The Otherness

Anthropological notes on the world around us

[the-otherness-blog]

Contextualising Songlines

Songlines trace the travels of Indigenous Australian Ancestral beings over country as perform important actions, giving meaning and shape to country (Bradley 2008; Merlan 2007; Tamisari 1998: 260; Tamisari & Bradley 2005).  Songlines travel constantly on a fixed trajectory, the path taken by the Ancestral being, and are always present (Bradley 2008: 28; Rose [1992] 2000).  As Pyro Dirdiyalma explained (in Bradley & Mackinlay 2000: 16-7):

“Winarrku yiwalumba barra nya-nganunga kujika ja-wingkay kurdarrku karrilu-kantharru kurdardi, rra-kilyarrkilyarr kurdardi karranda-kantharru kurdardi alunga winarrku ja-wingkayi yiwalumba.”

[Merely by itself our song is travelling, it is not carried by the brolga it is not carried by the wedge tailed eagle it is carried by no one, it is merely travelling by itself.]

Needless to say, songlines are integral to many Indigenous Australian cultures. Recently, I came across this article which describes specific songlines and cultures to the general public. There are two main aspects that I really like about this article. Firstly, it personalises the stories for us, putting them into a human context. Secondly, I think that the use of map to highlight locations of these communities and songlines is really excellent. These are cultures in geographical contexts; these stories are fundamentally connected to the land which they created.

*The first half of this article is (a slightly modified version) of an excerpt from my (unpublished) Honours thesis, 'We are kin to the islands': Indigenous relations to country held in song.

References:

Bradley, J (2008). ‘Singing through the sea’: song, sea and emotion. In S. Shaw & A. Francis (Eds.), Deep Blue: critical reflections on nature, religion and water (pp. 17-32). London: Equinox Publishing.

Bradley, J, & Mackinlay, E (2000). Songs from a Plastic Water Rat: An Introduction to the Musical Traditions of the Yanyuwa Community of the Southwest Gulf of Carpentaria. Ngulaig, 17, 1-46.

Merlan, F.  (2007). Indigeneity and Relational Identity: the construction of Australian Land Rights. In M. de la Cadena & O. Starn (Eds.), Indigenous Experience Today (pp. 125-150). UK: Berg.

Rose, DB ([1992] 2000). Dingo Makes Us Human: life and land in an Australian Aboriginal culture. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Tamisari, F (1998). Body, Vision and Movement: In the Footprints of the Ancestors. Oceania, 68(4), 249-270.  

Tamisari, F, & Bradley, J (2005). To Have and to Give the Law. Animal names, place and event. In A. Minelli, G. Ortalli & G. Sanga (Eds.), Animal Names (pp. 419-440). Venice: Istituto veneto di scienze lettere ed arti.

[the-otherness-blog]

WALFA: the fire-management project that seems to have it all

In rural and remote Australia, bushfires are a way of life. The Australian landscape has been significantly shaped by fire and fire regimes, with some species even becoming dependent on fire for their very survival (ie. Whelan et al. 2002). It's well-recognised that Indigenous people have been carrying out controlled burning since long-before the whitefella arrived to this continent (ie. Fitzsimons et al. 2012). This is part of caring for country practices throughout much of the country, with burning acting as a disturbance, creating a heterogenous landscape favoured by small mammals (ie. R.B. Bird et al. 2008).

Regrowth one year after the Black Saturday bushfires (Stewart 2010)

Unsurprisingly, indigenous fire-management practices have been affected by colonisation (Fitzsimons et al. 2012: 51). However, regardless of whether the burning is planned, or by whom it is planned (indigenous or non-indigenous parties), the country continues to burn. Bushfires - whether started by lightning, by accident or by fire bugs - devastate the country on a regular basis, with the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires being a clear example.  

Bushfires in Esperance, WA (Haynes et al. 2015)

This burning produces a large amount of carbon dioxide which is released into the atmosphere. The West Arnhem Land Fire Abatement project (WALFA) aimed to reduce these emissions by promoting traditional indigenous fire management practices combined with non-indigenous technology (Fitzsimons et al. 2012: 52; NAILSMA 2012; Tropical Savannas CRC 2006). And at that it was staggeringly successful, with emission reductions far beyond their aims (NAILSMA 2012). WALFA even went on to earn a Banksia award for its achievements in 2011.

