Why Warriors lie down and die launch - speech by Dr Evelyn Scott

Speech by Dr Evelyn Scott

From the national launch of Why Warriors Lie Down and Die in Sydney on Thursday 26 October at Australia's Northern Territory & Outback Centre, Darling Harbour

Thank you Djiniyini.

I would like to first acknowledge the Darwin Traditional Landowners, the Larrakia.

I also want to pay tribute to the Elders of the Yolngu people. Without their knowledge, their wisdom, their trust and their generosity, this important event would not be taking place.

When Richard sent me a copy of this work, I wasn't at all sure what to expect.
I knew he'd spent many years of his life living and working with East Amhem communities. I knew he'd gained the respect and trust of the Yolngu peoples and their Elders.

I knew that Djiniyini Gondarra thought this book was so potentially important he gave one of his best workers special time to work on it. And I'd heard talk that Richard was one of the very few people, out of the whole Balanda mob, who'd really tried to gain a deep understanding of Yolngu history and culture as well as their current circumstances.

Now I know one other thing. Djiniyini was right. This book will make a major contribution to cross-cultural understanding in Australia.

It would be an understatement to say that reading the book left me with mixed emotions. As you work your way through it, you find yourself swept around in tides of feelings. They range from deep sorrow - even anger - to hope and optimism that it's not too late, that the Warriors can rise and stand tall as they have for many thousands of years.

For that to happen, it will certainly help if as many non-Indigenous Australians as possible read this book. And I'm not just talking about the doctors, the educators and the other professionals who might go on to Yolngu land to work with the people there. It's certainly "must read" material for them, but I believe this book will help many other Australians to break through some of the barriers that block our path to cross-cultural understanding in a much broader sense.

To illustrate my point let me talk briefly about just two aspects of the book that I found to be especially powerful.

The first is its treatment of the state of warfare that existed on and off for fifty years after the white authorities, unbeknown to the Yolngu, divided Arnhem Land into eleven pastoral leases in the 1880s. Now, I'd venture to say that the vast majority of Australians don't even know that these wars took place, let alone their extent, or their tragic consequences for many Yolngu clans. This book tells the story in detail. It tells of the contempt for traditional law, of the disastrous misunderstandings that resulted and of the sheer brutality of the successive pastoral wars.

The story is told convincingly from the perspective of the Indigenous peoples involved, as related to the author by Yolngu Elders and supported by his own research of historical records. That aspect of "Why Warriors" is important to me because it provides a new resource for Australians who want to get a true perspective on the shared history of this continent over the last couple of centuries. Most of today's adult Australians were denied that perspective in their formal education, and unfortunately there are still some among out leaders who deny that such a perspective is important to our prospects for reconciliation and future unity. It is important, and I thank Richard for his contribution to making it accessible.

Ladies and gentlemen, similar reasons are behind my appreciation of another aspect of "Why Warriors lie down and die". The book - virtually all of it in my view - is an eloquent demonstration of the links between the present crisis in Yolngu communities and the injustices and misguided policies of the past.

Here we move well beyond the original dispossessions and massacres. Even the quite recent policies directed at self-determination, that held out so much hope in the 1970s, are exposed in "Why Warriors" as actually contributing to the current crises in health, education and continuing welfare dependency. If I read Richard's argument correctly, this failure is largely due to the way the policies were implemented, rather than the intent of the policies themselves.

To cut a long and sad story short, I think we're talking about the same kind of cultural arrogance that allowed the earlier brutal events to take place. In its essence, I think it's a refusal to accept the validity of Indigenous cultures. Richard illustrates the point many times, most notably in his excellent analysis of the importance of Ianguage in the interface between Yolngu and Balanda cultures.

He's referring of course to the languages of the Yolngu people, and the inability or unwillingness of non-Indigenous people to communicate with the Yolngu in a language they can readily understand.

Like many other issues canvassed in the book, this is one that affects many Indigenous communities all over Australia. I agree with Richard that basic human rights - in areas like health and education as well as before the law - are being denied Australia's Indigenous peoples because of this refusal to accept the importance of fundamental cultural factors such as language.

The fact that this is still an issue in the year 2000 is really totally unacceptable. It's an issue for reconciliation, because its an issue of Indigenous rights.

Richard argues that there is still time. The errors of the past and present can be corrected, and the Yolngu people can be re-empowered before their great cultures are lost forever.

It's an argument that applies in many other parts of Australia. In that respect "Why Warriors" challenges all of us, from policy-makers to ordinary individuals, to take the few great steps that are needed.

And for that reason as well as the others I've suggested, I have no hesitation in commending this book to all thoughtful Australians.

Dr Evelyn Scott
Chairperson of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation
Liberty Square, Parliament House, Darwin
August 24, 2000