Contact, Conflict and Regeneration: Aboriginal Cultural Geography of the Lower Murray, South Australia Philip Allan Clarke March 1994 Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Departments of Geography and Anthropology, University of Adelaide. Abstract Geographers and anthropologists in Australia have generally not recognised that Aboriginal groups in southern Australia have retained and developed a distinctive view of the landscape they occupy. This is because of a reluctance to consider that modern cultural forms have ‘traditions’. This large region has experienced the most intense pressures of European settlement. The interaction between the Aboriginal population and the dominant non-Aboriginal powers has been long and its impact far-reaching. Increasingly, Aboriginal people are living in landscapes modified by rural and urban development. In spite of this, there is a lack of literature concerning the relationships these people have with the land and places of significance within it. This thesis, as an exercise in cultural geography, aims to fill this gap. It is my broad aim to develop an understanding of how a contemporary Aboriginal group, living in close proximity to non-Aboriginal people, can maintain and develop a distinct pattern of occupancy and use of space. I explore place as a phenomenon of everyday experiences which Aboriginal people have with the geography of the lived-world. To achieve this, I develop a view of culture that portrays contemporary Aboriginal groups as a modern product of continuous re-construction rather than as a pre-European relic. I argue that culture is continuously reinvented. The link between changes in the landscape and that of the culture of its inhabitants are investigated. My study group is the Ngarrindjeri Aboriginal community of the Lower Murray region of South Australia (Fig.i.1). I provide an empirical record of the process of transformation of this group and its cultural landscape from the immediate pre-colonial period to the present. Ngarrindjeri perceptions of the land and particular places within it are accounted for with respect to change in the landscape and within their culture. I demonstrate that the interaction of contemporary Aboriginal people with the land cannot be understood without reference to their past and present relationships to the hegemony of the dominant Australian culture. The concept of cultural landscape is used in conjunction with notions of place, with the inclusion of models of culture derived from anthropology and sociology. Using perceptual insights derived from the culture group itself, I seek to extend the concept of cultural landscape to incorporate not only the objective results of human transformation, but the unique subjective meanings attached to it. I explore the role of place in shaping identity, and provide a critique of classical anthropological definitions of cultural groups such as ‘tribes’ within the landscape. Author’s Statement I, Philip Allan Clarke, hereby declare that this thesis contains no material which has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma in any University and to the best of my knowledge and belief, this thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person, except where due reference is made in the text of the thesis. I hereby give my consent to the copies of this thesis that are lodged with the University of Adelaide Library being available for photocopying and loan. Signed: 11 March 1994 Acknowledgments This thesis grew from a period of intense fieldwork in the Lower Murray and South East regions of South Australia from 1982 to 1989. First as an assistant, and later as a collection manager in the Anthropology Division of the South Australian Museum, I worked with a curator, Steve Hemming, in compiling data and liaising with the Aboriginal people of the Lower Murray about the forthcoming Ngurunderi exhibition. My initial research interest was mainly in filling gaps in the ethnographic literature concerning how hunters and gatherers lived in the region. After the Lower Murray display opened, we continued our research with the Lower Murray Aboriginal Sites Project, some of which was funded