However, what I find most interesting about WALFA is not these facts. It is not really relevatory that if you do something correctly or well, the results will be better. What I do find exciting and invigorating is the governance structure and financial management behind the project. The West Arnhem Fire Management Agreement (WAFMA) was brokered by Traditional Owners, the Northern Territory Government, the Northern Land Council, Tropical Savannas CRC and ConocoPhillips in 2006 (NAILSMA 2012). Most cross-cultural or indigenous natural resource management projects tend to be dependent on financial support from the government, which can be unreliable (McRae-Williams & Gerritsen 2010; Woods 2016). In this aspect, WALFA stands apart as unique, and perhaps this is the point from which the project gains so much potential. Instead of relying on government funding, alternative sources were sought for WALFA. ConocoPhillips, a company with a liquefied natural gas plant in Darwin Harbour, provided $1M in funding a year to WALFA as a way of offsetting their greenhouse gas emissions (Fitzsimons et al. 2012: 52; NAILSMA 2012).

The success of such a collaboration is exciting as funding is a point that so often brings such projects, with so much potential, to their knees. It also speaks of industries being aware of the environmental harm they can cause, and suggests that some are open to exploring options to minimise their environmental footprint without being compelled to do so. I would like to see the WALFA model applied and developed to other projects in the future.

Notes:

I was unable to find out whether WALFA is still operating, however the original agreement with ConocoPhillips was for a period of 17 years (NAILSMA 2009).

References

Bird, R. B., Bird, D. W., Codding, B. F., Parker, C. H., and Jones, J. H. (2008). The “fire stick farming” hypothesis: Australian Aboriginal foraging strategies, biodiversity, and anthropogenic fire mosaics. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 105(39), 14796-14801.

Haynes, K., Dimer de Oliveira, F., and Coates, L.  (2015). More people are dying in Western Australian bushfires - but flames are still not the biggest killers.  The Conversation. Accessed 31/12/2016 <http://theconversation.com/more-people-are-dying-in-western-australian-bushfires-but-flames-are-still-not-the-biggest-killers-51045>

Fitzsimons, J., Russell‐Smith, J., James, G., Vigilante, T., Lipsett‐Moore, G., Morrison, J., and M., Looker (2012). Insights into the biodiversity and social benchmarking components of the Northern Australian fire management and carbon abatement programmes. Ecological Management & Restoration 13(1): 51-57.

McRae-Williams, E. and R. Gerritsen (2010). Mutual incomprehension: the cross cultural domain of work in a remote Australian Aboriginal community. International Indigenous Policy Journal 1(2): 1-27.

NAILSMA (North Australian Indigenous Land and Sea Management Alliance) (2009). WALFA Project: Banksia Award for WALFA greenhouse gas abatement partnership. Accessed 31/12/2016, <http://www.savanna.org.au/nailsma/projects/walfa.html>

NAILSMA (North Australian Indigenous Land and Sea Management Alliance) (2012). WALFA - West Arnhem Land Fire Abatement project. Accessed 31/12/2016, <https://www.nailsma.org.au/walfa-west-arnhem-land-fire-abatement-projecthtml.html>

Stewart, M. (2010). Black Saturday - a year after. The Sound of Critters: bird and animal sounds across the planet. Accessed 03/01/2017, <http://soundofcritters.com/archives/516>

Tropical Savannas CRC (2006). The West Arnhem Land Fire Abatement Project (WALFA). Accessed 31/12/2016, <http://www.savanna.org.au/savanna_web/information/arnhem_fire_project.html>

Whelan, R. J., Rodgerson, L., Dickman, C. R., and Sutherland, E. F. (2002). Critical life cycles of plants and animals: developing a process-based understanding of population changes in fire-prone landscapes. Flammable Australia: the fire regimes and biodiversity of a continent, 94-124.

Woods, K. (2016). Valuing Aboriginal cultural activity: Beyond markets. Engaging Indigenous Economy: debating diverse approaches. W. Sanders (ed.). ACT, ANU Press: 79-94.

[the-otherness-blog]

Conservation Refugees

The effects that climate change is having, and will have, on the world are pretty well known. Most people know that greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere are causing the earth's average temperature to rise, and that this warming is melting the ice caps which is causing sea levels to rise. The public is familiar with this concept, particularly those who live in coastal areas, as there is a general concern about how rising sea levels will affect property and livelihoods (Davenport and Robertson 2016). The changing landscape will, and is, cause a situation where many people are forced to migrate to avoid the consequences of climate change (CMC, 2015). These people are known as "climate change refugees" (Lister, 2014), people who are forced to move because the effects of "nature" on their home or nation.

