Womm’sSIudies ht. Forum, Vol. 14, No. 5, pp. 385-412, 1991 0277-5395191 13.00 + .w Printed in the USA. 0 1991 Pergamon Press plc

INTRARACIAL RAPE REVISITED On Forging a Feminist Future Beyond Factions and Frightening Politics

DIANE BELL Henry R. Lute Professor of Religion, Economic Development and Social Justice, College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, MA, USA

Synopsis-Here I revisit three contentious issues: intraracial rape, feminist theorising around race and gender, and the problematics of cross-cultural collaboration (see Bell & Nelson, 1989). I begin by examining the modes of analysis of abuse of Aboriginal women as revealed in recent reports, and offer comparative case material from North America. With particular reference to the shifting bases of my relationship to Topsy Napurrula Nelson, I trace a personal, partial, and hidden history of an idea, that is, a more empowering feminist future may be envisaged by grounding our theorising on questions of gender, race and violence in the possibility of relationality. I suggest that the propensity to engage in social construct boundary maintenance is obscuring the fact that it is women who are being brutalised. With reference to the handling of violence against women by the courts and by “communities,” I argue cross-cultural collaborations and enunciation of women’s law can empower women. Forging a sustainable vision of a meaningful future in the current crisis requires that the needs of woman be addressed; that in pursuit of the politics of difference we not lose sight of questions of power; that the politics of law, the nation state, the academy, and Aboriginal liberation struggles that shape the “master narratives,” are interrogated from within and from “elsewhere.”

Since working for the Aboriginal Wom- SPEAKING OUT ABOUT RAPE AGAIN en’s Iask Force I have become aware of a very fast growing proportion of Abori- Violence against women is on the increase. ginal men rapists. (Daylight & Johnstone, The research findings are incontrovertible: 1986, p. 65) Rape is a reality, occurring at a rate that Women are being badly hurt and dying qualifies as an abuse of human rights, and because of violence and in some places on a scale that constitutes a crisis. Rape is rape and sexual abuse of children has be- about power: Silence about rape protects come common place. (Wright, quoted in abusers of power. Comparative analyses of Balendra, 1990, p. 2) case material from Australia and North rape and assault were the most un- America point to rape, especially gang rape, der reported offences in the Queensland being an index of the “ultimate experience of Aboriginal community . . . in one town the acceptance of violence against women in no Aboriginal girl over the age of ten had both black and white cultures” (Maher, 1989, not been raped. (Barber, Punt, & Albers, p. 265). Talking about rape requires that we 1989, cited in Atkinson, 199Oa, p. 6) interrogate notions of the private and the personal; that we peer behind the veil drawn around families (Scutt, 1983); that we look again at the way inequality is sexualised (MacKinnon, 1987, pp. 3-4, 1989, pp. 215- 234). Talking about rape in Aboriginal soci- ety is difficult: There is a genuine fear of I thank Genevieve Bell, Martha Crunkleton, Susan reinforcing racial stereotypes, of retribution, Hawthorne, Renate Klein, Jocelynne Scutt, Karen Ttnn- of exhibiting cultural arrogance (Atkinson, er, Kristin Waters, and my students at the College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, MA. As I have struggled to com- 199Oa, p. 9; Daylight & Johnstone, 1986, p. mit my ideas of rape, race and gender to paper, they 67; O’Shane, 1988, p. 105). But, there is also have convinced me that this article had to be written. widespread ignorance of the extent of the vi-

385 386 DIANE BELL olence, and the rights of the abused, a reluc- (lawyers, anthropologists, writers, Women’s tance to name the violence for what it is- Studies professionals, historians) sometimes woman abuse. Consequently arguments for in collaboration with Aboriginal women, woman-affirming services and woman-em- sometimes solo, never covertly. The re- powering strategies are resisted. sponses to and fall out from these occasions Aboriginal women have been telling us illuminates the way in which arguments are (other women, feminists, Australians) for sought, commissioned, fashioned, heard, some time that rape is part of the socio-polit- and used-negatively and positively. My the- ical landscape (Sykes, 1975, p. 319), but it oretical explorations are grounded in my has been interracial not intraracial rape of field practice: My standpoint is explicitly which they spoke. Confronting the abuse of feminist and always clear about its politics.* women in an already marginalised minority Epistemologically, I am contesting the objec- population requires theorising around issues tive, gender-neutral stance, and declaring of gender and race. Asking that women be that the raw empiricist merely masquerades given priority in research, in access to re- as a universally valid and scientifically de- sources, in media analysis, or law reform, is tached position (see Hawkesworth, 1989, pp. not popular (Atkinson, 1990a, p. 6; O’- 535-538; Waters, 1990). I am writing as a Shane, 1988, p. 98; Sculthorpe, 1990, p. 16). woman and that carries certain baggage for Yet the statistics tell us women are suffering when I speak of an issue as visceral as rape, I and the seriousness of the situation is being do not do so in the abstract: It has real sub- variously disguised as “domestic violence,” stance for me as a woman, not for me as a “customary practice,” an “expression of dis- gender-neutral person, or me as white wom- tress” of a people (Atkinson, 1990a, p. 6; an, or me as an academic. It is me as a wom- Payne, 1990, p. lo).’ “Over the past ten years an who is vulnerable, and while the qualifiers there have been more female deaths from do- may assist me in reducing the risk I run of mestic violence in the Northern Territory and becoming a statistic, women are raped be- Queensland, than there have been black cause they are women (MacKinnon, 1989, p. deaths in custody,” notes the Office of the 178). Rape is indigenous to women, not just Status of Women (Balendra, 1990, p. 2). the experience of indigenous women. I speak “More women have died from violent as- as an anthropologist and this is a convenient saults in one town of the N.T. over the past straw person for other disciplines, for politi- five years than all the deaths in custody in the cians, and for Aborigines, all of whom have N.T. over the same period,” writes Atkinson cause for concern that the voices of the vul- (1990a, p. 6). “Aboriginal women in the N.T. nerable, the excluded, and the muted may be are 28 times more likely to die from homicide heard. However, because stereotypes of than other Australian persons,” observed “white male exploitative researchers,” have Ernest Hunter (cited by Payne, 1990, p. 10). become ritualised, in order to deal with femi- The current levels of interpersonal and gen- nist analyses of male bias from women who dered violence within Aboriginal communi- have been in the field, a new stereotype has ties, the terror, the loss of dignity, the erosion emerged. It is one that resonates in the wider of self-esteem, the personal and social dislo- society: Feminists are imposing their agenda cation, should concern us all, but how are on other cultures. From the above it is obvi- white women to engage? ous that each of my bases of authority is a I am looking for a way forward: I’m seek- contested site: The best I can do is make ing analyses that are empowering, strategies plain my position and agenda. that have some chance of success, and mod- A persistent theme in my writing has been els that reflect the experience of woman-di- that current manifestations of gender rela- rected violence. My concern regarding the in- tions in Aboriginal society are part of the creasingly brutal and systemic nature of dynamic of the interweaving of sexual poli- intraracial rape is informed by many years in tics and social change on the colonial fron- the field; by excursions into the courts; by tier (Bell, 1983, p. 41ff). With reference to work for legal aid services; by having been a Central Australia I have argued that women’s consultant to the Law Reform Commission; traditional bases of power - religious and ec- by having given papers to various audiences onomic - have been fundamentally trans- Intraracial Rape Revisited 387 formed by the loss of their lands. Their par- feminism is to retain its specificity without ticipation in decision-making processes of being confined to the parochial; its dis- the emerging political institutions of Abo- tinctive practical challenge is to stay con- riginal self-determination is restricted; their crete without being crushed. In feminist ability to access the resources of the nation terms, it is difficult to be narrow if you are state is limited; and fora in which they might truly talking about the situation of 53 per- develop strategies and skills are few. cent of the population, but it is almost Throughout I have insisted that the colonial impossible to survive if you do-which encounter is inscribed differently on the lives makes these one and the same challenge. of men and women. In the locus of violence, (1987, p. 9) we have here a clear example of how this difference registers: Aboriginal men are In the rush to take up a “concerned” posi- dying in custody and while some Aboriginal tion on race and gender (or retreat to a neu- women also die in custody, many more being tral niche), the extent of the violence has not brutalised in their home communities.3 been fully and openly confronted, and pre- By framing my analysis of rape within vious research and feminist reflections have these understandings, I have found it neces- been erased. They survive, like so much of sary to look beyond glosses such as “societal women’s history, in personal accounts, in breakdown” to the specific experience of private conversations, and in publications Aboriginal women, to ask: Why women? that have been shunted to the side to make Why the increase? Why the mystifications? way for more pressing political issues. We are Here I find helpful the enunciation of Teresa constantly reinventing the wheel, having to de Lauretis (1987, p. 25) of the task facing prove through expensive research what we al- feminists as the need “to create new spaces of ready know, that to be a woman is to be vul- discourse, to rewrite cultural narratives, and nerable to violence and to be an Aboriginal to define the terms of another perspective-a woman is to increase the odds of violence. I view from elsewhere.” By this she means one fear that 10 years hence the research findings both shaped by, but suspicious of, the “mas- will show that the aetiology etiology of rape ter narratives” (p. 2), and their “persistent is remarkably similar for white women and tendency to reproduce themselves in feminist for Aboriginal women.4 There are already in- theories” (p. 25). Turning to “rhetoric of vio- dications in the available material that this is lence” and the “violence of rhetoric,” de so (Atkinson, 1990a, p. 7; O’Shane, 1988, Lauretis brings us back to women’s experi- pp. 104-106), but while the analytical frame ence as the basis for our theorising: “the in- remains one of racial oppression, the similar- terests of men and women . . . of rapists and ities will be masked. their victims, are exactly opposed in the prac- tices of social reality, and can not be re- RECENT RESEARCH AND conciled rhetorically” (p. 38). Similarly INTRARACIAL RAPE Catherine MacKinnon (1979, 1987, 1989) unpicks the “master narratives” in her dis- Audrey Bolger’s (1990) study in the Northern courses on life, law, and the state. She devel- Territory, Judy Atkinson’s (1989, 1990 a, b, c ops a distinctive feminist standpoint from & d) research in North Queensland com- which to critique the contradictory claims of munities, and Pat O’Shane’s (1988) report on a value free stance of law in dealing with rape NSW (New South Wales), confirmed our and pornography. Of feminism MacKinnon N.T. (Northern Territory) observations (Bell said: & Nelson, 1989) and extended documenta- tion to other states.5 The portrait that If it does not track bloody footprints emerges is of a society in crisis and of the across your desk, it is probably not about already vulnerable suffering horrendous women. Feminism, the discipline of this abuse. Sue Wright, coordinator of the feder- reality, refuses to abstract itself in order to al government’s remote areas research pro- be recognized as being real (that is, axiom- ject on domestic violence, is quoted as. say- atic) theory. In terms of existing theory, ing, “Our whole Aboriginal race is getting the distinctive intellectual challenge of out of control . . . a lot of women are taking 388 DIANE BELL a lot of bashings out there and it is amazing munities, crimes go unreported: Victims fear how the human body can stand up to the retribution, learn to protect themselves from treatment they get week after week, some- further abuse by keeping quiet, and the pow- times day after day.” (Balendra, 1990, p. 2). er to intimidate is known to boys and men; Judy Atkinson, who prepared “Beyond Vio- police are not always interested and may even lence: Finding the Dream” (1990d), a video be part of the abuse pattern; people are re- and booklet funded by the federal Office of luctant to see offenders go to the jails in dis- the Status of Women and the Torres Strait tant cities (Atkinson, 1989, p. 21; 1990b, p. Islander Commission, is quoted as saying 14; 199Oc, p. 20; O’Shane, 1988, p. 112). “communities are in total crisis, violence is Separate statistics are not kept for Aborigi- now endemic in much of contemporary nes (O’Shane, 1988, p. 100) and deaths due Aboriginal society . . . women expect to be to violence are often subsumed under natu- bashed” (Roberts, 1990). ral causes such as pneumonia (Atkinson, Atkinson (1989, 199Ob, c) drawing on a 199Oc, p. 7). Violence is not always prose- variety of sources, statistics, and seminars cuted. Atkinson (1990a, p. 6; 199Oc, p. 8) arranged by local groups, government agen- notes where, with respect to five female vio- cies, Aboriginal women, and other con- lence related deaths, no charges have been cerned parties, provides chilling documenta- laid. tion of the violence. On Mornington Island, Pat O’Shane (1988, p. 125) traces the way a small community of 900, last year the rape violence has become so routine that it has conviction rate (note, not the incidence of been incorporated into the range of accepta- rape) was 37 times that of the state average. ble affective responses: “I gave her a bit of In Kowanyama, on Cape York Peninsula, in Black-fellow’s love last night” (i.e., bash- late 1988, 12 children aged between 4 and 8 - ing) is “a common expression around clearly victims of sexual assault-were being here.” Young