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It’s about people

September 3, 2012

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This is my first post in a while- I have been neglecting my blog in favour of finishing my thesis (which I submitted at the beginning of July) and having some post-thesis rest. This post is a contribution to what will be a long stream of posts about my thesis, research and field work. Naturally, I am going to start with what was most important to me throughout my Honours degree: people. The graffiti and the practical archaeology field work and research skills were important yes, but the relationships I formed with members of the Jawoyn community mean far more to me than anything else I experienced during my Honours year. The dedication, acknowledgements, prologue and epilogue of my thesis, which I have posted below, highlight these relationships perfectly.

The reason for my sudden motivation with my blog, and the reason why I want to talk about the relationships I have formed in Jawoyn communities is because less than a fortnight ago, a senior traditional owner from Jawoyn country passed away. I will refer to this lady by her skin name, Gamung; in the kinship system, she called me son. I am both upset and shocked by the sudden  passing of such a great and determined lady, my mum. Gamung was only 43 and this is a devastating loss to those that knew her and the entire Jawoyn community.

Stronger Futures

A major event in Northern Territory politics occurred during my last week of writing. The Northern Territory National Emergency Response Act 2007 (which is one of the focusses of my research) was extended by ten years through the Stronger Futures in the Northern Territory Act 2012. I wrote the dedication of my thesis to reflect this:

I submitted this thesis a few days after the Stronger Futures in the Northern Territory Bill 2012 was debated by the Australian Senate. This bill passed with bipartisan support. The new legislation extends the Federal Government’s Northern Territory National Emergency Response Act 2007 for a further ten years. Some of the measures will continue to stigmatise Indigenous cultures and undermine Indigenous rights to self-determination. The reconciliation of Indigenous and non- Indigenous Australians requires that basic human rights be restored in the Northern Territory.

I dedicate this thesis to the people of Jawoyn country, past, present and future.

Acknowledgements

I have worked closely with people from Jawoyn communities throughout my Honours year, such as Gamung, Margaret Katherine and Rachael Willika (and family). At times, I have found their experiences in the face of government sanctioned racism distressing and difficult to comprehend. However, their perseverance and determination to achieve social justice, independence and survival of their culture has been the inspiration and motivation behind this thesis. I am eternally grateful for the relationships I have formed throughout this research and thank every member of Jawoyn communities for hosting me. There was once a time where my education was nothing more to me than a series of stepping-stones to a career; this research and these people have helped me understand that there are more practical uses for my education. The moment you understand that Indigenous archaeology is about people, rather than ‘things’, is the moment you understand Indigenous archaeology.

“You can come back here, that’s alright”

I visited Jawoyn country for the first time in July 2010. During this visit, I sought permission from Gidjan (owner) of Jawoyn country, Gamung, to return the following year and research contemporary graffiti in and around the Barunga, Beswick and Manyallaluk communities. Gamung was very welcoming. She said, “Yes Jordan, you can come back here, that’s alright. You can look at that graffiti”.
Next, I needed to seek permission from that Old Kotjok, Junggayi (custodian) of Jawoyn country. I refer to this man by his ‘skin-name’, Kotjok, rather than his Christian name out of respect as he passed away at the end of 2011. I visited Kotjok at the Beswick nursing home with Claire and Gary.
Kotjok was very frail and lying in a bed with his wife, Glen. The old men and women spoke for a while and reminisced about the past. The strong love, admiration and respect between these four was obvious: “I’ve travelled the world with this man”, Claire announced to me with her arm around Kotjok’s shoulder. Claire explained to Kotjok in the local Kriol that I wanted to research Jawoyn graffiti. Kotjok accepted me and told me my skin-name, ‘Bulain’. This situated me in the Jawoyn kinship system and determined how I communicate with different members of the Jawoyn community. This was the only time I met Kotjok. He was too ill to take visitors upon my return the following July. He passed away in November.

Sociality in Science

From my first trip to Jawoyn country in July 2010 to today in 2012, my role as a student archaeologist has gone above and beyond what one would normally expect. Rachael Willika, three of her children and three of her grandchildren (pictured below) moved to Adelaide from Jawoyn country at the beginning of 2011. I see this family almost every day and I look upon them as my own family and mentors. I see the relationship I have with this family in similar ways to my biological family and I forget, sometimes, that they are not blood related.
The relationship that we share is mutually beneficial as they help me navigate social and cultural taboos in Indigenous culture and I help them with the transition to a city lifestyle. The younger children call me ‘Jordan-Bordan’ and love nothing more than using me as a ladder.
I remember witnessing the dynamics of the relationship between Claire, Jacko, Kotjok and Glen during my first visit to Jawoyn country. It is only now after spending a majority of my time with the Willika family that I understand the relationship between the older researchers and the community Elders. These relationships and these children are more important to me than any university degree or material artefact.

The Willika family and me at the St Kilda vs. Adelaide AFL match. St Kilda lost :(

Convenient Canvasses: an archaeology of social identity and contemporary graffiti in Jawoyn country, Northern Territory, Australia

April 8, 2012

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I keep meaning to post about my research, but because I’m desperately trying to finish writing my thesis, I find that I feel guilty whenever I dedicate any time to non-thesis related things. In the meantime, here is my current abstract for my honours thesis:

