ARRERNTE LAW AND CATHOLIC LAW; CHANGING RELIGIOUS IDENTITY OF AN AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINAL PEOPLE, 1936-1991
Jolien Harmsen
The first time I came across at the phenomenon of Aboriginal people maintaining two apparently mutually exclusive religious traditions at the same time was in 1987, when a devout Catholic Aboriginal lady pointed to a bird high up in the sky and simply stated: "Look, that one's my totem".
That remark is basic to this article.
In 1991, in the context of writing an M.A.-thesis in anthropological history, I performed two months of archival research and two months of fieldwork at the site of the mission station where this lady grew up: Santa Teresa, 80 km south-east of Alice Springs in the N.T. of Australia. The issue at stake was: how has history unreeled during the 55 years of this mission's existence with regard to the religious identities of its residence, mostly people of the Eastern-Arrernte language group. When, why and in which way did they become Catholics, and what implications have these and other (colonial) events had on their ancestral traditions, commonly summed up as 'Arrernte Law'?
By the 1930s, Central Australian Aborigines had suffered immensely from pastoral settlement. In 1935, missionaries of the Sacred Heart (MSC) established a Bush and Black Mission at Alice Springs. Within five years, they had baptized over two hundred Arrernte people.
The absence of a dignified alternative, and a certain amount of economic blackmail on the part of the missionaries can in part account for this sudden success. But their own tradition had also made the Arrerntes masters at recognizing the value of unknown spiritual complexes ('dreamings') and indeed, the Arrerntes adopted Catholicism as a kind of 'floating' dreaming, considering it an extra store of knowledge on the sacred assistance (priests, brothers and nuns), even though lacking an immediate geographic location.
Arrernte elders in keeping with traditions of mutual ceremonial exchange, attempted to share their own sacred objects with the missionaries but stumbled upon the bewildering incongruity that missionaries considered themselves teachers only, not students.
All the while, missionaries held the idea that once Catholicism had sunk deeply into their hearts, Arrernte superstitions would simply wither away. Ignorance thus helped maintain decades of church leniency.
Contrarily, pressure to assimilate socio-culturally increased immensely between the 1940's and '60s. Nevertheless only a few western ways were instilled into Arrerntes' minds and there is a sharp contrast between this and the enthusiasm with which they had earlier embraced the Catholic faith.
Around 1960, priests began to explicitly admonish against 'heathen ways' and although as yet did not interfere with traditional ceremonies, the Arrerntes had plenty reasons to fear such actions in the near future. As a defence strategy, they deliberately nourished missionary ignorance about Arrernte Law. Thus, they explicitly invited whites to attend 'fun-corroborees' while meanwhile secretly performing secret-sacred ceremonies. It proved a successful strategy, although it created considerable stress in the Arrernte camp.
Around 1970, alcohol and welfare money created decades of nightmarish violence and destruction. Practical adherence to Arrernte Law and church attendance were both cut back to a minimum, neither being able to prevent the gangrenic spread of psychological desolution.
Having experienced "rubbish life" to its full depth, the tide is turning. Under the guidance of just a few women, some kind of life-affirming identity is recreated at Santa Teresa, and efforts are to make it gain a footing in ceremonial practice again. In this process, all religious material is considered suitable: from the remainders of secret-sacred Arrernte Law to its most liberal conception (artifacts, language, kinship terminology etc.).
Catholicism, too, is valued for the possibilities it offers to re-create Arrernte identity. To which degree the spiritual value of Catholicism is acknowledged or played down very much depends on individual life histories. But so far, never during the 55 years of this mission's history have Arrernte Law and Catholicism been perceived as opposing phenomena competing for a restricted quantity of faith demanding a careful or efficient distribution.
Instead, the most commonly heard statement when it boils down to how Arrernte people perceive their lives in the context of Arrernte Law and Catholic Law is: "We want it both ways".
Thus the following statement, made by three Central- Australian Aboriginal women in late 1991 makes perfect sense:
"Law is first and then comes the Church. Law is with us for always and our children and grandchildren have to learn it. Law is all the time with us. But we like to have the bible too. Law started first, and we're not gonna die out, we're just gonna go on. God is the one who made everything. Church was with us all the time too. He's the one that gave us our Law and the country, you know".
Jolien Harmsen, Mathessenerplein 5A, 3022 LA Rotterdam, The Netherlands.