women, having known nothing treated in Cairns Base Hospital for syphilis else ask: “It’s part of being black isn’t it?” and other sexually transmitted diseases (Rob- (O’Shane, 1988, p. 102). This echoes the erts, 1990). Atkinson (1989, pp. 11-14; comment recorded by Atkinson (199Oc, p. 5) 199Oc, pp. 6-l 1) recites a litany of abuse: that “women do not think their ‘bloke’ loves rape of children; of seemingly casual revela- them unless he belts them.” The folk expla- tions, “I was only raped last night again,” of nations include accounts of men treating gangs of 10 to 16 year olds raping drunken women as property, of the appalling living women; of women being beaten when the vi- conditions, alienation, jealousy, and despair. olence is reported; of women reduced to a “The men feel rejected and depressed and pulp; of brain damaged women; of brothers they take it out on the women.” (O’Shane, “selling” sisters (to both black and white 1988, pp. 104-105) was told. Again I ask: men) to pay gambling debts or for beer; of 8- Who speaks of the interests of women? To year-old girls being shown hard pornography whom do they turn for a model that will give and being asked to perform the act depicted; them a future? Male oppression has a model of pack rapes; of young men raping older that addresses loss of self-esteem, but we women; of old men abusing young girls; of cannot condone violence because women are one 7 year old with her reproductive system the only category of beings left through destroyed; of surgical repair; of anal and whom men may be made to feel better about vaginal gonorrhea and syphilis; and finally themselves. What we have is a crisis in mas- of women being blamed for the poor health culinity and it is here that we need acknowl- of their children (see also Zwar, 1990, p. 6). edgment from the men that they are responsi- Atkinson (1989, p. 11) remarks that “rape ble for the carnage.6 “Aggression against is a daily occurrence but 88 % go unreported, those with less power,” MacKinnon (1987, only pack rapes are reported,” but, as our pp. 6-7) argues, “is experienced as sexual cases indicated, even they may not be report- pleasure, an entitlement of masculinity,” and ed (Bell & Nelson, 1989, p. 412; see also that is what is revealed in the expectation of Bligh, 1983, p. 101). Underreporting is a Aboriginal women that to be bashed is to be problem in all rape cases but there are partic- loved, and that “Black-fellow love” entails a ular reasons why, in small kin-based com- bashing around. Subordination has been sex- Intraracial Rape Revisited 389 ualised and sexuality is private: feminist re- that violence is customary law were valid, searchers beware. Australia is a signatory to human rights con- Heather Sculthorpe, a barrister and solici- ventions that protect women regardless of tor with the Tasmanian Aboriginal Legal Ser- race (see Bell, n.d.; Bradley, 1990), and rape vice, points out that it is not fashionable to is a criminal offence. If rape is not part of demand that women’s interests be given pri- customary law, then we need to confront the ority. In rejecting the analysis that men suf- collusions that have allowed spurious male fer as much as the abused, she cautions we assertions to stand as “culture” (see Bell & take care lest: Ditton, 1980, p. 17; Bell & Nelson, 1989; Coombe, 1990; Payne, 1990, p. 10). that fallacy . . . becomets] another myth Feminist questioning of the “master narra- which we will start to believe against all tives” reveals that by framing violence as a evidence in the same way that we were pre- racial problem (i.e., it is Whites oppressing viously led to believe it was only white Blacks), women are rendered mute. To admit men who mistreated Aboriginal women or gender as a category of analysis is destabilis- that sexual abuse of children did not exist ing. It is helpful to ask the question feminists in Aboriginal communities. (1990, p. 16) asked when scrutinising the violence hidden in the home: In whose interests is silence Sculthorpe praises Atkinson’s video presen- maintained? Under what conditions may tation for not blaming men, but points out it women be able to put their safety and that of cannot be left to women to rescue the men. their children above the needs of the men They must also be “the architects of their who beat and rape them? Here again the own salvation” (Sculthorpe, 1988, p. 16). need to work from within the race construct O’Shane (1988, p. 120) makes a thoughtful has constrained findings that might empower plea for community education by which women. women may be informed of their rights with- out losing respect for their menfolk (see also THE RHETORIC OF VIOLENCE AND Atkinson, 1990b, c). But, in all the materials THE VIOLENCE OF RHETORIC thus far available the issue of male power is avoided: No Aboriginal male activists have declared safety of women a priority. Yet there Until we name the practice, give conceptu- are men who care and they could be mobi- al definition and form to it, illustrate its lised. Unfortunately the men we hear from life over time and space, those who are the appear to be arguing violence off the politi- most obvious victims will also not be able cal agenda (Atkinson, 199Oa, pp. 6-7). to name it or define their experience. In this vein, one intimidatory argument I (Rich, 1986, p. 45) have heard is that to bring rape to public attention places men at risk because they are Consider the following “facts” culled from likely to be jailed, and then become a custo- a social issues journal in the United States: dial death. Therefore, women should not In 1989 the FBI recorded 3,584 rapes; the pursue rape charges. Another argument is rape rate is increasing; only one in ten rapes that violence against women is a matter of is reported; a rape occurs every 6 minutes; culture and to interfere is to undermine cus- most rapists rape 15 to 20 times before being tomary law. Atkinson (1990a, pp. 6-7), cit- caught; there is a 3% chance of conviction; ing similar objections voiced by senior rapists have the highest rate of recidivism Aboriginal males, suggests that such analy- (Hoffman, 1990, p. 3). As Kathleen Barry ses originated with white male public ser- argued in 1979, the huge number of men en- vants, but she does not pursue this as a male gaged in these practices should be cause for alliance shoring up similar interests (see also declaration of an international emergency, a Sykes, 1988, p. 34). There are many good crisis in sexual violence (quoted Rich, 1986, reasons to doubt that customary law licenced p. 49) but there are multiple ways in which violence against women, and there were cus- “woman as vulnerable” is obscured. Underly- tomary punishments that women could ap- ing each is the fact that women do not enjoy ply to violent men.7 But, even if the assertion the same power as men. Rape does not hap- 390 DIANE BELL

pen in a vacuum-it happens because of the 1990, p. 3). Through an incredible act of “brutalisation, subordination and degrada- courage and with the support of family, col- tion of women that goes on daily in a thou- leagues, and feminist groups, the woman en- sand different ways” (Hoffman, 1990, p. 42). dured the subsequent trial and the sordid de- Here, with reference to North American fence scenarios of victim blaming: What was cases of anti-woman violence, I am exploring she doing in the park anyway? (see also the way in which discourses around ques- Hoffman, 1990, p. 42). The woman’s name tions of violence, race, and gender are con- was suppressed and the media abided by the stituted and distanced by the academy, law, ban, but angry black supporters of the ac- media, and minority groups. cused, shouted her name in media presence Two recent cases from the United States and accused her of promiscuity, of fantasy, and one from Canada are emblematic of the of race privilege. It was an example of anti- way in which violence against women is woman, male-affirming, race-prioritising masked, deflected, trivialised, and denied. In syndrome. Such victim-blaming, in the name the Engineering Faculty of the University of of a critique of racism and law reinforce- Montreal, December 1989, 2%year-old Marc ment, must itself be critiqued. Lepin strode into a classroom, separated the Along with the New York jogger case, the students into two groups, male and female, murder of Carol DiMaiti Stuart by her hus- and shouting, “You’re all a bunch of femi- band in Boston, on October 23, 1989, has nists,” mowed down 14 of the women with a become a touchstone for media, feminists, semiautomatic rifle (see Nyhan, 1989, p. and law enforcement agencies, albeit for dif- A19). The nation was shocked by the carnage ferent reasons. Carol Stuart was murdered but the media reporting did not focus on the when 8 months pregnant by her husband, fact that it was women who were dead. It was but it was the black man that Michael Stuart a lunatic run amok. As the circumstances of said had held them up and shot them both the tragedy emerged it was obvious that this (her fatally and him badly) that the police was an attack on women because they were searched for and found. As police moved in women. In a letter found after the massacre, for prosecution, one of Stuart’s brothers Lepin blamed feminists for ruining his life came forward with information and the next and listed 14 prominent feminists. Now here day Michael Stuart jumped off the Tobin was a man who did not distinguish when it Bridge. It then became evident that the came to exacting his revenge: He took it out brothers had conspired in the murder. They on the group, that is, women. were protected at law by virtue of being When a 28-year-old woman investment members of the family. Given that one in banker jogging in Central Park was viciously three women is murdered by a husband, lov- assaulted, gagged, raped, sodomised, and er, or de facto common law husband, this left for dead by a gang of youths, the New should have made Stuart a prime suspect, York media quickly seized on the racial back- but the racial dimensions completely over- grounds of the youths and the case developed shadowed that index of vulnerability and de- as White accused Black. The woman lying pendence. The race card trumps all others. unconscious was somehow invisible. In an Carol Stuart was murdered because she was analysis of coverage from April 19 to May an inconvenience to his business plans, but 17, 1989, Lisa Maher (1989, p. 264) argued this was not analysed. To do so would have for a “disturbing example of how the media entailed problematising the family as locus resonates and reinforces the sexism of west- of security, protection, and love. ern social orders.” The youths’ behaviour The murder of Carol Stuart and the New was designated “wilding” and the actions of York jogger rape were reported because they urban Afro-American males were thus la- were white, but they suffered because they belled and explained. There was no analysis were women. The cases rattled the collective of woman as the target of the violence. To conscience of the nation but media analysis their screaming victim, the youths had shout- focussed on police procedures, media cover- ed, “Shut up bitch.” Note, they did not age, the racism of Whites, and not the cir- shout, “Shut up white bitch,” or, “Shut up cumstances that render women vulnerable, rich bitch,” but, “Shut up bitch” (Hoffman, not the women-negating culture in which the Intraracial Rape Revisited 391 violence occurred. Asking that we scrutinise prefers to write of difference (de Lauretis, these cases as violence against women does 1987, p. 24; MacKinnon, 1987, pp. 8, 32- not mean the racial stereotypes evoked 45); and critique the law cast in the image of should not be scrutinised also. Both cases a reasonable man who thinks “consent” can inflamed racial and class stereotypes and include screaming “no” (Coombe, 1990). In they did so at the expense of an analysis of MacKinnon’s (1989, p. 173) terms taking the women who were brutalised. Race is im- rape from the realm of “the sexual,” and portant in how rape is dealt with and the placing it within the realm of the “violent,” charge that the rape of one white woman is removes force, as a normal part of heterosex- more important than the rape of many black ual relations, from the legal definitional is- women holds. Ninety percent of rapes are sues. How, she asks, may one distinguish be- intraracial (MacKinnon, 1987, p. 247 n. 1) tween sex as intercourse and sex as rape, but few make the headlines. It is interracial under the conditions of male dominance? rape, that is, the anomalous, that the media (MacKinnon, 1989, p. 174). pursues, but not with woman in focus. MacKinnon (1987, p. 5) brings our con- The reluctance to acknowledge that it was cepts of gender, law, and the state into sharp women who were dead, raped, abused just focus with her observation that abuses of because they were women, has important women can be “as allowed de facto as they ramifications. In the United States these are are prohibited de jure.” Her questions gener- clear. In moves to legislate on the new catego- ate another: Should intraracial rape be held ry of “hate crimes” women are conspicuously to a different standard? Aboriginal women absent and likely to remain so because the researchers, confronted by the realities of in- categories for which statistics are kept will traracial rape, express anger at the abuse, but not include one for women (Heinzerling, are constrained in their analyses by their in- 1990, p. 112). Under the new federal law hate sistence that the locus of violence is race. In crimes “are those impelled by the victim’s Women’s Business (Daylight & Johnstone, race, ethnicity, religion or sexual orienta- 1986), the report of the Aboriginal Women’s tion.” Thus if a man is killed because he is Task Force of Australia-wide consultations, black, it is a hate crime, but if a woman is there is a short section, significantly entitled killed because she is a woman (and we have “Women as victims” (pp. 63-76), which ad- evidence that women are killed for exactly dresses women’s anxieties and ignorance re- that reason) then it is not within the ambit of garding sex. Only one regional coordinator the legislation. To question this lack of wrote at any length. Noting the frightening consistency is to challenge the “master narra- increase in intraracial rape, she calls for tives.” In other legislation sex is acknowl- something to be done, but the subject of in- edged as critical, for example anti-discrimi- traracial rape falls outside the analytical nation legislation, and human rights frame of the overall report: The violence is a provisions recite the litany of sex, race, creed, colonial artefact: white men rape black wom- colour, and national origins. en, and intraracial rape is an anomaly (p. So why are women excluded when it 66). Another example of the problems of ad- comes to abuse? Heinzerling (1990, p. 112) dressing intraracial rape comes from an suggests that society does not think of crimes Aboriginal