However, it is less well known that the opposite situation also exists. There are cases, over the last century across the globe where people have been forced to migrate due to their effect on "nature" (Dowie 2006: ix). These people are displaced by an authority with the aim of protecting the land, the environment, "nature", from their influence and perceived destructive habits. These people are known as "conservation refugees" (Brockington and Igoe, 2006: 425). Such cases have been observed in the Gibson Desert in Western Australia (Shire of Ngaanyatjarraku, 2012), and the Kalahari Desert in Botswana (Bolaane, 2004; Dowie, 2006: 148).

This is problematic for a variety of reasons. Obviously this is going to have a dramatic effect on the lives of these refugees, and, I propose, that the principle motive for relocating these people is based on folly. As discussed in my "Nature vs. Culture" entry below, the idea that these people do not belong in this particular setting is based on the cultural construction of "nature" as the non-human world. Taking this perspective completely ignores the amount of time that the people have been living in the area, their own conservation and resource management strategies and even goes so far as to deny the people the validity of their cosmology and way of life.

People do have a significant role in the ecosystem in which they live and it is extremely difficult to predict how a system would change on their removal. It may well be for the best to live and let live as native peoples are quite possibly doing more good than harm (Harvey 2015).

For more information on Conservation Refugees, have a look at Dowie's book Conservation Refugees: the hundred-year conflict between global conservation and native peoples.

References:

Bolaane, M. (2004). The Impact of Game Reserve Policy on the River BaSarwa/Bushmen of Botswana. Social Policy and Administration 38(4): 399-417.

Brockington, D. and J. Igoe (2006). Eviction for conservation: A global overview. Conservation and Society 4(3): 424.

Climate and Migration Coalition (CMC) (2015).Briefing Q&A: climate change and the refugee crisis. Retrieved 01/12/2016, from http://climatemigration.org.uk/briefing-qa-climate-change-and-the-refugee-crisis/.

Davenport, C. and C. Robertson (2016). Resettling the First American 'Climate Refugees'. The New York Times, New York.

Dowie, M. (2006). Conservation Refugees: the hundred-year conflict between global conservation and native peoples. The MIT Press: Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Harvey, G. (2015). Indigenous Communities and Biodiversity. Retrieved 3/01/2016, from http://thediplomat.com/2015/10/indigenous-communities-and-biodiversity/.

Lister, M. (2014). Climate change refugees. Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy, 17(5), 618-634.

Shire of Ngaanyatjarraku (2012). Patjarr (Karliywara). Retrieved 01/12/16, from http://www.ngaanyatjarraku.wa.gov.au/index.php/our-region/community-information/patjarr/.

[the-otherness-blog]

Nature vs. Culture

Society tends to create dichotomies, a way of categorising the world, of breaking it down into smaller constituents. Theoretically, this should make life easier, and perhaps it does. In many cases, however, these structures create an over simplification of the world through the creation of false dichotomies.

"Nature" and "culture" together form one of the clearest examples of false dichotomies (Head et al. 2005: 255) which has been described in detail by many authors (ie. Watson and Chambers 1989; Plumwood 2002). In Western cultures we tend to separate "man" from "nature" - we remove ourselves from this theoretical place reserved for plants, animals and natural phenomena. This way of thinking is not only erroneous, but it is also extremely dangerous. By removing ourselves from the "natural world" we set ourselves above plants, animals, and the world itself, ignoring our relationships with and dependence on that very same world (Plumwood 2006: 128). This has been seen throughout history with pioneers and colonisers seeking to conquer the perceived "wilderness"* in their new homeland (Head et al. 2005: 258; Mittermeier et al. 2003: 10309; Trigger 2008: 3). Colonisers in many places across the globe plundered the land of its resources with little regarded for the environment or the local inhabitants (Plumwood 2002: 7). Our understanding of "nature" is a topic that is arguably becoming increasingly relevant when we consider climate change and the human   impacts that we are witnessing on global and ecological systems. By considering ourselves disconnected from "nature", it becomes easier to abuse our relationship with it, exploiting it and its resources.

