GREENOP Uncanny Brisbane

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Proceedings of the XXVth International Conferenceof the Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand

Geelong, Australia, 3-6 July 2008 History in Practice 1

Uncanny Brisbane:New Ways of Looking at Urban Indigenous Place

Kelly GreenopAboriginal Environments Research Centre, School of Geography, Planning and Architecture

The University of Queensland, Queensland, Australia

Abstract

Revealing new types and forms of place and place networks can render a place

uncanny leaving the mainstream unsettled and disturbed from its previously

fixed and secure colonial version of the past. These forms of place are created

and used by contemporary urban Indigenous people both as part of their daily

personal lives, and as part of their self-consciously constructed Indigenous

identities with social and political motives.

The authors current research into Indigenous places in suburban Brisbane

reveals a set of places and networks which are both unsettling to the mainstream

history of Brisbanes origins and continue to offer alternative ways of inhabiting,

valuing and using the city. New versions of the traditional meeting and gathering

places are being created, maintaining and renewing traditions in the suburban

landscape. Contemporary types of places are also created which have noequivalent in the traditional past, but support traditional values of holding

community and kin together, in the multi-cultural suburban context. Indigenous

geographies and places are both affirming traditional Indigenous place systems,

and creating new versions of Indigenous place, with unique and specific forms in

the suburban context.

This paper will examine initial findings from fieldwork currently being undertaken

in Inala, on Brisbanes South West edge. It will reveal that far from being not

proper blackfellas Indigenous people in suburban Brisbane have a proud and

continuing heritage of place, which is parallel to and unsettling for, the settler

version of Brisbane.


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Uncanny Brisbane: New Ways of Looking at Urban Indigenous Place



Introduction

This paper examines the urban place making of Indigenous people in contemporary

Brisbane, and seeks to reveal some of the contemporary place attachments of Indigenous

people in Brisbane today. Links can be drawn between traditional ways of using and valuing

place, and new versions of place attachment, demonstrating cultural continuity as well as

change and the continuing development of contemporary place attachments.

This paper will explore the possibility of an uncanny version of Brisbane, one that may

unsettle or disturb mainstream versions, or render the city unrecognisable to its residents.

This revealing of an uncanny version of place is part of a postcolonial approach to the human

geography of Brisbane by the author, attempting to decolonise it through a series of

revisitations of historical assumptions and an analysis of the use of places by contemporary

Indigenous residents.

Preliminary findings for current fieldwork being undertaken in the outer South West Brisbane

suburb of Inala will be used as a case study. The research was conducted during

involvement with the Inala community over the course of 2006-2007, including a deep

involvement with the Inala and Acacia Ridge National Aboriginal and Islander Day

Observance Committee (NAIDOC) celebrations in July 2007, where the author was a

member of the Inala NAIDOC committee and assisted in the Inala NAIDOC Family Day event

as a photographer and video recorder for the event.

Inalas comparatively high proportion of Indigenous people (5.3% compared to a Brisbane-

wide average of 1.4%1) make it an ideal location to uncover non-White versions of Brisbane.

Indigenous residents concepts of Inala are at odds with common perceptions of it by

outsiders and the popular media, in which it is characterised by high levels of violence, crime

and poverty; yet to residents it is a beloved place, rich with positive associations and history.

The history of the uncanny is initially examined, and its relevance to place in Brisbane

discussed. Traditional Indigenous gathering practices from literature sources are then


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outlined and the Indigenous place making constructs of the pre-colonial and colonial periods

in the Brisbane region are established. Contemporary events in South East Queensland will

then be examined to establish their similarities with pre colonial and colonial events. Events

in Inala were examined as part of ongoing fieldwork, and here the author seeks to position

them as part of continuing and reworked traditions, as well as reveal emerging customs

which reflect new Inala identities embedded in place. Far from being inauthentic or degraded

in culture, the research reveals that Inalas Indigenous communities demonstrate diverse,

living cultural practices, rather than a degraded version of a traditional culture with a focus on

what has been lost.

Finally the paper examines how these Indigenous place responses position theoretical

questions of place for urban Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities. It is argued that

this Indigenous version of Brisbane unsettles the mainstream version of Brisbane. If a

dynamic Indigenous culture is occupying the city and suburbs, assumed by most to be a

young place with a heritage of Queenslander houses and mango trees, where, in fact, does

this place the White version of Brisbane? Are non-Indigenous claims to these places less

legitimate and therefore are mainstream geographies on shaky grounds, themselves

degraded? Or could a new acknowledgement of multiple layers of cultures and

understanding of places reward us all (Indigenous and non-Indigenous) with a richer

understanding of contemporary urban life? It is here we return to the notion of the uncanny to

explore these issues, offering new questions for contemplating this dilemma, rather than a

set of neat answers.

The Uncanny

Freud discussed the uncanny and the means by which it disturbs the familiar and unsettles

the comfort of the everyday feelings of being at ease.

the uncanny is that class of the frightening which leads back to what is know of

old and long familiar2


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I borrow the term uncanny in its application to Indigenous Australia from Gelder and

Jacobs3 who seek to explore how contemporary accounts of the Aboriginal sacred in

Australia can make Australia unfamiliar and disturbing to its non-Indigenous inhabitants.

