Preaud PHD Summary
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This file is part of the following reference: Preaud, Martin (2009) Loi et culture en pays Aborigenes ; anthropologie des resaux autochtones du Kimberley, Nord- Ouest de l'Australie. PhD thesis, James Cook University Access to this file is available from: http://eprints.jcu.edu.au/11819 Country, Law & Culture Anthropology of Indigenous Networks from the K i m b e r l e y A Thesis in anthropology submitted by MARTIN PRÉAUD March 2009 for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the School of Arts and Social Sciences James Cook University Supervisors: Dr Rosita Henry Dr Barbara Glowczewski 1 STATEMENT OF A C C E S S I, the undersigned, author of this work, understand that James Cook University will make this thesis available for use within the University Library and, via the Australian Digital Theses network, for use elsewhere. I understand that, as an unpublished work, a thesis has significant protection under the Copyright Act and; I do not wish to place any further restriction on access to this work. March 9th 2009 Signature Date 2 DECLARATIONS I declare that this thesis is my own work and has not been submitted in any form for another degree or diploma at any university or other institution of tertiary education. Information derived from the published or unpublished work of others has been acknowledged in the text and a list of references is given. I, the undersigned, the author of this work, declare that the electronic copy of this thesis provided to the James Cook University Library is an accurate copy of the print thesis submitted, within the limits of the technology available. Signature Date March 09th 2009 3 D ECLARATION ON E THICS The research presented and reported in this thesis was conducted within the guidelines for research ethics outlined in the National Statement on Ethics Conduct in Research Involving Human (1999), the Joint NHMRC/AVCC Statement and Guidelines on Research Practice (1997), the James Cook University Policy on Experimentation Ethics. Standard Practices and Guidelines (2001), and the James Cook University Statement and Guidelines on Research Practice (2001). The proposed research methodology received clearance number H 1997 Signature : Name : Martin Préaud Date 26.04. 2099 4 A CKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to thank and acknowledge here all of those who, during my journeys in Australia, have welcomed me to their lives, houses and countries. My gratitude primarily goes to the staff and members of KALACC – Joe Brown, Butcher Wise, Tom Lawford, Ismahl Croft, Wes Morris, and Ken Robinson – as well as to the people at the MASWAC and Mangkaja Art Centres, the staff and members of the KLC and the people from the Fitzroy Valley who have taught me so much not only for my research but also for my personal life. Australian hospitality, whether Indigenous or not, is no a vain stereotype and I am indebted to a lot of people who have taken care of me, fed me, lent a swag or a mattress and have been willing to share their ideas, their family lives and affection with me. From Townsville to Fitzroy Crossing and Jarlmadangah, from Cairns to Broome and Bayulu, without forgetting Darwin, Ski Beach, Galiwin’ku and Murwangi, I have always been able to count on the generosity of the people I gratefully thank here. This research work could not have been possible without the critical help, the advice and comments that my two supervisors, Dr Rosita Henry and Dr Barbara Glowczewski have given me, and without the autonomy they let me enjoy in my endeavours. I owe to their cooperation and friendship the possibility to have undertaken this doctoral research under a joint supervision agreement signed between James Cook University and the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, a rich context from which to develop bridges and correspondences between research traditions and diverging national problematics. I also wish to thank all the members of the School of Arts and Social Sciences (formerly School of Anthropology, Archaeology and Sociology), and most particularly Dr Robin Rodd and Dr Marcus Barber for the quality of their questions and hospitality. For their ongoing and extensive support, whether affective, financial or editorial, for having encouraged me to go to the other side of the world and carry on with my studies, and for their educating me into the world of art, I most warmly thyank my parents Tamara and Maxime Préaud. 5 I also wish to acknowledge the financial support of the French department of Foreign Affairs (Lavoisier cotutelle grants programme), the Laboratory of Social Anthropology and the James Cook Univeristy, without which my fieldwork could not have been possible. Throughout my journey and research, I have benefited from the wise advice and warm support from numerous colleagues and friends, in particular the Australian group gathered around Barbara Glowczewski in Paris – Pierre Brochet, Estelle Castro, Jessica de Largy Healy, Geraldine Leroux, Arnaud Morvan, Maïa Ponsonnet – and many more, known for a long or short time – Delphine, Jean Fenton, Fabio Gucci and Rebecca Coate, Simon Keenan, Bryce King, Steve Kinnane, the Koala Team, Stéphane Lacam, Marcia Langton, Bernard Moizo, Phil Palmer, Will Philipiaddis, Andrish Saint-Clare, Phyllis, Tom Vigilante, Hugh Wallace-Smith -, who have all guided me and helped me to carry out my project. I also wish to thank the researchers and academics who have invited me to present the development of my research in their seminar and and encouraged me to pursue and deepen my ideas – Laurent Barry and Jin Cheng, Bernard Muller and Thierry Bonnot, Caterina Pasqualino, Marie Salaün, Robin Rodd and the 2006 AAS conference organisers in Cairns. Last but not least, I wish to express the happiness and joy Helene Leblois has brought to my life and whose midnight “why?” questions have not only helped me finish this thesis but have given a sense to it by opening it on a shared future. Without her loving presence and her rigorous philosophical interrogations I may not have been able to complete this work. 6 A BSTRACT This thesis concerns Indigenous agency, socio-political and cultural systems, and their reproduction by means of performances within the contemporary Australian state. It examines the cultural politics of Indigeneity developed by Kimberley Aboriginal people through their regional organisations. It presents an ethnographic study of Indigenous modes of representation and organisation based on fieldwork carried out with the Kimberley Aboriginal Law and Culture Centre, a grass-roots Indigenous regional organisation federating thirty distinct groups, between 2005 and 2007. As such, the thesis gives particular attention to contemporary Indigenous practices of cultural representation and political action. The study aims at providing an anthropological understanding of the continuing cultural and political salience of the difference between Aboriginal people and Kartiyas . Engaging with the concept and practice of Law and Culture, initial research questions have been reframed in terms of the reproduction of the Kimberley as a set of Indigenous countries. Developing a relational approach, using a regional and a local perspective, the thesis provides with accounts of the relational field of interdependencies between the Australian State and its Indigenous habitants. Experiential and historical constructions of Country, cultural logics of Indigenous ritual and political agency, processes of indigenisation of the Australian modernity and current models of Indigenous sustainable development in the Kimberley are successively examined in order to allow for a processual and performative understanding of Indigenous articulations of their subjectivity, agency and identity. The thesis develops a theoretical framework discussing intercultural and ontological models of Indigeneity and argues for a territorialising and performative approach to the definition of Indigenous singularities, drawing on the Indigenous concepts of Country and Law and Culture to frame anew notions of orality, culture and land. Keywords : Indigenous Australia, Orality, Political Representation, Agency, Social anthropology. 7 C ONTENTS COUNTRY, LAW & CULTURE ........................................................................................................................ 1 ANTHROPOLOGY OF INDIGENOUS NETWORKS FROM THE KIMBERLEY .................................... 1 STATEMENT OF ACCESS ................................................................................................................................ 2 DECLARATIONS ................................................................................................................................................ 3 DECLARATION ON ETHICS............................................................................................................................ 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.................................................................................................................................. 5 ABSTRACT........................................................................................................................................................... 7 CONTENTS........................................................................................................................................................... 8 TABLE OF ILLUSTRATIONS......................................................................................................................... 11 PREFACE...........................................................................................................................................................