The new verdict on Hindmarsh - it is sacred
Sydney Morning Herald
7 Sep1998By Debra Jopson
Professor Diane Bell, the anthropologist who told the world about the existence of secret women's business 15 years ago after living with female Aboriginal elders in the desert, has investigated Hindmarsh Island. Her verdict: it exists there, too.
But after at least five government inquiries and four court cases have resulted in the go-ahead for a bridge to the South Australian island, in the face of strong opposition from a group of Ngarrindjeri women, she regrets that the term has been both popularised and "abused."
"I think it's a really bad description to say secret business. It's sacred, restricted knowledge," said US-based Professor Bell, who is coming to Sydney tomorrow to talk about her controversial new book on Hindmarsh Island.
A South Australian royal commission found that the "business" was fabricated, as another, smaller group of Ngarrindjeri women had claimed. But after more than two years' ethnographic research with the larger group who say a bridge would desecrate their sacred beliefs, Professor Bell has concluded there is a mass of evidence that their story is true.
Already, 50 Aborigines and their supporters have marched through Adelaide streets and presented the book, Ngarrindjeri Wurruwarrin: a world that is, was, and will be, to the State Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Mrs Dorothy Kotz, asking her to reconsider the authorisation for the bridge, for which there is still no construction starting date.
The Ngarrindjeri people's solicitor, Mr Stephen Kenny, has also made a formal application for reconsideration, based on the historical evidence Professor Bell has gathered.
A spokeswoman for Mrs Kotz said she was getting legal advice on it.
Professor Bell said yesterday that the system of knowledge which both men and women described to her was deep and had a ring of truth. She learnt of special ritual sites for women on the island and a method of transmitting knowledge depending on who was deemed "worthy" of receiving it. Simply, some people were told and some were not.
Because they trust her, those who were told, including Mrs Doreen Kartinyeri and Mrs Maggie Jacobs, have revealed their stories on the public record for the first time, Professor Bell claims.
"It is restricted knowledge," she said. "It is not just secret women's business. It's restricted on the basis of gender, yes, but it's also restricted on the basis of age, membership of family, history and idiosyncratic factors like "Do you have a good memory?' and "Can you keep a confidence?' and "Will you treat this respectfully?'"
Melbourne-born Professor Bell is about to move to a new job as Professor of Anthropology and Director of Women's Studies at George Washington University, located between those two sites of poorly suppressed presidential secrets, the Watergate Hotel and the White House.
Back here, she believes the Hindmarsh affair reflects poorly on the legal system, anthropologists and a public uneducated about Aboriginal culture.
"What it says about our legal system is it is a very inadequate and flawed way of honouring Aboriginal relationships to land," Professor Bell said.
"A lot of anthropologists are out of touch," she said. "They should take more of a leadership role in defending Aboriginal value systems and also turn their talents to investigating and exposing the networks of powerful non-Aboriginal people."
She will talk at Gleebooks, at Glebe, tomorrow night.
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