worker from the Adelaide Rape against women in the same way that it thinks Crisis Centre who, reporting on a workshop about racial or ethnic violence. I think we run at the 1984 Women and Labour Confer- should push this ,further and ask: Is it be- ence in Brisbane, notes the lack of fora in cause it would focus on the generative force which to talk (pp. 66-67). Many of the issues of the “master narrative,” and reveal that it is raised by Atkinson and O’Shane are prefi- through violence or force that the patriarchy gured in the Task Force Report. maintains its control over women? It would properly identify the behaviour as woman- “FIELD” RELATIONS: hating, woman-negating, and declare the vio- GENDER AND RACE lence is part of a culture that allows women to remain with less access to political power, In revisiting the issue of intraracial rape, I economic security; focus an academy that want to do more than fill in the gaps since 392 DIANE BELL our 1989 paper. I’d like also to bring a hidden might occur, but that does not mean we history into the open and thus build a more should suspend all critical faculties. We need dynamic, less guilt-ridden appreciation of to be able to disagree with each other and to questions of gender and race. What I am of- do so in a constructive way. It’s not the end fering is partial and personal; it’s an account of the relationship to have a disagreement. If of relationships developed over the past 15 you can’t argue then there is room to talk years, but I am hoping that this exercise about an element of racism in the relation- might encourage others to share their experi- ship. My emphasis on relationality does not ences.8 My intent is to make available some require that we all be friends: there will be positive, woman-affirming examples of individuals whom we mistrust, find disagree- cross-cultural collaboration, and to move be- able and wish to avoid, but if there is the yond a negative, reactionary retreat into so- possibility of relationality, we can begin to cial constructs. If we think of race as a given, talk about these interpersonal and political then all we can do is react. Our modes of dynamics as part of our human heritage, not interaction are circumscribed by the con- as a subset of our race or gender. Yes, we’ll struct “race.” The boundaries of the person make enemies, and be hurt, that is an aspect become fixed and we have to breach these of all interpersonal relationships. It forces us socially constructed boundaries before we to ask why we wish to engage in the ex- can engage in dialogue. Whereas, if we em- change, but it doesn’t stop us reaching out. phasise relationality, we can focus on con- You may wish to analyse why some are not nectedness, and the rigidity of the bounded persons who may be friends, but that is an- category of race gives way to permeable other level of analysis. I’m talking about how membranes. In this focus on relationality, feminists might ground their theorising of race as a category is destabilised. The shift in race, gender, sexuality, and class in their ex- emphasis opens up the possibility of theoris- perience with Aboriginal women and it en- ing issues of gender and race around rela- tails more than discourse: It is about owning tionships, and declares that our possibilities to being a woman and acknowledging that are not exhausted by our predicates (white feminism has opened discursive and social woman, Aboriginal woman, radical feminist, spaces for all women (see Langton, 1989). socialist feminist). This shift from boundary My relationship with Topsy Napurrula maintenance to relationality is threatening if Nelson began with an inversion of what was one has constructed a political identity (as known of interactions between black and have some feminists and some Aboriginal white women in Central Australia in the women) on the basis of predicates. When the 1970s. The white women with whom Aborig- issue is rape, it is our vulnerability as women ines routinely came into contact were either to rape that grounds the relationality and the dependents of local officials, or thus I am suggesting we begin with the issue, employed in roles associated with feminine not with the construct. nurturance: teachers, nursing sisters, mis- In my view, a feminism drawing on female sionaries. They were set apart by their knowl- friendship bespeaks a more robust feminist edge, skills, material comfort, and access to future than one cringing before socially con- resources. For me to ask to be taught by structed categories. If the cross-cultural poli- Aboriginal women was a novel experience for tic is to be collaborative, the exchanges have them. During my first period of indepth to be two way: We need to learn to be more fieldwork, from 1976 to 1978, Topsy Napur- sensitive to cultural difference, and Abori- rula was one of the ritual experts who took ginal women need to see there are women me under her wing and guided me through who are sensitive. We do not need to be cow- the maze of knowledge necessary to be con- ered by being told we are white and Abori- sidered competent in her world. Without her ginal women need to stop denying that femi- patient guidance I would never have learned nism has changed the environment in which to tell the difference between edible and poi- they operate.9 In this I think white women sonous solanacae at 100 paces, or to discrim- have the major responsibility to create and inate between the shape of fire or a storm on foster the conditions under which dialogue the distant horizon. These are minimal skills, Intraracial Rape Revisited 393

I allow, but they were critical to survival and worked Aborigines were the majority. In were taken by my teachers as evidence of my terms of the work I was doing, the Abori- capacity and determination to learn. ginal women were in control. They had no The women had no problem seeing me as need to evoke a racial distinction to protect a pupil, if that was what I said I was, and if I or defend themselves from me. behaved as one who is learning should be- Important to my acceptance was my will- have. This meant I had to abide by the rules ingness to deal with what I was being told of women’s law. I had to keep secrets, avoid and my ability to apply that knowledge (in certain people, joke with others, lend to sacred, ceremonial, and everyday activities), some and borrow from others. I had to learn and my preparedness to speak up when asked organically, that is, wait until a matter arose to do so. When “official parties” of whites before asking questions. That changed once visited the community, local Aborigines I’d learnt some of the basics and could form would ask me to be present: The most en- questions that would not offend, but to reach dearing moments were when women wanted this stage I needed to know a great deal of their views conveyed to all male parties and genealogical and social history. For instance, their menfolk would explain gently to the vis- one should not voice the names of dead peo- itors that they needed to consult with wom- ple. After several years individual names en.‘0 Having me in the community was often come back into circulation, but close rela- convenient. It protected locals from the tedi- tives continue to observe the taboo and it ous repetition of answering bureaucratic causes deep sorrow and offence if a name is questions and it also allowed them to impli- verbalised in their presence. Thus, in every- cate and educate me. While engaging in such day conversation, I needed to know enough exchanges, I was always visible and if people about those present not to cause pain, and wanted to hear they could. Usually they’d ask because personal names were often the me to report and maybe send me back for a names of things, like “Battery” George (a second round. Even on shorter field trips, man who had worked on the mining battery when I was doing contract work in the area and died before I began work in the area), I (1978-1988), I’d find that people would ask had to learn to put water in the “replacement me for a briefing before they met with the word” of my car, and purchase “replacement “officials.” In no way am I suggesting I knew word” for my torch, and cassette player. all the answers, but also I do not consider There were other taboos that were generated these people were at the mercy of an intrusive by ceremonial obligations and that I could anthropologist. They had their own agenda only learn through participation. There were (about which I’d ask, if I felt I knew enough no lists and no one person could speak to all to frame the questions constructively); they the taboos. chose their messenger, and if they wanted di- What is indelibly printed on my memory rect contact, they made it. Where all these and sustained by reference to my notes of my negotiations broke down was that the endless “student stage,” was that never was I told meetings were only consultations. Real pow- that because I was white I was to be exclud- er resided in decision-making fora where ed, or that I couldn’t understand. The crite- women had little or no input. ria for building relationships were personal So, in those first years I was learning, but characteristics. Sometimes women would local people were learning also, not just laugh at me and say because I was white I about things but about attitudes, personali- hadn’t learned things any adult woman ties, about how I, as a single mother, coped would know, like how to tell the difference with children, and about how an anthropolo- between the tracks of a goanna and a snake gist operates. These impressions of Anglo (important if one is to stay alive). It was in culture and my discipline were necessarily the towns, like Alice Springs and Pennant partial, but that was the point of exchange Creek, that I’d hear race used as a bar to between women of different cultures and learning in dismissals such as “what would that was the ground on which we built our Whitie know?” There Whites outnumbered relationships. Let me give you an example. I Aborigines but in the community where I carried topographical maps when we under- 394 DIANE BELL took long off-the-road expeditions. The local ences in understanding or approach, which women navigated by orientation to sacred could have been cause for conflict, into ways sites, old camping sites, and physical features of gaining a deeper understanding of what of the landscape. For them distance was the other held dear. She made a miniature measured in walking time, for me in miles. baby carrier for my daughter’s 10th birthday, There were confusions and frustrations ga- although the custom of celebrating birthdays lore and we all made mistakes as we nego- was irrelevant and such a toy frivolous tiated from within our preferred navigational (young girls don’t pretend to be “little moth- modes. Through these exchanges several ers,” they have actual mothering responsibili- women became accurate with maps and my ties), and I learned to overcook prime fillet sense of direction in seemingless featureless steak for her children who rejected juicy plains was heightened. There was merit in bleeding meat as a form of primitivism on both systems and both had problems: Maps my part. are often inaccurate and a fire or flood may The field relationship wherein I had been erase sacred markers. pupil and Topsy Nelson teacher, was fleshed These activities usually involved parties of out and gradually transformed as she began 8 to 12 women and although the composition to hear what I had to say of what I had of the group changed, Topsy Nelson, her fa- learned. I often tried out analyses with vari- ther’s sister (now deceased), and one I called ous groups, and Topsy Nelson was one of the “mother” (also deceased) were often in the many women on whom I could rely to correct group. Napurrula and I called each other me if I erred, but she was also one of the pimirdi (father’s sister/brother’s daughter) smaller group of three or four women who and as members of the same patriline, we would quiz me, test my ability to extrapolate shared certain ceremonial obligations, and to new situations, and, if they thought it use- rights and responsibilities in land. I knew her ful, they would offer supplementary narra- family well enough to mourn her father’s tives and present new ones. These negotia- passing; to be given access to his “law,” to be tions of ideas took time and some are present when his knowledge was reactivated ongoing. Perhaps I had asked about a kin- (see Bell, 1985, pp. 14, 17). When his “broth- ship puzzle and done so in the abstract-the er” was in court, facing a murder charge, the range of distinctions within the categories of male relatives asked that I assist and were cross and parallel cousins was intellectually a prepared to recount the history of the dispute great game. To teach me, I’d be given a con- that had generated the incident now before cretely grounded example from which I be- the court (Bell, 1984). There were many gan to build a picture that included rules and women with whom I worked and whom I exceptions. Articulation was post hoc. It is considered friends, but Topsy Nelson and I not possible to predict, to generalise, or to became close friends and it has been a state the socially acceptable practice, unless friendship on which we have both relied one has access to intimate details and it is heavily: If either one was ill, depressed, had improper to ask about the business of others. good news, was perplexed, the other was al- I had to be there to learn such things and ways there. then I was part of the process. In the early On two occasions in the 1980s when Topsy stages, if I made a mistake, my teachers were Nelson was in hospital, I sat and waited for held responsible, but as time passed I was her to come out of the anaesthetic; when my increasingly held responsible. As mistakes daughter was in an accident, she stayed with can be life and death matters, one is taught us; when I was deeply disturbed by an ethical in a positive fashion by being placed in situa- dilemma in executing a professional con- tions in which one might succeed. In no tract, I sought her counsel, and followed her sense is one learning by experimentation: It is advice although it put me at odds with An- learning by doing/being/having. In an oral glo-law and some Aboriginal bureaucrats. culture knowledge is wealth and decisions to Ours is a friendship that has endured and impart knowledge are made with care: One grown over the years. Napurrula and I have invests in human relationships and a wise always found ways by appeal to humour and person is cherished. our affection for each other to make differ- I considered these sessions where I tried Intraracial Rape Revisited 395 out ideas to be not only a matter of sound tend such events but not for women. She had field practice, but a way in which the people no qualms about attending-would I put her with whom I worked could flesh out their at risk? She listened, participated, corrected idea of anthropology and research. This has “experts,” and afterwards related to her rela- become increasingly important because re- tives what it was anthropologists had to say searchers are now routinely being asked: about hunting and gathering strategies. I “What good will this research do us?” And, used to keep pressed samples of plants in al- if the answer is not pleasing, these research- bums (my ethno-botanical collection) and ers can find field access barred. In such cases they were a source of great storytelling fun, it is not always possible to argue for the ben- but after this conference, they were seen as efits of fundamental research, whereas rou- legitimating documents. From then on wom- tine negotiations allow this appreciation to en took enormous care to make sure I under- develop in a concrete context. Our sessions, stood the precise histories and uses of vari- in which I reported on what I was doing, ous plants, so that their knowledge would be were always with the people with whom I was known. These were important stories, they working, not with some external organisa- said. From then on when I was invited to give tion located in a regional centre or in Can- papers on the topic of research with Abori- berra. I was prepared to explain what I was ginal women, I always asked that the confer- doing to such bodies when requested, and I ence organisers extend the invitation to local often did, but I interpreted field accountabil- people and I have enjoyed the company of a ity of notes, tapes, photographs, and articles number of women and men on such occa- to be a matter between the people who had sions. taught me and myself. Within the wider do- main, my work might be a matter of scholar- OTHER FIELDS OF ly debate and at times involved brushes with GENDER AND RACE bureaucrats, courts, and at others involved in political and ideological positioning. One After I left the field in 1978, I stayed in con- does not work in isolation, but developing an tact with various members of the community, ethical stance towards the politics of the na- and because I continued to work in the field tion state entails different negotiations from of Aboriginal land rights and law reform for the ethics of field accountability. To make this Aboriginal land councils, legal aid services distinction however, I have to be able to distin- and government agencies (see Bell & Ditton, guish the people who are my friends, whose 1980; Bell, 1983; 1984/5), I was able to visit trust I’ve earned, and those who are part of a on an average of at least every 6 months for political lobby which purports to speak for all the next decade. Topsy Nelson, along with Aborigines and .for whom I present an enig- her family and friends also made frequent ma. Aborigines have many different interests visits to my home in Canberra and Geelong, in working or not working with anthropolo- sometimes just for a holiday, sometimes to gists, feminists, politicians, and lawyers, just participate in conferences. By now Topsy as non-Aborigines may have. Nelson is well versed in the format of aca- I did not confine the domain in which demic fora and her insights on such gather- people could assess the use to which their ings have always been to the point, often knowledge might be put to field sessions. I terse, and have initiated further discussions invited people, especially women, to be between us. In reflecting on that period now, present when I visited officials, when I gave I can see what we were doing was continuing evidence in magistrates’ courts on summary a friendship established in the field, but we matters, in the Supreme Court of the N.T. on were also each pursing our careers: Topsy criminal matters, and in land claims. These Napurrula as a ritual leader and cross-cultur- were all interesting occasions. In 1977, I first al negotiator, myself as an anthropologist in asked Topsy Nelson if she would like to hear the academy and in the applied field. Let me what the environmentalists were saying note a few highlights that illustrate what I’m about research in the arid zone of Central saying about friendship, cross-cultural col- Australia at which I was giving a paper. It laborations, race, and gender. I invite other was commonplace for Aboriginal men to at- fieldworkers to do the same: These issues did 396 DIANE BELL not surface with the Huggins et al., (1990) ernment policies of assimilation and to a cer- letter and they have many different manifes- tain extent, the consequences of policies of tations. Here I am reconstructing but one self-determination, have left many women strand, the one I have experienced. from Aboriginal settlements (reservations) Along with a number of other Abor- with a profound mistrust for mixed race peo- iginal women from around Australia, Topsy ple. That is a hard thing to say, but what Nelson came to Adelaide University to at- racism I observed in the field was directed at tend the 1980 Australian and New Zealand mixed race people who had grown up in dis- Association for the Advancement of Science tant places and were now in positions of (A.N.Z.A.A.S.) congress. It was a collabora- power. If they could forge a relationship with tive endeavour with a conspicuous level of local people the opposition melted, but with- cross-cultural cooperation (see Gale, 1983, out such a bond, without a shared history, pp. ix-8). At times the forum was tense: they were feared as one never knew where Women black and white, urban and rural their loyalties lay. were finding their way through multiple As a member of the editorial board of agenda. There were some wonderful mo- Aboriginal History, I was actively engaged ments when family ties, lost in the painful by discussions in the 1980s regarding who separations of the assimilation era, were re- owned the past; the role of Aboriginal histo- kindled. During the conference some of the rians; and the contributions of revisionist Aboriginal women asked that men leave the histories. In August 1984, as a guest of the meeting. The males present, mostly anthro- A.H.A. (Australian Historical Association), pologists (I do not recall there being any I heard Aboriginal women at the conference Aboriginal men present), sat on. The re- vigorously pursing the position that only verse-white women declining to leave when they could speak or write of Aboriginal his- requested by Aboriginal men- would have tory. I had been invited to give a public lec- been a national and professional scandal, ture and I spoke of separatist politics as but these were professors who wrote the manifest in the all female residential configu- scripts for the “master narratives.” I chal- rations in contemporary Central Australian lenged one of them later and suggested his communities, and the demise of the Medie- behaviour had been an exercise in power. He val beguines of France and Germany.” I was rejected that analysis but when I persisted he also scheduled to participate in a panel dis- did admit the experience had been “interest- cussion on “Aboriginal Women and Coloni- ing” and that “women only meetings” were sation” with historian Ann McGrath and an “enigma.” Phyliss Daylight (coauthor of the Aboriginal The Aboriginal women met in workshops Women’s Task Force Report). The panel was conducted by Natasha McNamara and dropped by the organisers; the dialogue did Margaret Valadian (Gale, 1983, p. ix) and not proceed. My only documentation of that reported back at the end of the conference. attempt to have the issues in the open are my The anger some urban women directed at notes of discussions from papers by histori- white people was of concern to some of the ans writing of Aboriginal history and the non-urban Aboriginal women present. It was programme schedule. Another opportunity a category based hostility applied to women for discussion would have been with histori- they knew personally. They were not pre- an Heather Radi (1984), whose paper on pared to accept that there could not be Aboriginal women took a position quite anti- friendship between black and white, or that thetical to.mine, but a last-minute scheduling women could not work together. They talked change exacerbated an already tense session about the politics of race, gender, and the and preempted dialogue.‘* Topsy Nelson did interventions at the conference, as we drove not attend this conference, but I discussed it the 800-odd miles onto Canberra (Bell, 1985, with her the next time we met. pp. 15-16). The white women they knew, the Questions of race, gender, and knowledge women over whom they had some call by were firmly on the agenda at the Melbourne virtue of previous interactions, were much “Women’s Writers Festival” in 1985. There more familiar than the fierce voices asserting were sessions devoted to “Aboriginal Women a political bond. The need for solidarity was Writers,” an “Aboriginal Women Only” well understood, but the aftermath of gov- workshop, and “White Women Writing Intraraciai Rape Revisited 397 about Black Women,” to which I was invited will Aboriginal women write for them- to speak. I agreed on the condition that Top- selves, their society, for white women, the sy Nelson could speak also: It was after all a whole society? dialogue (see Bell & Nelson, 1985). The pos- (6) What is the role of white women writ- sibility of Napurrula attending was enthusi- ing about Aboriginal women? -not mere astically supported by Susan Hawthorne and reporting; the provision of a critique for her coorganisers. The session had numerous the wider society; the location of issues of agenda. One was to address issues raised in gender and race within a wider perspec- Brisbane in 1984.13 That episode had flowed tive, i.e., one outside the experience of over into the media. The A.B.C. (Australian any individual; an analysis of social Broadcasting Corporation) recorded the change; views of Jackie Huggins and approached me (7) A co-operative endeavour? -the need for comment. My notes of that broadcast re- to explore different perceptions; to con- veal that Huggins asserted that anthropolo- sult; to be accountable; to address the re- gists, especially foreign ones, were exploiting lationship between white women and Aborigines by recording stories and not giv- Aboriginal women; to explore the dynam- ing credit; that Aborigines were the experts; ics of social change; the interaction; the that 90% of anthropologists were white male position of Aboriginal women as women and middle class.14 I raised questions of field and as Aborigines within Australian soci- accountability, cross-cultural collaboration ety; comparative analyses with other and critique. Building on this, I prepared a fourth world peoples. handout for the 1985 conference. I reproduce it here, because it indicates the enduring na- ture of the issues embedded in the current The 1985 conference was attended by a furor. broad cross-section of the local population, including Aboriginal women and there were also international guests. After Napurrula In recent years Aboriginal women increas- and I had spoken, Audre Lorde began the ingly have voiced protests regarding the discussion with a declaration: “Before I way in which they are depicted by non- heard you speak, I wasn’t sure, but when I Aboriginal writers. Angrily they assert it see you two together, I see you really are is not their reality which is mirrored in the friends.” There were hurt and hostile com- portraits of Aboriginal society as male ments from some Aboriginal women angry dominated. This is a theme which is ex- that sessions they’d organised had not been plored also in the anthropological and his- well attended. Why did people prefer to hear torical literature with some rigour by femi- from us? Topsy Nelson, in a tone very similar nist social scientists and with a certain to that of her letter to WSIF (this volume) smugness by male oriented researchers. In spoke of the importance of a friendship this workshop I would like to address the which drew on a shared history with children following questions: and family, mutual respect, and affection. If (1) What is the substance of the debate? - we can not speak to each other, she said, ownership of ideas; a matter of taste; the there is no future. What had been a tense impossibility of cross-cultural analyses; situation dissolved into frank exchanges censorship; the need to create a niche; the among the women present. One Aboriginal perpetuation of p/maternalism? woman, in tears, said she was envious of the (2) Who are the protagonists? -an over- access of white anthropologists to traditional view of positions adopted by Aboriginal Aboriginal society. One white woman said and white women in various fora; she was intimidated by the talk of racism. (3) Who attacks whom? - why attack The reaching out, I thought, held promise those who are sympathetic? an exercise in for future dialogue. But it seems it has to be power? who is the enemy? reargued on a one to one basis with each (4) Is it racism or sexism? -why and how encounter. Like Audre Lorde, we only accept Aboriginal women reject white feminist what we see, and it requires quite a jolt for us analyses and examples of joint projects; to look. (5) Who is the audience of the writing? - On that trip to Melbourne, Topsy Nelson 398 DIANE BELL was not well. She had discharged herself As the La Trobe University paper is, the from hospital in Pennant Creek in order to one that sparked the current correspondence, attend the conference by saying she would be let me give you a little background. When in with “Dr. Bell.” (She was well aware of the August 1988, I was invited to speak, I asked humour of that use of the title doctor.) When that Topsy Napurrula Nelson be my copre- told she could not leave because she needed senter. When I approached her regarding this regular medical attention she had retorted and I asked what she thought might be a that she’d be staying with friends in a house useful topic to address, she talked about the and not sleeping out in a dog kennel (a refer- trouble in Tennant Creek, with “that grog,” ence to her substandard housing in Tennant young girls running wild, young kids watch- Creek). When she got on the aeroplane she ing strippers in the pub, and “too much sick- was wearing a cotton dress and was barefoot. ness. ” “Those young girls are ‘having their We bought shoes and clothes during the strings broken’ and no one cares, not even change of flight in Alice Springs. I became a their mothers sometimes.