March 2012 and Liam Jurrah , the Melbourne AFL footballer from Yuendumu, is all over the front pages of newspapers and websites after he is arrested for a machete attack that left a victim seriously injured. Jurrah has denied being involved in the fight.
An ongoing feud between 2 'mobs' started in 2010 when a young man was killed after a football game. Indigenous culture says 'payback' should be practiced in order to settle the score. The theory is that the feud has been ongoing due to the inability of the indigenous community to practice their own law. They cant settle the issue, creating frustration and then anger.
So what is payback and how does it work ?
The common elements are the involvement of kin and the role of the Elders to ensure that there is a degree of restraint by opposing parties. The matter would generally be resolved once the offender had been speared in the thigh or blood had been drawn.
Clearly it's not legal under whitefellah law. Can we (Australia, the government, the police...) let an indigenous person spear another in the leg, causing injury that requires hospitalisation? What about if the injury becomes infected and somehow leads to death ? And once there's alcohol involved is there any chance that a measured and appropriate punishment would be meted out ?
On the other hand - is it possible this ongoing and widespread feud (impacting the entire Yuendumu community of 1500 people for over 2 years) could have been settled, allowing everyone to move on ? Would the spearing of the offender have satisfied the community, and in particular, the victim's family ? Would there be acceptance that the 'law' had been observed ?
I would have previously said that we have to have one law in Australia. And being a whitefellah I would have said that's whitefellah law. But I think there's been too much of that over the last 200 years. It's usually been whitefellah way as the only option. Could it be that allowing indigenous elders to oversee 'payback' might help settle disputes, while also help restoring some dignity and pride to indigenous communities ? Could it help re-establish the authority of Elders ? (especially male elders whose authority has been decimated by welfare ). And couldn't we have an ambulance on hand ?
I've heard it argued that indigenous people are happy to enjoy TVs, electric appliances and brick homes. The theory is that if they accept that then they have to take everything we throw at them. All of 'our' rules and our way of life. Surely we can do much better than that. We can respect their culture and make real attempts to allow it to be practiced. Indigenous Australians never asked to have their language, their culture and their land removed.
I'm not 100% sure about payback. It sounds dangerous and difficult to integrate with whitefellah law.
READ THIS........ more thoughts.......
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Education - Using rewards in an indigenous context
Rewarding students for excellence in class, or even for doing their best, is a well established approach to motivation. Well I dont think it works too well for remote-community indigenous kids.
Scenario - students are told that first 3 to finish their assigned task ( I wont say worksheet ) will receive a small reward. Lets assume its a stationery item or worst case its a lolly.
At the end of the lesson the rewards are distributed and the lucky 3 are quite happy. But the others are not. They know that you still have rewards in your bag that you have not given out. And they are quite annoyed that you refuse to hand them a reward regardless of the progress they have made on their task.
My theory is that 'demand sharing' is coming into play. Demand sharing is a practice in indigenous communities that says you have to share what you have with anyone who asks you to share. Well, not quite anyone, but at a minimum it's anyone who is relate to you. And within a remote community that usually means most people. So when you hand out rewards to a selected few, and still have other rewards being held back ,there is a sense of injustice. You've got some more of those, why cant I have one ?
An idea that could motivate students to greater efforts becomes a barrier that breaks down the teacher-student relationship.
Scenario - students are told that first 3 to finish their assigned task ( I wont say worksheet ) will receive a small reward. Lets assume its a stationery item or worst case its a lolly.
At the end of the lesson the rewards are distributed and the lucky 3 are quite happy. But the others are not. They know that you still have rewards in your bag that you have not given out. And they are quite annoyed that you refuse to hand them a reward regardless of the progress they have made on their task.
My theory is that 'demand sharing' is coming into play. Demand sharing is a practice in indigenous communities that says you have to share what you have with anyone who asks you to share. Well, not quite anyone, but at a minimum it's anyone who is relate to you. And within a remote community that usually means most people. So when you hand out rewards to a selected few, and still have other rewards being held back ,there is a sense of injustice. You've got some more of those, why cant I have one ?
An idea that could motivate students to greater efforts becomes a barrier that breaks down the teacher-student relationship.
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