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Aboriginal business : alliances in a remote Australian town / Kimberly Christen

Author
Christen, Kimberly A
Subjects
Business enterprises, Aboriginal Australian - Australia - Tennant Creek (N.T.); Tennant Creek (N.T.) - Economic conditions.; Warumungu (Australian people) - Australia - Tennant Creek (N.T.) - Economic conditions.
Summary
From the vantage point of the remote Northern Territory town of Tennant Creek, this book offers new writing and perspectives on the emergence of Aboriginal organisations, and the unfolding of these within town, regional and national contexts. It is an ethnographic snapshot of the Warumungu people, the traditional owners of the country.
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Work ID
32166680
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Title, Author, Edition Date Language Format Locations
Aboriginal business : alliances in a remote Australian town / Kimberly Christen. - 1st ed.
Santa Fe, N.M. : School for Advanced Research Press, - School for Advanced Research global indigenous politics series
315 pages
2009 English Book; Illustrated 11
Title
  • Aboriginal business : alliances in a remote Australian town /​ Kimberly Christen.
Author
  • Christen, Kimberly A.
Edition
  • 1st ed.
Published
  • Santa Fe, N.M. : School for Advanced Research Press, 2009, c2008.
Physical Description
  • xvii, 315 p. : ill., maps ; 23 cm.
Series
Subjects
Contents
  • Preface: Opening Business
  • 1. Alliance-Making: An Introduction
  • Sect. 1. Community Control
  • 2. Country Claims
  • 3. Managing Mobs
  • Sect. 2. Uneasy Alliances
  • 4. Constrained Collaborations
  • 5. Practical Partnerships
  • Sect. 3. Proper Productions
  • 6. Negotiating Networks
  • 7. Culture Work
  • Conclusion: Closing Business.
Notes
  • Includes index.
  • Includes bibliographical references (p. 280-304) and index.
Language
  • English
ISBN
  • 1930618980 (pa : alk. paper)
  • 9781930618985 (pa : alk. paper)
Dewey Number
  • 338.8/​70899915
LC Call Number
Libraries Australia ID
  • 44379472
Record ID
Contributed by
Libraries Australia
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Work history
Broad ethnographic snapshot - some aspects of women's life
4/5
Amazon
RBR (Sydney NSW Australia)

"Aboriginal Business - Alliances in a Remote Australian Town" by Kimberly Christen (Nungarrayi).

Kimberly Christen's easy to read book provides a really important picture of many of the demands of contemporary life faced by senior Warumungu women whose country contains the town of Tennant Creek, in the Northern Territory of Australia. These aspects are largely related to interactions with the Anglo-Australian mainstream, and not of a more personal kind.

The author says "This book is about alliances. It is an ethnographic snapshot of Warumungu engagements with a range of interlocutors, where tensions and compromises, hopes and fears, negotiations and trade offs are central."

These are placed in the context of some the changes which took place as a result of the election of the Howard government, and, to a lesser extent, the more recently elected Rudd government.

The use of "business" in Aboriginal English takes in a wider range of (non-commercial) meanings than in everyday English, and includes core cultural activities.

Kimberly is focused on alliances - of which Australia's First Peoples are undoubted masters, past and present. That said, there is a lot more to be teased out about Warumungu town life than an ethnographic snapshot allows for. This work provides a very good introduction, but is not an exhaustive and detailed account typical of earlier forms of academic anthropology. That may be a good thing.

Kimberly provides a wealth of detail covering various key events in recent times (late 1990s, early 2000) as Warumungu people emerge from the changing times in the 1980s, when land rights arrived in Tennant Creek, and new Aboriginal organisations started up to provide housing, health and cultural services for people previously banned from town.

The 1980s were followed by native title determinations, negotiations with mining and railway companies, finding meaningful ways of life in town, housing associations, starting a tourist venture/cultural centre and the production of CDs of important Women's Munga Munga (Ancestral Women) songs - this CD would be a good addition to the book - and the establishment of an indigenous digital archive. Kimberly writes about these from her informed position as someone who has been part of these events.

