Sarah Holcombe

Reinforcing alternative economies: self-motivated work by central Anmatyerr people to sell Katyerr (Desert raisin, Bush tomato) in central Australia

This paper examines an alternative economy in the Anmatyerr region of central Australia, with reference to the ‘hybrid economy’ concept. We argue that this concept has application in recognising emerging Aboriginal economies surrounding the utilisation and management of natural resources. In particular, we examine the ‘bush harvest’ of one species – where Aboriginal people sell Desert raisin (Katyerr or Bush tomato) to traders who then on-sell to manufacturers and retailers. This seasonal economy intermittently injects relatively significant amounts of cash into households (but unaccounted for in census figures). Although some groups have been selling bush harvest produce for up to 30 years, it is increasingly gaining momentum with a larger market developing. Yet, there is a risk that this burgeoning market and the mainstream interest in horticulture will fail to recognise the value of local Aboriginal motivations that drive the customary harvest activity. Nevertheless, there is increased federal government recognition, via the Central Land Council, of the value of Aboriginal people as local land managers; as rangers. This in turn has provided resources to promote and encourage this harvest through the recognition of Aboriginal land management practices, such as seasonal burning to encourage the crop’s growth.

Sustainable governance for small desert settlements: learning from the multi-settlement regionalism of Anmatjere Community Government Council

In light of some basic desert demography, this paper examines governance patterns for small desert settlements. It traces policy histories which led to the emergence of highly localised, single settlement governance arrangements during the 1970s and ’80s. It also identifies the many pushes since within the Northern Territory local government system for more regional, multi-settlement governance structures. The paper goes on to examine the history of one such regional, multi-settlement arrangement in central Australia, the Anmatjere Community Government Council established in 1993. The paper details our work with this Council over the last 4 years on ‘issues of importance or concern’ to them. The paper aims to learn from the ACGC experience in order to inform the more radical restructuring of Northern Territory local government currently underway towards larger multi-settlement regionalism. It concludes with four specific lessons, the most important of which is that regionalism must build on single settlement localism.

The Sentimental Community: A Site of Belonging - A Case Study from Central Australia

The concept of ‘community’ has a deep genealogy, extending from the classical social science literature of the nineteenth century to its wide and confused employment in policy contexts and textual analyses discourses. This paper will focus on one aspect of community whose lineage extends theoretically from the communal concept of a ‘consciousness of kind’. In the desert community of Mt Liebig, known locally as Amunturrngu, the sentimentalised elements of this shared consciousness have evolved from principles of land tenure that have adapted to the newly settled environment. These sentimental signifiers are drawn from the country on which this community developed and the constructions of place that settlement has actively encouraged. To this end the concepts of reterritorialisation and religious egalitarianism will be explored, principally through the medium of inma kuwarritja (new ritual) in order to analyse how people affiliate with and embody a reterritorialised identity through the traditional imagination. How does this embodiment of country affect the settlement process, whereby a community is constructed?

'Community Benefit Packages': Development's encounter with pluralism in the case of the mining industry

This chapter draws from research in the Pilbara (Western Australia), and to a lesser extent in the Gulf of Carpentaria (Queensland), on the Indigenous engagement with the mining industry. Post-Native Title Act land use agreements have been made between industry and Native Title claimant groups, in these two regions as others, known generally as ‘community benefit packages’. These agreements and the range of support programs are based upon assumptions about the types of engagement that are to be encouraged and fostered. This chapter is a preliminary exploration of the ways in which these programs are embedded in the development discourse, which includes ‘community development’ and ‘business development’. The progressivist character of this discourse serves to channel Indigenous ‘stakeholders’ toward engaging with the formal and dominant economy, while those that choose not to, or are unable to, tend to become marginalised. Is there room for pluralism in this engagement?

First World, First Nations: Internal Colonialism and Indigenous Self-Determination in Northern Europe and Australia

Christians can be subject to arbitrary restrictions and harassment. They do not have religious freedom in the sense protected by the American Constitution. Yet they themselves do not see themselves as victims of an un-free system. They are proud of their triumph at negotiating a vital space for their ambitious faiths. They are capable of ‘contributing to world Christianity, not as God’s martyrs but as resourceful negotiating agents’ (p. 172).