by National Estates. Without the encouragement and support of Steve Hemming, many of the opportunities to work with Aboriginal people in the region would not have been possible. I benefited immensely from my early association with him. Since July 1992, I have worked in the Anthropology Division of the Museum as a curator. Through having the benefit of a lengthy informal period of fieldwork before the commencement of my postgraduate studies, I was able to gather a considerable amount of my own ethnographic data for processing. During the 1980s, my chief Aboriginal sources of information were Ian Abdulla, Ron Bonney, Lola Cameron Bonney, Bruce Carter, Jessie Clarke, Robert Day, Kerry Giles, Derek Gollan, Jean Gollan, Neville Gollan, Shirley Gollan, Connie Hart, Maggie Jacobs, Doreen Kartinyeri, Laura Kartinyeri, Lynette Kartinyeri, Oscar Kartinyeri, Allan Kernot, Fran Kernot, Dick Koolmatrie, Marj Koolmatrie, Paul Kropinyeri, Barney (Steve) Lampard, Hester Long, Joyce Pinkie, Daisy Rankine, Henry Rankine, Leila Rankine, Agnes Rigney, Glenda Rigney, Phyllis Rigney, Rodney Rigney, Janet Smith, Nancy Taylor, George Trevorrow, Tom Trevorrow, Ellen Trevorrow, Janet Watson, Dulcie Wilson, Glenys Wilson, and Lindsay Wilson. Their patience, particularly while I was learning the basics of Ngarrindjeri-English and the structure of the main Aboriginal families in the Lower Murray, was extraordinary. During the late 1980s and the early 1990s, as my relationship with particular Aboriginal people in the Lower Murray developed, I received generous amounts of help in the form of information, lodging and transport from the family of Henry and Jean Rankine at Point McLeay. George and Tom Trevorrow at Camp Coorong near Meningie have also greatly helped in a number of ways. I hope this thesis does justice to the effort from my Aboriginal sources. Since formally commencing postgraduate work, I have received advice from a number of scholars, in particular Professor Fay Gale, Robert Foster and Suzi Hutchings. My thesis supervisors were Peter Smailes, Chris Anderson and Kingsley Garbett. I am indebted to their guidance throughout the course of my research and thesis preparation. To my parents, Allan and Judith Clarke, I wish to acknowledge their emotional support. Similarly, my family, Susan Clarke and Jamie Rankine, who are members of the Ngarrindjeri community, have been of immense help to my research. Judith Clarke was a proof-reader for the final draft of this thesis. Contents Introduction 16 1. Cultural Geography and Aboriginal Landscapes 20 1.1 The Culture and Landscape Dialectic 20 1.1.1 Environmental Determinism and Social Darwinism in the 19th Century 21 1.1.2 Ratzel and Anthropogeography 22 1.1.3 Environmental Determinism in the 20th Century 25 1.1.4 The Development of Sauerian Cultural Geography 29 1.2 Cultural Geography and the Problem of ‘Culture’ 31 1.2.1 The Study of Cultural Change and Continuity 34 1.2.2 Aboriginal Cultural Change Since the Pre-European Period 39 1.2.3 Cultural and Natural Areas 41 1.2.4 Ethnic and Subculture Studies 43 1.2.5 Humanistic Geography and Culture 46 1.3 Conclusion 50 2. The Lower Murray Aboriginal Population in Time and Space 52 2.1 Historical Background 52 2.1.1 Pre-colonial Contact Between Europeans and Aboriginal People 52 2.1.2 European Control of Aboriginal Populations 53 2.1.3 Demography of the Aboriginal Population in the Lower Murray Region 57 2.2 Ethnographic Sources in Southern South Australia 63 2.2.1 The Early Ethnographers (1830s to 1840s) 63 2.2.2 Ethnographic Accounts in Reflection (1870s to 1900s) 64 2.2.3 Scientific Studies (Late 19th Century to Present) 65 2.2.4 Urban and Rural Aboriginal Studies (1900s to Present) 68 2.3 Pre-European Aboriginal Social Structure 68 2.3.1 Languages, ‘Tribes’ and Cultural Blocs 69 2.3.1.1 Pre-European Aboriginal Languages 69 2.3.1.2 Pre-European Social Units in Southern South Australia 70 2.3.1.3 ‘Tribes’ in Southern South Australia 72 2.3.1.4 Cultural Blocs in South Australia 74 2.3.1.5 Pre-European Descent Groups in the Lower Murray 78 2.4 Contemporary Elements of Aboriginal Identity in Southern South Australia 81 2.4.1 Historical Background to Pan-Aboriginal Identity 81 2.4.2 Who is Aboriginal? 