Australian
Screen

Teacher’s notes

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This clip shows members of the Melbourne-based band Djaambi talking about what it means to be an Indigenous Australian and about traditional law. The clip was filmed at Papunya during Djaambi’s 1993 tour of the Northern Territory. It opens with one band member describing how, as an 'urban Aboriginal’, he has had little contact with a traditional way of life. Later he talks about traditional law and how he would like to reintroduce it in Victoria. Another band member describes how the police harass him. The clip also includes shots of a Papunya elder, who is surrounded by members of the band, describing how traditional law operates.

Educational value points

• Traditional, or customary, law involves rules of behaviour that bind members of Indigenous Australian communities. These rules are a series of social rights and responsibilities that define who a person is, and his or her relationship to everyone else in the world, as well as how they should treat the land, animals and plants. If these laws are broken, the community decides on a punishment for the offender. The Northern Territory Law Reform Committee recognises traditional law as an integral and inseparable part of Indigenous Australian culture.

• Traditional law is a governing force in the lives of many Indigenous Australians, particularly in remote communities and judges have sometimes allowed it to be applied to Indigenous Australians as a full or partial substitute for a court sentence. 'Circle sentencing’ is being trialled in some regional cities with a high Indigenous population. This brings together the offender (once he or she has pleaded or been found guilty in court), the victim, the two families, elders of the Indigenous Australian community and a magistrate to discuss the sentence. The magistrate then makes a decision, taking into account the discussion.

• Punishments for breaking traditional law include a public acknowledgement of wrongdoing, shaming, restitution or a fine, corporal punishment, spearing or wounding, temporary or permanent exile and, in rare cases, death. An appropriate punishment is selected following a process of argument or mediation involving the victim, the offender and their supporters. In some cases, elders may meet to decide upon an appropriate punishment.

• A distinction is made in the clip between traditional law and Westminster-based Australian law. One member of Djaambi contrasts punishing people by imprisoning them ('out of sight, out of mind’) with the immediate punishments carried out under traditional law. In Indigenous Australian communities, punishment is based on 'payback’, and once it is exacted and justice is seen to be done, the offender is accepted back into the community. In some cases Indigenous Australian offenders have been subjected to both traditional law and Westminster-based Australian law.

• The clip shows an elder from the Papunya community explaining traditional law. Elders are senior men and women who provide leadership in matters affecting the community, including dispute resolution, educating the young and advising on marriage partners. In traditional Indigenous Australian society, the advice of the elders is usually 'heeded and unquestioned’, but some Indigenous elders fear for the future of their culture, and say that few young people listen to them. Elders are vested with the custodianship of traditional law, and their overriding duty is to honour and maintain that law, and pass it down to the next generation, as the elder in this clip is doing.

• Many Indigenous Australians feel that they are victims of a systemic culture of racism within the police force and feel unfairly targeted because they are black. The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) regularly receives complaints from Indigenous Australians about police harassment. However, the recruitment of Indigenous police and liaison officers, and compulsory courses on racism for trainee police are all positive steps in changing this situation.

• The clip raises the issue of Indigenous Australian identity, with a band member linking 'real Aborigines’ with those who practise a traditional way of life. HREOC points out that few Indigenous Australians are completely removed from, or unaffected by, their origins, social and personal histories, families, lifestyles and cultures, regardless of whether they live in traditional groups or urban settings. HREOC argues that, over time, cultures evolve and adapt to change, and thus cultural identity is dynamic rather than fixed.

• The Melbourne-based Djaambi, consisting of five Indigenous Australians and five non-Indigenous Australians, embarked on this 1993 tour to remote Indigenous Australian communities in NT to mark the International Year of the World’s Indigenous People. The tour was intended to be a goodwill exchange, but tensions arose between band members, many of whom were overwhelmed by the poor living conditions in the communities they visited and disappointed by the communities’ lack of response to their tour.

• Djaambi was formed by Indigenous Australian musician and filmmaker Richard Frankland in 1989 and continued performing until 1994. Well regarded in the Australian independent music scene, the band toured nationally and had some mainstream success, supporting Prince on his 1992 Australian tour and recording with Angry Anderson. Djaambi provided the soundtrack for a number of Frankland’s films.