Ian Nigh's
Journey through Northern Australia's aboriginal festivals in the new millennium: Reflections on how to integrate ecological and social perspectives.

Dancers from Blue Mud Bay celebrate their recent Land Title Claim vicory at the Garma festival

Only two days after landing in Darwin, the capital of the Northern Territory, I found myself in a 4-wheel drive vehicle tearing across the Australian outback, guest to the United Nations University – Institute of Advanced Studies’ Traditional Knowledge Initiative (UNU-IAS TKI) and the North Australian Indigenous Land and Sea Management Alliance (NAILSMA). My traveling companions were Hugh Wallace-Smith, coordinator for NAILSMA’s newly formed Community Water Facilitator Network Project, Murray Radcliffe, an official of the Australian National Water Commission, and Richard Aken, director of the Balkanu Development Corporation, a Torres Straight Indigenous organization.

Our destination was Australia’s most highly profiled Indigenous festival- Garma. Garma is hosted by the Yothu Yindi Foundation and held in a remote bush location 1,800 Km east of Darwin in an area known as Arnhem Land, which is one of the world’s last undisturbed tropical savannahs, where Aboriginal people have maintained strong ties to their country, living on and defending it for at least 40,000 years. We crossed Arnhem Land in caravan with another 4-wheel drive piloted by Samara Erlandson and Lorrae McArthur, project officer and project coordinator for NAILSMA, and Melanie Durret, a Canadian based in New Zealand who is working as an independent consultant. In deference to Aboriginal custom of keeping men’s and women’s business separate, we were obliged to travel this way- the men in one vehicle and the women in another. We were also obliged to process special permits from the Aboriginal Land Council to allow us to use the roads through Arnhem land. We were joined halfway to our destination by Joe Morrison, Executive Officer of NAILSMA, and the creative and administrative driving force of the organization.

The reason behind our sojourn through Arnhem land was to attend an academic forum on “Traditional Water Management” that was co-organized by UNU-IAS TKI and NAILSMA and hosted by the Yothu Yindi Foundation at Garma. Each year the Garma Festival has a Key Forum on a subject important to Indigenous development and this year’s topic was Traditional Knowledge.

Although many other participants from around the world traveled to Garma both for the Water forum and the cultural activities, most of them flew into Gove Airport, 50 Km from the Garma site. We were some of the lucky few who got to drive 17 hours across this remarkable part of the Australian wilderness - equal to the Amazon rainforest in terms of carbon sequestering capacity- and a unique ecosystem host to a diversity of species found nowhere else on the planet.

Driving through this country with a group of experts was an enlightening experience. While driving south of Darwin across extensive mango plantations, Murray Radcliffe began telling me about the Northern Territory’s water policies which had granted unlimited usage rights to any farm with an investment of more than $200k. He explained how this has over-taxed the water tables causing water levels to drop yearly in spite of record high rainfalls. Murray proved to be a fountain of knowledge on the unique challenges to Australia’s water supply, allocation, and rights issues, especially in regards to Aboriginal populations.

As we left the more populated areas we encountered scattered Aboriginal communities with large signs by the road stating: “Warning: Prescribed Area. No Alcohol. No Pornography.” Murray informed me that this was part of the Northern Territory Intervention Program being carried out by the federal government, which is a package of new laws and policies meant to address the more serious perceived problems in Aboriginal communities, and includes policing, health programs and changes in social security. Murray suggested that the racist initiative is basically a “land grab” disguised behind stated goals of reducing crime and domestic abuse in communities.

When we drove into the town of Katherine, I saw many drunk Aboriginal people sitting in supermarket parking lots and public parks. Young parents were drinking out of brown paper-wrapped bottles purchased with welfare money. Murray explained that they were drinking in the town because they were not able to do so in their own communities. As we left these urban areas, I was struck by the similarities between Aboriginal peoples and other Indigenous groups I have come in contact with in other parts of the world who have fallen prey to addiction and violence in the face of abject poverty, especially when having to adapt to an urban setting.

As we drove on, the images of poverty and alcoholism began to disappear behind the eucalyptus forests and scrub savannah of Arnhem Land. It appeared that there was a different attitude toward management of the ecosystem here: We saw large stands of stringy bark with thick turkey bush undergrowths, pandanus and cycads growing up among magnetic termite mounds and sudden groves of white ghost eucalyptus with little creeks winding through them. Hugh began telling me of NAILSMA’s successful fire management project with Aboriginal ranger groups.