They see the Aboriginal sacred in contemporary Australia as being identified only in order to

be restricted, bounded, fenced off: neutralised4

The translation of the term uncanny is from the German unheimlich, the antonym ofheimlich,

a word not directly translatable, but meaning approximately homely, cosy comfortable and

companionable.5 The notion of the uncanny, the unheimlich is not merely that which is

uncomfortable, but that which has been rendered strange when it is usually heimlich, it is the

heimlich turned back on itself, the familiar made unfamiliar, with a particular kind of

disturbance being felt by the onlooker. Freud points out that it is not merely the unfamiliar

being brought to attention, but a combination of what is familiar and agreeable, and what is

concealed and kept out of sight and what has in fact, been repressed.6 This is particularly

relevant to our attempts to revisit the places of our neat, clean young city of Brisbane. To

reveal a side, a parallel set of places which transform, for example, suburban parks into

places of tradition and ceremony linking back to a classical Aboriginal past, can disturb the

assumptions many have about Brisbane, and unfix Indigenous people from ancient history

and remote locations where they are safely away from White suburbanites.

Said7, in his classic work, uncovers the ambition of orientalism to fix and control the notion

of the Orient, and hand it over to a Western scholarly process to speak for, and about, the

Orient with authority and confidence8. A similar process has been undertaken in Australia

with the colonisation of the land and its peoples, such that authority for places is now vested

in registers of sacred sites and the legal structures that regulate them, rather than people, as

was the case in the Classical Aboriginal past. The revealing of secret information is now

required in order to protect the sacredness of the place, ironically, potentially eroding its

integrity during this process9

. Control of information has been an important part of the

colonial project, with the idea of secret information being dangerous and meaning that the

concept is escaping fromcontrol10. Yet if it exists in a manner that is beyond control of


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colonisers, it retains its authority and power, parallel to the systems that attempt to fix and

control it. This could be seen as a decolonising effect, one which has been described as

necessary, by anthropologists11 and geographers12, who seek to unpick the work of

colonisation in these disciplines and re-stitch the pieces more loosely into a new and fuller

version which remains flexible and changeable, and out of (total) academic or legal control.

The process of how this decolonisation of academic practices is actually done, what work it

entails, is emerging with new versions of history, anthropology and geography surfacing, and

the previously unheard voices of Indigenous academics, and historical actors being

revealed.13 Carters attempt to make all of Australia uncanny with the Lie of the Land14 was

a complete rethinking of the process of settlement. Jacobs15 has examined Brisbane in

sketch form some time ago, and also written a selective account of Indigenous urban issues

in Melbourne.16 AIATSIS have published non-academic Indigenous interpretations of

Melbourne17, Sydney18 and Darwin19 and Adelaide has also been examined in terms of

Indigenous interactions within the city20 and within an historical context by Gara.21 Indigenous

authors make important contributions to the lived history of Brisbane and South East

Queensland,22 and recent Indigenous academic work of note by Bond23 examines Inala

Identities in the context of health. Memmott24 and Memmott & Long25 have demonstrated the

sophisticated use of place and architecture in traditional and contemporary remote

Indigenous Australia. However, the lives of urban and suburban Indigenous people have not

featured in our academic understanding of cities in Australia to any great degree, Merlan26,

Morgan27, Birdsall28, and Keen29, are significant exceptions. These authors are notably

primarily within the fields of anthropology and geography, while few urban planners or

architectural theorists deal with these issues of contemporary Indigenous life in cities and

how it is reflected in place. The author has begun with an initial critical examination of the

history of Brisbane settlement and geography relating to Indigenous prior occupation30. This

paper seeks to continue this exploration, and demonstrate the connections between the

theorising of the city and lived places, and give Indigenous occupants of the city a voice often

unheard in research.


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Traditional Gathering and Place Making in South East Queensland

There is a global, cross-cultural tradition of people gathering to share food, news and to

trade, for celebration, ritual and the enforcement of law. Many gathering events for Aboriginal

people occurred in South East Queensland in the pre-colonial and colonial eras. People from

distinct groups and disparate regions gathered to feast together in times of abundance, to

help initiate each others young adults, and to share songs, stories and settle disputes. There

was a traditional of hospitality, and the reciprocation of hosting events.31 Social obligations

created strong bonds, which helped to define relations within and between groups. The

importance of extended kin and welcoming them with food and hospitality was a key part of

gathering events. From the historical and archaeological literature a number of place

constructs are able to be attributed to the gathering sites and their associated events.

Physical Features of Place

The creation of a gathering place was physically specific and followed a highly coded pattern

not only in terms of its actual construction, but how it was located with respect to other

gathering sites in the region. Satterthwaite & Heather32 provide archaeological evidence of

Earth circle sites33 in the Moreton Region, which were locations of ceremonial and social

activity. The physical construction of the sites was one to two cleared circles on the ground,

with built up earth mounds forming the edge of the circles. In some cases there has been

evidence of one circle, in others two (and in rare cases, three or more), and typically with a

path joining the two circles. It is generally believed that the larger earth circle was for more

public ceremonies and gathering, and the smaller circle was for the conducting of secret or

sacred events, following a 100-200m walk down the connecting path away from public

gaze.34 Earth circle grounds were specially marked out, so that the uninitiated, and women35

would keep away.36 The blazing of trees around sacred ceremonial grounds37 was used to

deter people from a approaching the area, carved tree trunks visible to those using the earth

circle site,38 and, indeed the raised earth mounds of the circle defined the area itself.39

