20th January 2008, 06:38 PM
The thing is that when people argue that nothing gets changed by shouting are sometimes right but not always.
The Ranters of the English Civil War no doubt did plenty of talking too, to win people over to their philosophy.
Lauajane Smith's book 'Archaeological Theory and the politics of Cultural Heritage', describes how around the world Indigenous peoples began to shout and argue for a say in the archaeology of their own cultures,its a very interesting read.
The context here is that for years Aboriginal people and their supporters having been shouting and over the years geting results... eventually, slowly but geting results.
And shout they did and still do when its called for.
But, you are quite right Host, the question is "What is To Be Done!"
If I had a say on how archaeologists and others could help improve the situation in Perth it would be to use the tactics of political activists in order to present non shouted interesting archaeology.
Any old Trot knows how to do it.
First step form a small organising committee and approach local Aboriginal organisations.
For Aboriginal leadership is required for any hope of success.
Then.
Perhaps (just an idea off the top of my head).
For example meetings could be organised in Perth away from the University advertised in the Newspapers, email lists, posters, through Trade unions, Churches, Councils, radio, TV etc.
Its simple to do if you know how.
And then in public lectures with photographs, clips of videos and power point etc could be used.
Around the walls could be artefacts maps etc.
The title could be something like 'How 60000 years of human occupation began in West Australia' and then archaeologists could talk about Devils Lair, Riwi, carpenters gap the Kimberly, Dampier, Walga Rock and make it exciting; which is easy because it is so fundamentally interesting.
This kind of thing could also be toured around schools and communities throughout WA.
So I'm arguing for community archaeology specifically aimed at linking up with like minded people in the education department and health and any other bodies who might be interested.
Imagination is needed. For example, why not use not just the Australian obsession with sport but also with war. There is a very interesting history of how Aboriginal soldiers fought side by side with their white mates on the Kokoda trail and the large degree of actual equality which existed in the army during the second world war. Its likely that army historians would be kean on such a project and might offer funding (and one of the Aboriginal Elders from down south was a famous sniper in the Vietnham war).
And then mention could be made of how they were treated when they returned..
There are so many aspects of WA's Aboriginal history (and Asian) which are know to so very few people.
And such a history from both ancient and recent WA history might well result in quite a few people more geting angry.
My experience is that most people are shocked to hear such a history, but very, very interested.
Concentrating on schools throughout the state would bring the reward of more archaeology students and in particular going to Indigenous communities and groups could result in scholarships for Indigenous students to study at UWA.
Now I am not for one moment suggesting that archaeologists from UWA and others are not involved in such projects.
For example, at the moment a UWA project down south is training Indigenous young people from Albany in surveys with the active involvement of the Aboriginal Elders. And the WA Museum has some fantastic exhibitions.
And the Berndt Museum is hoping to expand.
And the UWA Archaeology Department is very small and what with teaching, marking, researching etc, etc, its a surprise they find time to sleep let alone think of new directions.
But...
The fact is when talking to people in Perth I never shout and I researve that for consultant archaeologists who even though they trained at UWA seem to believe that racism and in particular institutionalised racism is predominantly something from a hundred years ago....
[Actually the fact that only a small number of UWA archaeology students study anthropology courses compared the much larger number of science or ancient history students is a real problem (and no one please jump in and suggest I'm anti-science or ancient history). I recent years this has got worse and I have found an unhealthy number of archaeology students who despise anthropology. Mind you this has been made worse by the combined affects of Winshuttle type revisionism in the anthropology department and the continuing influence of raw undiluted post-modernism in that department, but enough of this).
When talking to people in Perth the conversation always goes like this:
"What do you do?"
'I'm a commmunity mental health nurse and an archaeologist, I worked as an archaeologist in the UK and then returned to WA to complete my honours year so I could work as an archaeologist here'
Pause, long puzzeled pause then....
"But is there any archaeology here? I mean all our families favorite program is the Time Team but there were no Romans here were there?"
Then I simply describe what I learnt from archaeologists such as Jane Balme and anthropologists such as Bob Tonkinson.
Talk about the 60000 years, Devils Lair, ethnographic histories, Walga Rock, how the Bradshaws are similar to the Mimi rock art, etc, etc.
Not all at once of course...!
And believe it or not my listening skills are quite good (I mean even as a migrant I seemed to have picked up some knowledge ...
But people are incredibly surprised and very, very interested.
And often very interested in the 99.999999999% of all human history which was hunter-gatherer.
Many people tell me that in the 1980s or even the 1990's they learnt nothing about Aboriginal culture at school in Perth.
Perth does have a huge promblem with instituational racism. For exmple my 3 day orientaion program (hundreds of new hospital workers) at the Royal Perth Hospital (JUlY 2007) contained no mention of Aborignal society).
This was a shock for me because every hospital in NSW includes Aboriginal life and the RPH is full of Aboriginal people flown down from the north for the treatment of all the conditions such as diabetes which kill Aboriginal people on average 20 years before their non-Indigenous fellow citizens (a statistic which has got worse over a hundred years).
So there are so many way to further the struggle against racism.
Starting with above tactics most important. For Revolutionaries whether in politics, science or the arts are usually the best reformists.
And real reform in a society as institutionalised racist as Perth is more or less a revolution anyway.
For example, in a country and city obssessed with its war hero's (Don't get me started on the unmentioned heroines) a statue to the fallen Aboriginal Soldiers in Kings Park would be a huge step forward.
But I still plan to reveal the shocking history of Perth in a manner which will cause the right-wingers of Perth to hit the roof, because if you are not hatted by them you are not doing your job.