82 2.4.3 Nunga Identity 89 2.4.4 Ngarrindjeri Identity 92 2.4.4.1 Families as Regional Identifiers 93 2.4.4.2 Political Aspects of Being Ngarrindjeri 95 2.4.4.3 Contemporary Aboriginal Language in the Lower Murray Region 97 2.4.5 Towards a Pan-indigenous Consciousness 99 2.5 Conclusion 100 3. The Role of Myth in the Creation of Lower Murray Cultural Landscapes 104 3.1 What is the Dreaming? 104 3.1.1 Dreaming as Reality 104 3.1.2 Time in the Dreaming 106 3.2 The Making of Landscape and Society in Myth 107 3.2.1 The Formation of the Murray River Landscape 108 3.2.1.1 Noreele the Spirit Ancestor 108 3.2.1.2 Ngurunderi the Spirit Ancestor 109 3.2.1.3 Wyungare and the Two Wives 113 3.2.1.4 Corna the Creator 114 3.2.1.5 Thukabi the Creator 114 3.2.1.6 Land as Body 114 3.2.2 Lower Murray Identity in Myth 116 3.2.3 Psychic Landscapes of the Lower Murray 118 3.2.3.1 The Skyworld 118 3.2.3.1.1 The Sun 120 3.2.3.1.2 The Moon 121 3.2.3.1.3 The Planets 121 3.2.3.1.4 The Milky Way 122 3.2.3.1.5 The Coal-sack 122 3.2.3.1.6 The Southern Cross 122 3.2.3.1.7 The Pleiades 123 3.2.3.1.8 Orion’s Belt 123 3.2.3.1.9 Magellanic Clouds 124 3.2.3.1.10 Evening Star 124 3.2.3.1.11 Autumn Stars 124 3.2.3.1.12 Comets 124 3.2.3.1.13 Aurora Australis and Lunar Eclipse 125 3.2.3.2 The Underworld and Death 125 3.2.3.3 Lower Murray Spirit Beings 126 3.2.3.3.1 Spirit Men 127 3.2.3.3.2 Healers, Sorcerers and Wild People 129 3.2.3.3.3 Witj-witj, Witches and Devils 131 3.2.3.3.4 The But-but Spirit 131 3.2.3.3.5 Water Spirits 132 3.2.3.3.6 Half-human, Half-bird Creatures 135 3.2.3.3.7 Daytime Bird Omens 138 3.2.3.3.8 The Early Post-European Introduction of Spirits 139 3.3 The Dynamic Relationship Between Myth and Landscape 140 3.3.1 Adelaide - a Lower Murray Landscape 140 3.3.2 The Making of Myth - Kangaroo Island in Lower Murray Mythology 142 3.4 Conclusion 145 4. Early Aboriginal Use of the Lower Murray Environment 150 4.1 Sources of Aboriginal Environment Use Data 150 4.1.1 Stereotypes of ‘Primitive’ Hunters in the Early Ethnographies 151 4.1.2 Recent Treatments of Early Aboriginal Use of the Environment 152 4.2 Details of Early Aboriginal Hunting & Gathering Practices in the Lower Murray 153 4.2.1 A Broad Description of the Lower Murray Physical Environment 154 4.2.1.1 The Geomorphology of the Lower Murray 155 4.2.1.2 The Lower Murray Climate 156 4.2.1.3 The Lower Murray Vegetation 156 4.2.2 Capturing Marine Mammals 157 4.2.3 Kangaroo and Wallaby Hunting Techniques 158 4.2.4 Capturing Marsupials in Trees 160 4.2.5 Hunting Burrowing Mammals 161 4.2.6 Bird Catching and Egg Collecting 161 4.2.7 Aboriginal Use of Reptiles and Amphibians 164 4.2.8 Aboriginal Fishing Technology 165 4.2.9 Collecting Insects for Food 170 4.2.10 Gathering Manna and Lerp 170 4.2.11 Indigenous Sources of Honey 171 4.2.12 Crustaceans as Food 171 4.2.13 The Significance of Mollusc Food 172 4.2.14 An Overview of Aboriginal Vegetation Use 172 4.2.14.1 Aboriginal Vegetation Burning Practices 176 4.2.15 Use of Minerals 176 4.3 Cultural Aspects of Early Aboriginal Environment Use 178 4.3.1 Gender Division of Labour 178 4.3.2 Totemic ‘Use’ of the Environment 179 4.3.3 Aboriginal Prohibition Beliefs 180 4.3.4 Aboriginal Perception of the Physical Environment 182 4.3.5 Aboriginal Trade Networks in the Lower Murray 184 4.4 Conclusion 186 5. Early European Use of Aboriginal Hunter/gatherer Geographic Knowledge 189 5.1 European Expansion into Southern Australian waters 189 5.1.1 Early European Settlement on Kangaroo Island 192 5.1.2 Aboriginal Occupation of Kangaroo Island 194 5.1.3 Use of Hunting and Gathering Technology on Kangaroo Island 196 5.1.4 The Relationship Between Islanders and Mainland Aboriginal People 199 5.1.5 The Use of Aboriginal Skills by Official Colonists 203 5.2 Settlement at Encounter Bay 208 5.3 European Use of Aboriginal Tracks 212 5.4 Aboriginal Place Names 213 5.5 European Use of Aboriginal Biotic Taxonomy 215 5.6 Post 1836 European Use of Aboriginal Hunter and Gatherer Knowledge 217 5.7 Conclusion 218 6. The Alienation of Aboriginal People from the Lower Murray Landscape 225 6.1 The European Vision of South Australia 225 6.1.1 The