The key events selected show the active and creative roles played by senior women in forming alliances, sharing knowledge and safe-guarding special knowledge. Kimberly leaves no doubt about the ability of these Warumungu women to be effective managers given the complex balancing acts they are regularly required to preform as part of contemporary life.

The picture provided goes some distance towards blowing away some of the negative stereotypes of indigenous people which have been used to prop up the right of non-indigenous Australian politicians to remotely control the lives of First Peoples. First Peoples have to be very capable managers, making do with scarce resources.

The work is largely written from within a women's world. Warumungu life is marked by complementary opposition - and especially so in regard to men's and women's spheres. In some ways, Kimberly's book calls for a `companion' piece detailing contemporary life from the senior men's perspective.

While Warumungu women have enjoyed considerable support as part of alliances with those with Western worldviews, the position of some of their brothers is, in many ways, much more difficult. There is some good coverage of Warumungu men's lives.

As the subtitle says, "Aboriginal business" is about Tennant Creek town life - in one of the few towns in Australia where there is a high percentage of indigenous people vis-à-vis non-indigenous people.

This small town (Pop. 3000?) is often overlooked by those looking for the fantasy romance of "The Alice". Life in Tennant contains much of great interest to anyone interested in Australian realities. There is much to learn here - and Kimberly has certainly done so.

The breadth of her writing inevitably means some parts lack detailed historical and analytical depth regarding the difficult passage of Warumungu (and related) people from the 'simple enjoyment' of their living countries to present times.

The campaign to obtain a renal dialysis unit for indigenous people in Tennant Creek (as opposed to having to relocate 500 km to Alice Springs) is one example of a recent event which was passed over lightly. But there is much else covered.

There are many more stories yet to be told about Warumungu life and they can't all be told by one author in one book. While we can look forward to the days when Warumungu women themselves are authoring texts as well as songs, dances and paintings.

"Aboriginal Business" fills an important gap. It provides a sound introduction for anyone seeking to improve their understanding of the engagement of Warumungu women with some aspects of contemporary life. It can usefully be added to the earlier "Daughters of the Dreaming" by Australian anthropologist Diane Bell.

During the 20th century, of the million ounces produced by Nobles Nob gold mine - on the outskirts of Tennant Creek and firmly located in Warumungu Wirnkarra (Dreaming) country - Warumungu people received not a cent of royalties, and will inherit an enormous open-cut hole in the ground.

"Aboriginal Business" helps to provide a glimpse into the lives of people who will be, no doubt, far removed from the home places of many of the book's readers. Given the ongoing struggle for Australia's First Peoples to obtain decent living conditions from those who control Australia's wealth, that has to be a good thing.


Review by
R.B. Reyburn (Japaljari)
20 August 2009













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Pictures and photos

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Maps

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  1. Report on the problems, needs and aspirations of Aboriginal town campers in Tennant Creek, N.T
    Australia. Dept. of Aboriginal Affairs. Northern Territory Division. Tennant Creek
    [Unpublished : 1984]
  2. A Warumunga land claim to unalienated Crown land / by R. Hagen, J. Lloyd and B. Reyburn on behalf of the claimants
    Central Land Council (Australia)
    [Unpublished : 1982]
  3. Papers of Geoffrey Dutton
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  2. Bach encounters Buxtehude a journey to Lübeck, 1705
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  1. The Schools Education Fellowship Conference EMINENT DELEGATES TO AUSTRALIA
    The Argus (Melbourne,..., Saturday 1 May 1937 Supplement: Week-End Magazine p 35
    ... University, and he made a special study of social and economic -conditions in rural areas of Korea ... The Schools Education Fellowship Conference EMINENT DELEGATES TO AUSTRALIA By STUDENT ONE of the most eminent visitors to U Australia for the new Education Fellowship Conference, which will be held ... 851 words
  2. PRICES SHOULD BE FIXED BY WORKERS.
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  3. North-South Line.
    Northern Territory Times..., Saturday 10 April 1920 p 2
    ... ¡economic and quick transport and travel. But a (time. carne ivihen Australia began to fte'-tlise ... Australia, especially the N.T., ,is a sandy Idesert utterly "value- less. Ii have personally ... Australia will be doubly benefitted. There is one point ¡which has pro- bably missed tbei notice of people ... 2047 words