Why Warriors lie down and die Review

Why Warriors lie down and die

Book Reviews

Reviewed by Bruce Irvine in Ruminations, Quarterly Journal of the Uniting Church NSW Rural Ministry Unit, March 2001

In June 1997 I was visiting Ramingining when Mulumbuk, whom I had not seen for a number of years, came up and greeted me.

“It’s good to see you, friend, I responded. “I’ve been worried about you.’

‘Why have you been worried about me?’ he asked.

‘I’ve been worried because I heard you were in Darwin on the grog, and I was worried that something would happen to you and you might get yourself killed!’

‘Yes,’ he replied, ‘I have spent a couple of years wandering around Darwin on the grog.’

‘Why?’ I asked. ‘With your education and skill you could get a job anywhere.’

Mulumbuk replied with a question. ‘Wamut, what’s that school over there for?’ He pointed to the school at the end of the road.

I was puzzled. ‘You know what the school is there for, ‘ I said.

'No I don’t,’ he insisted. ‘I don’t know what it’s there for.’

This threw me because I didn’t know what he was driving at. ‘Come on Tommy, I repeated, a bit frustrated, ‘you know what the school is for.’

There was a long pause as I waited for Mulumbuk to show his hand, but he didn’t. He just stood there looking at me as if begging me for an answer. So I said ‘you know the school is there to teach the kids how to read and write so they can get a job when…’

Mulumbuk stopped me mid-sentence. ‘I know that stupid story,’ he said. ‘There’s no work around this place if you are Yolngu. There’s only work for Balanda or for Aboriginal people from other places.’ After a pause he added, ‘I haven’t had a proper job since you left here in 1983.’

The story above is just one of many told by Richard Trudgen (Wamut) in his profound book ‘Why Warriors Lie Down and Die’. (For a profile of Richard, see Real Ministry No 10 on page 19)

For many years the Editor has felt totally confused by the worsening plight of Aboriginal people in Australia:

We live in an enlightened age.

We have learned so much from our mistakes in earlier times.

We throw millions of dollars at Aboriginal initiatives.

AND YET – their health gets worse, their death rate continues to increase, suicide rate is increasing, and employment and prosperity and equality seem further than ever from the majority of Aboriginal people.

Churches, especially the Uniting Church, have tried very hard to understand the problems and to inform their people.

But I, for one, have felt increasingly disturbed and frustrated because nothing seems to work.

Richard’s superb book begins to help me understand.

Richard Trudgen has spent a large slice of his life among the Yol`u people of Eastern Arnhem Land. In his book, he looks at life through Yol`u eyes.

He identifies loss of control as the central problem, caused by a refusal by Balanda (non Aboriginal people) to take seriously the language and culture of the people.

Yolngu are intelligent, energetic and skilled people. Their system of law and their culture was highly developed before the Balanda came.

But they have been treated as though they are primitive and ignorant.

Most of the programs designed to give the Yolngu control over their lives have resulted in debilitating dependency. Yolngu feel confused and frustrated – and so do the well-meaning Balanda who try to help.

Richard says: ‘Blaming the Yolngu for the crisis they now face is akin to blaming a battered woman, an abused child or a victim of war for the predicament they find themselves in, when the situation is almost totally beyond their control.’

‘The burden of sickness and disease seems to me to have quadruped in the twenty six year period I have been associated with Arnhem Land!’

‘There are many factors behind the people’s problems. All these can be summed up in one phrase: the people have suffered an almost total loss of control over their lives and living environment.’

‘People from Darwin and Canberra are very good at setting up structures and programs to deal with the symptoms they see in Yolngu communities. But these structures and programs:

· Are outside answers and therefore culturally inappropriate and alienating;

· Demand a large amount of outside support and resources, which are then not available to address the primary causes;

· Do not address the primary causes and therefore do not solve the problem.’

‘From over twenty years working with Yolngu…..I know that when the people have heard all the relevant information in a language they understand, initiated a response or intervention that fits their cultural ways, and then brought into being what they have decided upon, ‘the problem’ seems to fade and almost disappear.’

$29.95 AUD

Back to Top