Pattern of European Expansion 227 6.1.2 Murray River Traffic 231 6.1.3 Railway Expansion in Southern South Australia 232 6.1.4 Management of Water Resources in the Murray Basin 233 6.1.4.1 Murray River Irrigation and Lock Schemes 233 6.1.4.2 Draining the South East 235 6.1.5 The Effect of European Expansion on the Physical Environment 235 6.2 The Early ‘Assimilation’ of Aboriginal People in the Lower Murray 236 6.2.1 The Naming of Aboriginal People 237 6.2.2 Early Use of Aboriginal Labour 237 6.2.3 Agriculture Displaces Hunting and Gathering 240 6.2.4 Violent Encounters in the Lower Murray 242 6.3 The Missionisation of Aboriginal People in the Lower Murray 246 6.3.1 A Mission at Point McLeay 247 6.3.2 Growth of a Mission-based Population 249 6.3.3 The Mission and the Wider Economy 252 6.3.4 Conflict Between the Mission and the Local Aboriginal Population 253 6.3.5 The Relationship of the Mission with Local Europeans 254 6.3.6 Aboriginal-run Farms in the Lower Murray 256 6.3.7 Lower Murray Fringecamps 257 6.3.8 The Decline of Point McLeay 261 6.4 Government Control Over Aboriginal Affairs 263 6.4.1 The Significance of the 1860 and 1899 Select Committee Reports 263 6.4.2 The Aborigines Act, 1911 265 6.4.3 The 1913 Royal Commission 266 6.4.4 The Aborigines Act, 1934 - 1939 266 6.4.5 The Postwar Years 268 6.4.6 Commonwealth Management of Aboriginal Affairs 269 6.5 Conclusion 270 7. Point McLeay - Home, Prison and Cemetery 274 7.1 Point McLeay: a Welfare Town 274 7.1.1 The Management of Point McLeay 275 7.1.2 Aboriginal Employment and Welfare 277 7.1.3 Aboriginal Housing 283 7.1.4 The Raukkan Aboriginal School 284 7.1.5 Aboriginal Relationships with the Law 284 7.1.6 The Relationship Between Narrung and Point McLeay 286 7.2 Aboriginal Spatial Behaviour at Point McLeay 288 7.2.1 The Structural Layout of Point McLeay 288 7.2.2 Aboriginal Use of House and Settlement Space 289 7.2.3 The Point McLeay Farm 293 7.3 Point McLeay: Centre of a Ngarrindjeri Universe 295 7.3.1 Ngarrindjeri Business at Raukkan 296 7.3.2 Point McLeay as Church and Cemetery 297 7.3.2.1 A Description of a Ngarrindjeri Burial 298 7.3.2.2 Analysis of the Funeral 302 7.4 Ngarrindjeri People Living Outside the Lower Murray 306 7.4.1 The Ngarrindjeri in Adelaide 307 7.4.2 The Ngarrindjeri in the Riverland 311 7.4.3 Aboriginal Family History 312 7.5 Conclusion 313 8. Aboriginal Land Management in the Lower Murray Since the 1940s 318 8.1 The Modern Landscape 318 8.1.1 The Present Day Biota 318 8.1.1.1 Contemporary Fauna in the Lower Murray 319 8.1.1.2 Contemporary Flora in the Lower Murray 321 8.2. Contemporary Aboriginal Knowledge of Hunting and Gathering Practices 322 8.3 Aboriginal Fishing Today 324 8.4 Aboriginal Hunting Today 327 8.4.1 Rabbit Shooting 328 8.4.2 Bird Shooting 330 8.4.3 Collecting Bird Eggs 331 8.4.4 The Contemporary Importance of Hunting 333 8.5 Artefact Manufacture and Art in the Lower Murray Today 334 8.6 Aboriginal Involvement in Land Management 336 8.6.1 Wildlife Protection Acts and National Parks 337 8.6.2 Aboriginal Reserve Leases 337 8.6.3 Aboriginal Heritage 338 8.6.4 Contemporary Regional Politics in the Lower Murray 340 8.6.5 Aboriginal People as Conservationists 341 8.7 Conclusion 343 9. The Cultural Geography of the Lower Murray 346 9.1 The Lower Murray as a Valid Cultural Region 346 9.2 A Humanised Landscape 348 9.2.1 Social Change and the Landscape 350 9.3 Aboriginal People on the Periphery 351 9.3.1 Contemporary Lower Murray and ‘Nunga’ Identity 353 9.3.2 The Future in the Lower Murray 357 9.4 Role of Cultural Geography 358 10. Bibliography 361 11. Appendices 391 11.1 A Chronology of Events Affecting Aboriginal People in the Lower 391 Murray Region Since Contact with Europeans (1627 - 1993) 11.2 Glossary of Terms as Used by Contemporary Aboriginal People in the 406 Lower Murray Region 11.3 The Sources of Ethnographic Data Used in this Thesis 417 List of Figures i.1 The Lower Murray cultural region after 18 1.1 Life spans of major scholars and ethnographers mentioned in the text after 21 2.1 Aboriginal movement patterns in the 1840s resulting from settlement in Adelaide after 54 2.2 Aboriginal population trends in the Lower Murray region (1834 - 1994) after 58 2.3 Aboriginal population distribution in the Lower Murray region, 1879 after 59 (after Taplin, 1879, p.43) 2.4 Lower Murray people as painted by George French Angas in 1840 after 64 (Angas Collection, Anthropology Archives, S.A. Museum) 2.5 Lower Murray warrior as painted by William A. Cawthorne, c.1844 after 64 (Cawthorne Collection, Mitchell Library, Sydney) 2.6 Aboriginal languages of South Australia recorded in the 1840s after 69 2.7 Cultural regions used by the Australian Institute of Aboriginal after 76 and Torres Straits Islander Studies (after Craig, 1969) 2.8 ‘Narrinyeri’ nation according to Mathews (1898, 1900) after 76 2.9 ‘Ngarrindjeri’ descent groups of the pre-European period (after Taplin, after 80 1874, 1879; Brown, 1917; Berndt, 1940; Tindale, 1938, 1974) 2.10 Lower Murray dialect groups (after Brown, 1917; Berndt, 1940) after 80 3.1 The wife-drowning sites of the Ngurunderi myth, showing inland after 109 and coastal variation 3.2 Rock (centre) near Middleton said to have been used by Ngurunderi after 109 to kill a seal, 1989 (Photo: P.A. Clarke) 3.3 Pullen Island at Port Elliot, showing the rocks (far right) said to be after 112 Ngurunderi’s net, 1989 (Photo: P.A. Clarke) 3.4 A Point McLeay resident, Susan Rankine, at Pulluwewal, after 112 Wyungare’s Hill, 1990 (Photo: P.A. Clarke) 3.5 The cosmology of the Lower Murray people after 119 3.6 Spirit men, witch and devil sites in the Lower Murray after 128 3.7 A Mulgyewonk as drawn by Max McKenzie, an Aboriginal student at after 132 Raukkan Primary School, 1989 (Raukkan Primary School Collection, Anthropology Archives, S.A. Museum) 3.8 Maragon near Wellington, a major Mulgyewonk site, 1987 (Photo: P.A. Clarke) after 132 3.9 Water spirit sites in the Lower Murray after 134 3.10 The ‘Witches Caves’ at Big Hill, Point McLeay, 1988 (Photo: P.A. Clarke) after 141 3.11 Red Ochre Cove near Aldinga, where it was believed that Tjilbruki’s tears after 141 became a fresh water spring, 1985 (Photo: P.A. Clarke) 4.1 The Murray - Darling Basin after 155 4.2 Reeds at Lake Albert Passage, 1986 (Photo: P.A. Clarke) after 155 4.3 The ‘Bulrushes’ near Point McLeay, on the shore of after 155 Lake Alexandrina, 1987 (Photo: P.A. Clarke) 4.4 Point McLeay as seen across the Coorong from Younghusband Peninsula, 1990 after 155 (Photo: P.A. Clarke) 4.5 Rainfall of south eastern South Australia showing annual after 156 isohyets (after Specht, 1972) 4.6 Pre-European vegetation of southern South Australia (after Boomsma & after 156 Lewis, 1980, map), and Aboriginal camping zones in the Lower Murray 4.7 Susan and Jamie Rankine in the sheoak and gum forest at ‘Block K’, after 157 near Point McLeay, 1989 (Photo: P.A. Clarke) 4.8 Pine forest (of Callitris preissii) near Wellington, 1988 (Photo: P.A. Clarke) after 157 4.9 Harry Hewitt and Leonard Lovegrove net-fishing in the Inman River, after 166 c.1880 (McGann Collection, Anthropology Archives, S.A. Museum) 4.10 Painting by George French Angas demonstrating spear-throwing, after 167 1840 (Angas Collection, Anthropology Archives, S.A. Museum) 4.11 Fish-traps of Noonamena, Coorong, 1985 (Photo: P.A. Clarke) after 167 4.12 Major fish-traps and weirs recorded in the ethnographies of the after 168 south east of South Australia 4.13 Mussel midden exposed at the surface, near Point McLeay, after 172 1988 (Photo: P.A. Clarke) 4.14 Ash and cockle midden exposed by erosion near Commodore Point, after 172 Encounter Bay, 1987 (Photo: P.A. Clarke) 5.1 Whale movements and the distribution of whaling stations in southern after 190 South Australia prior to 1836 5.2 Islander bases on Kangaroo Island prior to 1836 after 193 5.3 Fleurieu Peninsula and the Murray Mouth as shown by Sturt (1833) after 201 5.4 Aboriginal tracks recorded by early settlers, and the paths of Sturt after 212 and Barker 6.1 European expansion in the 1840s (after Williams, 1974) after 228 6.2 Major pastoral stations of the 1850s in the Lower Murray after 229 6.3 The barrages at Tauwitchere Island, 1993 (Photo: P.A. Clarke) after 234 6.4 Point McLeay in the 1890s (Photo: Angas Collection, after 234 Anthropology Archives, S.A. Museum) 6.5 ‘Wurley’ shelters around