoon and becoming one. In coming together, the Streams of water mix at the interface of the two currents, creating foam at the surface, so that the process of ganma is marked by lines of foam.'

It was this knowledge and the lesson on the beach that led to profound change and personal exploration. Having worked in the media for many years, I had taken on (hegemonically? or through ignorance?) the stereotype of life in community and was unaware that the stereotype and the representation of First Nations people was a misrepresentation. It showed nothing of the things I learned and continue to learn about Traditional Owner culture and relationships.

To extrapolate this into the wider community, the way Indigenous people are presented in the media can be, as the TV shows Living Black and Message Stick demonstrate, a form of 'resistance identity'. This concept is defined by Manuel Castells (1997:8) as aspects of communal identities 'generated by those actors that are in position/ conditions devalued and/or stigmatized by the logic of domination, thus building trenches of resisistance and survival on the basis of principles different from or opposed to those permeating the institutions of society.'

In Castells' terms, resistance identity emerges as a counter to 'legitimizing identity', those institutions such as the state, political parties, the church, and/or mainstream media, all which represent power, privilege, and in Australia, whiteness. These issues merge when considering how the media frames First Nations' people, in many cases in ways that deny them visibility, 'agency and governance' (Marika et al 2009: 404).

Behind these processes are the western conceptualisations of linear thinking, hierarchical decision making and cartesian dualism. Mainline media constructions of Aboriginal peoples become almost rigid and timelss transpostions of 'them' and 'us' - where images and imaginations reflect an institutionalized system of built-in racism. In contrast, Traditional Owners, over many years, have established and grown a network of community media organisations across the country, and as well, the stations SBS and the ABC have incorporated Aboriginal programs in their weekly radio and TV rundowns.

In 1991, the federal government undertook a significant report, Report of the National Inquiry into Racist Violence by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (1991), which noted 'there was ample evidence of discriminatory reporting and racial stereotyping.' In particular it was argued that such representations 'legitimise coercive and violent measures against Aboriginal people.’

Similarly, Marcia Langton, in her landmark report, 'Well, I heard it on the radio and I saw it on the television…' (1993), outlines the issue is not only one of racial discrimination, but 'the need to develop a body of knowledge on representation of Aboriginal people and their concerns in art, film, television and other media and a critical perspective to do with aesthetics and politics, drawing from Aboriginal world views, from Western traditions and from history.' Almost twenty years later her observation is still acute despite the inroads First Nations peoples have made in developing their own media products.

Questions
- How are Indigenous people largely represented in mainline media, e.g. news programs?
- What difference do shows like Message Stick and Living Black make?
- Discuss your view of any Aboriginal film you may have seen, e.g. Warwick Thornton's masterful Samson and Delilah.
- Discuss the difference in the Ramingining communityTen Canoes where Yolngu and Ngapaki (non-Indigenous people) have worked together to create the story and representation.

References
Castells M. 1997. The power of identity. The information age: economy, society and culture Vol. II. Cambridge, MA & Oxford, Blackwell.
Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission. 1991. Report of the National Inquiry into Racist Violence by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, http://www.multiculturalaustralia.edu.au/doc/racediscrimcomm_2.pdf
Langton M. 1993. Well, I heard it on the radio and I saw it on the television…" An Essay for the Australian Film and Television Commission on the politics and aesthetics of filmmaking by and about Aboriginal persons and things. Australian Film Commission, Sydney.

Marika R., Y. Yunupingu, R. Mununggiritj, S Muller. 2009. Leaching the poison – The importance of process and partnership in working with Yolngu.

Journal of Rural Studies 25(4): 404-413.
Watson H, the Yolngu community at Yirrkala, and DW Chambers, 2008 online [1989, 1993] Singing the land, signing the land. Originally published by Deakin University Press, Geelong Vic.