Establishing and maintaining the integrity of the tribe.

Background

The cause of our confusion over tribal identity, boundaries, lore and protocols to move forward together as neighbours is colonisation. In the ten generations since the arrival of James Cook to this continent a series of catastrophes have occurred:

·        Loss of land

·        Loss of capacity to hunt and provide

·        Loss of access to sacred sites

·        Loss of family through massacres and murder and disease

·        Creation of mission prisons

·        Compulsory bans on language and cultural practices

·        Imposition of foreign religion and putting down of traditional spirituality

·        Deliberately breaking up families

·        Stealing children

·        Introduction of alcohol, drugs and damaging diets

·        Distortion of truthful history of the invasion and occupation of the continent

·        Resistance to reparations of land stolen and wages stolen

The ongoing result of this is intergenerational trauma. We experience it, they ignore it.

Consequences of this trauma include:

·        A sense of guilt by mainstream about what was done to us and a strategy to downplay or deny it

·        Being seen by mainstream as the lowest of the low in society -sometimes paternalistic, sometimes patronising, frequently dismissive of the situation we have been forced into

·        creating within us, a deep gap in knowing who we really are, our core identity

·        a deep sense of loss of our culture and self esteem

·        a lack of confidence and low expectation of what can be achieved in life 

·        a dependence on handouts as little other choices are available to most of us

·         who live on

Current policies and practices of the government suggest this is unlikely to change. There is a:

·        Reluctance to effectively deal with the social determinants which maintain our trauma e.g. deaths in custody; poor housing, poor infrastructure in created communities, inappropriate education systems, false historical record, feeble attempts to create jobs and wealth in artificially created communities (previously government or church run mission/prisons)

·        Introduction of Native title processes designed to divide First Nations Australia. This has been very successful in getting First Nations people fighting each other right across the continent at the most damaging level imaginable, our core identity.

The Way Forward

The first principle to reclaim our identity is for us to own the process.

Currently, we are using a system entirely created and maintained by mainstream. Features of this system include:

·        The concept of tribe – we have been forced into tribal groups that do not reflect our pre-colonial status

·        The naming and designating of the tribes-The Tinsdale Map of languages specifically says it should not be used to determine tribal boundaries, although it gives them and these boundaries are the most used  by everyone.

·        Some groups do not get onto the map at all

·        Some groups have been given tribal status but are seen locally as clans

·        Some groups have been put together and declared nations

·        The boundaries have all been drawn up by mainstream

·        Arguments against these boundaries have virtually no effect to date

·        For native title claims, to be eligible for inclusion, each person must be allocated to a core family. The ultimate decision maker for this is a white person (anthropologist).

·        First Nations people fight over inclusion and spend a huge amount of time denying the claims of others rather than finding lost claimants

·        When denying the identity of others, they are using the mainstream definitions of tribes, tribal boundaries and core families

·        Stolen Identity First Nations people (people who were cut off from family, clan and country in the early waves of invasion during the first 100 years) have little chance to prove connection to country because of accidental and mainly deliberate strategies to hide or deny Aboriginality for the sake of survival.

·        In the second hundred years Stolen Identity First Nations people are called Stolen Generations First Nations people and they have exactly the same problem. Taking children is a practice that is thriving today with a greater percentage of First Nations children being taken off their parents than ever before.

The second principle is we establish our own principles for determining identity,  boundaries and belonging:

·        This is primarily a job for men to protect the integrity of the tribe (it has the right energy)

·        Existing tribal groups are sovereign entities and have the right to make decisions over their own identity

·        Tribal identity is best done in the context of regions. We sit down together and sort out the issues.

·        We design and align with our own dispute resolution process

·        We leave the decision of who represents each tribe to the tribes but encourage an inclusive approach (actively seeking to identify all tribal members) in selecting representatives. Once agreed, these decisions are the ones used by all tribes in all matters relating to the region.

·        We discuss the impact of colonisation on patriarchal and matriarchal lineage, where people are born, traditional relationships and the validity of these relationships now

·        The impact of these and other issues of multiple tribal identities  and share apical ancestors

The third principle is the timeframe these decisions cover is millennial

This means long terms decisions for the future

reviewing tribal identity and boundaries has been a constant process for First Nations people on this continent as tribal groups spread across the landscape

The last ice age was a significant event in which massive redefinitions of boundaries was required as the waters rose and people’s land was lost

The fourth principle is we work with our old people, our ancestors across all lands being considered receiving guidance on what is fair and suitable for all parties involved

The fifth principle is we establish a list of key protocols for assessing identity

·        The Importance of Language

·        The importance of totems and shared spiritual beliefs

·        The importance of skin groups, moieties and traditional intertribal relationships

·        The importance of shared initiations and other ceremonies

·        The clarification of meetings, meeting grounds, fighting grounds, gathering grounds

·        The importance of traditional ways of defining boundaries

·        The importance of Storylines, shared storylines, dreaming stories, shared dreaming stories, dance and shared dances

·        The importance of how preciously insignificant places from a pre-colonial view have become very important in a post colonial view because there are towns, identified resources and potential resources which will benefit identified Traditional Owners

·        The issue of pan-tribal or an Aboriginal nation identity e.g. mountain people, people of the snow, south east regional people ,  

·        The revisiting of core families, who they are , how they were identified, who is being included, who is excluded, the accuracy of the information

Core family 1

Fist contact information

 First photograph

 Birth certificates

 Baptism certificates

 Marriage certificates

 Death certificates

 Trove, newspaper reports

 Colonial reports

 Stories with one verifiable mainstream source

 Stories with two verifiable mainstream sources

 Stories with one verifiable Aboriginal source

 Stories with two  verifiable Aboriginal sources

 Contradictions in stories

Assessing their strengths

 Core Family 2 -repeat process