Point McLeay, c. 1880 (Photo: Aborigines’ after 249 Friends’ Association Collection, Anthropology Archives, S.A. Museum) 6.6 The Needles Outstation, c.1900 (Photo: Angas Collection, after 249 Anthropology Archives, S.A. Museum) 6.7 20th century fringecamps sites in the Lower Murray after 258 6.8 Steve Hemming of the South Australian Museum recording site details after 258 of the One-Mile Camp from Marj Koolmatrie, one of its earliest inhabitants (Photo: P.A. Clarke) 6.9 Steve Hemming (right) of the South Australian Museum and Robert Day (left) after 258 of the Meningie Aboriginal community recording the use of a freshwater soak on the edge of the Coorong near Bonney Reserve, 1989 (Photo: P.A. Clarke) 7.1 Aboriginal employment at Point McLeay, 1991 (after Raukkan after 278 Community Council, 1992) 7.2 Age structure of Aboriginal residents at Point McLeay, 1991 after 278 (after Raukkan Community Council, 1992) 7.3 Street plan of Point McLeay, 1991 after 288 7.4 The Big Lawn, Point McLeay, 1988 (Photo: P.A. Clarke) after 297 7.5 Point McLeay church (left) and community hall (right), 1984 after 297 (Photo: P.A. Clarke) 7.6 The Point McLeay cemetery, with Big Hill in the background, after 297 1989 (Photo: P.A. Clarke) 7.7 School children from Point McLeay and Narrung at Big Hill, after 297 NAIDOC Day, 1989 (Photo: P.A. Clarke) 8.1 Aboriginal reserves in the Lower Murray after 318 8.2 Bernard Williams (left) and Henry Rankine (right) of the Point McLeay Aboriginal after 325 community spear-fishing in a lagoon near Teringie, 1991 (Photo: P.A. Clarke) 8.3 European carp (Cyprinus carpio) caught in the lagoons after 325 near Teringie, 1991 (Photo: P.A. Clarke) 8.4 Some hunting and fishing areas surrounding Point McLeay after 327 8.5 A group of Lower Murray men making clubs at Camp Coorong, after 334 1989 (Photo: P.A. Clarke) 8.6 Lindsay Wilson finishing a ‘plonggi’ (club with bulbous head) after 334 using a broken plate, 1989 (Photo: P.A. Clarke) 8.7 The ‘Creation of the Coorong’ by Jacob (Jack) Stengle, 1986 after 335 8.8 ‘Black Deaths in Custody’ by Kerry Giles, 1986 after 335 8.9 Rosiland Karpany (far left) and Ellen Trevorrow (at her near left) after 336 demonstrating basket and mat-making in Adelaide, 1988 (Photo: P.A. Clarke) 8.10 Susan Rankine wearing a pullover bearing the swan insignia over after 336 ‘Aboriginal colours’, 1988. The duck hunting lagoons between Big Hill and Teringie are in the background (Photo: P.A. Clarke) 8.11 The official Raukkan Primary School jumper, showing the swan and after 336 artefacts insignia, 1992 (Photo: P.A. Clarke) 8.12 Harriet Rankine demonstrating feather flower-making at Point McLeay, after 336 1989 (Photo: P.A. Clarke) 8.13 ATSIC regions in South Australia (after ATSIC Annual Report, after 340 Murrundi region, 1990-91) 11.1 Fieldwork periods of the main ethnographers working in the Lower Murray after 417 Introduction Aims The broad aim of this thesis is to add to the understanding of how minority indigenous cultures define and interact with space. To achieve this objective, an outline is given of changing Aboriginal notions concerning the physical and cultural environment from the pre-European period to the present. I investigate whether the Lower Murray region is a valid cultural region. I then consider whether or not Australian landscapes can be treated as human creations. I trace through time the integral development of social change and landscape change, as a way of explaining the marginal position of the contemporary Aboriginal community. Approaches borrowed from anthropology and sociology are used to improve the understanding of how repressed minority groups, such as the contemporary Aboriginal people of the Lower Murray, relate to a landscape that was totally transformed by Europeans. A part of my broad aim is to determine whether present day Aboriginal society is best described as being in the process of assimilation into the predominantly European culture of Australia. I consider the links between cultural identity and place identity, demonstrating the distinctive relationship that Aboriginal people have with land. I consider the future for Aboriginal people in the Lower Murray in