An Aboriginal elder and ranger by the fire 

The bulk of the funding for the Bush Fire Project was secured by Joe from a major aluminum mining company interested in offsetting its tremendous carbon emissions (aluminum is probably the least energy-efficient metal to produce). The project is based on the premise that managed burns at the beginning of the dry season allow the savannah to rejuvenate without killing vital trees. In the 20^th century, many grasses were introduced into the Northern Territory for pastoral use without considering the effect that they would have on the fire ecosystem. These grasses tend to grow very large and burn very hot, destroying many of the vital trees in the savannah. NAILSMA believes that managed burns helps ensure that trees, vital to carbon absorption, remain healthy.

This was the first time I was able to see a carbon trading scheme with a clearly quantifiable outcome and both Murray and Hugh were able to provide me with a detailed picture of how it worked. They both agreed, however, that there was a significant net loss between carbon tons paid for and actual amount of carbon offset happening due to lack of understanding, mismanagement of funds, changing weather patterns, etc.

As our voyage through Arnhem Land continued we crossed a creek with a large sign warning us about the presence of saltwater (estuarine) crocodiles and a fresh sea breeze greeted our approach to the Garma festival site. After a brief stop in the town of Nhulumbuy (called Gove by white fellas) we drove into the sea of tents surrounding the festival grounds.

My first impression of the Garma Festival was that it looked like a massive Rock festival being held in the Australian bush- complete with stacks of amplifiers, a huge stage, rows of stalls, and islands of washrooms and toilets among the thousands of tents. However, there were also some signs indicating that this was no ‘ordinary’ Rock festival. There was a totemic burial log standing alone in the middle of a wide sandy area before the main stage. Hung on trees in a secluded grove near the main stage were striking examples of Aboriginal art. But perhaps the most striking difference was that there was no alcohol anywhere on the site. Despite my initial impression, everybody at Garma had an air of purpose and respect about them.

The days we spent at Garma were nothing short of exceptional. The two day Forum on Traditional Knowledge and Water Management had over 20 Indigenous representatives from 7 countries in attendance. The delegates spoke with moving emotion and knowledge about important issues facing their communities and the watersheds, rivers, and oceans they rely on. The main points of the forum were synthesized and are currently being drafted into a declaration to be presented at the 5^th World Water Forum in Turkey in 2009.

An aspect of the Water Forum at the Garma Festival 

One thing that struck me about the various presentations at the Water Forum was the contrast between the strictly academic and scientific approach of some and the spiritual and cosmological rhetoric of others. The latter triggered deep emotional responses from the audience, as they developed their arguments using medicine songs, Indigenous language, stories etc. Despite the statistical evidence and carefully crafted arguments used by the former, the audience was better impressed by the latter. It seemed that, unlike the numerical and statistical information, the spiritual messages remained with us longer illuminating the Festival long after their words had faded, as such was the power contained in their speech.

In these times of intense spiritual thirst, this made me reflect on the process of human imagination and how it shapes the world around us. It seems that in Traditional Knowledge there is always consideration of the metaphysical ramifications of every issue. During the forum, Renee Gurneau, an Ojibwe woman from the Great Lakes area, said that the power of Traditional Science is based on what she calls Original Instruction. The concept of “Original Instruction” spoke to me in a particular way because it connects people’s sense of identity, their moral paradigm and spirituality with the technical business of managing environmental resources such as water. This was an “Aha!” moment for me, as I understood this to be a useful element, a crucial one even, in the work of an Integrated Eco-Social Designer: Consultation with a client group or community must go beyond an assessment of their physical needs to integrate their cosmology and Original Instruction into a design which will be applicable for them. I believe this could be a very important guideline which, unfortunately, is missing from many environmental and social projects, let alone large-scale economic development.

Although Renee was speaking about an Ojibwe concept, I realized that Australian Aboriginal society shares some of these premises in what they term “The Dreaming.” In Australian Aboriginal society, the metaphysical basis for law and culture is called The Dreaming and constitutes a vital and dynamic “ever-when” that is passed on and recreated in oral tradition across generations. It is an essential element of individual and group identity and defines the frame of reference through which they understand their universe and manage their resources. As Frank Davies, an Aboriginal Traditional Owner from The Kimberley region said at the Garma Water Forum (and this comprised his entire speech): “We believe the water is ours, because we dream the water, because we sing the water. That is all I can say about that.”