The location of the enduring earth circles gives an indication of the spread and distribution of

Aboriginal ceremonial activities in the region. Satterthwaite & Heather discuss site selection


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and possible requirements for the suitable selection of earth circle locations, the criteria for

which included, distance from the nearest neighbouring site, which was likely to be a device

to manage resources to avoid over-exploitation of an area;40 proximity to resources such as

fresh water,41 sources of game and plant foods;42 and specific physical features, such soil

suitable for the creation and maintenance of the earth circle43. Importantly Satterthwaite &

Heather conclude that it is likely that the earth circle sites formed a site system that

developed to support the practice of culture over the region in a sustainable manner.44 They

argue that

earth circles constituted principal elements of the regions Aboriginal built

environmentby establishing these sites the Aboriginal people of the region

signalled their appropriation of it by transforming its natural landscape into a

cultural landscape.45

Timing of Gathering Events

The timing of the use of earth circles is also discussed by Satterthwaite & Heather who point

out that there were favoured times for gathering. Obvious rallying times were those of natural

abundance of food, such as that provided by the Bunya (Bonyi) Pines whose annual nut

ripening provided a rich food source, with extra large crops every two to three years. The

plenitude of sea mullet46 was also a feasting and assembly opportunity. Other times were

also favoured according to Satterthwaite & Heather47 which coincided with the most reliably

abundant rainfall in the region, around March and April, following the long wet-season

summer. The approximate time is known from descriptions of gathering events occurring at

the time that particular constellations appeared: the coal sacks which were also described

as the sky bora rings,48 dark patches in the night sky which would be visible during those

particular months of the year, and also later in September-October.


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Figure 1. Map of earth circle locations in South East Queensland,based on Satterthwaite & Heather (1987), 46.

Activities which Create Place

In addition to the physical aspects of the gathering places, there were associated activities

which were essential to the proper use of the earth circles, and without which the place

would not be activated into its full potential.

The gathering of the people at these events was to bring the place to life, to make the place.

Petrie describes the Bonyi Nut festivals, which were held in the Blackall Ranges. These

events gathered people from a wide area, and fulfilled an important social function in the

cultural system. The inviting of people, strengthening of connections and the creation of

reciprocal ties was an important aspect of the gatherings.

These gatherings were really like huge picnics, the aborigines belonging to the

district sending messengers out to invite members from other tribes to come and

have a feastThe these tribes in turn would in turn ask others. For instance, the

Bribie blacks (Ngunda tribe) on receiving their invitation would perchance invite

the Turbal people to join them, and the latter would then ask the Logan or

Yaggapal tribe, and other island blacks, and so on from tribe to tribe all over the


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country, for the different tribes were generally connected by marriage, and the

relatives thus invited each other. Those near at hand would all turn up, old and

young, but the tribes from afar would leave the aged and sick behind49

tribes were assembling from every part of the country, some hailing from the

Burnett, Wide Bay, Frazer Islands [sic], Gayndah, Kilcoy, Mount Brisbane, and

Brisbane.50

Langevad in his transcripts of Winterbothams original documentation of Gaiarbau, an

Aboriginal man from Kilcoy born in the 1880s, describes large gatherings of Aboriginal

groups in that region for initiations, for the settlement of tribal quarrels, for the playing of

organized games such as wresting and other sport, for trading, and for the bunya feasts51.

The use of fire is well documented as a special place-making practice in many Australian

Indigenous cultures,52 and it was also a key component of classical coroborree events and

other gathering events in South East Queensland.53 Fire here was not only used for warmth,

but as a marker and creator of a comfortable place, and as a way to demonstrate hospitality

to a visiting guest.54

Ceremonial activities that occurred during gathering were the ultimate goal of the creation of

place in these specially designed locations. The purpose of these events was varied and

included initiation of young into adults, ritualised settling of disputes through fighting and law

procedures.55

Social and Behavioural aspects of Place Making

Ceremonial gathering was accompanied by specific behaviours, and dress which including

head-dresses of flowers or feathers,56 body painting57, and other body ornaments58 not

usually worn which marked these occasions. Ritualised language for ceremonial events was

used.59


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Elders had a special function at gathering events, particularly at initiations, where they were

central in educating and enculturating their young adults, and handing down important

knowledge, both sacred and practical, which would keep the group spiritually and physically

sustained. Winterbotham60 explains the importance of different meetings of Elders61

separately held for men and women, who would make major decisions and act as the law

keepers of the group. Particular relationships of kin had ritualised roles in ceremonies62 and

while men and women took on different roles,63 they each were important and the obligation

to fulfil that role was strong.

Summary of Classical Era Place Constructs

From this literature we can see that a number of different constructs were used to create

ceremonial gathering places, including but also beyond the physical locations that were

constructed. A model of earth circle construction was developed with attributes that

supported the ceremonies being conducted and markers to ensure privacy and protocols

were respected, creating boundaries to the place. The development of a system of places

and how it was used was important, allowing a sustainable distribution of places with the

opportunity to reciprocate hospitality and share in seasonal abundances of food with

neighbouring groups. Places were used at specific times of the year and ceremonies

conducted at particular times of the day following seasonal and celestial patterns, and

ceremonial protocols. Particular activities were associated with the gathering places,

including fires as both practical and symbolic gestures, special dress, body decoration and

language, and naturally highly valued ceremonial events. At these events, not only gathering

and ceremony occurred, but sport, feasting, socialisation, enculturation of the young, law

making and dispute settlement occurred. These activities were associated with these places

and help to create the place.