relation to land management. Finally, the role of cultural geography in the study of the relationship that a plural society has with land is evaluated. Approach Due to the early importance of the Lower Murray cultural region in the anthropological and geographical literature, it is an important case study with which to reassess some of the fundamental concepts of cultural geography, from the view point of an ethnic minority, including the term ‘culture’ itself. In this thesis it is recognised that cultural geography can only provide a workable view of contemporary Aboriginal people by incorporating appropriate models of culture. Following the lead of other human geographical studies, concepts of culture are imported from social anthropology and sociology. I argue that Aboriginal people in the Lower Murray possess a cultural notion of place that is unique. Both the sociological and the cultural aspects of contemporary Aboriginal existence are shaped by outside agencies, but this thesis rejects “culture of poverty” models that attempt to totally integrate cultural forms with socio-economic characteristics. A major strategy adopted in this work is to account for Aboriginal interactions with space from the cultural perspective of both the insider and outsider. This humanistic approach recognises that local studies in cultural geography to some extent reflect the personal relationship that the writer has with the landscape and its occupants. I start the thesis with a literature survey of the various ways scholars have treated the link between change in culture and landscape (Chapter 1). Next, an overview of Aboriginal culture in the Lower Murray region is provided, with a brief historical background to Aboriginal identity (Chapter 2). In order to trace the course of cultural change in the Aboriginal population of the Lower Murray, I then investigate the early Aboriginal incorporation of mythology into the natural world, to reconstruct their perceived cultural landscape (Chapter 3). Following this, I consider the economic aspects of early Aboriginal hunting and gathering practices (Chapter 4). The European transformation of the landscape, and the subsequent effects upon the Aboriginal population are then given (Chapter 5 & 6). The contemporary ethnographic situation comes next (Chapter 7 & 8). Lastly, I summarise my empirical findings with respect to the literature of human and landscape interaction (Chapter 9). Sources Because of the aim of investigating changes in the landscape and culture of the Lower Murray, much of the material presented in this thesis is historical. The chief sources of information on the physical landscape are published sources from the geographic, regional historical and ecological literature. The early sources of ethnographic material have included the publications of missionaries such as H.A.E. Meyer and G. Taplin, and of R. Penney, a newspaper correspondent. One of the richest sources of historical and ethnographic information is the Taplin Journals, which have hitherto been little used by scholars. My heavy use of the Journals in Chapter 6 is justified on the basis of the poor record of early mission events found elsewhere. Early newspaper articles have helped to provide some balance to the missionary sources. I have utilised the standard scientific approach of organising the data in a logical sequence with respect to time and subject. In order to focus on particular aspects of human economic interaction with the environment, in some sections the physical realm of behaviour has been artificially separated from that of the social. I cite a considerable amount of anthropological and human geographical literature relevant to the cultural aspects of the Lower Murray region. In the second half of the thesis, I present my ethnographic data, generated from personal research in the region from 1982 onwards. Terminology Humanistic and cultural geography are burdened with the need to make use of a series of terms that lack a precise and universally accepted meaning, and some of which in addition are used in everyday non-technical speech. Examples are “culture”, “landscape”, “cultural landscape”, “place” and “community”. These concepts are dealt with at length later, but working definitions need to be provided at the outset. “Culture” is defined as the ways of living and ways of being of a human group, including their associated cognitive and behavioural patterns. “Community” is used in the context of a functionally cohesive group, with a sense of belonging and common cultural identity usually based on close linkage with a particular place or territory. I refer to Aboriginal groups that trace descent to particular regions as communities. “Landscape” is here used to denote the objective physical environment and its characteristics, such as climate, soils, mineral, plant and animal resources. Landscape is regarded objectively as observable, but not “natural”, in that all physical landscapes have to some extent been modified. The concept of “cultural landscape” used here treats the cultural landscape as the product of a complex interplay between human groups and the physical environment. It is considered to embody both the material and non-material aspects of this relationship. The cultural landscape is the result of the combined practices and perceptions of the landscape of those that interact with it. The term “place” refers to a concept within a humanistic perception of the culturally determined values of particular parts of the landscape. Places are fusions of human and natural order and are the significant centres of our immediate experiences of the world. They can evoke a sense of belonging to a social group and provide a sense of group identity. Whenever the word “place” is used to conform with this definition, rather than its ordinary everyday usage, it is italicised. This thesis uses a number of regional terms that require explanation (see Fig.i.1 & 2.1). Southern South Australia covers the entire coastal belt and inland “settled areas” of the state, including the peninsulas. The Lower Murray region is defined physically as that part of the Murray River Basin from just below Murray Bridge, where the river bends towards the Lower Lakes, down to the Murray Mouth. The areas on either side of the river that naturally drain into the Murray River, such as the Coorong, also form part of the region. The Murray River exits into Encounter Bay, the coast of which is included as part of the Lower Murray. This extension is justified by the cultural characteristics of the pre-European Aboriginal population. Similarly, Rapid Bay is the northern limit for the coastal boundary of the Lower Murray. Kingston, at the termination of the Coorong, is the southern end of the region. I have extended the Lower Murray region to encompass Kangaroo Island, although it was unoccupied by humans prior to the 19th century. This is because of the strong historical connection between the Lower Murray region and the island during the early years of European expansion. Also, the main myth epic recorded in the Lower Murray terminates west of Kangaroo island. Due to the restrictions placed upon Aboriginal movements since the beginning of the 20th century, the more contemporary aspects of the thesis in the main deal with the southern end of the Lower Lakes and the Coorong. Similarly, these spatial restrictions on movement are reflected in a change of emphasis in the second half of the thesis from concepts relating to the entire cultural landscape, to those relating to place. The adjacent regions are also defined in terms of their Aboriginal occupancy during the period of early European entry (Fig.2.1). The Mid Murray extends from Murray Bridge, north to Morgan near the river bend at Overland Corner. The eastern escarpment of the Mount Lofty Ranges also falls into this region. The Upper Murray extends north east from Morgan to the site at which the river crosses the New South Wales and Victorian borders, near Lake Victoria and Rufus River. The South East is the region in the southernmost corner of South Australia, hemmed in by the western part of Victoria. The Adelaide Plains is the region north of Rapid Bay, including the adjacent western slopes of the Mount Lofty Ranges. The Mid North takes in the northern Mount Lofty Ranges and the southern part of the Flinders Ranges.