Cultural Aspects
Unit 3: Protocols & Behaviours
Cultural Aspects Historical Issues Race Relations Contemporary Issues
Unit 1: The Dreaming Unit 2: Spirituality Unit 3: Protocols and Behaviours Unit 4: Country
Protocols are guidelines for all people to follow to establish and maintain positive and mutually beneficial relationships between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people, communities and their organisations.
Board of Studies NSW (1998) p. 11, cited in Sheridan, A. & Tranter, J. 2000, Unit 3 p. 5
...the respect for the Laws of a Country, the responsibility that people had to care for their Country, and the use of appropriate protocols by visitors, meant that disputes over territory were virtualy unknown prior to colonisation
Sheridan, A. & Tranter, J. 2000, Unit 3 p. 5
Activity 3.1
Introducing yourself:
An audio tape is provided with this course, on which the Aboriginal woman Oomera Edwards talks with two non-Aboriginal women, Rosemary Livingston and Lyn Woodell. The following notes were made in answer to Activity questions for this Unit:
The three woman each introduce themselves to us, their listening students, clearly, slowly, and with repect. The silences between the voices convey respect for each speaker's space, as well as for the space of their listeners. There is a quiet calm about the interactions.
Firstly, Lyn Woodell, representing OTEN, introduces us to the Aboriginal woman, Oomera Edwards. Oomera explains carefully who she in in terms of the Country she is part of:
Welcome, Oomera Edwards, and thank you for sharing your knowledge. ...Could you tell your students something about yourself?
Silence
Certainly. My name is Oomera. My birth country is Anaiwan. My spirit country is Darnginjung. To translate that, that means I was born in the small town called Tingha, in the New England area, which is Anaiwan country and I now live on the central coast which is just north of Sydney in Darnginjung country. And that's where my, I suppose, knowledge comes from - that Country.
Silence
Thank you Oomera. I'm Lyn Woodell and I teach at OTEN in the dipoloma of Aboriginal Studies and I'd like to introduce Rosemary Livingston.
Silence
Hi, i'm Rosemary. I'm a non-Indigenous Australian. I was born on Eora Country and I live on Garingai Country now. I'm a student in the Diploma of Aboriginal Studies at the Eora College. I'm also a student at Tranby College and that's because my own interest and journey in Aboriginal studies began about five years ago and I have the privilege of using that knowledge in some of the job that I do in TAFE NSW. So I think we're all really keen to hear what Oomera can teach us, (and) to you, our students, who are both from backgrounds that are Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal.
Oomera Edwards founded Link Up with Peter Ried, in 1980, to assist people of the Stolen Generations to reconnect. Born at Tingha, New South Wales, in 1950, she was removed from her Aboriginal parents at the age of five months and placed at Cootamundra Domestic Training Home for Aboriginal Girls. She was there until 1966. She changed her English name, Coral, to Oomera ('strong woman') in 1992.
Activity 3.2
Building trust
Joe is a local teacher, teaching Aboriginal studies. He needs to organise Aboriginal guest speakers to talk on a range of issues.
Building trust between himself and the Aboriginal peaple he wishes to speak, will be Joe's first priority. To achieve this, he will need to have clarified in his own mind which cultural issues his students might benefit most from hearing about, and who is best to speak. He will need to have researched and identified Aboriginal people with the knowledge in those areas.
Before he approaches the potential speakers directly, he could seek advice from people he already knows, such as the teachers who taught him Aboriginal Studies. He also may ask them to check over the list of issues he's selected, for their advice. Perhaps there are particular cultural issues that are, for example, more appropriate to current events, or that may not be in the news but are of current importance to the aboriginl community. The opportunity to talk about these isues may be welcomed by Aboriginal people. Seeking advice on the most appropriate people to approach may also come from the teachers.