A comparison will now be drawn with places, created and maintained in contemporary

Brisbane for Indigenous gathering at NAIDOC events.


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of physical criteria which need to be met in order to stage the event, such as flat land for

stage and sound set up, public toilets, power supply for food stalls, rides and stage, access

for vehicles and even the ability to peg safely into the ground for marquees. These practical

considerations restrict the number of suitable sites, and sometimes remove favoured

locations, which have positive historical associations from the available options. As NAIDOC

events expand and government funding bodys fears of litigation grow, insurance and public

liability become issues, which must be woven into the mix of cultural requirements.

There are inevitable differences of opinion on which sites should be considered as NAIDOC

event locations and this sites reflects the diversity of Indigenous experiences and place

attachment in Inala. There is no one Indigenous Inala but, like any other group, a diverse

range of place experiences positioned by age, gender, social and economic status and other

factors shapes each persons place attachments.

A key point on physical location is the distribution of sites which reflects the concentration of

Indigenous populations in the South East Queensland region. While there may be some

changes to the location of NAIDOC events in Inala, there is no thought to moving it outside

Inala to another location altogether, reflecting Inala itself as a centre for cultural activities, not

only Indigenous residence. The availability of funding resources in Inala primarily from

Brisbane City Council and other smaller funding grants to help fund the events creates a

geographical spacing of NAIDOC events, reflecting the tendency of funding bodies to spread

their grants physically across their region. However, this does also operate on a level where

Indigenous communities that are strong and populous, in effect create funding centres and

traditions, with adequate catchment populations to make the event suitably popular and

worthwhile, reflecting a cultural dimension to the location of funded events. The neighbouring

suburb of Acacia Ridge now has its own NAIDOC event, in 2007 mentored and supported by

Inalas NAIDOC committee.

The resulting layout of NAIDOC event sites across greater Brisbane gives what could be

described as a fragment of a similar network pattern to Satterthwaite & Heathers earth circle


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analysis, and a similar social function is fulfilled. Importantly, similar to Satterthwaite &

Heathers claims for a system of sites developed to facilitate and maintain cultural

expression, a system of NAIDOC sites can be conceptualised reflecting a contemporary

Indigenous cultural landscape.

Figure 2. Map of NAIDOC Family Day locations in South EastQueensland. Source: author.

Timing of NAIDOC Events

The selection of the days for the events is also given careful consideration, finding a day in

NAIDOC week that does not clash with nearby events, so that people can travel to other

NAIDOC events in neighbouring communities or where there are family or other connections

which oblige attendance, is important. Acacia Ridge has staged its event, held for only the

second year in 2007, outside the official NAIDOC week, possibly in order to ensure

maximum support and attendance for its event, or in an attempt not to crowd calendar filled

with more established events. The more established Inala event (conducted in various forms

since the early 1990s) is traditionally on the Wednesday of NAIDOC week, in the middle of

the NAIDOC calendar. This reflects its importance as the largest NAIDOC event outside the

central city of Brisbane, and keeps it with a days rest between Inala NAIOPC and the

traditional Friday of Brisbane citys Musgrave Park NAIDOC event, at which a number of


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Inala dance troupes, singers and other performers participate, and at which the Inala Elders

have a tent for meeting friends and watching the events.

NAIDOC Activities which Create Place

Activities at Inala NAIDOC include a similar range of cultural activities to those which

occurred at the traditional Bonyi Festivals, and other corroborees, including traditional

dancing from local and visiting groups, passing down of stories from Elders to young people,

sport and games, family gatherings reuniting kin from local and distant areas, displays of art

and craft and selling of cultural items. There is an emphasis on hospitality, overt cultural

displays of belonging, and unity of Indigenous people.

The way I see it, the Aboriginal and Islander people need a day of celebration

you know, or a week as it is, and I think its great everyone gets outhas a good

feed, has a good sing along.67

NAIDOC in Inala is really community spirit and the good thing about this is that

were celebrating our survival, and this is the 50th year of the NAIDOC

celebration and its absolutely awesome. And I think as I said, pride in the

community is displayed here because heres heaps of people, children enjoying

themselves and most of all its about building up our community strength and

giving the Elders the opportunity to showcase their mentorship, and leadership I

think thats terrific. Thats what these special celebrations are all about.68

The 2007 event was similar in ambience to a local fete, with an array of stalls from local stall-

holders selling arts, crafts and food, to government agencies promoting safety, health and

community services. Free childrens rides, slides and art activities, as well as raffles and caf

style seating created a family day out.


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NAIDOC is really fun and the rides are fantastic and I love doing the paintings

and all the people are really, really fun and you can see all the tents that you can

do activities and the train, slide, yeah and theres babies that play too.69

There was a mix of elderly people catching up to chat and hear news about each others

families. Young children gathered balloons and sample bags of stickers, pens and give-

aways, older children and teenagers came to meet up with mates and be seen with their

friends, in an environment where parents were happy to let them wander. There was a busy

atmosphere of community and celebration, a central stage with music and events with a

vibrant MC to keep the atmosphere going and the crowds interested.