Detailed summaries and outputs from this forum can be found on the UNU-IAS TKI’s website (www.unutki.org) and NAILSMA’s website (www.nailsma.org.au) so I will not discuss the Forum outputs here. Suffice it to say that the discussion fostered in me new understandings of issues central to water management and policy which I have laid out in the mind map found in this putput.

Needless to say, I attended the forum as support staff rather than a participant and so my opinions did not shape the actual outcomes of the forum. In my capacity as observer, however, I was able to acquire the aforementioned insights into the relevance of Traditional Knowledge, with its spiritual and practical dimensions, for natural resource management.

This was my first introduction into the metaphysical realm of Australian aboriginal culture and I was very lucky to have undergone it at the Garma festival which was attended by many of Arnhem land’s premier Indigenous artists. During the days after the conclusion of the Water Forum and the official inauguration of the Garma Festival, we were privileged to see delegations of dancers from across the region perform in the sandy area around the hollow burial log. To the beat of rhythm sticks and the drone of the didgeridoo (Ydaki, in Yolgnu language), the elders from each community would sing their dreamtime stories while the men and women performed highly symbolic dance steps of different animals, elements of nature, and spiritual beings. During the day, Yolgnu elders offered workshops to Cultural tourists and participants alike in the traditional arts of spear and canoe-making for the men and basket weaving, dancing and bush medicine for the women.

One of the aspects of the Garma Festival that caught my attention was how cutting edge technology was being applied in benefit of cultural creativity. Two large tents offered workshops in music production for Indigenous youth, making use of Macintosh computers and the latest in digital recording and sound equipment. Every evening after the traditional dances the main stage would come to life with some of Australia’s best known Indigenous music bands following in the footsteps of the band Yothu Yindi (some of Yothu Yindi’s original members performed as well). The festival also featured documentary film screenings, art galleries, gourmet bush delicacy tasting and all together too many things to do all at once.

Over the course of the years, Garma has gained a certain amount of ‘political’ ground. Several mainstream Australian politicians were in attendance and meetings to discuss important political decisions were scheduled. I was able to observe several of these meetings- specifically, one addressing the issue of economic development in communities. Curiously, the government representative at this meeting was the Minister of Defense. Judging by the angry dialogue and aggressive demands of the exasperated Aboriginals, I thought perhaps the government had decided to send a tough figure to these negotiations in order to assert some kind of authority. Maybe harking back to the days when a military response was the principal means for dealing with Indigenous demands?

All in all, the Garma Festival was a unique and remarkable experience; although I was disappointed to see the very capitalistic undertones of the event. Corporate sponsorship was everywhere and catering to tourists seemed to be one of the main goals of the festivities. These capitalistic values seemed to shape the attitudes of many of the local youths who did not hesitate to beg visitors to buy them a Coke or an ice cream from one of the many vending machines that had been installed in the middle of the bush.

I was also disheartened to hear that despite the internationally recognized cultural and historical value of the site, this could be the last year the festival is held there, as Rio Tinto, the gigantic trans-national mining corporation, has plans to begin strip mining the entire area in the coming months.

KALACC

The Kimberley Aboriginal Law and Culture Celebration (KALACC) is held every two or four years in North Western Australia, one of the most unique and stunning landscapes in the Australian continent. This year, it was held in the community of Mount Barnett, on the Gibb River road, and in an area called Gaadmungungardi by the Kimerley Aboriginal communities. The KALACC Festival is structured around the Kimberley Land Council Annual General Meeting and several other local Aboriginal organizations meetings.

Like the Garma Festival, the KALACC Festival is also a place for dance and cultural exchange between Aboriginal groups; however, unlike Garma, there are no tourists at the KALACC Festival and it receives no corporate sponsorship as of yet. I was fortunate to be invited by NAILSMA staff as an observer and volunteer- my main task was to help at the NAILSMA information tent.

The drive out to the KALACC site was one of breathtaking beauty, traversing ancient inland ocean floors that are now covered in scrub dessert with dramatic ridges, gorges and cliff faces. Gigantic Boab trees were scattered across the landscape and the scenery bore the mark of harsh extremes: hot and cold, fire and water, a monsoon desert where many of the local species need annual burning in order to thrive. In contrast to the flat expanses of Arnhem Land, the Kimberley’s corrugated terrain revealed mysterious and ancient gorges, ridges and dramatic cliff faces- some decorated with the secret and sacred stories of ancient lore and culture.

