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Session U1.2 Indigenous Identity in the Urban Space

1. Kelly Greenop: Place attachment and culture in contemporary Indigenous Inala

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Abstract

The paper will discuss research centred on Inala in Brisbane’s outer South-West, which has a significant Indigenous population, located within a mixed-race suburban community. It examines the maintenance, and innovation of culture within Inala and the diverse set of activities around this in the Inala Indigenous communities. Specifically, it examines place attachment and the making of Inala as a significant ‘Indigenous’ place which has occurred over the 60 years since Inala was established. Links to traditional country, and new links to Inala as a place of similar, yet distinct, significance will be explained, demonstrating that far from being ‘assimilated’ the Inala Indigenous community maintains some aspects of traditional culture as well as some sectors of the community undertaking self-consciously constructed or re-constructed aspects of culture, which they nevertheless see as ‘traditional’. Places inside and outside Inala have significance for people in the Inala Indigenous community. Additionally, Inala itself has become a significant place for many of its Indigenous residents, not only as a home, but as a place of memories and traditions which have been accreted over the decades of modern Indigenous inhabitation of Inala. Inala is a holder for unique, personal sets of places which have meaning for Indigenous people, in addition to places which hold more broad community significance, including overlaps with places shared in significance with other cultural groups. The diversity of opinions and attachments to places for Inala people indicates also that there is no stereotypical Inala Indigenous person or community, but a dynamic and personal set of Indigenous choices which are made to attach with place and communities.

The paper is based on research undertaken within the Inala Indigenous community between 2006 and 2009.

Author bio:

Kelly Greenop completed a Bachelor of Architecture at The University of Queensland in 1996, with a major theme of her study being Indigenous place and architecture in Australia. Since 1996 she has raised a family and returned to undertake a PhD at the Aboriginal Environments Research Centre within the School of Architecture at The University of Queensland. Her PhD examines the relationship between Indigenous people and place in urban Brisbane, through a case study of Inala, an Indigenous 'centre' within Brisbane's south-western suburbs. She works at the University of Queensland, lecturing in the undergraduate program in the School of Architecture, and hopes to submit her PhD in 2010.

 

2. Davina Woods: An experience of urban/outback reconnection

Full paper | Audio | Video | Slideshow

Abstract

Locating my maternal family’s position within Australia, geographically, historically, economically and socially has been a part of my life’s journey. A member of a family descended on my maternal side from Augustus Hodgkinson Davies, known as Gus Davies and his wife Esther. I am the granddaughter of an Indigenous Australian stolen from his family, community, culture and country in the 1880s. The people, who raised Grandfather Davies, told him that if he ever wished to find his way home he should remember his middle name Hodgkinson. During the winter of 2009, several of his descendants will travel to the Hodgkinson River located within the centre of Cape York Peninsula in far north Queensland. For many, including myself, it will be a journey of healing.

In writing my paper I will be using the social science methodology of autoethnography. My paper will reflect on the journey to the Hodgkinson River, the experiences that have led the members of my Indigenous Australian family to live in urban areas today and through this examination of demographic mobility and socio-economic needs I will demonstrate the significance and distinctiveness of urban Indigenous Australian culture.

Author bio:

Davina B Woods is a Kuku-Yalanji/Kuku-Djungan woman who has for the last 19 years lived on Kulin country. Currently working in the School of Education and Moondani Balluk Indigenous Academic Unit of Victoria University Davina has been working in education since 1980. She is preparing for her confirmation of candidature for her PhD which will incorporate her interest in the Arts. However more important to her in 2009 is the fact that during the dry season she was able to fulfil a promise to her mother and herself to walk on the ancestral country from where her maternal grandfather was stolen in the 1880s.