‘s Why doesn’t any- conspirator in her running away from hospi- one care?” Topsy Nelson asked. “They do,” I tal. As soon as we arrived in chilly Mel- said, but I thought back on all the occasions bourne, Topsy Nelson saw a local doctor, on which I’d been on the brink of writing who changed the dressing and showed her about the nature of male/female violence what to do. The next day as we drove home and backed off. I have consistently refused to after the conference session, Napurrula give evidence for the accused in cases involv- asked that I get her some bandages so she ing abuse of women, but I have kept notes. could change the dressing. Fortuitously, we So at one level my honest answer was it’s just were driving through an area where chemist “too hot” to write about. shops cater for drug users and the array of But, the more I thought about that posi- bandages, swabs, and the like, was extensive. tion and the more I thought about Topsy Na- She was impressed and I didn’t tell her until purrula’s questions, I decided to try to plot later about the probable use to which ban- out an answer as an anthropologist, feminist, dages were put in that locale. At that point it and one who had been involved in various was her turn to enlighten me with a display court cases and law reform questions. Where of her knowledge of substance abuse, its in- was the context I might provide? Napurrula roads in Aboriginal communities, and the and I talked about the problems I confronted characteristics of foetal alcohol syndrome. in answering her question, and I in turn “It is killing our generations,” she said. asked her how she might answer it. She re- In 1986 Topsy Nelson came to Geelong sponded with a long account of the structure and presented “My Story” in a conference I of residential camps, marriage practices, had organised around the use of oral sources family alliances, reciprocal responsibilities of in the fields of history, anthropology, literary the families of in-laws and the rights in coun- criticism, and psychoanalysis (see Schreiner try. “That story has to be told,” she said. & Bell, 1990). She had listened all day to When we delivered the paper we alternated learned distinctions being drawn between with her narrative and my analysis. The con- history, social history, oral history, and the tributions were stylistically very different, “new history.” With her usual candour she but we each knew whence the narratives of asked: “What is all this new history? We only the other sprang. I thought it worth trying to have one: here,” meaning her home about find a way of preserving the exchange in a which she had been speaking to a spellbound written presentation. Too often the oral ac- audience (Nelson, 1990a, pp. 18-27). In counts remain just that, or are presented as 1988, she was again in Melbourne to attend sui generis. At Topsy Nelson’s request I taped the “Colloquium on the Rights of Subordi- her story and she told it several times over the nate Peoples” at La Trobe University, and an- period of the week she was in Melbourne. I other on the “Future of Feminist Research” transcribed it and read it back. She recorded at Deakin University at which she explained, bits of it again until she was satisfied. “That’s in narrative style, the importance of women it, tell it like that, make me proud for my having their own physical and spiritual story” (Work tape, 1 l/88). And that is what space. appears in our article. Intraracial Rape Revisited 399

Coauthoring an article on rape with Topsy in Australia I probably would be writing this Napurrula constituted a considerable risk. article with her too. I would love to hear We were made patently aware of that when what she’d say of the MacKinnon/Dworkin we spoke at the conference, In particular two thesis on pornography, gender, difference, women-not feminists in any sense I under- and inequality. I have a fair idea what she’d stand the word-argued that rape was not an say of my relational thesis: -“that’s what I’ve issue to be aired in mixed company; was not been telling you all along, it’s about woman an issue of national and international im- to woman .” port; but rather one that belonged in fami- In addition to the fieldwork and confer- lies, within communities, and out of the pub- ences, there is a third context within which lic gaze. These are arguments that this Topsy Nelson and I have collaborated and generation of feminists has revealed protect that is in the area of applied research (1978- only the abusers. Interestingly Aboriginal 1986). We have worked together in the prepa- and Indian men present argued that the is- ration of submissions to land claim hearings sues must be aired and allowed that the fra- and Topsy Napurrula has given extensive evi- mers of questions of human rights have been dence in numerous land claims and speaks curiously reluctant to examine gender in- with clear authority on matters of Aboriginal equalities and their most violent manifesta- religion and land tenure, but she also has an tions (see Bell, n.d.). They were able to see astute understanding of the requirements of the asymmetry between so called private laws legislation like the Aboriginal Land Rights (i.e., where domestic violence is located) and (Northern Territory) Act, 1976. Much turns public law (i.e., where reforms are imple- on the structure of the local descent group mented). The resources poured into the and its responsibilities to land and Topsy Na- Deaths in Custody inquiry surely vindicates purrula was one of the few persons (Abori- this asymmetry. ginal or Anglo) with whom I’ve worked who No one directly confronted Topsy Nelson could and would say: I understand what at the conference: I would have been interest- you’re asking and I can answer it like this, ed to watch her technique had they. Like me but it would be better to ask a different ques- she learned of the current upset through one tion. Now her formulation was not always a of the persons/organisations to whom the question available under the rules of evi- Huggins et al. (1990) letter had been circulat- dence, nor was it always material to the stat- ed: Neither of us received clean copies. In utory definition of traditional ownership, defending her right to collaborate with me, but the problem of recognition of customary Topsy Nelson wrote to me that: law by incorporation was always central. There are other examples I could give The CLC [Central Land Council] gave me here, and there have been other women with a letter some Aboriginal women wrote whom I have worked in a similar fashion to about the article you and I wrote Topsy Nelson, but the three with whom I was and . . . I don’t agree with what they are closest are now dead. Had they been white saying. I wrote them a letter about our women they probably would still be alive. work together. I thought you might like to They were vulnerable because they were see that letter, so you won’t be worrying women: They were not given adequate treat- about that. (Nelson, personal communi- ment/options because they were Aboriginal. cation, April, 1990) One, my “sister,” is recorded to have died of natural causes, but had she not been struck Of course I had been “worrying” (a term many times over by her drunken son, when of care and affection) but I had not wanted he was hungry, or broke, or just mistook her to burden Napurrula with the unseemly at- for his wife, and took it out on her, she’d be tack on her integrity and authority because I alive. Had she been white she would have thought it would blow over. Like the incident had access to a shelter, but the abuse of wom- with buying bandages, I should have known en was too easily deemed “traditional” in the she would have her own insights. She didn’t 1970s and any interference was feminist in- need protecting from the consequences of spired meddling. Asking about the anger of her actions: She could own them. Had I been disturbed young men bashing their mothers 400 DIANE BELL provoked responses such as: That’s how they lowed, the fighting could only escalate. The treat each of their womenfolk (see Atkinson, older Warumungu women who should pro- 1989, p. 18; 1990b, pp. 16, 20-201). It was nounce on these matters included Irene’s ma- seen as part of the high level of interpersonal ternal aunts and Joanne’s paternal aunts. It violence in Aboriginal society: It was cus- was their responsibility to “balance” the kin tom. lines and to ensure that any “pay-back” did One, my “mother,” died of cervical cancer. not get out of hand (see Bell & Ditton, 1980, Had she been a white woman she would have pp. 33-35) and they were keen that the mag- had access to information about pap smears. istrate hear their expert testimony. It includ- No woman of her age should have died of ed distinguishing between cross and parallel such an easily detected cancer. My “daugh- cousins, actual and classificatory kin, and ter-in-law” died, as far of the death certifi- affines who were also kin. I prepared a gene- cate was concerned, of pneumonia. She alogy to show the bases of relationship of the would probably have been alive had she been parties to the dispute and “read” it onto the able to find employment. She was literate, transcript, an interesting cross-cultural expe- bright, and willing to work but alcohol and rience in itself. prostitution became a way of life and she The lawyer for Aboriginal Legal Aid (a neglected her health. Racism contributed to feminist), argued duress while the senior lo- the invisibility of these women, but in order cal women and myself explained the custom- to envisage a safer future their needs as wom- ary considerations. The magistrate found en must be addressed. Feminist interventions that the evidence was sufficient to satisfy the in family violence, in offering an alternative defence and dismissed the charges.17 Too of- to relatives of alcoholics, of educating wom- ten Aboriginal organisations and Anglo en about their own bodies, and of self-help courts have considered women to be of little groups offer a means of altering these bio- consequence but in this case the women were graphies. The impulse to resist intervention is able to demonstrate their expertise and to understandable: Aborigines have suffered have it make a difference. They won respect much through paternalistic policies, but the from other women (it was worth insisting insistence that “we can solve all our own that women had law), from men (a court had problems” is placing women at an unreason- taken note), from white residents of Tennant able risk. Creek (Aborigines had been in court as ex- perts, not defendents), from the court (cus- RELATIONALITY GENERALISED: THE tomary law is not a matter of assertion but CASE OF THE FIGHTING WOMEN an internally consistent set of principles which can be articulated). This case did not Let me here give an example of the way in become a leading case: It was a small affair which a relationship such as the one Topsy in a magistrate’s court in October 1982. Nelson and I built can be generalised, so that What I am arguing is that it could have be- trust, anthropological expertise, and cross- come the basis of increased cooperation and cultural communication can be empowering empowerment of women. The reasons such to women. It concerns a fight, which could cases do not enjoy a high profile has to do easily have been ignored as a jealous spat, with the absence of feminists from the crimi- but it took place in the main street of Ten- nal justice system; the resistance of the law to nant Creek. Irene, a 17-year-old resident of a accommodate women’s views as legitimate; town camp, having learned that her husband and the internal politics of Aboriginal or- had been unfaithful, sought out the other ganisations. It is not a matter of race per se. woman, Joanne, and hit her with a piece of For the duress argument to succeed, the wood.‘6 To the police she simply said, “I had court needed to understand that the conse- to do it.” Giving content to that explanation quences of a woman not fighting for her required a considerable amount of knowl- marriage, implicated three generation levels edge of the local kinship, marriage, and land of the families of the husband and wife (Bell tenure systems. Irene had acted in accord- & Ditton, 1989, pp. 90-94; Bell, 1980, p. ance with women’s law and without the cor- 255ff; Bell, 1983, pp. 267-272; Bell, 1984). rect dispute resolution procedures being fol- Had the marriage or relationship been based Intraracial Rape Revisited 401 on individual preference, there would have they could not guarantee it would not hap- been no one to instruct Irene, or to follow pen again: It depended on how the marriage through. If Irene had not been prepared to now proceeded.20 follow her aunt’s instruction and “fight for There were other aspects of the dispute her marriage,” she would have been making not visible to police, such as the need for it quite plain that she did not think the mar- Irene to deal with Joanne’s sister who had riage was worth saving; she would have be- sworn at her. As soon as Irene was released smirched her aunt’s reputation; caused oth- by the police, she sought out this woman. ers to suffer; and ultimately would have had Fortunately the good experience of the court to endure severe physical punishment herself. flowed over into the resolution of this con- The latter was a matter of secret women’s flict, and at the instigation of the appropri- law,18 and was important in building the de- ate women and with the cooperation of their fence of duress. All the women were pre- lawyer, a meeting was convened in the local pared to divulge to the court was that there Aboriginal Legal Aid Office. The offender were censures and Irene knew the conse- was challenged and when she could not pro- quences of not complying with her aunt’s in- vide an answer, the older women explained structions. The magistrate, impressed by the the law to her, the two girls then apologised sincerity and knowledge of the women, ac- and the matter was concluded. It is difficult cepted the assertion. The prosecutor, with no to see how this dispute might have been re- knowledge of women’s law, did not cross-ex- solved without the interventions and court amine. Courts have been prepared to accept hearing. It was a delicate area of women’s “restricted” submissions (i.e., for men’s eyes law and none of the existing local Aboriginal only) for to do so requires little disruption of organisations had the capacity to deal with a court; the judges are male, the lawyers “women only” matters. It would not have male. A request that women be similarly ac- been resolved by “community mechanisms” commodated reveals that we are all not equal because there is no community as such in before the law: some of us are women. In one Tennant Creek (see Bell & Nelson, 1989, p. case, the Aboriginal Land Commissioner 412; Bell & Ditton, 1989, pp. 69-70). There had ruled in favour of a restricted women’s are official town camps, makeshift camps, submission (see Bell, 1984/5, p. 358), but in and some Aboriginal people live in town in this case there was no way around the prob- houses. There are different land and lan- lem, the information was too dangerous. guage affiliations and it is these mixings that One major accommodation of the court give rise to many disputes. The original tradi- was that the women were able to give their tional owners of the land may state the law evidence as a group and the results were im- for the place and expect to be respected, but pressive. l9 In place of the shy, halting, mono- the presence of “foreigners” in their territory syllabic replies of Irene, who as a young undermines