Respecting Indigenous cultural beliefs

[David]

I was reading about a recent documentary called In My Blood It Runs, which I haven't seen, but has been getting a lot of positive reviews. It's about a ten-year-old Arrernte boy in Alice Springs who is passionate about his traditional culture but feels disillusioned by formal education, particularly in terms of its Westernised approach to Australian history and lack of space for traditional learning, and its perspective is clear: that a streamlined educational process is alienating and unhelpful for Aboriginal children, and (I get the impression this is at the very least implicit) contributing to rates of truancy and juvenile crime. Anyway, don't take my (second-hand) word for it; you can watch the whole thing here for a fee: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/inmyblooditrunscaptioned

There's a lot to be said for how the education system can better accommodate Aboriginal kids living in remote areas, and how an assimilationist approach will likely cause more harm than good. Something I'm curious about though is one element of the film that most reviewers refer to uncritically, or even with reverence: the child who is the subject of the documentary is also a faith healer, or Ngangkari, and much is made of his ability to cure the sick by placing his hands on them. A review in The Conversation, for instance, refers to him as a "powerful child healer", while The Guardian says that he "was born with a memory of the ancestors", which is what the title of the film refers to.

I think most of us know the correct response to this: that is, to acknowledge this without mockery or unnecessary expression of scepticism. It's a different cultural tradition to our own, but still valid; live and let live. But don't most of us – New Age types who believe in reiki et al excepted – also feel, deep down, that this is not a real skill this child possesses, and that those adults who are telling him otherwise are leading him up the garden path? And that if, instead of practising traditional Indigenous culture, he were, say, a Pentecostal kid learning how to speak in tongues or conduct exorcisms, we might feel very differently about this? If so, nobody's saying it, from what I'm aware.

I'm a pluralist at heart, and believe strongly in religious and cultural freedom, particularly when it comes to groups to whom this land actually belongs and from whom it was stolen. So I think it's important that such practices are tolerated and not suppressed (and indeed there are suggestions that integration of "holistic therapy" such as practised by Ngangkari within the mainstream health system encourages more Indigenous people to attend hospitals and clinics). This all ties in with the documentary's argument about schooling: assimilationism is a failure precisely because it is perceived as hostile, whereas integration of cultural traditions can help bridge the gap. And for that to be successful, we need to suppress our inner sceptics, which are telling us, bluntly, that Western science and medicine is superior to traditional Aboriginal practices, and that the latter are at least partly based on superstition.

This leads to another recent news item, which most of you are probably already familiar with – the Andrews government's decision to chop down a sacred Djab Wurrung tree for the sake of expanding a highway:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-10-31/indigenous-heritage-djab-wurrung-tree/12830616

In this case, none of what I wrote above should be relevant – you don't have to actually believe that the tree has spiritual powers, just as you don't have to believe that Uluru is anything more than a big rock in the desert (and to be clear, I don't, and I suspect you don't either), to respect the traditional owners' wishes for it to be left alone (and to consider the enforcement of that respect worth legislating). But again, there's a clear reluctance in mainstream discourse to point out the elephant in the room, which is that there's oftentimes a kind of patronising indulgence in the way Indigenous traditions are discussed by non-Indigenous people (the ones who aren't overtly hostile, that is). Deep down, most non-Indigenous people who don't believe in the magic powers of crystals or tarot cards think that Aboriginal creation stories are no more valid than the Christian Creationist belief that the world was created 6000 years ago. And while we can argue that one is a valid target for mockery and not the other (privilege, punching down, reflections of traditional disenfranchisement, and so on), I do wonder if the scorn some people express for Creationists and people of that ilk is a displacement of all the things they feel they can't say about more taboo topics like this.

I guess what all of this comes down to is ... what do we mean when we talk about "respecting" other cultures? You can and should respect people who believe in things you personally find silly, but that's a different matter. What I'm wondering is, is it really possible to respect a belief even if you don't find it credible? Or is what we mean when we talk about "respect" just to keep on practising the doublethink that I described above: that is, to think what you like, but keep it to yourself? Is this a case where being insincere is commendable?

[Tannin]

I do not respect bullshite. I don't care what colour you are or whether your brand of kookery is dreamtime stories, jihadist fantasies, or Baptist silliness. They are all the same insofar as they willingly abandon sense and logic and reason and science in order to foolishly believe in nonsense.

Common politeness sees to it that I rarely mention this in contexts where it is not necessary. Common decency and a deep respect for the social tolerance which alone make society possible means that I'm happily willing to tolerate the most ridiculous beliefs and customs, up to the point where they impact on society, on the environment, or on other people. But if it harms no-one, then people have every right to believe whatever nonsense they please. Hell, I believe that Collingwood is going to win the 2021 and 2022 premierships, and how stupid does that me me look?

[David]

Is it worth pointing out here, though, that the majority of Aboriginal people who still observe traditional beliefs would quite likely interpret disrespecting the belief – calling Dreamtime stories "kookery", etc. – as disrespect for them personally? And if so, doesn't the expression of that sentiment wind up contributing to the sentiments of disenfranchisement from the cultural mainstream that so many feel?

[think positive]

[David]

Effectively, though one could argue that the stakes are higher here.

[Tannin]

[David]

I definitely agree with the last point – even putting aside the spiritual beliefs regarding it, the tree they cut down was an incredibly striking and beautiful one. Just seemed like so much vandalism. And I still think it was a bastard act to do it on a day when major progress on COVID-19 was announced and most people were looking the other way.

[stui magpie]

I'm personally very skeptical of any significance to that tree as I am with most "traditional" Indigenous things in Victoria. Many of them seem to be fairly recent inventions, compared to other states where there has been a significant and continual transfer of heritage.

Uluru is one such thing.

Many of the dreamtime stories are just stories designed to explain natural features, Sun, moon, stars, rivers, etc and have as much basis in fact as the bible.

Others however are basically history being remembered and sometimes warnings. "The First Woman" is a story in the Tiwi Islands which basically remembers when the islands were cut off from the mainland by rising sea levels over 5000 years ago.

Rock paintings I saw in Kakdu tell of an evil spirit in a cave that kills people. From memory, the evil spirit is actually gas and if you ignore the warnings and walk in, you won't get far before you fall over and die.

I don't believe in faith healing or crystals but traditional medicine using local indigenous plants is only just really being investigated and should be taken seriously.

My view, same as with all these beliefs, believe what you want as long as it doesn't have a negative impost on anyone else.

[think positive]

[eddiesmith]

What was interesting was the police were a lot more sympathetic and less forceful than they had been with anti government protests

But some of these things these groups come up with to stop a highway it’s easy to become sceptical. The protests against Eastlink were you can’t build the road as the dirty filthy creek was home to platypus’s. I’ve lived here over 30 years, walked the creek trail thousands of time, never seen one!

But of course ALP government caved to the greens, so this highway must be mighty important for them to not cave this time.

[David]

[Tannin]

And who says Morrison's happy clappers or those weirdos who have recently stacked the Victorian Liberal Party are "connected with mainstream Australia"?

[stui magpie]

^

Is there a group of politicians anywhere in Australia who is?

[David]