Aboriginal power in Australian society

Abstract

IntroductionAborigines lack both the ideological and economic bases of power inncontemporary Australian society; for the most part, they controlnneither things nor ideas. White Australians (and foreign-based corporations)ncontrol most resources: they control the means of productionnand distribution. They are influential in defining needs, and they arenable, by and large, to determine how and whether or not these needsnare fulfilled. This, of course, was not always so. For thousands of yearsnAustralia's Aboriginal inhabitants were, or at least so they thought,nabsolute masters of the universe - it was their continent. They controllednthe physical world that surrounded them, and they defined hownpower over things and over people was to be obtained and reproduced.nThis situation changed drastically when European colonists arrived. In anvery real sense, Aborigines lost control over things and they lost thenability to define the situation, although recognition of this fact wasnsometimes slow to materialize. Aborigines were deprived of power, andnsince their initial incorporation into Australian society they have beennsearching for a satisfactory place in the new socio-economic order.n n The authors of the chapters that follow address themselves to annexamination of the evolution of power in relation to Australia's aboriginalnpopulation from the pre-contact period to the present. Thenchapters approach the study of power historically and in a wide rangenof settings. The book as a whole is especially concerned with Aboriginalnpower as it has been influenced by Aboriginal incorporation intonAustralian society, and with the transformations that have occurred as anresult of this incorporation. n The initial chapters (those by Kolig, Turner, Maddock, Myers, andnTonkinson) pay particular attention to power relations and ideologiesnin traditional and tradition-oriented Aboriginal societies, and to thenimpact of contact with non-Aboriginal peoples. The discussion focusesnprimarily upon northern and central Australia, although the pointsnraised are of more general relevance. n Examination of the traditional situation is intended to allow for anbetter knowledge of the precise political effects of integration intonAustralian society. An understanding of traditional patterns andnconcepts is of additional importance because of the central role thatnperceived Aboriginal traditions continue to play in the politicalndialogue between whites and Aborigines.n n The normative basis of power in the pre-conquest setting, and amongntradition-oriented Aborigines today, was religious in nature, as expressednin Dreamtime mythology and the Law (see Stanner 1958,nBerndt 1965). To traditional Aborigines, power rested on religiousndogma and the performance of rituals. Religion and ritual were centralnto control of the environment, for access to and maintenance ofnresources; and those possessing the relevant knowledge and the right tonperform the necessary rituals were afforded power as guardians of thenworld order. For individuals, power was acquired through the mediumnof kinship and by mastery of religious lore.n

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