their authority (Bell, 1983, pp. woman, was both embarrassed and shamed 73-89; see also Kent, 1989; Knauft, 1990), by the court proceedings, and further, did and the presence of service and quasigovern- not have the authority to speak of matters of mental structures further complicates the is- law, came full explanations of Aboriginal law sue. In Irene’s case, the dispute occurred on from her older and wiser kin. Arriving at a Warumungu territory and was settled by sen- just solution by reference to testimony from ior Warumungu women according to Waru- those with a vested interest in the outcome, is mungu law. Had it involved outsiders, and contrary to Anglo notions of detachment, there are many such persons in the town and objectivity, and impartial justice. Fortunate- its camps, the resolution would have been ly the magistrate, like the women, placed further complicated. The court and the Legal greater emphasis on finding a solution, but Aid Office provided fora to resolve the mat- this required accommodations on both sides. ter promptly and with dignity. It was well this Yes, the women conceded, it was wrong to occurred because the reasons for decision disrupt the peace by fighting in a public from the magistrate took over a year to ap- place, but they added, it was a good place to pear. fight because it was public and everyone Now one might protest that none of this could see Irene vindicated. No, they said, should have to be paraded in court, and in 402 DIANE BELL the best of possible worlds it would not need balance of 4 months. Four years after the to be, but Tennant Creek is a depressed com- date of the first alleged abuse of the two munity where violence is endemic, women girls, a nolle prosequi (unwilling to prose- are brutalised, and finding ways of acknowl- cute) was entered. The wheels of justice grind edging women’s law are restricted. In my slow, procedural and substantive issues inter- view, a few encounters such as this one would twine, counsel changes, judges retire, and do a great deal to put women in a position to the home community of the victims begins to develop mechanisms whereby mediation and interpret inaction as condoning violence customary law might have some chance of against women. It is a practice that is mark- informing the tensions generated by living in edly different from the summary nature of large, mixed communities. One might also Aboriginal justice. protest that Irene, as party to an arranged Throughout Frank insisted the matter had marriage, was not a free agent, and that “nothing to do with anyone” (Transcript, Joanne had been beaten. In terms of the 1988/1990, pp. 18, 39, 50, 69); that these workings of polygynous marriages, I have no were family matters; and that no one, “espe- easy answers about where we draw the line cially European law,” had the right to inter- between protecting women from exploita- fere (p. 39). Throughout, the officers of the tion, exhibiting cultural sensitivity, and re- court were at pains to emphasise that he specting personal preferences, any more than could not beat his wife with impunity; and I have answers regarding marriages in west- that Aboriginal women were to be afforded ern society. As far as I can specify my posi- the same protection as white women (pp. 61- tion, it would be that as long as the practice 62). Both of the judges involved in the case does not involve another being brutalised, explained that this message needed to be demeaned, or abused, I will entertain argu- heard in the community and one voiced his ments regarding difference. But I am not pre- wish that the case be heard in the communi- pared to accept crude cultural relativism ty, not in the capital city, but he also knew dressed up in arguments regarding “differ- that time and other resources made that level ence” to licence the stance that whether they of bringing justice to the people impractical kill, mutilate, and abuse the powerless, one (pp. 23, 33). This judge had experience in must avoid being judgemental and ethnocen- land claim hearings where evidence regarding tric because that is their custom. “tradition” is critical.21 The case, he acknowl- edged, was important for every “tribal wom- CUSTOM AND COMMUNITY: an” in the N.T. (pp. 32, 37, 63). But who A FEW FEMINIST CAUTIONS spoke for these women? Who represented their interests? Careful attention to the evi- I want now to turn to a Supreme Court case dence, presentation, modes of legal dis- that initially held out some hope that wom- course around violence, women, Aborigines, en’s voices might be heard, but ultimately and customary law provides depressing con- provided another triumph for the “master firmation of my thesis that there is no one to narratives.” Frank (a pseudonym) was speak of women’s law. If we look to the An- charged with two counts of unlawful assault glo justice system we see that, even while as- of his wife and six counts of assault and car- serting it is there to protect women, it disem- nal knowledge of her younger sisters (both powers. If we then turn to the possibility of under 16) over a period of 18 months. He “community justice,” we see that today wom- pleaded guilty to all charges and there was en have little chance of being heard. Neither ample evidence to show that his wife had forum takes account of women’s standpoints long suffered from his violence; that the girls and without a feminist analysis of the asym- were forced into sexual acts with him; that metrical power relations, male modelling of his power to intimidate and coerce was great culture is universalised. (Transcript, 1988/1990, pp. 45-46, 49-50). The accused was an important man and He was found guilty of the assault charges no one interfered in his domestic arrange- against his wife, sentenced to 12 months, but ments (p. 50). Further, the “community,” as he had spent 8 months in custody, was which may have held him to account, was in released on a good behaviour bond for the fact a number of different groups with a Intraracial Rape Revisited 403 number of different agendas (p. 50). There Frank before the court focussed on two inci- was no consensus regarding who might have dents where he had taken exception to her mediated and it was clear that Frank would behaviour, which had included attempts to and had rejected any censure of his behav- protect herself from him (Transcript, 1988/ iour. On one occasion when an uncle had 90, pp. IO-12,65-67). In April 1988 she had intervened, Frank had thrashed him. There flown to the city to get away from him, but were different positions on what constituted he learned of her whereabouts, followed her, customary law, and who had jurisdiction, and forced her to return home with him. and if it was not going simply to be a matter When she refused to explain why she had run of “might is right,” there needed to be adju- away, he punched her with his fist and hit her dication by an authority with sanctions bind- with a hammer. He then asked her to boil ing on all parties. If the women were to re- water. She complied. He dipped his shirt in it ceive any justice, the mode of adjudication and applied it to her bruises and put it in her needed to allow that women were relatively mouth twice. He said it was to ease the pain; powerless in pursuing their justice claims. She felt it as more pain (pp. 12, 42, 67). His The case raises questions about the justness explanation of the incident was that he was of mediating violence. Jocelynne Scutt angry with her: The charter flight to the city (1988, pp. 507,5 13) argues that “counselling, to get her back cost him $1,200. Because of conciliation and mediation are the shorthand delays in the hearings, the judge allowed for let the powerful retain power” and that Frank out on bail in November 1988. He was “mediation in the context of social, econom- serving time for a matter arising from anoth- ic, political, sex and gender inequalities is er “unrelated” assault on his wife (pp. 40- nonsense” (p. 512). The mediator can only 41), and it was not until February 1990 that a equalise the power differentials by breaching second judge (the first one having resigned) their mandate. Promoting mediation as a passed sentence. He found Frank appeared mode of resolving a conflict when the matter to be a “man of good character,” who was is rape, denies that there is damage done by “held in generally high regard,“ had held po- one to the other. sitions of responsibility, and seemed to have Had there been competent evidence called a “good marriage” (p. 69). His wife was said regarding the rights and responsibilities of to be living “fairly happily” with her husband so-called “arranged marriages” that accorded (p. 68). women a voice, then I think the message to Now there are some questions a feminist the community would have been quite differ- wants answered. What sort of evidence ent from the one set by delays. As it was the would have constituted her not being happy? outcome reinforced the commonly held view Of whose “marriage” are we speaking? Scutt (e.g., by police, bureaucrats, some Aborigi- (1988, p. 512) argues that there are in fact nes and some academics) that male “elders” two marriages: his and hers. In these cases define “culture,” and that this is what will be where the spectre of “tribal rights” is evoked, respected by the courts. On the other hand, “the marriage” nearly always is a male con- what women say will be construed as person- struct. Yet the experience of marriage is very al and its force reduced by pointing to out- different for men and women. Both men and side influences as “contaminating” (feminists women may have a number of spouses in a and the church are often in the same category lifetime and for both marriage is part of the here). The fact that men are benefiting from sexual politics of the society, but for men their interactions with male authority in An- marriage means polygyny, whereas for wom- glo institutions goes unscrutinised (see Bell & en it entails serial monogamy (see Bell, 1980, Ditton, 1980, pp. 8-21). In the absence of a pp. 250-256). The court was told that despite strong persuasive presentation by the prose- the violence, the wife had resumed the mar- cution on the need to take account of the riage after each episode. But of what value pressures on the girls and the wife to with- was this evidence? What choices did this draw charges, Frank’s “dominion” over his woman have? The court took her return as wife and her sisters (Transcript, 1988/90, p. evidence of a desire to forgive and sustain the 50) could only be strengthened. marriage. In opposing bail the prosecution The violence towards his wife that brought spoke of her as living a life “under his influ- 404 DUNE BELL ence,” of her being “absolutely terrified” skirt and pants and pushed her to the (Transcript, 1988/90, p. 45); of her being ground. She says he had intercourse, that she beaten for failing to procure girls for him (p. cried and asked him not to, but that he 47); and of a long history of assault whether threatened to hit her if she did not stop cry- he was drunk or sober (p. 46). The medical ing. He admits to everything but intercourse: records showed that his wife had sustained a He says he changed his mind. Several months series of injuries attributed to his violent out- later, he pressured the youngest sister to ac- bursts (pp. 2, 24). Had the prosecutor been company her sister and his wife. She was familiar with the literature on battered wives, afraid to go with him but he persuaded her to he could have called evidence to show that get into the truck by striking her several times they return again and again to their abusers; with a boomerang (p. 8). He then got her that without significant interventions, the alone, took off his clothes and hers. She patterns persist. cried throughout, but he had intercourse. A The defence allowed that wife beating was short time later it happened again and he hit common in Frank’s community; that “wives her twice on the chest. And so on (pp. 9-10). are assaulted by their husbands and very very It was an incredibly brave act for the few of them get reported to police,” and that young women to make statements (Tran- violence was “unfortunately a way of life script, 1988/90, pp. 7-12, 33-37) detailing there” (Transcript, 1988/90, p. 21). In an the abuse, and to follow through by giving aside, the judge noted that the increasing vi- evidence, but it was unreasonable to expect olence against Aboriginal women had been that they could indefinitely resist pressure to raised as a separate topic for discussion at a drop the charges. Unfortunately, because of meeting of magistrates (p. 26). Now, just be- the way in which the case had been handled cause violence is a “way of life,” is it “tradi- at the committal stage, that is, by way of tional?” If the answer is no (as I think it is), hand-up (p. 30), there had been no opportu- then there needs to be a mighty effort to edu- nity to cross-examine and thereby establish cate women regarding their rights, men re- the “truth” on the matter of the discrepancies garding Anglo law, and a need to provide between the evidence of the girls and that of safe places for women. If the answer is yes the accused. In the lower court it had ap- (even a tentative, qualified one), then the is- peared that a conviction would be secured, sue of cultural relativism is raised. Do we and this was also the impression when the stand by and ignore abuse of women (and case arrived in the Supreme Court. But after I’m not talking abut polygyny here, but rape, careful reading of the evidence, the judge assault, and murder) because to interfere pointed to the discrepancies as cause to would be culturally insensitive? (see Bell, amend or withdraw the guilty plea (pp. 36- n.d.). 37). What message did the unwillingness to The second cluster of charges Frank faced prosecute send? The technical considerations concerned six separate incidents of carnal that informed the working of the Anglo knowledge. According to the evidence the criminal justice system were irrelevant in as- first incident occurred when one of the signing meaning in the home community or younger sisters travelled with the accused and elsewhere. It mattered little whether custom his wife from their home to an outstation. was mitigation or custom was cause (p. 18); When they arrived, he stripped naked, pulled it mattered little that a guilty plea was incon- off the girl’s skirt and pants, climbed into the sistent with the demands of Anglo-justice: back of the truck and lay on top of her. She The man was free; the girls were known to be says penetration and ejaculation occurred. available; it appeared might was right. He says not so; she was moving too much The case raised interesting questions re- and he only put his penis up against the out- garding who is qualified to pronounce on side of her vagina (Transcript, 1988/90, pp. matters of tradition, and how these state- 8, 34). A month later, on a trip with his wife ments are interpreted. The first judge was and both of the girls, he dropped off the wife uneasy with the argument from tradition and and youngest sister and drove on with the did not mince words. “Are you telling me it’s one he’d earlier isolated. He got out of the normative behaviour to have forcible sexual truck, took off all his clothes, pulled off her intercourse with your wife’s younger sister?” Intraracial Rape Revisited 405