Inala NAIDOC to me is, its more spiritual over here, even though Musgrave Park

is big, you meet more family, but this is close, compact. I grew up in Acacia

Ridge, its always over here.70

NAIDOC in Inala is good, good little spot hereyou get all the Aboriginal and

Torres Strait Islander people all together, mix it up, listen to some music, talk to

each other, yeah, stuff like that.71

Inviting of important local families and friends from outside Inala to the event is common.

Many Inala Elders attended Acacia Ridges event and in their turn reciprocated by hosting

Acacia Ridge Elders at the Inala event. The reciprocity of the neighbouring groups shows

the obligation to share knowledge at attend events by proximate groups is still apparent. In

addition, local politicians and dignitaries are invited, as the NAIDOC event moves beyond

sharing and reciprocity within the Indigenous community, to showcasing and welcoming non-

Indigenous community members to cultural events.

It brings all of us people togethernot only us Murri people, but the non-Murri

people, multi-cultural, theyre from everywhere, I mixed with so many last night,


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international guests and they are celebrating NAIDOC as well. I did the Welcome

[to Country] last night and it was so wonderful to see all these other people.72

There is certainly an element of being proud of Indigenous culture and showing the rest of

the community that they can organise, and successfully host a major event which offers a

positive version of Indigenous identity.

Traditional ceremonial activities, including dancing, singing and fire making were amongst

the most popular at Inala NAIDOC where large crowds gathered to watch the traditional

dancing in particular. Inala has a diverse range of Indigenous cultures and some local

troupes have been given permission and instruction in dance from traditional owners of

dances originating elsewhere, such as Stradbroke Island,73 so that despite their apparent

lack of cultural depth, groups with heterogeneous memberships and whose knowledge of

classical culture was disrupted by past settlement practices, there is a maintenance and

revival of traditions. Far for being inauthentic the passing of dances and songs from one

group to another was one of the main functions of traditional gatherings, as described by

Petrie

At night during the bonyi-season, the blacks would have special great

corroborees, the different tribes showing their special corroboree (song and

dance) to each other, so that they might all learn something fresh in that way. For

instance a northern tribe would show theirs to a southern one, and so on each

night, till at last when they left to journey away again, they each had a fresh

corroboree to take with them, and this they then passed on in turn to a different

tribe.74

Other dancers at Inala NAIDOC, included one family originating from Cape York Peninsula.75

This family dance only their traditional dances from that area and only members of their

family may participate. They take their protocols directly from the Uncles in Kuku-Yalanji

country and were required to complete instruction and testing in their home country before


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being given permission to dance in Brisbane by their home country Elders. So it is clear that

there is no one set of standards, but a continual process of negotiating behaviours and

protocols, depending on family history and background. Culture is in this case not only racial,

but personal.

In Inala, NAIDOC dancing in 2007 included a fire making ceremony, where the tradition of

making a fire using two sticks briskly spun on each other using their hands, was performed

by a local dance troupe. The young men dancers performed the fire making to the sounds of

a droning didgeridoo, and then as smoke appeared, the crowd began an escalating cry of

anticipation, and they called out with joy as the dancers waved the burning grass bundle

above their heads, then flung the fire high up into the air to the whoops and applause of the

large crowd. This is significant, in that it is not only maintaining the tradition of fire being used

to create a special place, an Indigenous place, but it is the showcasing of a highly skilled

traditional cultural practice, being demonstrated by young urban men today.

A key feature of the day in Inala is showcasing young contemporary performers, who sing

and dance in many styles from hip-hop to country, rap and ballads. Country music is hugely

popular, especially with many Elders who grew up in rural areas, and the songs and the

repetition of music from their past draws out many stories and memories for people, as the

tradition of oral history and song has always done. Two songs have particular significance in

Inala and are played at nearly every major event, including NAIDOC. The first was originally

recorded by Mop and the Drop-Outs in the 1960s titled Brisbane Blacks, which is still

known and loved by all ages, who sing along to the words, and the second is a song written

in the 1980s called The Inala Song76, which gives a potted history and affirmation of love for

Inala, sung by the Inala Elders Yarning Place Singers.

Social and Behavioural aspects of Inala NAIDOC Place Making

The social aspects of Traditional gathering are maintained and strengthened during NAIDOC

events. Key business conducted at NAIDOC events is the acknowledgement of Traditional

Owners who generally perform a Welcome to Country ceremony as the first item of activity


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on the event day. The speech, though generally short, is significant as it both invites people

to be welcome in the country still acknowledged to be rightfully owned by that Traditional

Owner group, and it reinforces that group as having rights to speak for and give permission

for others to be in their country. Similar to the special function of words used at classical

ceremonial events, this short speech transforms ones awareness beyond that of the

dominant colonial system of cartography and suburban streetscape, into an awareness of

another layer of ownership and meaning, and in fact transforms that place into part of a

wider, pervasive Indigenous cultural landscape. At Inala NAIDOC in 2007, the Traditional

Owner wasnt available to perform the Welcome to Country ceremony, but a local Elder who

could be described as having historical ownership due to length of residence, spoke to

acknowledge the traditional owners and welcome people to the event. Rights to speak for

country or speak about country such as this were also prevalent in the classical era, when

these rights could also be established through residence and caring for country, as well as

genealogical connections.77 For some the seeking of permission from traditional owners for

events is a key part of protocols which must be enacted in order to ensure a proper and

happy event. You dont muck around with those ancestors, theyll let you know!If you get

the right people, it all goes right.78 The fact that the Traditional Owner has been asked, even

if they are unable to attend, constitutes a following of protocol that then permits others to

then perform this act. In 2007, not only was Indigenous culture highlighted in the welcoming

speeches, but Inala as a place with its own Indigenous identity is conceptualised, made real

through the speeches and the crowd is bonded through these words.