This collaborative project with members of three Jawoyn communities involves research into the contemporary graffiti of the Barunga, Beswick and Manyallaluk Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory, Australia. The data for this study consists of contemporary graffiti recorded at corridor and aggregation sites directly outside of the focus communities as well as ethnographies of people living in these communities. Contemporary graffiti was recorded on 276 government-authored and community-authored road signs along the corridors, the Central Arnhem Road and Manyallaluk Road as well as the four aggregation sites, the Barunga, Beswick, Manyallaluk and Jawoyn meeting shelters, which featured a high-density of contemporary graffiti. These aggregation sites, and indeed some of the road signs, have a direct relationship with governmental policy such as the Liquor Act 1975 and the Northern Territory National Emergency Response Act 2007 and while the main purpose of the meeting shelters is to provide an area close to the communities where the consumption of liquor is legal, this is not the only activity that takes place here; the ethnographies state that these shelters are areas where community members can go to connect with kin and country. While these shelters are made from iron, they are reminiscent of ancient landscape-marking rock shelters due to the abundance of motifs associated with the sites. The focus of this archaeological study into cross-cultural exchange in contemporary Aboriginal Australia is to explore the role that governmental policy and social strategy have played in contemporary expressions of social identity, with a focus on intra-group versus inter-group messaging in place-marking and mark-making practices. The statistical analysis of contemporary graffiti from Jawoyn country shows that graffiti plays the intra-group purpose of communication between community members rather than the inter-group purpose of propagating political and social commentary. This study demonstrates that the purpose of graffiti as it is practiced in Jawoyn country is more closely aligned to an ongoing cultural tradition of ‘rock-art’ production and landscape-marking than it is to the contemporary graffiti expressions often found in urban settings. These results demonstrate the strength of cultural continuity in Jawoyn country, even during a period of major government intervention.

Jordan

Gunbalanya Repatriation

December 21, 2011

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This post discusses part of the Barunga, NT Rock Art Field School, with a focus on one of the more significant social and political events that occurred in 2011. I was a volunteer demonstrator on this field school because it was taking place in the area that I am conducting my research and I was due to begin my data collection. The participants of the field school were due to depart Darwin on Tuesday 19th July 2011, for Barunga but like all fieldwork, this changed…

Sally May (ANU) phoned Claire Smith on the Sunday before our departure to say the human remains that had recently been repatriated by the Smithsonian Institute (USA) as well as some Australian museums were being reburied in a ceremony at the community from which they were stolen. The largest collection of remains was taken from the Gunbalanya (Oenpelli) region of Arnhem Land as part of the Northern Australian Expedition led by Charles Mountford. Since then, the remains have resided at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington. Other remains from this area that have resided in Australian museums, such as the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, had also been returned.

Our detour from Darwin. Darwin - Gunbalanya - Barunga

Our detour from Darwin. Darwin – Gunbalanya – Barunga

Orchestrating the return of these remains was a long process involving many consultations between the Gunbalanya community and the museums. Ultimately, the hard work of Traditional Owners and community members paid off and the remains were returned to country.

The reburial ceremony was due to take place mid-afternoon on Tuesday and we decided that this was an event not to be missed; unfortunately, repatriation of human and cultural remains does not happen very often. In order to be on time to the cermony we had to leave Monday, which posed a problem, as some people were not arriving in Darwin until 2am Tuesday!

Flinders rock art field school crew

I left Darwin on Monday morning (with fellow students, Bianca, Nessa and Yolanda), following Sally and Ele in our rental four-wheel-drives. We arrived at Gunbalanya at about four in the afternoon; the rest of the Flinders cohort was to follow as they flew into Darwin. The second convoy (Mick, Ebbsy, Beckie, Jarrad and Tegan) arrived at about eleven pm. We were sharing a run-down, asbestos-riddled house of the like that are all too common in Aboriginal communities. The final convoy (Claire, Jacko, Michael, Zidian, Andrew, Britt, Lauren, Tom, Antoinette and Rebecca) arrived at about six am Tuesday morning.

While those that had little to no sleep slept, the rest of us helped organise the post-ceremony celebrations. The Art Centre capitalised on the large number of willing volunteers, and roped a few of the Flinders crew into helping with stock-take. What a great introduction to the necessity of flexibility on fieldwork!

The Flinders staff and students played a proactive role in the organisation and running of the events of the day; Mick, Michael and I acted as photographers for the community and visually documented the procession and ceremony. The rest of the group acted as de facto caterers for the community at the celebratory BBQ.

Cooking buffalo steaks for the celebrations

While this is a positive event, the remains should never have been stolen, especially under the guise of ‘research’. I use the word ‘stolen’ and acknowledge that some may disagree with this, however, I am not a fan of beating around the bush; this is what happened, it is the way the community feels and it is the way I feel. As Traditional Owner of the region, Jacob, says in the ABC footage, “stealing is no bloody good”. It is very important to acknowledge the wrongdoings of past researchers, however righteous they believed their actions to be, so that we can continue to learn and improve our approaches to culturally sensitive materials and issues. It is an indication of the strength of the current Australian archaeological and anthropological disciplines that most contemporary research is carried out professionally and ethically.

I will not describe the official events of the day because it is something that is better seen than read.

Instead, visit these links to the ABC news reports:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-07-25/celebrated-homecoming/2809308

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-07-20/20110720bones/2802414

Official procession to the burial grounds

There is no doubt this is one of the more important social and political events that occurred in 2011; it deserved much more media coverage than it received.

Jordan Ralph

This post originally featured  on my personal blog @ jordsralph.com

All views are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the organisations, institutions or individuals mentioned within.

Update

December 15, 2011

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I intended on posting to this blog most weeks, however this year I have been flat out!

July was a particularly busy month for me and my research. The first half of the month saw me volunteer as a demonstrator on the Ethnoarchaeology in Indigenous Australia Field School. Following the Field School I helped Michael Diplock and Kellie Pollard run workshops with the Larrakia Women Rangers, demonstrating archaeological methods and ways to identify and record artefacts and sites. Perhaps if I get a chance over the Christmas holidays I’ll write a bit more about those experiences…

My next blog post will be about the Gunbalanya repatriation!

Jordan

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