However, this way of thinking is not in any way universal.

"...we deal not with nature on the one hand and culture on the other but rather with many and various cultural constructions of the natural world.  This is really to suggest that nature, in the experience of humanity, is not singular but manifold."

                                                                   (Watson and Chambers 1989: vi)

Thus, our perception of "nature" is cultural. It is not "correct", not any more than a personal opinion can be. But perhaps it is time that we create a new understanding of "nature", and of how we fit into it and relate to it.

* "Wilderness" I put here in quotation marks because of how contentious and problematic this term is, when we consider that it refers to an area completely devoid of human impact (Plumwood 2006: 120; Trigger et al. 2008: 3)

References:

Head, L., Trigger, D., and Mulcock, J  (2005). Culture as concept and influence in environmental research and management. Conservation and Society 3(2): 251.

Mittermeier, R., Mittermeier, CG., Brooks, TM., Pilgrim, JD., Konstant, WR., Da Fonseca, GAB., and Kormos, C (2003). Wilderness and biodiversity conservation. Proceedings of the National academy of sciences 100(18): 10309-10313.

Plumwood, V (2002). Decolonising Relationships with Nature. PAN: Philosophy Activism Nature 2, 7-30.

Plumwood, V (2006). The Concept of a Cultural Landscape: nature, culture and agency in the land. Ethics and the Environment, 11(2), 115-150.

Watson, H, and Chambers, DW (1989). Singing the Land, Signing the Land: a portfolio of exhibits. Melbourne: Deakin University.

[the-otherness-blog]

Diversity and Development

Cultural diversity and biological diversity are somehow connected (Gorenflo et al., 2012: 8032). Exactly how and why this is true is still open to debate (ie. Moore et al., 2002), but for a couple of decades natural scientists and social scientists have been aware of the diversity gradient that exists across the globe (Nettle 1998: 357). Simply put, the closer you get to the equator the greater the diversity - both biological and cultural (Nettle 1998: 357; see Figures 1 and 2 below). Similarly, while it is commonly accepted that we are experiencing a crisis in species extinctions, less recognition is given to the fact that lingual diversity is suffering a similar crisis across the globe (Gorenflo et al., 2012: 8032).

In fact, this apparent relationship between the two even led to the development of the study of "biocultural diversity". This field, with Maffi as the major forerunner (Maffi 1996, 2007; Maffi and Woodley 2010), explores and celebrates the relationship between "nature" and human "culture". It is thought that perhaps there are common elements, or ingredients, that are necessary to generate high levels of both types of diversity (Moore et al., 2002: 1646).

Figure 1:

Global distribution of indigenous languages (Gorenflo et al., 2012: 8033).

However, this could be a case of confusion between correlation and causation - of whether an actual relationship exists between the two or whether the two types of diversity have been acted on in similar ways by the same forces. Some have proposed that the diversity gradient is merely the result of the processes of colonisationn: colonisers who settle in and develop a region are more attracted to more temperate climates (Norgaard 1988). Thus these cooler areas are inhabited and those regions are where we see dominance of one culture or language (Norgaard 1988). The US, Canada and Australia are all clear examples of a major language or culture being introduced and marginalising pre-existing cultures and languages.

Figure 2:

Global biodiversity hotspots (1-35) and regions of high biodiversity (36-40) (Gorenflo et al., 2012: 8033).

But of course, our pro-biocultural diversity friends have their reasons to dispute this hypothesis, including the point that a species richness gradient existed long before humans evolved and spread significantly on a global scale (Moore et al., 2002: 1651).

Minute Earth gives a break down of the issue (the video below), from which it is obvious that they take the perspective that the diversity gradients exist because both types of diversity respond in similar ways to the same phenomenon (of course they talk about economic development, but this has a clear connection with cultural diversity with the rise of trade and globalisation (see Norgaard 1988)).

Personally, I would love to accept the idea that cultural and biological diversity are interrelated and interdependent. And the mechanisms of how that would, or could, work would be fascinating. But the cynic in me is unconvinced that it can be as simple as that. These are two big, complex ideas that are impacted by many factors. Maybe biocultural diversity is just a romantic fantasy. Or maybe these arguments are just slightly different perspectives describing the same phenomenon. Only more research will tell.

For more information about biocultural diversity and biocultural diversity conservation, check out Maffi's organisation Terralingua.