The community and family support that you have clearly demonstrated, this is

what Inalas all about, bringing all us Murri people together, and I think thats

fantastic. [Crowd applause]79

Elders and other community members are acknowledged at NAIDOC events through the

giving of yearly awards, voted on by the local community. Paraphernalia such as Aboriginal

and Torres Strait Islander flag stickers, ties, lapel pins, bags, earrings, and many other forms


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of overt cultural identification are available. It is a day when unity as Indigenous people is

emphasized and people are encouraged to be proud and feel strong within their culture.

NAIDOC is important in the enculturation of children, with kindergarten and pre-school

children from Inalas Indigenous community-run pre-school being brought along to watch the

dancing and have their faces painted with flag colours. Older children are given the day off

school to attend and in some cases perform in events, with culturally specific activities being

provided at the event, such as flag painting, traditional games, stories told by Elders, and

traditional practices such as Torres Strait Islander basket weaving. Teens are also strongly

enculturated through a series of programs leading up to a separate, youth cultural event80 at

which young people develop their own dance routines and songs over weeks and months,

under the guidance of grant-funded arts workers and community volunteers. The resulting

routines and songs speak about pride in suburb and identity, strength of the community, and

defiance against pressures to be more mainstream. Some of these routines are then reused

at NAIDOC, giving the wider community the opportunity to see some of the youth festivals

events. Emerging hip-hop and other artists (the youth group performers of the past) are also

given the opportunity to perform, as entertainers in their own right, and their gritty street

version of Inala identity, raps about police and politicians, and the injustices of racism, as

well as the joys of friends and family, and hanging out in Inala are all aired.

Laydeez, where you at?

Show the world youre proud and black

Hey laydeez81

To the mothers, the daughters, the aunties, the nieces,

Were all representing for all the deadly sisters

Four-oh-double-seven82, were representin

Four-oh-double-seven, we represent.83


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The localness of artists showcased and the specificity of the issues they describe bind the

performance to the place and people of Inala.

Conclusion

This paper describes a new attempt to understand Indigenous place in Brisbane through the

reexamination of history and comparison with contemporary gathering and celebration, to

reveal both persistence and change in place networks. Place systems based on Indigenous

cultural traditions continue to exist and these systems undergo continual development and

change, unsettling the view that Indigenous cultural practices are fixed safely in the past,

without resonance or effect on the modern lived city. These networks of places are both a

revival and a continuation of a traditional social system reflected in place.

The existence of an Indigenous cultural landscape parallel to the settler understanding of

Brisbane places creates an uncanny version of Brisbane, which can unsettle the dominant

geography, an open up new understandings for settler group. NAIDOC events are just one

example of Indigenous events and activities which create a parallel human geography, which

is largely ignored by mainstream media and the dominant culture. Other events such as

informal gatherings of families to practice dancing, the use of parks and other public spaces

to gather paper-bark for seating or leaves for weaving; more organized events such as touch

football carnivals with teams based on Indigenous identity systems; and formalised

Indigenous events at self-consciously constructed Indigenous spaces, such at the

Queensland State Librarys Yarning Circle all contribute to an alternative version of

Brisbane. Being confronted with this parallel version of Brisbane could bring forth an uncanny

experience for the general White suburban population who may typically think that

Indigenous people are somehow elsewhere, or are stereotyped as, for example, drunks in

parks, and not relevant to their own suburban existence. The revealing of what has

previously been suppressed, what could was familiar but now seems unfamiliar in these new

version, is the uncanny being conjured. This encounter with the uncanny can be a positive

experience however, an opportunity to learn, to discover and potentially embrace multiple

versions of places and systems which overlay ones usual experience of the city, leading to a


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richer experience of, and understanding of ones own place within the city. Indeed, not only

alternative Indigenous versions of the city exist, but versions of the city for different migrant

groups, genders, sexualities, ages and subcultures which inhabit it in distinct ways are

possible. A permanent unsettling of the notion that places are fixed and completely

knowable, limited to an official version, can be a called upon to encourage broader and

deeper readings of place in Australia.

Acknowledgements

Gratitude is extended to the Inala Indigenous community without whose generosity the

research would not be possible.

Many thanks to Dr Chelsea Bond and several anonymous reviewers who provided

constructive criticism.

The research is conducted within the Aboriginal Environments Research Centre, School of

Geography, Planning and Architecture, at The University of Queensland.

The Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies generously funds

research for this project.

This research is proudly supported by the Queensland Governments Growing the Smart

State PhD Funding Program and may be used to assist public policy development. However,

the opinions and information contained in the research do not necessarily represent the

opinions of the Queensland Government or carry any endorsement by the Queensland

Government. The Queensland Government accepts no responsibility for decisions or actions

resulting from any opinions or information supplied.