Approaching Aboriginal education institutions such as Tranby and Eora may be helpful for general information, more specific information about who might speak about Aboriginal education. There will be organisations related specifically to the issues selected. For example Local Land Councils will have contacts for people who can speak on land rights. Aboriginal Health and Legal services may point Joe towards people who know about these areas.
Activity 3.3
Know local resources and people in my area:
Waterloo Library has a large collection of books, tapes and films on Aboriginal culture.
Tel: 02 9288 5688
Email: library@cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au
Waterloo Town Hall
770 Elizabeth Street
Waterloo NSW 2017
Hours:
Monday, Wednesday and Friday: 10am to 6pm
Tuesday and Thursday: 10am to 7pm
Saturday: 9am to 4pm
Sunday and Public Holidays: Closed
find out more about:
Aboriginal Education Consultative Group (AECG)
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC)
Land Council
Medical Services
Legal Services
IN SCHOOLS:
Aboriginal Education Worker (AEW)
Aboriginal Student Support and Parent Awareness Program (ASSPA)
WORKSHEET
Unit 4 involves taking a walk through Country. This will require learning about that Country from an Aboriginal perspective, and the approriate behavours and protocols required for walking through it. Knowledge of culturally appropriate ways to communicate with Aboriginal people and Aboriginal organisations will be needed to achieve this.
1. How do you approach Aboriginal communities/organisation?
I would telephone the group I'd like to meet, so I can make a time to go in person and listen to what they might tell me about their Country. I would explain on the phone who I am ( a student of Aboriginal Studies) and why I am seeking information (so I might learn how to behave appropriately in order to take a walk through their Country). I would not simpy turn up uninvited. I would find out as much as I can about the Country I'd like to walk through before making contact.
When meeting people from an Aboriginal community or organisation I would listen more than talk. I would be there to learn from them. Aware of the factions within Indigenous communities, I would be maintain an impartial, unbiased position on any information or comments they provide.
2. How do you approach Aboriginal Elders?
I know that it's often rude to make direct eye contact. Those Elders who have maintained a more traditional code of interaction would expect an indirect approach. As a sign of respect, and acknowledgement of this custom, I would refrain from direct eye contact on first meeting.
Providing time (silences) in conversations is important. It's important for the Elder to be given time to sum me up, to assess what informaion is appropriate for him/her to provide. It's disrespectful to rush things.
3. What is the protocol for attending meetings of Aboriginal organisations?
4. Explain the reasons for listening courteously
People need time to gather their thoughts.
5. Explain how to ask indirect questions
6. List any alternative avenues of informations you can think of to help you plan your walk, other than those discussed in this unit.
NOTES
Tingha: Small service town on the New South Wales Northern Tablelands Tingha, with an Aboriginal name said to mean 'flat or open land' is located on the Northern Tablelands of NSW, 26 km south of Inverell, 629 km north-north-east of Sydney and 460 km south-west of Brisbane.
Before European settlement the area was occupied by the Anaiwan, a sub-group of the Murri Aboriginal people. Many of their descendants still live in the area.
Early European occupation of the district is related to the settlement of Inverell. In 1870, tin was discovered at Tingha, after an initial find north at Elsmore. At the peak of the tin boom Tingha was the largest tin-producing district in NSW with mines stretching for 8 km and employing, it is said, 8000 men, of which perhaps 2000 were Chinese.
Tingha was established as a private town to service the mines in 1885. New dredges were brought in to rework the old ground in the 20th century. Little remains of the old mines but a rusting steam engine and lots of weeds.
From a peak of 2500 people in the 1880s the population has declined to some 900 persons today.
The Age, Travel URL (8 February 2004)
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Sheridan, J. & Tranter, J. 2000, Aspects of Cultural Studies A Learner's Guide, Open Training and Education Network, Sydney.
The Age, Travel URL (8 February 2004) http://www.theage.com.au/news/New-South-Wales/Tingha/2005/02/17/1108500199567.html [Online accessed 19 September 2006]
