University of Wollongong Research Online University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 2017+ University of Wollongong Thesis Collections 2019 Pathways into History: Experiencing the Contemporary Aboriginal past on the Bundian Way Jodie Stewart University of Wollongong Follow this and additional works at: https://ro.uow.edu.au/theses1 University of Wollongong Copyright Warning You may print or download ONE copy of this document for the purpose of your own research or study. The University does not authorise you to copy, communicate or otherwise make available electronically to any other person any copyright material contained on this site. You are reminded of the following: This work is copyright. Apart from any use permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part of this work may be reproduced by any process, nor may any other exclusive right be exercised, without the permission of the author. Copyright owners are entitled to take legal action against persons who infringe their copyright. 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For further information contact the UOW Library: [email protected] Pathways into History: Experiencing the Contemporary Aboriginal past on the Bundian Way Jodie Stewart Supervisors: Associate Professor Georgine Clarsen and Professor Bronwyn Carlson. This thesis is presented as part of the requirement for the conferral of the degree: Doctor of Philosophy This research has been conducted with the support of the Australian Government Research Training Program scholarship University of Wollongong, School of Humanities and Social Inquiry August 2019 Abstract The Bundian Way Project is an initiative of the Eden Local Aboriginal Land Council (LALC) who are revitalising an Aboriginal pathway that stretches from Bilgalera (Fisheries Beach), south of Eden on the New South Wales far south coast to Targangal (Mount Kosciousko), in the Australian high country. The project seeks to celebrate and highlight a deep Aboriginal past, as well as recuperate Aboriginal cultural practices and knowledge systems that helped to sustain people and place for several millennia. Aboriginal Elders and activists engaged with the project hope to share histories that communicate the shared Aboriginal use of the pathway and how post- invasion Aboriginal people guided settler peoples along their ancestral trails. As a ‘shared history’ pathway, the Bundian Way has been viewed as a mechanism for reconciliation and as a way of building more productive cross-cultural relations. This thesis is an exploration of Aboriginal history-making undertaken by Elders and activists engaged with the project. In particular, this thesis seeks to understand how a small group of non-Aboriginal people are responding to this history-making and what these responses might mean to the process of ‘reconciliation’ on the far south coast. This thesis employs qualitative interviews and ethnographic research to consider the many ways that the contemporary Aboriginal past is thought about and utilised via engagements with the Bundian Way project. Elders and activists engaged with the project are drawing on embodied and emplaced practices, and their lived experience as Aboriginal people in settler Australia to (re)imagine histories that can evoke more hopeful futures. Drawing on their words, I argue that their history-making is present-centred and future-orientated and is helping them and their community to build better lives in settler Australia. Non-Indigenous people are thinking about the histories communicated to them by Aboriginal people in various ways; through the body, material and emplaced practices and through specific affects. I argue that these ways of knowing ii (re)produce particular understandings of Aboriginal and settler pasts. I also argue that these understandings are often informed by settler emotions, which can impact on the development of productive cross-cultural relations through the project. Through the Bundian Way ‘shared history’ pathway, Aboriginal Elders and activists are telling more honest histories of the far south coast that foreground the deep Aboriginal past and assert the fundamental difference of Indigenous sovereignty. This process of history-making is challenging some non-Indigenous people to think differently about Aboriginal and settler pasts. This thesis examines how this unfolding process, initiated by Elders and activists on the far south coast, is received, interpreted and utilised by some non-Aboriginal people in the place they call home. iii Acknowledgements First and foremost, I would like to thank the Elders and activists who shared their knowledge and insights with me. This project would not have been possible without their generosity. I want to thank BJ and Ossie Cruse, Aileen Blackburn, Darren Mongta, and Warren Foster. Thank you for inviting me into your communities and for helping me understand better the places that we inhabit. Profuse thanks also go to Les Kosez, who was my main point of contact at the Eden Local Aboriginal Land Council. Your workload was immense, but you always made room and time for me and provided ongoing support and encouragement. I can't thank you enough. Likewise, Eden LALC CEO Penny Stewart – thank you for always making me welcome. I would also like to thank Indigenous colleagues Aunty Barbara Nichols and Professor Kathy Clapham. Thank you for helping to guide me through the ethics application process. University ethics can be a complicated process, and you both helped to make it that little bit smoother. Thank you to the young Aboriginal men and women who took time out of their day to speak with me. You introduced me to a world I will never experience but will always endeavour to better understand. Thank you Meaghan Holt for helping to facilitate my research with schools. Your help and support was invaluable. To all my non-Indigenous participants, I thank you. I am immensely grateful for your honesty and generosity. Bundian Way project manager, Noel Whittem's, ongoing support was also pivotal to my research. Thank you, Noel, for always taking the time to meet with me and answer my questions. iv In the early days of my research, I reached out to several scholars for advice and counsel. Thank Anna Clark, Denis Byrne, Michael Adams, Michael Organ, Peter Ricketson, and Mark McKenna for providing me with invaluable academic guidance and support. John Blay's gentle wisdom and generosity were instrumental to my research as was the consideration shown by Bundian Way Advisory Committee members Franz Peters and Karen Cash. Thank you to my professional editor, Ruth McHugh who, with patience and humility, worked under very tight deadlines. Thank you to my colleagues at the University of Wollongong, Bega campus. Thank you for your ongoing encouragement but most of all for letting me talk, sometimes incessantly, about this thesis! In particular, I want to thank Chris Brennan-Horley for all your help and support over the many years we sat together in the UOW, Bega research office. To Michelle Gaddes, Jacqui Keogh and Karen Tarpey, thank you for always being my biggest champions. I also want to thank Noe Lumby for her friendship and belief in me throughout this process. Thank you to my associate supervisor, Professor Bronwyn Carlson. Your advice and support were invaluable. To my primary supervisor Associate Professor Georgine Clarsen, thank you for all your support, guidance, and reassurance over the last 4.5 yrs. You saw me through the PhD highs and lows with professionalism and grace, which made a world of difference. And to my family - Paul and my daughters' Teah and Ava. When we started this academic journey together almost 5 years ago, I think we all thought that this day would never come. It is here, and I hope that I made you all proud. v Certification I, Jodie Louise Stewart declare that this thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the conferral of the degree Doctor of Philosophy, from the University of Wollongong, is wholly my own work unless otherwise referenced or acknowledged. This document has not been submitted for qualifications at any other academic institution. Jodie Louise Stewart 31 August, 2019 vi Declaration Chapters in this thesis draw on publications produced during this candidature. Publications 1. Jodie Stewart, ‘History By Doing: Reclaiming Indigenous Women’s Sovereignty through Embodied History’, Lilith: A Feminist History Journal 25 (Nov 2019). 2. Jodie Stewart, ‘Cross-cultural encounters: reconceptualising shared histories on the Bundian Way’, Postcolonial Studies Journal 23, no.1 (2019): 116-131 vii Maps. Figure I: The Bundian Way Heritage Route: courtesy of Shannon Brennan, Local Land Services, NSW. viii Figure