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Endnotes

1

Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2006, Census Table for Brisbane, Cat. No. 2068.0 - 2006 CensusTables 2006 Census of Population and Housing Indigenous Status by Age by Sex, Australian Bureau

of Statistics Website www.abs.gov.au, date viewed 25th February 2008.2Sigmund Freud, The Uncanny in The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of

Sigmund Freud(London: The Hogarth Press, 1953), 219-253.3

Ken Gelder and Jane Jacobs, Uncanny Australia Sacredness and Identity in a Postcolonial Nation(Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1998).4

Gelder and Jacobs, (1998), 2.5

Freud, (1953), 219.6

Freud, (1953), 224-225, 241.7

Edward Said, Orientalism (London: Penguin, 2003 [1978]).8

Said, (2003), 122.9

Ken Gelder and Jane Jacobs, Talking out of Place: Authorizing the Aboriginal Sacred inPostcolonial Australia, Cultural Studies, 9:1 (1995), 154-155.10

Kenneth Maddock, Your Land is Our Land: Aboriginal Land Rights (Ringwood: Penguin, 1991),

226.11Ritchie Howitt and Stan Stevens, Cross-Cultural Research: Ethics, Methods, and Relationships in

Iain Hay (ed.), Qualitative Methods in Human Geography(Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 2005)12

Nigel Thrift, The Future of Geography, Geoforum, 33 (2002), 291-298;Jay T. Johnson, et al., Placebound Australian Feminist Geographies (Melbourne: Oxford UniversityPress, 2000).13

Libby Connors, Indigenous Resistance and Traditional Leadership: Understanding and InterpretingDundalli, Journal of the Royal Historical Society of Queensland, 19:2 (2005), 701-712; Rod Pratt,The Affray at York's Hollow, November 1849, Journal of the Royal Historical Society of Queensland,18:9 (2004), 384-396; Ros Kidd, Aboriginal History of South Brisbane, Journal of the Royal HistoricalSociety of Queensland, 17:11 (2001), 463-480; Raymond Evans, Wanton Outrage: Police andAborigines at Breakfast Creek in 1860 in Rod Fisher (ed.) Brisbane Aboriginal, Alien, Ethnic BrisbaneHistory Group Papers No.5(Brisbane: Brisbane History Group, 1987); Thom Blake, Excluded,exploited, exhibited: Aborigines in Brisbane 1897-1910, in Rod Fisher (ed.) Brisbane Aboriginal,Alien, Ethnic Brisbane History Group Papers No.5, (Brisbane: Brisbane History Group, 1987); ThomBlake, Excluded, exploited, exhibited: Aborigines in Brisbane 1897-1910, in Rod Fisher (ed.)Brisbane Aboriginal, Alien, Ethnic Brisbane History Group Papers No.5(Brisbane: Brisbane HistoryGroup, 1987).14

Paul Carter, The Lie of the Land(London: Faber and Faber, 1996).15

Jane M. Jacobs, Edge of Empire Postcolonialism and the City(London: Routledge, 1996).16

Jane M. Jacobs, Resisting Reconciliation the Secret Geographies of (post)colonial Australia inSteve Pile and Michael Keith (eds.), Geographies of Resistance (London: Routledge, 1997), 203-218.17

Meyer Eidelson, The Melbourne Dreaming: a Guide to the Aboriginal places of Melbourne(Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press, 1997).18

Melinda Hinkson,Aboriginal Sydney A guide to important places of the past and present(Canberra:Aboriginal Studies Press, 2001).19

Toni Bauman and Samantha Wells,Aboriginal Darwin A Guide to Exploring Important Sites of the

Past and Present(Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press, 2006).20

Gavin Malone, Ways of Belonging: Reconciliation and Adelaide's Public Space Indigenous CulturalMarkers, Geographical Research, 45:2 (2007), 158-166; Rob Amery and Lester-Irabinna Rigney,Recognition of Kaurna Cultural Heritage in the Adelaide Parklands: A Linguist's and Kaurna


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Academic's Perspective. Progress to date and future initiatives, in Christine Garnaud and KerrieRound (eds.), The Adelaide Parklands Symposium A Balancing Act: Past-Present-Future (Adelaide:The University of South Australia, 2006); Faye Gale and Joy Wudersitz,Adelaide Aborigines A CaseStudy of Urban Life 1966-1981 (Canberra: Developmental Studies Centre, Australian NationalUniversity, 1982).21

Tom Gara, Aboriginal Fringe Camps in Adelaide, 1836-1911, Presented to the RoyalGeographical Society of South Australia, June 28

th, (2001).

22Michael Aird, Portraits of our Elders (Brisbane: Queensland Museum, 1993); Michael Aird, Brisbane

Blacks (Southport, Queensland: Keeaira Press, 2001); Rita Huggins and Jackie Huggins,Auntie Rita(Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press, 1994); Albert Holt, Forcibly Removed(Broome: Magabala Books,2001); Ruth Hegarty, Is that you, Ruthie?(St Lucia, Queensland: University of Queensland Press,1999); Ruth Hegarty, Bittersweet Journey(St Lucia, Queensland: University of Queensland Press,2003); Samuel Wagan Watson, Smoke Encrypted Whispers (St Lucia, Queensland: University ofQueensland Press, 2004); Yvette Holt,Anonymous Premonition (St Lucia, Queensland: University ofQueensland Press, 2008).23

Chelsea Bond, When youre black they look at you harder Narrating Aboriginality within PublicHealth, (PhD Thesis, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, 2007).24 Paul Memmott, Gunya, Goondie and Wurley The Aboriginal Architecture of Australia (St Lucia,Queensland: University of Queensland Press, 2007).25

