The Lartelare Glanville Land Rights Movement in Adelaide
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The Otemon Journal of Australian Studies, vol.37, pp.101−115, 2011 101 The Lartelare Glanville Land Rights Movement in Adelaide: Through the Experiences of an Aboriginal Woman Ritsuko Kurita Postdoctoral Fellow, Hiroshima University Introduction This paper clarifies the characteristics of an Aboriginal land rights movement in an urban set- ting through the experiences of an Aboriginal woman, Veronica Brodie, who initiated a land rights movement for her great-grandmother’s land in North Western Adelaide. In South Australia there has been a prevailing attitude that the native titles can be claimed primarily by Aboriginal people in the far north and far west of the state, where the traditional culture as it existed before colonisa- tion is still strongly maintained [Agius et al. 2002: 4]. This position is due to the fact that most land legislations such as Native Title Act 19931) restrict claims to ‘traditional Aboriginal owners’ and demand that claimants demonstrate a genealogical connection between their present and past customary beliefs and prove their traditional connection with the land [Tonkinson 1998: 290]. On the other hand, the Aboriginal people who have been displaced from their ancestral lands and now live in the city and country towns in South Australia found a way of claiming their land rights through the Aboriginal Heritage Act 1988 (SA)2), which aimed to protect and preserve Abo- riginal sites, objects or remains3). The occurrence of urban Aboriginal people’s claims for land ──────────────────── 1)A legislation enacted as a result of the decision of the High Court in the Mabo case (Mabo v Queensland 1992). The main objects of the act are to provide for the recognition and protection of native title; to es- tablish ways in which future dealings affecting native title may proceed, and to set standards for those dealings; to establish the National Native Title Tribunal to determine claims to native title; and to provide for, or permit, the validation of past acts invalidated because of the existence of native title. Native title procedures are likely to be the first mechanism native title holders, claimants or potential claimants use to protect their heritage from changes to land use (Native Title Act 1993, Evatt 1996: 24−26). 2)A legislation passed by South Australia’s Parliament to protect Aboriginal heritage. Under this legislation, all Aboriginal sites, objects and remains in South Australia that are of significance to Aboriginal tradition, archaeology, anthropology and/or history are protected by making it a criminal offence for any person to damage Aboriginal sites or objects without authority. The Aboriginal Heritage Branch, a branch of the Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation Division (AARD) of the Department of the Premier and Cabinet, ad- ministers the Act on behalf of the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation (Aboriginal Heritage Act 1988, Evatt 1996: 321−322). 3)An Aboriginal heritage agreement may, for example, restrict the use of land to which it applies; require specified work or work of a specified kind to be carried out in accordance with specified standards on the land; restrict the nature of work that may be carried out on the land; and provide for the management of ! 102 The Lartelare Glanville Land Rights Movement in Adelaide rights was in parallel with the cultural revival movement initiated mainly by Aboriginal activists and elders in southern South Australia since the 1980s. For example, the Hindmarsh Island Bridge affair in the early 1990s, in which some of the Ngarrindjeri people of the lower Murray claimed the significance of their cultural heritage to prevent the construction of a bridge over sites sacred for Ngarrindjeri women drew public attention throughout Australia4) [cf. Bell 1998, Kenny 1996, Brunton 1996]. Furthermore, claims for cultural heritage made by the Aboriginal people have been increasing in Adelaide since 20005). The case study presented in this paper is one of the prominent examples of such claims for Aboriginal cultural heritage in Adelaide. Compared with those on native title claims in remote Australia, studies on native title claims in ‘settled’ Australia are limited [Keen 1999]. Moreover, little attention has been given to native ti- tle claims made by the Aboriginal people in the capital cities [e.g. Burns 2011]. It is assumed that the approach of land rights movement in urban settings is different from that in remote areas be- cause of the more complex social circumstances in the urban areas. For example, native title claims in remote areas are generally made at a group level, but this is not always the case in the Aborigi- nal people in urban areas. Because of the diversity among the urban Aboriginal people in terms of birth-places, residential areas and socioeconomic conditions, their claims are more likely to be made at a family or an individual level. Given this situation, a case study of the land rights move- ment in Adelaide can be expected to provide new insight into the Aboriginal land rights move- ments. This paper will first describe a brief history and the present-day situation of the Kaurna peo- ple, the indigenous inhabitants of the Adelaide Plains, in parts 1 and 2. In part 3, it will discuss the cases of Veronica Brodie, an Aboriginal woman of Kaurna-Ngarrindjeri descent, and her connec- tion to her ancestors’ land on the basis of her life experiences. In part 4, an overview of the land ──────────────────── ! the land, or any Aboriginal site, object or remains in accordance with a particular management plan and others (Aboriginal Heritage Act 1988). 