(Transcript 1988/90, p. 17.) In his knowledge Ditton, 1980, pp. 66, 77). So, first, some ge- of Aboriginal culture, “forceable sex and sa- nealogical research could have illuminated distic behaviour was not part of the normal who could speak with authority to what is- cultural life” (p. 18). The judge asked for an sues. anthropologist with credentials that were to Second, in all the evidence regarding cus- include knowledge of the local community, tomary law and sexual relations with a wife’s its politics, the dynamics, culture and cus- younger sister, no one it seems asked about toms; and a real understanding of kinship how such relationships might be consumma- and the social obligations that go with kin ted. These are matters on which I have heard relations (pp. 21-22). He allowed this was “a women deliberate and when a second wife is tall order” (p. 22), but when we consider the a younger sister, as in this case, her integra- tall orders that have been filled in defence of tion into the marriage as a co-wife is nego- accused males in order to establish bench tiated with the senior wife, is gradual and marks, it was not tall at all. Not only had the monitored by families to ensure the young judge sought to unscramble the traditional woman is being treated properly (see Bell & considerations, he was also alert to the fact Ditton, 1980, pp. 27-28; Bell, 1980). In this that women and men had separate bodies of case the younger women were dragged off to knowledge, and he knew full well why he was isolated places, thrown on the ground, con- not hearing from women: In his words “his- fronted by a naked male, and violence was torically no one asks them,” (pp. 24-25). used to persuade (Transcript, 1988190, p. 8). Ultimately his insistence that a woman an- In transforming this non-traditional behav- thropologist talk to the women, and that iour into “custom,” the defence presented the women’s opinions be presented, were neglect- behaviours as consensual; as known to the ed. Male to male constructions of custom community (everyone knew and no one inter- predominated and this despite the caveat of fered); and as condoned by the father (pp. the Probation and Parole Officer that he was 34-35). Does the fact that the abuse was re- “not confident the truth has been extracted petitive make it less? Does the fact that oth- from such a complex situation” (p. 70). ers have turned a blind eye reduce the dam- What might a feminist anthropologist age to the girls? The girls had been taken have said? As in the Tennant Creek case, the away from their protectors, that is, older young women were shy, and those who were kinswomen, by a man who intimidated them adamant the behaviour of the accused was all; they had been subjected to menacing and “not alright” and that the girls were “afraid demeaning acts. Whether or not there was of his strength,” were close kin. Even from penetration is hardly the point [sic]. At An- the limited evidence available, it was appar- glo law they were under the age of consent, ent that persons with authority to pronounce and according to women’s law the behaviour on “arranged marriages,” the mother, father was wrong. But neither system was able to and an uncle, were clear that the alleged be- protect the girls. My third question then haviours were not “custom.” What more would focus on concepts of custom and con- could be needed? The conflict of opinion on sent. Can consent be understood to be con- what constituted custom came to be repre- sistent with “dependence, deprivation, and sented as, on the one hand, older women and objectification”? (Coombe, 1990, p. 23; see those with mission education versus, on the also MacKinnon, 1989, pp. 171-183). Just as other, “male elders” speaking tradition (Tran- we recognise the problematics of “consent” script 1988/90, p. 7). It would have been for all women in many aspects of Anglo-Au- helpful to separate out Christian influences, stralian law, so the question arises for Abori- from women’s law, from local politics, from ginal women: How do we speak of “consent” male as custom. It would have been helpful in the context of arranged marriages? to call evidence on women’s traditional ways The task facing the magistrate with the of protecting themselves from violent hus- two fighting women was of a different mag- bands; their rights to damage men who nitude to that facing the judges in the carnal transgressed; and the reasons why today knowledge case, but there are important les- these practices have fallen into disuse (see sons to be learned from the proceedings and Bell & Nelson, 1989, pp. 404, 411; Bell & decision in Tennant Creek regarding this in- 406 DIANE BELL direct mode of recognising customary law Who is going to unpick the self-decep- and empowering women. It would not have tions that have been legitimated in courts. happened without the presence of cross-cul- The turn around in taking evidence and al- tural communication and trust. These are lowing that women have a distinctive stance problems that exist at the intersections of two on the law has come from feminist dialogue value systems and making that explicit can with the law, not Aboriginal legal aid per se. empower women (see Bell, 1987). Expert evi- Of those cases of violence that make it to a dence can be called on women’s law, but one hearing, we find that rarely is it Aboriginal needs to know from whom. There needs to Legal Aid that is representing the woman, be a forum in which women may speak as Aboriginal Legal Aid or Australian Legal authorities, in the presence of women. The Aid appear for the rapist and in this way Supreme Court is an intimidatory masculine amass expertise when dealing with men. It forum and not one where one might expect would constitute a conflict of interest for the to hear the law articulated by women. same organisation to represent both victim and accused, but because the organisation ENGENDERED VIOLENCE: with the greatest access to communities, rou- REWRITING THE MASTER tinely represents men, the consequences for NARRATIVES Aboriginal society, gender relations and women in particular are stark. Rape and as- So, to where and to whom may women turn? sault of women has come to be seen as an Sharon Payne of the Law and Justice Depart- issue on which “their organisation” does not ment, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander represent women’s interests (see also Atkin- Commission (A.T.S.I.C.), states the dilem- son, 1989, p. 21; 199Oc, p. 20). ma well: The violence of dispossession and state dependency impinges differently on men and women. If this were not so then “patholo- Groups of Aboriginal women in the N.T. gies” (the patterning of custodial deaths, al- are now saying that they are being subject- coholism, interpersonal violence) explained ed to three types of law: “whites man’s by reference to colonisation and patriarchal law, traditional law and bullshit law,” the law, would be the same for men and women. latter being used to describe a distortion It isn’t: It registers in different ways, and men of traditional law used as a justification and women access the newly available re- for assault and rape of women (it’s Abori- sources differently (see Brady, 1989; Bell & ginal law you don’t interfere), or spending Ditton, 1980). The very fact that intraracial all the family income on alcohol and shar- rape is not on the political or legal agenda, ing it with his cousins, justifying the ac- but custodial deaths are, requires comment. tion as an expression of cultural identity The liberal conscience is moved by the statis- and as fulfilling familial obligations. . . . tics that give rise to a Royal Commission re- It is ironic too that it is the imposition of garding custodial deaths, yet few appear to the white law on traditional law which has acknowledge that this is gendered phenome- given rise to the newest form. (1990, p. 10) non. It is not Aborigines per se, it is mostly Aboriginal men and a rather restricted age Aboriginal women researchers have iden- group at that who are dying in custody. Un- tified the patriarchal nature of Anglo law as like critiques of othc? forms of violence over-determining women’s lives and have where an agent of the state can be identified criticised the lack of concern shown by those as the baddie, rape entails scrutinising so- working in the area of criminal justice system called “personal” relationships in the “do- for women (Atkinson, 1990a, p. 6). They mestic” domain. It requires an analysis of have been less clear in tracing the different interrelations of state formations, law, and impact of colonisation on men and women; the engendering of violence. Yet both, custo- of mapping the ways in which sex-specific dial deaths and rape, are about a crisis in manifestations of the law have been interna- masculinity. lised; and of proposing strategies that ad- Initially Atkinson hoped that the Deaths dress the empowerment of women. in Custody Inquiry (see Muirhead, 1988) Intraracial Rape Revisited 407 would somehow build on the work of the and “community justice mechanisms.” At- Australian Law Reform Commission (1986) kinson (199Oa, p. 7) argues for: and might extend to an investigation of wom- en. It is a reasonable expectation that once the right and ability to redefine and artic- the dimensions of the abuse of women be- ulate law, that is, the mechanisms of social come public, something will be done. But, organisation and social control which al- without an analysis of gender it is a difficult lowed our society to function in balance step. Both inquiries have been panned for and equity to both sexes prior to 1788. their white bias and overly legalistic stance, and Aboriginal women have added they pay This is not possible in any literal sense: The scant attention to women (Atkinson, 1990a, economic base of Aboriginal law has been 199Oc, p. 18). Here we have one of the deep destroyed, but the impulse that Aborigines contradictions in the politics of self-determi- may be empowered by taking more control nation. In pursuing arguments regarding over their own affairs is sound. How then is sovereignty, Aboriginal activists are often in this to be accomplished so that women are the difficult position of appealing to the not further marginalised by the spurious ap- agencies of the nation state to reform the peals to “tradition”? There is a draft of a law very law responsible for the initial disposses- reform proposal arguing that by-laws could sion. Attempts to get gender onto the self- empower local communities to deal with so- determination platform are met with the ar- cial problems (Atkinson, 1990a, p. 7). In gument that there is an Aboriginal budget terms of the case material presented above and if Aborigines want these things, “they” this is problematic: Rape is not a social prob- will allocate money accordingly. But, Abo- lem. There are suggestions for Aboriginal rigines are not an undifferentiated lobby and police. However, without extensive education women’s needs are not currently a priority. regarding women’s rights (in both legal sys- They are something to be dealt with after the tems), changing the race of the agent simply major political goals have been achieved. provides an opportunity for Aboriginal men This needs rethinking. The very survival of to participate in the male culture of the law the people requires that the current violence enforcement: It does not alter the basic prac- against women be addressed. It is a hard tices or values (see Atkinson, 1990a, p. 7; thing to acknowledge, and women (Abori- Bell & Ditton, 1980, p. 24). ginal and non-Aboriginal) within organisa- The suggestion that community justice tions, who have worked on the issues where a mechanisms, mediation, and conciliation woman’s standpoint is not consonant with may take Aboriginal disputes out of an arena that of Aboriginal men, have been dealt with that has proved hostile, and inadequate is in quite dramatic ways. likewise a sound impulse, but actual experi- Many people are, I think, still trapped ence should make us wary. First, we have a within the “master narratives” in our at- definitional issue. What is the community? tempts to theorise violence, gender, and race. A coresidential configuration? If so then The structural violence of colonisation, loss there is no necessary congruence between of self esteem, and breakdown of traditional that and traditional authority structures. society (see Atkinson, 199Ob- 199Oc) are criti- There are multiple overlays: The communi- cal themes in the writing of new scripts, but ties are colonial artefacts, the product of pol- we are yet, in de Lauretis’ terms, to speak icies of assimilation, forced removal of chil- from “elsewhere.” We have not yet pulled dren, dispossession and dislocation. Within back the last layer of self-mystification and such communities there may be groups that addressed our explanatory frames as meta- may deal with disputes within their own so- phors for transfers and consolidation of cial fields, but when their outcomes impinge male power. What we are yet to ask is who on others, then there is likely to be recourse profits from masking the gendered inequali- to other authorities and then violence en- ties in Aboriginal society, from the appeal to sues. Major intergroup disputes were settled custom, from the new “bullshit law”? in ceremonial contexts. Disputes involving It is from this standpoint that I would cri- alcohol, money, vehicles, rape, and child tique proposals for a return to “tradition” abuse, which now confront communities, are 408 DIANE BELL not amenable to religious law. Before Euro- by virtue of being a woman violated in a soci- pean contact, the law had no need to develop ety which has multiple modes of rendering ways of dealing with these problems, and the this less heinous than it actually is, that un- chances of mechanisms now evolving are derwrites her call on the resources of our so- constrained, in part, because authority struc- ciety. tures are fractured as Atkinson (1990a) ac- knowledges (see also Bell & Ditton, 1989, ENDN(TrES pp. 27-28). If disputes are to be settled by persons 1. In the six months after new domestic violence leg- with the right to speak, then we are talking islation was introduced in the N.T. (October, 1989) al- most half the restraining orders taken out in Alice about persons who may not be coresidential. Springs were by or on behalf of Aboriginal women (Ba- Who will make sure the appropriate women lendra, 1990). Hospital records provide another basis of are present? In many communities women comparison. In 1982 in the N.T., where Aborigines are have limited access to vehicles, driving li- 