Stunning Manning George near the KALACC Festival site

Although there has been some touristic development in the Kimberley region, which initially occurred without consent or inclusion of Traditional Communities, the Kimberley Land Council and the people of the Kimberley have been very diligent in securing Aboriginal Land Title Rights and “getting back to country” in an effort to reclaim some of this land.

The shocking phenomena of the “stolen generations” is now a prominent, although not very happy, part of Australian history. Millions of Aboriginal children were separated from their land and families to be put in special schools and stripped of their Indigenous culture and identity. Some groups, such as the Yolngu people of East Arnhem Land, are known for being historically more isolated as well as being able to fight for their country and to inhabit it continuously for generations. In recent years, this historical resistance carried over to important legal victories that set precedent for Aboriginal Land Title claims across Australia, ushering in a new era for Aboriginal people. Other groups, such as those inhabiting the Kimberley have not been so fortunate. Subjected to early European settlers and genocidal policies which destroyed communities, many Traditional Owners have only recently made efforts to “go back to country” and to rescue language and culture from the shattered remnants. The KALACC festival is, in essence, a step to rescue traditional language, culture, and land.

The contrast between this festival and Garma was obvious as soon as we arrived. At KALACC, all logistics were managed by Aboriginal rangers from the different communities in attendance with some support from the few white KLC members and volunteers. At Garma, the majority of those in attendance were white cultural tourists from Australia and abroad, intellectuals, and politicians. At KALACC, the majority in attendance were Aboriginals from the Kimberley region and the support staff was also Aboriginal. The atmosphere was therefore quite different. Our group of volunteers sat at the information tent set up by NAILSMA to promote their Indigenous Water Facilitator Network Project, the Bush Fire projects, and other initiatives. NAILSMA was one of the few organizations, aside from the KLC, that set up information tents and held educational workshops and so we were greeted respectfully by Aboriginal families as ambassadors and visitors to their land.

Because of the relatively small size (500-600 people) and intention of the festival, I was able to see the political dynamic much more clearly than at Garma where there seemed to be a great number of things happening behind closed doors. At KALACC I was able to observe the KLC’s annual meeting during a session where the chairperson and board members were standing for re-election. I was also able to visit different camps where Aboriginal political actors discussed their priorities and strategies as they chatted around a camp fire cooking sausages. Unlike Garma, this festival did not receive much media coverage nor was in attended by prominent celebrities, musicians or politicians. There were no image promoting photo opportunities or social meet-and-greets. The nightly dances were performed for the benefit of the elders and youth in what seemed to me a very authentic cultural exchange between the different communities in the Kimberley. The few white folks who attended were almost all deeply involved with Indigenous people and politics and often had been adopted by local families, given totemic “skin names” and placed into the complex social web of Aboriginal groups.

Festival participants learining how to make a trditional dugout canoe

There was one important political visitor to KALACC and her arrival was a deeply emotional event for the people there. It had originally been announced that an opposition Minister of the State Parliament was to visit during one of the KLC meetings. During his campaign, this minister had paid great lip service to Aboriginal issues and had visited some Kimberley communities promising political voice, development, and cultural recognition. With the proposed creation of a major gas exploration project in the area (which legally could not proceed without the prior informed consent of the Traditional Owners) the time was ripe for another visit to the communities.

At the scheduled time for the visit, a shiny new 4x4 pulled up to the meeting tent but instead of the Minister, his Parliamentary Secretary stepped out and walked into the meeting place tent with her assistant by her side. After apologizing on behalf of the Minister, she went on to exalt the virtues of the community and reaffirm the Parliament’s commitment to their well-being. She did not really get a chance to promote her specific agenda, however, as she was delivered an official statement, called the Mt. Barnett statement, which had been hastily written up the night before by some of the Aboriginal political leaders. The Aboriginal elders decided that this document would first be read out loud to her and then she would answer any questions. During the question and answer time, it became clear that many of the local people did not feel that the government (or their representative) were sincere in their commitment. Person after person asked for the microphone to point out the hardships and disempowerment endured by Aboriginal communities. The Parliamentary Secretary at first tried to address each specific complaint, but was soon subdued into simply replying, “Yes, I hear what you are saying.”

