New Dream, Old Lore: Resilience and cultural resurgence through Lorraine Mafi-Williams, Nunarng Cultural Sanctuary and the Ngaraakwal people of northern New South Wales

Abstract

In recent years Aboriginal activists in Australia have gained a high profile, yet the life and work of prolific, accomplished and well-known cultural custodian Lorraine Mafi-Williams (1940-2001) who came from lineages of lore-makers, is under-represented. Involved in debates at local, state, national and international levels, Mafi-Williams made controversial and, I argue, foundational contributions to the political/cultural milieu of Australia during her lifetime. Her actions, Law and cultural values in maintaining cultural heritage brought her into conflict with developing Australian legal regimes of the time. The thesis examines the major challenges and victories she experienced in her life in the transmission of cultural knowledge. It explores the central role of custodians in connecting Western and Indigenous knowledge systems for future survival and adaptation.

Mafi-Williams' life and family connections are analysed, intersecting historical, political and cultural scholarship. Issues around connection to land are examined, including the role of the individual in cultural transmission and resurgence. Concepts such as custodianship, sovereignty, Indigenous knowledge systems and their reproduction are explored, as are legal issues of ownership and the role and impact of agents of the nation state in regard to the affirmation of rights of association to the land and the politics of recognition.

In her final years, in 1997, Mafi-Williams established Nunarng Cultural Sanctuary on her ancestral land, so that, she said, 'the teachings will live'. As part of her 'living story', her bush camp was a site of cultural resurgence, yet its existence and success did not prevent the dispossession of the Sanctuary's traditional custodians that occurred through a new Australian legal process. A study of her life provides the evidence of how and why this occurred, during the development of the first out-of-court ILUA for NSW (Indigenous Land Use Agreement), which divided the community, but became a precedent for other areas. After surviving colonial disruption, massacres and assimilation, Mafi-Williams' ancestors and the Ngaraakwal people to whom she was related were finally maligned by an Australian legal process believed to be emancipatory, and a political party thought, by many, to be sympathetic. The concluding chapters consider why her advocacy finally became embroiled in a struggle of 'Black/Green' power over Public Reserve land, and investigates the influence Indigenous custodians may have in a changing legal environment. They address an under-researched topic: the effects on Indigenous Australian custodians who are dispossessed or de-legitimised through this western legal process. Show more