22% of the population, 232 Aboriginal women com- pared to 45 non-Aboriginal women were treated for in- cences, and channels of communication (see juries arising from “domestic violence.” Bell & Ditton, 1980, pp. 106-107). I find it 2. Hawkesworth (1989) divides feminist theories of hard to imagine that such groups would be knowledge into three: empiricist, standpoint, and post- constituted and reconstituted on a context modern. Despite the willingness of social scientists to dependent basis for each dispute, or that the acknowledge that there may be different perspectives, when it comes to malestream anthropology taking ac- move and counter move necessary would be count of feminist insights concerning engendered allowed to run its course, especially when it knowledge, empiricism is still the dominant paradigm: entails the inflicting of pain. For instance, that is, getting women into the picture is simply a matter my ethnography indicates that rapists were of more/better observations. Recognition that all ac- counts are relational, perspectival, and necessarily par- dealt with in a summary fashion by the fe- tial is resisted. Kristin Waters’ (1990) survey of feminist male kin of the victim. Would the agencies of standpoint theorists, identifies the following characteris- the state stand by and watch sex-specific vio- tics (a) rejects relativism; (b) endorses a particular eva- lence be inflicted on a man who under Anglo luative standpoint (anti-racist, classist, sexist); (c) privi- law is innocent until proved guilty? I think a leges feminists epistemically; (d) privileges oppressed races and classes. In Waters’ schema postmodernism can return to pre-1788 notions of proper punish- not be an epistemology. It is a critical theory, capable of ment for rapists would soon bring the cultur- deconstructing but not of putting things back together. I al relativists into print regarding individual note in passing that the flight from epistemology into human rights. representations by the postmodernist pioneers in anthro- pology, has eschewed an interest in gender and theories My plea for the forging of a feminist fu- of knowledge while purporting to explore power (see ture is that we build on our relationships as Mascia-Lees, Sharpe, St Cohen, 1989). women and work together to be the voice 3. As used here the term “community” does not con- from within the institutions (be they academ- note any internal coherence, or identity of interests, but ic, legal, bureaucratic) and from “elsewhere,” merely a coresidential configuration in which Aborigi- nes (and often a considerable number of non-Aborigi- in a feminist critique of the gender inflected nes) reside. Traditional land affiliations inform residen- discourses of those institutions. The man- tial choices but much is also the outcome of state date to be engaged in questions involving policies (see, i.e., Bell, 1983, pp. 73-89). women to me is self-evident but for those 4. Part of my contribution to Bell and Nelson (1989, pp. 406-407) was to highlight feminist insights regarding who are less certain, I offer my relational the aetiology of rape and the dearth of material about model as a means of thinking about cross- intraracial rape was striking. I have since learned of the cultural questions. So, for those feminists work of Laura Zimmer (1990) and Christine Bradley who want to “attempt the impossible” (1990) in Papua New Guinea. In terms of the conceptual (MacKinnon, 1987, p. 9), and work towards framing of rape as a feminist issue, I think there is more to be done in exploring the differences in emphasis be- a sustainable vision of a meaningful future, tween Susan Brownmiller (1975), and Catharine Mac- when faced with questions requiring atten- Kinnon (1987, D. 92: 1989. DD. 56. 173. 178) on domi- tion to gender and race, I would suggest rath- nance and sexuality;.and the insistence of Angela Davis er than privileging one over the other we ask: (1981, p. 178ff) and bell hooks (1981, pp. 51-59) that Brownmiller take into account the legacy of slavery and what analysis offers the greatest hope of em- “systematic devaluation of black womanhood” (Brown- powerment to the most disempowered? In miller, 1975, pp. 59-60). If these writers are read chrono- the case of rape it is the inequality of woman logically, there is, I think, an argument to be made for Intraracial Rape Revisited 409

seeing their theorising as deepening our appreciations of ginal women about “feminists” and the “women’s move- the dynamics of rape, in terms of race, culture, class, ment” entails stereotypes, which on closer scrutiny can- power, history, etc, rather than casting their critiques as not be sustained. See Bell (1988, pp. 123-128) and Bell oppositional. One common complaint is the difficulty and Nelson (1989, pp. 409-411) for overviews of Abori- of keeping rape on the political agenda (see Carmody, ginal women’s writing on their relationship to the so- 1990, pp. 303-308) and the way it is politically exploited called white women’s movement. This is an issue that when it is on the agenda (see Pleck, 1990). There is also deserves another paper. Here I note that “I’m not a femi- the question of the relationship between pornography nist but . . . I like equal pay,” is a formulation that west- and violence, which Topsy Nelson (Bell & Nelson, 1989, ern feminists understand as underscoring the “true per- p. 413) and other researchers have raised (see Atkin- ception that the Women’s Movement is radical son, 1989, pp. 11-14) and which Catharine MacKinnon and . . . the false perception that it is monolithic” and Andrea Dworkin locate as central to any analysis of (Stimpson, 1979, p. 62). However, we are loathe to apply rape (see MacKinnon, 1987, pp. 127-133). the insight to minority women who declare that the 5. I am relying on secondary sources with respect to women’s movement, feminism, or other women have Atkinson (1990d) and Bolger (1990). They have been had no impact on their lives but rely on functions or- reviewed in the Aboriginal Law Bulletin, but are not yet ganised by feminists to network and deliver speeches. widely available. There are significant differences be- See for example the comments of Jo Willmot after at- tween Atkinson’s (1989) draft and the published form tending the 1985 meetings in Nairobi (Huggins, 1990b; (Atkinson, 1990 b&c), so I have made reference to both The Age, July 14, 1990). pieces. 10. In Central Australia Aboriginal men and women 6. “REAL Men,” a Boston based group, has as its rarely sit together at large meetings to discuss communi- charter to own the violence that men inflict on women as ty matters. They hold separate meetings and decisions a manifestation of a crisis in masculinity. They work to are negotiated and/or made known through kin, cere- educate other men regarding the valourisation of mis- monial, and land based relationships. Because most per- ogyny in American culture. O’Shane (1990, pp. 10-l 1) sons seeking information about and consulting with Ab- argues that if violence is an expression of powerlessness origines have been male, Aboriginal men have had easy (i.e., women are victims because they are powerless), access to information coming into communities, where- then men’s violence is an expression of their powerless- as for women it has been problematic. This separation is ness in the wider society. Solutions for the problem at breaking down, but seeing men as the cultural brokers this level require a restructuring of Australian society in has become codified as “custom” for many cross-cuhur- which Aborigines are too often an underclass. My con- al negotiations. See Bell and Ditton (1980, pp. 13-14): cern is that in the macro-strategising attention is paid to Bell (1987, pp. 308-309). the plight of women and that in addressing the politics 11. Bell (1988) contains some of the material pre- of liberation of a people, we do not overlook the fact sented, but not the discussion of Aboriginal women’s that there are men and women, that is, that the rights strategies vis a vis urbanisation. I note with interest the won will be enjoyed by both sexes. debate between Susan Kent (1989) and Bruce Knauft 7. Many of women’s activities, which contributed to (1990) regarding the nature of violence and authority in their ability to punish men in specific ways, and more newly sedentary societies (the Basarwa in Botswana) generally to minimise the conditions under which wom- which takes up some of those issues. en could be violated, have been curtailed by the inroads 12. Heather Radi (1984) argued that Aboriginal of missionary activity, welfare agencies and state policies women fled the violence of their menfolk into the arms on the delicate system of checks and balances that guar- of Whites; that abject poverty drove them to prostitu- anteed women a negotiating position vis a vis their men- tion; and having characterised my model of the transfor- folk. Women’s most spectacular punishment relied on mation of gender relations on the colonial frontier as sex-specific aspects of Aboriginal law. Given that most “linear” asserted, by reference to literature from a num- anthropologists have been male these have been largely ber of observations (mostly from men and mostly from invisible to researchers (see Bell, 1987). the east coast) that it could not be sustained. 8. For instance, Marian Sawer (1990) in writing of 13. See Bell (1988, p. 123), Huggins et al. (this vol- bureaucratic cross-cultural exchanges has generated a ume); Bell (personal communication). One constant genealogy for the Aboriginal Women’s lhsk Force. theme in the four accounts I have thus far gathered is Those feminists who have worked on various reports for that some Aboriginal women objected to some papers a range of organisations and government agencies have dealing with Aboriginal women that were scheduled to hidden histories of their encounters. (I certainly do of be presented by some white women. Some Aboriginal my work in the area of law reform.) Sometimes the lack women negotiated with some white women. Some pa- of fit with the dominant modelling of the “problem” pers were withdrawn; some were presented. The narra- under scrutiny gives rise to a minority report, but more tives converge and diverge around the points of articula- often it is filed away as a source of personal frustration. tion of gender, race, and feminist politics. In terms of the model of relationality developed here, I 14. My taped copy of the broadcast is archived in note that the work of Karen Warren (1989, pp. 17-20) on Australia. In the U.S.A. I have my notes of the tape of ecofeminism proposes a similar focus on interconnec- sessions (October 19, 1984) which were edited back to tions between all systems of oppression and I thank form the broadcast and my notes of the broadcast. Mary Ann Hinsdale for bringing this piece to my atten- 15. The uterus, “baby pouch,” is thought of as nts- tion. pended in a delicate web of threads, and violence (un- 9. Langton (1989) makes a case for giving “credit welcomed sex with young girls with persons other than where credit is due,” but much of the writing of Abori- one who stands in a spouse-like relationship) breaks the 410 DUNE BELL

strings. The violation is often spoken of as one of both When I asked what might happen to him, I was told that physical and personal integrity. The uterus is not merely was “men’s business,” but the older women added that if a reproductive organ. An assault that damages her body he continued to “run around,” then they would no long- also violates a woman’s integrity and she can no longer er consider the marriage worth defending, and Irene expect support from relatives. could leave if she wished. The dispute would then be 16. I have given the persons involved in this case negotiated by the families, that is, men and women act- pseudonyms to provide a degree of privacy. We work ing in terms of the interests of kin and country at stake with small populations and ultimately it is impossible to in the marriage. disguise identities. Dealing with confidentiality with re- 21. Unlike his fellow judges on the Supreme Court, spect to one’s own case material is relatively straight this judge had worked with Aborigines in several differ- forward (as long as one is not giving evidence in court ent capacities: as Aboriginal Land Commissioner, as for there is no privilege attached to fieldnotes). My prac- counsel for the N.T. government, and as counsel for the tice has been to record the status of the information traditional owners in a land claim where the need for (e.g., for women only, restricted to certain families, age restricted women’s submission was made (see Bell, 19841 groups, localities, etc.) and to make publications availa- 5). I worked with him on that claim. He had seen at first ble so that people can see what I’d written. I do not hand the gendered landscape of Aboriginal law and cer- undertake covert research. But, dealing with court tran- emony. scripts is different. It is not material generated under field conditions. The material is on the public record and scholars who wish to consult the sources should be REFERENCES able to do so, but because I am anxious to minimise “casual voyeurism,” please contact me if you wish to Atkinson, Judy. (1989). Violence in Aboriginal Austra- know more of this case. lia. Draft manuscript. (Revised and published as 17. Pam Ditton, the lawyer with Central Australian Atkinson 1990 b&c). Aboriginal Legal Aid Service (C.A.A.L.A.S.) often rep- Atkinson, Judy. (1990a). Violence against Aboriginal resented Aborigines clients in Tennant Creek. She knew women: Reconstitution of customary law-the way the local women well and had their trust. We had under- forward. Aboriginal Law Bulletin, 2(46), 6-9. taken joint research in the area of women and customary Atkinson, Judy. (199Ob). Violence in Aboriginal Austra- law (see Bell & Ditton, 1980) and the older women in- lia: Colonisation and gender. Part 1. The Aboriginal volved in this case were familiar with our work. This was and Islander Health Worker 14(2), 5-21. the first time the duress defence had been raised by an Atkinson, Judy. (1990~). Violence in Aboriginal Austra- Aboriginal in the Northern Territory and for that reason lia: Colonisation and gender. Part 2. The Aboriginal alone, the case warrants a detailed examination. The and Islander Health Worker 14(3), 4-27. defence was a way of according legitimacy to the culture Atkinson, Judy. (Ed). (1990d). Beyond violence: Find- that merely admitting arguments concerning duress as ing the dream. Video and booklet produced by the mitigation does not achieve. It allowed that Aboriginal Aboriginal and Islander Subprogram, National Do- culture may be sufficient excuse from criminal liability. mestic Violence Education Program. Canberra: Of- 18. The magistrate was prepared to accept this. I had fice of Status of Women. discussed it with the women before giving evidence and Australian Law Reform Commission. (1986). 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