During the exchange, Joe Ross, one of the more savvy Aboriginal political players from the Kimberley delivered a very emotive and powerful speech appealing to “the human spirit of the nation” as a means to address the serious grievances which still plague Indigenous people in Australia. He instructed the parliamentary representative to take the important document back with her and show it to other politicians, as it contained specific requests and alluded to services and political voice which has been denied to Aboriginal peoples despite endless promises and speeches about “closing the gap” between white and black Australia. Their demand was for political engagement at the policy-making levels of government.

This key point struck me as the defining factor of the political movement I was witnessing in Northern Australia. I was reminded of the political struggle of Indigenous people in my own native state of Chiapas: The Zapatistas. There, autonomy and self-governance are the ideals to be pursued. Mainstream governmental policy is rejected as being the product of a corrupt and unjust system; therefore, fundamentally racist and unacceptable. The Zapatista movement seeks to actually build alternative forms of governance without any engagement whatsoever with the status quo political establishment, elected officials, or representatives. I thought a lot about the implications of this fundamental difference in political perspective. Perhaps Mexico and Central America’s rich history of social organization and resistance result in a much clearer political position. Or perhaps Indigenous Mexicans simply have more to bargain with. Either way, it was clear to me that this political difference would be a crucial factor in designing a sustainable future in either region.

Essentially, both the Aboriginal people of Australia and the Mayan people of Mexico and Central America suffer from the same sort of historical disenfranchisement. The political frame of reference, however, seems vastly different in both regions. Whereas The Zapatista movement recognizes its origins in Marxist analysis as well as Liberation Theology, Aboriginal political organizations seem mainly concerned with access to capitalist markets mainstream political participation.

Conclusions

Probably the most useful lesson I learned on this journey was the importance of maintaining flexibility of judgment when working with Indigenous communities. Whether it be on a specific project or on long-term development plans, it is crucial to understand that a peoples’ right to self determination is a basic prerequisite for breaking out of vicious cycles of oppression, paternalism and racist practices. I also came to realize that without good information, education and awareness of key issues, this process can be rendered useless.

One example of this was brought up during the Water Forum at Garma. One community was in negotiations with a mining company interested in strip-mining their country. The fact that the mining company would proceed with the mine was not being questioned; but rather, the discussion seemed to center on what would be the most appropriate way to manage the devastated landscape after the company had stripped the minerals they were interested in and moved on. One Indigenous intellectual felt very strongly that environmental experts should be kept out of the regeneration process because they would not necessarily have the Traditional Owner’s best interest in mind but would rather be interested in returning native species to the area and re-growing the previous habitat. The Traditional Owners were interested in creating an African mahogany plantation on the site. Trying not to be judgmental about what I thought would be the best option, I did a little investigative research myself. Since the Aboriginal inhabitants of the region were not interested in returning to an ancient hunter-gatherer economy, the prospect of returning the region to its former ecology was unappealing. On the other hand, communities who had already tried exploiting African mahogany in Northern Australia had found that this species did not root deeply in there perhaps because the nutrients in the soil were much more superficial making them vulnerable to cyclone winds which are common during monsoon months in this part of the world.

So although the Traditional Owners arguably had the right to lease their lands out to a mining company and then create mahogany plantations on the disturbed areas, this was probably a recipe for an ecological and economic disaster that could potentially destroy the community.

The solution is not simple, of course, but engaging with these communities in a respectful way, while ensuring they have access to appropriate information is a crucial step in achieving a sustainable and just development. Marginalization and disenfranchisement everywhere create dependency and conditions that have too often been used to strip people of their resources, their rights and their dignity. Need and hunger are not the best advisors. I believe Permaculture and Integrative Eco Social Design can bring positive outcomes in these kinds of communities and that they, in turn, offer a special opportunity to truly design ecological and social solutions which are integrated. Also, by valuing Aboriginal Dreamtime stories, Original Instruction, and the very vast metaphysical dimensions that formerly shaped every aspect of Indigenous Peoples’ lives, I believe the appropriate balance can be found. This is the profound value of Traditional Knowledge- contained in stories and songs, is an ancient code for resource management that, if we could but remember and understand, could offer solutions for many of our current ecological and social challenges.

Hopefully next year, I will have the opportunity to work with an urban Aboriginal community and put some of these lessons learned to the test.