4)Hindmarsh Island is an island near the mouth of the Murray River, 70 km south-east of Adelaide. The state government and marina developers proposed the construction of a bridge linking Goolwa to the is- land. Some Ngarrindjeri women opposed the construction because there were secret sites on the island that the women considered sacred. This claim, however, was rejected by another group of Ngarrindjeri women who did not know about these sites. The state government established a Royal commission to investigate this matter and in 1995 concluded that the original claim had been fabricated to prevent the bridge from being built. It is generally said that this affair divided Ngarrindjeri women into groups termed as the ‘pro- ponent women’ and the ‘dissident women’ which contested the legitimacy of the knowledge of sacred sites. Some politicians, anthropologists and local residents were also involved in the debate over the sacred sites (Bell 1998, Kenny 1996, Brunton 1996). 5)For example, in 2009 an Aboriginal man of Ramindjeri descent made a native title claim on land stretch- ing from Adelaide to Kangaroo Island. Because a significant portion of the land in question had already been claimed by the Kaurna (lodged in 2000) and the Ngarrindjeri (lodged in 1998), this provoked contro- versy among these regional groups (The Advertiser 20 November, 2009). In 2010, some of the Kaurna people called on the government to halt the construction of a rail bridge over the Onkaparinga River be- cause it would damage sacred Kaurna sites along the river (The Messenger 24 March, 2010). Ritsuko Kurita 103 rights movement initiated by Brodie and the Lartelare Glanville Land Action Group will be pro- vided. Consequently, in part 5, the characteristics of the movement will be discussed, focusing on Brodie’s relations with other Aboriginal and local non-Aboriginal people. 1. A Brief History of Kaurna According to Tindale, an anthropologist, at the time of British colonisation in South Australia in 1836, the Kaurna territory extended from Crystal Brook to Cape Jervis and to the western edge of the Mount Lofty Ranges [Tindale 1974: 213]. The Kaurna people were comprised of several small groups of people or ‘hordes’ who shared the same or a similar language. In the 1830s and 1840s, when describing Aboriginal groups, most observers used the term ‘tribe’ combined with European place names such as the ‘Adelaide tribe’, the ‘Mount Barker tribe’ and the ‘Encounter Bay tribe’ [Hemming 1990: 129]. A group this paper mainly deals with is the ‘Port Adelaide tribe’ who resided in the western extremity of the territory of the Wirra Kaurna, northern group within theKaurnanation. As a consequence of the destruction of the traditional social organisation by the dispossession of Kaurna land and the devastation of the Kaurna population due to the epidemic brought by Euro- peans, it is generally believed that most of the Kaurna people were forced to leave Kaurna Plains by the late 1840s. The remaining Kaurna were absorbed into the neighbouring ‘Narungga’ people of York Peninsula and the ‘Ngarrindjeri’ people of Lower Murray. By 1850 it was believed by some Europeans that the Kaurna were virtually ‘extinct’ [Amery 2000: 49]. From the 1850s to 1860s, fifteen missions were established in South Australia for the purposes of Christianisation and ‘civilisation’ of Aboriginal people. Under Aborigines Act of 19116) jurisdic- tion of the missions were transferred to the state government and the Aboriginal people were segre- gated in government-operated reserves. After enforced to move to the missions, the Kaurna inter- married with the ‘Narungga’ of Point Pearce or the ‘Ngarrindjeri’ at Point McLeay (Raukkan)7) Missions. The Ngarrindjeri people, one of the most prominent local groups of the Aboriginal peo- ple in South Australia, formed a nation which numbered approximately 3000 people at the time of European colonisation. The Ngarrindjeri were physically and culturally different from the neigh- bouring local groups including the Kaurna, having a distinctive language and custom. For example, their language did not have one word in common with the Kaurna and they did not have a custom ──────────────────── 6)This act was designed for protection of Aboriginal people from harmful influences of the European society such as alcohol and prostitution.