*When investigating cultural diversity, language is commonly used as a proxy for culture for practical reasons, although this is not without its problems (Moore et al., 2002: 1645).

References:

Gorenflo, L., Romaine, S, Mittermeier, RA, and Walker-Painemillad, K (2012). Co-occurrence of linguistic and biological diversity in biodiversity hotspots and high biodiversity wilderness areas. PNAS 109(21): 8032-8037.

Maffi, L. (1996). Endangered languages, endangered knowledge, endangered environments. Results of an interdisciplinary working conference, October.

Maffi, L. (2007). Biocultural diversity and sustainability. The Sage Handbook of Environment and Society: 267-277.

Maffi, L. and E. Woodley (2010). Biocultural Diversity Conservation: a global sourcebook. London, Earthscan.

Moore, J., Manne, L., Brooks, T., Burgess, ND., Davies, R., Rahbek, C., Williams, P., and A. Balmford (2002). The distribution of cultural and biological diversity in Africa. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 269: 1645–1653.

Nettle, D. (1998). Explaining Global Patterns of Language Diversity. Journal of Anthropological Anthropology 17: 354-374.

Norgaard, R. B. (1988). The Rise of the Global Exchange Economy and the Loss of Biological Diversity. Biodiversity. E. Wilson and F. M. Peter. Washington, D.C., National Academy Press: 206-2011.

[the-otherness-blog]

Sesenta y ocho voces

"Sesenta y ocho voces sesenta y ocho corazones" (68 voices 68 hearts) is a project designed to promote, generate respect and illustrate the diversity of indigenous languages in Mexico. The name refers to the number of indigenous languages in Mexico*, and that each is unique.

The result of the project is a series of beautifully animated videos that relate indigenous Mexican stories in their original languages. This is an important and power combination: if you are going to tell someone your story, why would you do it in a different language? Translation is known to be tricky; words or grammar sometimes just don't translate. But more to the point: if we are celebrating a culture, a community, why would we do it through a foreign medium? The subtitles and descriptions of the videos make them accessible to wider audiences who do not speak the indigenous language while still allowing us to enjoy and appreciate the indigenous language for what it is.

Based on a poem by the same name by Miguel León Portilla, the video above, "Cuando muere una lengua" (When a tongue dies), details the importance of language preservation and the tradegy of language loss. Language extinction is defined as when the last speaker of a language dies or stops using a language (Solé et al. 2010: 2), although languages are at risk long before that point (Amano et al. 2014: 7; Krauss 1992: 4). This phenomenon has been observed around the world at an alarming rate, although some areas seem to be more heavily affected than others (Amano et al. 2014: 9). It is concerning because when we lose a language we lose a culture, or an essential part of it, a part that often cannot be recovered later.

The video above, related in the Náhuatl used in La Huasteca in Hidalgo, describes the loss of knowledge, of perspective and of a unique cosmology as being implicit in the extinction of a language. It shows us that language extinction is something to lament and is something that we should be fighting. This seems to me particularly apt as the video itself achieves this - it is a cog in the machine that it working towards language preservation by using the language and exposing people to that language when they have never necessarily been to Mexico or heard that language before.

The stories chosen by the project are varied and diverse, as are the sounds of the tongues that tells them to us. All are emotive with stunning animation. While "Cuando muere una lengua" was informative about the importance of language preservation, the meaning behind others is not always so clear. Many are based on indigenous oral traditions; many are also "origin" stories such as the one below "El origen de la vida en la tierra" (The origin of life on earth).

You can check out the rest of the 68 voces stories on their Vimeo channel or you can go to their Facebook page here.

*Given the difficulties and subjectivity in defining a language, and deciding if it is a dialect or a completely distinct language, this number is debatable. For instance, Ethnologue lists Mexico as having 280 living indigenous languages.

References:

Amano, T, Sandel, B, Eager, H, Bulteau, E, Svenning, J-C, Dalsgaard, B, Rahbek, C, Davies, RG, WJ, Sutherland, 2014. Global distribution and drivers of language extinction risk, Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 281: 1-10.

Krauss, M, 1992. The world's langauges in crisis, Language 68(1): 4-10.

Solé, RV, Corominas-Murtra, B, J, Fortuny 2010. Diversity, competition, extinction: the ecophysics of language change, Journal of The Royal Society Interface