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Session U1.1 Indigenous Identity in the Urban Space

1.Brownyn Fredericks: We Don’t leave our Identities at the City Limits: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in living in urban localities

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Abstract

We don’t leave our identities at a petrol station, bus stop, jetty or airport when we enter the city limits. When we live in a city or town we don’t become any less or any more Indigenous. Some of us even belong to the Country where huge cityscapes and towns have been built. Yet, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living in urban areas are sometimes perceived as ‘fake’, ‘not real’ and ‘not authentic’ because ‘real’ Aboriginal people belong ‘out back’, ‘on communities’ and in the ‘bush’ and ‘real’ Torres Strait Islanders really live ‘on islands’ in the Torres Strait. The lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in urban areas needs to be understood within the context of the changing way of life for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Over 70% of all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people now live in urban areas (ABS 2008). The statistics demonstrate that living in urban locales is as much part of reality for Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as living in remote discrete communities. Despite this, there is limited evidence based research which highlights the plight of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations living in urban areas and the issues that impact on Indigenous achievements in education, health status, housing needs, rates of incarceration and the struggle for cultural recognition. This paper will highlight the contradictions and struggles we face within urban environments and suggest ways to move ahead.

Author bio:

Bronwyn Fredericks is a NHMRC Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University & the Centre for Clinical Research Excellence (CCRE), Queensland Aboriginal and Islander Health Council (QAIHC – the peak agency for the Community Controlled Health Services Sector in Queensland). She is also a Visiting Fellow with the Indigenous Studies Research Network, Queensland University of Technology (QUT) and a Research Fellow with the Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (VACCHO- the peak agency for the Community Controlled Health Services Sector in Victoria). Bronwyn has been actively engaged with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations for over 25 years in paid, elected and volunteer roles.

2. Gillian Cowlishaw: Suburban mythology: Disturbing Culture

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Abstract

In this paper I explore how ‘the cunning of recognition’ (Povinelli 2002) operates in the suburbs of western Sydney where City Councils and schools boast about the quantity Aboriginal residents. The promotion of ‘Indigenous culture’ through government policy and national sentiment is having some complex and disturbing consequences. A powerful segment of Australian society has become passionately infatuated with Indigeneity, and those who embody the object of desire are disturbed and anxious even while some enjoy opportunities for employment and recognition. Varied local responses to the demands for Indigenous cultural expression will be presented, including the rivalry that has emerged between different claimants to cultural authority. The peculiar meaning of the term ‘culture’ in this context will be discussed. This is part of an ethnographic study of a contemporary multi-cultural suburb, which considers whether Aborigines in Sydney’s western suburbs share the ‘advanced marginality’ of their neighbours. (Loic Wacquant 2008).

Bio:

Gillian Cowlishaw holds an Australian Professorial Fellowship at UTS. Her first research in central Arnhem Land led to Rednecks, Eggheads and Blackfellas (1999), a historical ethnography of a remote community. Other works, Black White or Brindle (CUP 1988) and Blackfellas, Whitefellas and the Hidden Injuries of Race (Blackwell, 2004) explore existential questions arising from the racial binary in rural Australia. Now working in western Sydney, her latest book, The City’s Outback (UNSW Press, 2009), analyses ethnography itself as well as local Indigenous self-perceptions. Gillian’s work pursues theoretical and philosophical questions that emerge from ethnographic work on the racial frontier

3. John Lester: You can take the black kid out of Redfern, but you can't take Redfern out of the black kid!

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Abstract

From the lived experiences of an Indigenous kid growing up in his early years in Redfern in one of the founding contemporary Indigenous families of the Redfern community dating back to the late 1930s, John Lester traces his life in Redfern through schooling, movement to the western suburbs of Sydney and his return to Redfern as one of the few Aboriginal teachers in New South Wales in the 70s.
Using autobiographical accounts which formed a significant chapter in his Masters Degree from the University of New England titled, ‘The First Aboriginal Principal of TAFE: A Unique Journey’ the author discusses life in Redfern prior to the 1970s historic establishment of what has been now known as ‘The Block’ and traces this background and his desire to return to Redfern as the first Aboriginal teacher at both Redfern and Darlington Primary schools.

The researcher’s reflections highlight a young Indigenous mind coming to terms with life in Redfern. His recollection of many aunties and uncles coming to visit (where in fact the family house in Lawson Street Redfern was regularly used as a temporary residence to help settle in Indigenous people coming to Sydney for work and establishing the Redfern community as it is known today), about racism, exposure to ‘work ethic’, the lifestyle memories of the time, his strong friendships with both Indigenous and non-Indigenous friends and the colourful social life experienced in what was a warm, friendly and very supportive Redfern community life in a household where his father played a leading role in the era of Bill Ferguson’s human and political rights agenda for Aboriginal peoples.

His choice to return to Redfern as a teacher in the 70s caps off his Redfern experiences and a career which has later led him to senior roles in the NSW Aboriginal Education Consultative Group, principal of TAFE and very recently as the inaugural appointment to the position of Director of Aboriginal Education in the Department of Education and Training. Always affirming his strong affinity as the boy from Redfern and clearly touching on several key topic areas for the Conference and especially the People, History and Movement theme as well as Education, Economy and Employment and the Cultural theme.

Author bio:

Professor Lester is a strong Wonnarua man who has played a pivotal role in Aboriginal Education at the forefront of community, teaching, leadership and academic levels for over 30 years at school, TAFE, University and in key policy arenas at state, national and international levels including a proud member of the National Aboriginal Education Committee.  Climaxes to date in his career are holding Life Membership of the NSWAECG and Vice President and Executive officer roles; heading up as the first Aboriginal head of the then Aboriginal Units in the Department of Aboriginal Education and later TAFE, pioneering policy, curriculum and community empowerment; the first Aboriginal principal in TAFE nationally; the inaugural Chair of Aboriginal Studies at University of Newcastle; inaugural Director Aboriginal Education and Training NSWDET.