But I believe that both soft-cop and hard-cop tactics work best in tandem.
Arthus
The Ranters of the English Civil War no doubt did plenty of talking too, to win people over to their philosophy.
Lauajane Smith's book 'Archaeological Theory and the politics of Cultural Heritage', describes how around the world Indigenous peoples began to shout and argue for a say in the archaeology of their own cultures,its a very interesting read.
The context here is that for years Aboriginal people and their supporters having been shouting and over the years geting results... eventually, slowly but geting results.
And shout they did and still do when its called for.
But, you are quite right Host, the question is "What is To Be Done!"
If I had a say on how archaeologists and others could help improve the situation in Perth it would be to use the tactics of political activists in order to present non shouted interesting archaeology.
Any old Trot knows how to do it.
First step form a small organising committee and approach local Aboriginal organisations.
For Aboriginal leadership is required for any hope of success.
Then.
Perhaps (just an idea off the top of my head).
For example meetings could be organised in Perth away from the University advertised in the Newspapers, email lists, posters, through Trade unions, Churches, Councils, radio, TV etc.
Its simple to do if you know how.
And then in public lectures with photographs, clips of videos and power point etc could be used.
Around the walls could be artefacts maps etc.
The title could be something like 'How 60000 years of human occupation began in West Australia' and then archaeologists could talk about Devils Lair, Riwi, carpenters gap the Kimberly, Dampier, Walga Rock and make it exciting; which is easy because it is so fundamentally interesting.
This kind of thing could also be toured around schools and communities throughout WA.
So I'm arguing for community archaeology specifically aimed at linking up with like minded people in the education department and health and any other bodies who might be interested.
Imagination is needed. For example, why not use not just the Australian obsession with sport but also with war. There is a very interesting history of how Aboriginal soldiers fought side by side with their white mates on the Kokoda trail and the large degree of actual equality which existed in the army during the second world war. Its likely that army historians would be kean on such a project and might offer funding (and one of the Aboriginal Elders from down south was a famous sniper in the Vietnham war).
And then mention could be made of how they were treated when they returned..
There are so many aspects of WA's Aboriginal history (and Asian) which are know to so very few people.
And such a history from both ancient and recent WA history might well result in quite a few people more geting angry.
My experience is that most people are shocked to hear such a history, but very, very interested.
Concentrating on schools throughout the state would bring the reward of more archaeology students and in particular going to Indigenous communities and groups could result in scholarships for Indigenous students to study at UWA.
Now I am not for one moment suggesting that archaeologists from UWA and others are not involved in such projects.
For example, at the moment a UWA project down south is training Indigenous young people from Albany in surveys with the active involvement of the Aboriginal Elders. And the WA Museum has some fantastic exhibitions.
And the Berndt Museum is hoping to expand.
And the UWA Archaeology Department is very small and what with teaching, marking, researching etc, etc, its a surprise they find time to sleep let alone think of new directions.
But...
The fact is when talking to people in Perth I never shout and I researve that for consultant archaeologists who even though they trained at UWA seem to believe that racism and in particular institutionalised racism is predominantly something from a hundred years ago....
[Actually the fact that only a small number of UWA archaeology students study anthropology courses compared the much larger number of science or ancient history students is a real problem (and no one please jump in and suggest I'm anti-science or ancient history). I recent years this has got worse and I have found an unhealthy number of archaeology students who despise anthropology. Mind you this has been made worse by the combined affects of Winshuttle type revisionism in the anthropology department and the continuing influence of raw undiluted post-modernism in that department, but enough of this).
When talking to people in Perth the conversation always goes like this:
"What do you do?"
'I'm a commmunity mental health nurse and an archaeologist, I worked as an archaeologist in the UK and then returned to WA to complete my honours year so I could work as an archaeologist here'
Pause, long puzzeled pause then....
"But is there any archaeology here? I mean all our families favorite program is the Time Team but there were no Romans here were there?"
Then I simply describe what I learnt from archaeologists such as Jane Balme and anthropologists such as Bob Tonkinson.
Talk about the 60000 years, Devils Lair, ethnographic histories, Walga Rock, how the Bradshaws are similar to the Mimi rock art, etc, etc.
Not all at once of course...!
And believe it or not my listening skills are quite good (I mean even as a migrant I seemed to have picked up some knowledge ...
But people are incredibly surprised and very, very interested.
And often very interested in the 99.999999999% of all human history which was hunter-gatherer.
Many people tell me that in the 1980s or even the 1990's they learnt nothing about Aboriginal culture at school in Perth.
Perth does have a huge promblem with instituational racism. For exmple my 3 day orientaion program (hundreds of new hospital workers) at the Royal Perth Hospital (JUlY 2007) contained no mention of Aborignal society).
This was a shock for me because every hospital in NSW includes Aboriginal life and the RPH is full of Aboriginal people flown down from the north for the treatment of all the conditions such as diabetes which kill Aboriginal people on average 20 years before their non-Indigenous fellow citizens (a statistic which has got worse over a hundred years).
So there are so many way to further the struggle against racism.
Starting with above tactics most important. For Revolutionaries whether in politics, science or the arts are usually the best reformists.
And real reform in a society as institutionalised racist as Perth is more or less a revolution anyway.
For example, in a country and city obssessed with its war hero's (Don't get me started on the unmentioned heroines) a statue to the fallen Aboriginal Soldiers in Kings Park would be a huge step forward.
But I still plan to reveal the shocking history of Perth in a manner which will cause the right-wingers of Perth to hit the roof, because if you are not hatted by them you are not doing your job.
But I believe that both soft-cop and hard-cop tactics work best in tandem.
Arthus