Paul Memmott and Stephen Long, Place Theory and Place Maintenance in Indigenous Australia,Urban Policy and Research, 20:1 (2002), 39-56.26

Francesca Merlan, European Settlement and the Making and Unmaking of Aboriginal Identities,The Australian Journal of Anthropology, 17:2 (2006), 179-195.27

George Morgan, Unsettled Places Aboriginal People and Urbanisation in New South Wales (KentTown, South Australia: Wakefield Press, 2006).28

Christina Birdsall, All One Family: Family and Social Identity among Urban Aborigines in WesternAustralia, (PhD Thesis, University of Western Australia: School of Anthropology, 1991).29

Ian Keen (ed.), Being Black Indigenous cultures in settled Australia (Canberra: Aboriginal StudiesPress, 1988).30

Kelly Greenop and Paul Memmott, Urban Aboriginal Place Values In Australian Metropolitan

Cities: The Case Study Of Brisbane in Caroline Miller and Michael Roche (eds.) Past Matters:Heritage and Planning History - Case Studies from the Pacific Rim (Cambridge: Cambridge ScholarsPress, 2007).31

John Mathew, Two Representative Tribes of Queensland with an inquiry concerning the origin ofthe Australian race (London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1910), 114; Constance Campbell Petrie, Tom PetriesReminiscences of Early Queensland(St Lucia, Queensland: University of Queensland Press, 1992),55.32

Leonn Satterthwaite and Andrew Heather, Determinants of Earth Circle Location in the MoretonRegion, Queensland Archaeological Research, 4 December (1987), 5-53.33

These are also commonly known as bora rings. Satterthwaite and Heather (1987), 6 use the termearth circle site to avoid confusion with the term bora ring which is properly used only for thosespecific bora (initiation) sites of north-central NSW, other terms were applied in SE Queensland.34

Satterthwaite and Heather, (1987), 14.35

Queensland Ethnohistory Transcripts (([Brisbane]: Archaeology Branch, 1982), 70 suggests thatwomen in turn had their own ceremonies and grounds in the Brisbane region, and these too weresecret sacred places where men were not allowed to go. His information, gathered from Gaiarbau, aman, is naturally lacking in this information.36

Queensland Ethnohistory Transcripts (1982), 70.


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37Queensland Ethnohistory Transcripts (1982), 70.

38Queensland Ethnohistory Transcripts (1982), 71.

39Satterthwaite & Heather, (1987).

40Satterthwaite & Heather, (1987), 21.

41 Satterthwaite & Heather, (1987), 44.42

Satterthwaite & Heather, (1987), 45.43




J.T. Hall, Sitting on the crop of the bay: an historical and archaeological sketch of Aboriginalsettlement and subsistence in Moreton Bay in S. Bowdler (ed.) The Coastal Archaeology of EasternAustralia (Canberra: Department of Prehistory, Research School of Pacific Studies, AustralianNational University, 1982), 82.47

Satterthwaite and Heather (1987), 22.48

Queensland Ethnohistory Transcripts, (1982), 77.49

Petrie, (1992), 11-12.50

Petrie, (1992), 16.51 Queensland Ethnohistory Transcripts, (1982), 60.52

Queensland Ethnohistory Transcripts (1982), 71; Petrie, (1992), 21.53

Lindsay P. Winterbotham, Some native customs and beliefs of the Jinibara and neighbouring tribes,on the Brisbane and Stanley Rivers, Queensland (Unpublished manuscript held in Fryer Library:University of Queensland, 1957), 62B.54

Queensland Ethnohistory Transcripts (1982), 70.55



Queensland Ethnohistory Transcripts, (1982), 71, Petrie, (1992), 19-20.58

Petrie, (1992), 20.59

Queensland Ethnohistory Transcripts (1982), 72-73.60


Queensland Ethnohistory Transcripts (1982), 73-75.62

Queensland Ethnohistory Transcripts (1982), 76.63Queensland Ethnohistory Transcripts (1982), 75.

64A History of NADOC, (1987) Land Rights News, 4:2, 20.

65Now know as NAIDOC to include Torres Strait Islander peoples.

66NAIDOC, National NAIDOC History website, www.naidoc.org.au/history, website viewed 14

th

February, (2008).67

Inala NAIDOC July 11th, 2007, video interview.68






These dances are performed by a group with diverse home countries who dance Noonucal dances.74

Petrie (1992), 19.75 These dances are performed by the Gudanji Dancers whose traditional country is Kuku Yalanji nearCooktown.76

The Place we want to Live in also known as The Inala Song, by J. Driscoll, 1981.


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77Peter Sutton, Native Title in Australia an Ethnographic Perspective (Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press, 2003), 27.78

P.C. Inala NAIDOC Meeting, April 2008.79

Inala NAIDOC 11th July 2007, speech recorded on video.80 This event is the StylinUP Indigenous Youth Festival held in Inala every May, in its 11th year in2008, which attracts upwards of 15000 people.81

Laydeez Biz performance, Inala NAIDOC July 11th 2007, videocassette.82

4077 is the postcode of Inala and is frequently used as code for Inala.83

Laydeez Biz performance, Inala NAIDOC July 11th 2007, videocassette.

GREENOP Uncanny Brisbane

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