Kinship with country : acts of translation in the cross-cultural performance space : a case study on the Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Lands of Central Australia
Abstract
Two maps of country represent the one continent: Australia, its lands and its
peoples. One is an Indigenous map of a continent linked by the Songlines of the
Western Desert Peoples' Creation Ancestors under Anangu Law. The other is a
Western map of a continent divided by the state borders of colonial ancestors
under British Law. This research project was generated from the philosophical
statement of Nganyinytja, a senior Pitjantjatjara elder of Anangu Law, who
said:
Reconciliation means bringing two cultures together, mar.u munu
pir.anpa tjunguringanyi, black and white coming together. The two
laws need to become one to care for the land.
(Nganyinytja 1993:23)
This thesis explores the difficulties and possibilities inherent in attempts to
reconcile these two cultures of knowledge and their relationship to land in
Australia today. The study examines in some detail the potential for the
convergence of Western and Indigenous perceptions and values of cultural and
natural resource management (CNRM) in the practice of tourism on Anangu
Pitjantjatjara (AP) Lands of Central Australia. The central question for the
thesis is whether Indigenous knowledge of the complex interrelationships of
kinship between nature and culture can be translated across the borders of
languages, cultures and disciplines so as to be understood in the Western
knowledge culture.
The methodology is derived from a bi-cultural research model, developed by
the Ngaanyatjarra, Yankunytjatjara and Pitjantjatjara Women's Council, that
integrates Anangu method into the framework of Western action research. The
field research conforms to the protocols and accountability requirements set for
Western researchers by Indigenous academics and traditional elders. In the results section the evidence analysed is my own and others' records of the
Indigenous and Western cross-cultural exchange in the context of Desert Tracks
tours on the AP Lands from 1988 to 2005. These records include diaries, visitor
book entries, letters and email correspondence, tour brochures, research field
notes and interviews with Anangu and visitors recorded in print, on
audiocassette and film over these years. The research has also been guided by
the formal ethics requirements of the Australian National University. The findings
are that, while recognition of Indigenous cultural landscapes in
Australian land management is not new, the integration of this holistic
conceptual approach into Western knowledge is proving problematic in both
theoretical and practical arenas. This can be partly attributed to the ontological
divide of culture and nature, spirit and matter in the Western intellectual
tradition and partly to the problems of conceptual translation of knowledge
across the gaps of language and cultural difference. Within the performance
space of Desert Tracks on the Piljanljatjara Lands this gap of understanding had
to be bridged to develop a successful Indigenous and Western co-management
of an ecologically and culturally appropriate tourism business. Building on
these findings, a schema is proposed whereby mainstream natural resource
management (NRM) is able to expand into a holistic conception and practice of
cultural natural resource management (CNRM), thereby joining together
Indigenous and Western knowledge. The schema provides translation between
the two conceptualisations of ontology, ecology, culture and economics, and the
spirituality of shared tangible and intangible landscapes, providing a
performance space in which knowledge translation between peoples of
different cultures can occur.