Indigenous Identity in an Alien World by Justin Frewen

The problem of the sense of identity is not, as it is usually understood, merely a philosophical problem, or a problem only concerning our mind and thought. The need to feel a sense of identity stems from the very condition of human existence, and it is the source of the most intense strivings.
Erich Fromm

For indigenous peoples worldwide the struggle to preserve their identity has been a brutal one confronted as they were with the overwhelming and oppressive might of colonial rule. Despite the passing of these overtly repressive political and economic regimes, the traditions, cultures and identities of indigenous peoples remain under serious threat. Nowhere does this hold more true than in Australia. To take one example, UNESCO reports that of the 300 indigenous languages, which once contributed so richly to the Australian cultural landscape, only 20 remain unendangered.

A central concern for indigenous Australians in maintaining their cultural and traditional heritage is their relationship with the lands they have occupied for over 60,000 years. As Big Bill Neidjie, a Gagudju Elder, eloquently expresses this personal relationship between the lands of Australia and Indigenous identity,

I feel with my body. Feeling all these trees, all this country. When this blow you can feel it. Same for country... you feel it, you can look, but feeling... that makes you.

It is this profound bond with the land in which they live that has proved so difficult for non-Indigenous Australians to understand or, perhaps more accurately, one which has been deliberately disregarded in order to ensure there were no moral barriers inhibiting the seizure and plundering of the territories of the continent's original inhabitants. In addition to the economic and political pressures pushing for expropriation of indigenous territories, the cultural and social differences in how land was viewed served only to create even greater division between the native inhabitants and the colonists. Whereas for Indigenous Australians, the land served as the "source of social, spiritual and legal arrangements" founded on the attendant duties of "reciprocity and custodianship", the British-derived concept of the new arrivals was intrinsically bound up with the legal notion of private possession. Given the political dominance of non-Indigenous peoples, their concept of land became law, creating a situation which continues to work greatly to the detriment of the Indigenous inhabitants.

Today, should Indigenous peoples wish to advance their claims with respect to their ancestral lands, they are obliged to deal with an alien political, economic and legal system, part of a culture heir to the one that originally dispossessed them. Such a situation has an exhausting effect on Indigenous leaders and communities as they are forced to engage in extensive efforts to furnish 'proof of claim' to a highly exacting non-Indigenous legal system, so their "traditional laws and customs and the rights arising under them" might be properly recognised.

Non-indigenous, political, economic and legal frameworks continue to have an 'imperialistic' effect on the sovereignty of the Indigenous population and their attempts to maintain their long historical heritage and independent identities. For non-Indigenous leaders, apparently convinced of the superiority of their political and economic systems, it appears only natural that Indigenous peoples should be subject to them. In effect, the Indigenous community is facing a double colonisation and dispossession. Firstly, their lands were seized from them unjustly and by force over a brutal period in their history. Now, in order to retrieve some of the lands they lost, they are obliged to return to the courts of the civilisation that dispossessed them in the first place.

This situation is further aggravated by an apparent unwillingness, even on the part of so-called sympathetic politicians and other members of non-Indigenous Australian society, to understand and empathise with the needs of Indigenous Australians for their aspirations to be recognised and acknowledged. Although Kevin Rudd and the administration he represents might have apologised to the Stolen Generations in February 2008, the argument that the date for Australia National Day was a "festering sore" and served to exclude Indigenous peoples was peremptorily dismissed. While there may indeed be other pressing issues confronting the Australian government and people, such as the current international financial crisis, the issue should be given serious consideration by all members of Australian society who are genuinely intent on ensuring a process of national reconciliation.