Art and Culture

Today was spent touring the art sites of Northern Kakadu and moving into areas adjacent to the Arnhem Escarpment. This area is notable for its vast floodplains and distinctive rock formations, ancient and eroded.

Quite luckily for us we met up with a ranger talk at one of the art sites. Our ranger, a red-headed Irishman with the fairest of skin, explained in 15 minutes more of the essence of aboriginal society than I have so far accumulated in my life. In simple terms he managed to explain the rules of society, clans, languages, marriages and kinship, and the link between land, art, stories, language and heritage. In doing so, it becomes very obvious why land is central to aboriginal culture, why heritage can only be passed orally in the context of the land, and why breaking any of those links destroys the culture in a generation. From that it follows that land dispossession and the stolen generation effectively terminate a culture. 60 years ago there were 12 clan groups and languages in the Katherine/Kakadu/Arnhem area. Today there are only 4-6. In addition, the ease with which clans can mingle is merging the remaining languages and so this number will likely reduce.

As best I can explain it, there is a 4 generation cycle governed by the passing from mother  to child. The skin-group moves one step around the cycle in passing from mother to child. Your skin group defines which other skin group you may marry. It also defines who are your aunts, brothers etc, with whom you may associate, with whom you must not associate, and who you must treat as if they are family, even if they are not a blood relative. In addition you are assigned to one of two moiety. All things have a moiety, including landscapes, foods and people, and with such an assignment, it also defines which foods you can eat, and which types of tools you may use etc.

So with these two basic assignments, clan inbreeding is avoided, because you are at least four generations removed from a blood relative in marriage, and moiety affectively removes competition for food to a degree. Outsiders accepted into a clan are given a skin group and a moiety and so can participate in the clan and follow the rules as required. The rules are basically the same across adjacent clans in the Northern Territory at least as far south as the Central Desert regions, and so inter-clan movement is allowed under the same strict assignment rules.

So how does this relate to country and art? Well, the example given was at one of the art sites in Nourlangie. There is a rule of society about appropriate relationships as outlined above. There is a story passed down orally, but accompanied by pictures painted at an art site for explanation about what happened to a couple who had an inappropriate relationship. Part of the story tells of a feather taken from one of the couple and thrown high on a ridge overlooking the surrounding country. That feather exists as a single stone and can be seen over much of the clan lands, and so acts as a permanent reminder to all of the importance of following the rules.

More confirmation of the history of sickness country, with the art sites depicting what happens with people who spend too long in sickness country, and the overlaying of a map of uranium deposits and sickness country.

Watched some more crocs at Cahills Crossing on the East Alligator river at the border of Arnhem land. Him bigfella croc.