Unsettling sustainability: Ngarrindjeri political literacies, strategies of engagement and transformation

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Acknowledgements We would like to thank the organizers of the CSAA annual conference 'Sustaining Culture' held at the University of South Australia for their invitation to speak and for the opportunity to publish our paper. We would like to thank Tom Trevorrow, chair of the Ngarrindjeri Heritage Committee, Matt Rigney, chair of the Ngarrindjeri Native Title Management Committee and the Murray Lower Darling Rivers Indigenous Nations and George Trevorrow, Rupelli (head) of the Ngarrindjeri Tendi (traditional governing body) and interim chair of the Ngarrindjeri Regional Authority for their support and recognize their energy, commitment and intellectual leadership in the development of visions and strategies for the Ngarrindjeri nation. We would also like to recognize all other Ngarrindjeri people who have contributed to community development and planning, particularly members of the Ngarrindjeri Natural Resource Management working party, the Ngarrindjeri Governance working party, the Ngarrindjeri Regional Authority and its member organizations, and those who contributed to the Ngarrindjeri women's workshops on governance, caring for country and economic development (facilitated by Diane Bell, Ellen Trevorrow and Annie Vanderwyk). Friends and colleagues such as Diane Bell, Shaun Berg, Chris Wilson, Gus Worby, Bill Thorpe, Graham Hingangaroa Smith, Linda Tuhiwai Smith, John Barkley, Alan Parker, Jaret and Raymond Cardinal, Aroha Mead, Robert Hattam, Simone Ulalka Tur, Lynley Wallis, Ali and Jenny Baker, Tracey Bunda, Lester-Irabinna Rigney, Dave Sjoberg, Dermot Smyth, Meryl Pearce, Claire Smith and Martin Wobst have been directly part of this process or provided moral, intellectual and community-based support in other ways. We would like to thank Jim Birckhead and Romy Griener for their work with us on the Ngarrindjeri CSIRO Water-For-A-Healthy-Country Flagship Project. We would also like to acknowledge support from the Flinders Small Grants scheme and the Federal Department of Environment and Heritage, National Indigenous Heritage Program for funding aspects of the research. We would also like to thank our partners and families for supporting us, given the time we commit to community projects. Finally, we would like to thank the reviewers of this paper for their helpful comments. Notes 1. This paper was presented as a Keynote address to 'Sustaining Culture', the Cultural Studies Association of Australasia (CSAA) annual conference 2007, City West Campus, University of South Australia, 6–8 December 2007. 2. We use Indigenous nation or First Nation in preference to terms such as group, community or tribe. This is the preferred term of the Ngarrindjeri leadership. 3. As at August 2008 the number of signatory nations to the United League of Indigenous Nations Treaty stands at almost 50. 4. We use the phrase 'resource and land poor' to emphasize the difference between Australia's south-east and more 'remote' areas where the catch cry has been 'land rich and resource poor' (see Morrison Citation2007). 5. The South Australian and Australian governments signed the historic Ngarrindjeri Regional Partnership Agreement with the Ngarrindjeri Regional Authority Inc. in July 2008. 6. See Tim Rowse (Citation2007) for a discussion of Indigenous jurisdiction. 7. Ngarrindjeri such as David Unaipon or Ngunaitponi, Edward Kropinyeri, Milerum or Clarence Long, Albert Karloan Ponggi, Margaret Pinkie Mack, Annie Rankine or Auntie Foffon and Aileen Wilson. We named these 'Old People', but we recognized the Ngarrindjeri protocol of respect when naming those who have passed in public. We recognized the contributions, in more recent times, of leaders such as Leila Rankine (deceased), Henry Rankine, Dr Doreen Kartinyeri (deceased), Tom Trevorrow, Matthew Rigney, George Trevorrow, Victor Wilson, Vi Dueschle, Richard Hunter (deceased) and Derek Walker. Many of these elders were accused of being cultural fabricators in the Hindmarsh Island Bridge Royal Commission (see Stevens Citation1995). We drew attention to the work of poet Robert Walker (Citation1981), and artists Ian Abdulla, Bluey Roberts, Ellen Trevorrow, Yvonne Koolmatrie, and Kerry Kurwingie Giles (see Kleinert and Neale Citation2000). 8. We use the term systematic colonization in recognition of the continuities of colonialism in South Australia and the original project as set out by Edward Gibbon Wakefield and other 'founding fathers' (see Garnett Citation1898). 9. This is a particularly poignant issue for Indigenous leaders with a commitment to education and social justice such as the Ngarrindjeri leadership group. Camp Coorong Race Relations and Cultural Education Centre is an ongoing Ngarrindjeri site of reconciliation and education (see Bell Citation2008). Recently, the Trevorrow family supported a decade-long, landmark legal case for justice for their brother Bruce Trevorrow (recently deceased) – one of the 'Stolen Generations' (see Trevorrow v. State of South Australia Citation2008) 10. The Royal Commission relied on narrow interpretations of anthropologists Ronald and Catherine Berndt's reconstructive ethnography, with the revealing title A World That Was (Berndt, Berndt, and Stanton Citation1993). 11. Graham Jenkin gave evidence in a later federal court case where he fundamentally shifted his traditionalist construction of the Ngarrindjeri people as culturally extinct by the 1970s (see Von Doussa Citation2001). 12. See Chowilla Floodplain and Lindsay-Wallpolla Islands Significant Environmental Management Plan (MDBC 2006a). I was working with the regional Indigenous advisory group, the Indigenous consultancy group Ngopmaldi Inc. and the Indigenous Partnerships Project on this project. 13. The First Peoples of the River Murray and Mallee native title claim (SC98/03). 14. In 2006 Steve Hemming worked with Ngarrindjeri leaders to develop an application to the new federal Indigenous Heritage Program. The project co-ordinated Ngarrindjeri planning and research around caring for country and brought Flinders University researchers such as Daryle Rigney, Lynley Wallis and Christopher Wilson into the project. The need to manage the growing interconnection between cultural heritage and natural resource management was a focus of the project. Outcomes included Ngarrindjeri leadership and Flinders University input in the Ngarrindjeri Yarluwar-Ruwe Plan and the Ngarrindjeri Regional Partnership Agreement. Successful funding applications have been developed over three successive financial years. 15. See Australia Research Council (ARC) Linkage Grants (http://www.arc.gov.au/ncgp/lp/lp_default.htm). 16. Steve Hemming worked as a researcher with the Ngarrindjeri Ramsar Working Group to assist in the development of this document. The Coorong and Lakes Alexandrina and Albert were listed as a wetland of international significance under the international RAMSAR treaty protecting the habitats of migratory birds. 17. The Ngarrindjeri Governance Working Party was established in early 2006 at a Ngarrindjeri community meeting. It was directed to develop a plan for Ngarrindjeri regional governance. This led to the establishment of the Ngarrindjeri Regional Authority Inc. (NRA) in April 2007. The authors of this paper both played major roles on this working party and the co-ordination of the development of the NRA with other research projects such as the development of the Yarluwar-Ruwe Plan.