There are many traditional rules governing the behaviour of Aboriginal people, and these rules are determined by family or spiritual relationships, and by a person’s relationship to place. Marriages are commonly organised in line with moiety or skin relationships.
An almost universal ‘avoidance’ relationship exists between a married adult and their mother-in-law. (Comedy scripts with jokes like ‘take my mother-in-law … please’ spring to mind as I type this, but traditionally the Aboriginal mother in law is respected.)
Where there is a requirement of avoidance, one of the ways around this might be something like ‘could you please ask my son-in-law to pass you the tomato sauce so you can pass it to me?’
Not all relationships are about avoidance – in many cases a relationship defines an obligation.
In the Christian west, a godparent was once expected to take on all of the obligations of a parent if something happened to the biological parents, not just the spiritual obligations. In the traditional Aboriginal world, obligations are distributed differently.
To many traditional Aboriginals, an uncle or aunt is called father or mother, a cousin is sister or brother and so on – one degree closer than in western usage. In some Aboriginal cultures, a biological mother has a responsibility to feed and love her child, but only the other mothers (Aunties) can discipline the child, as it’s their responsibility to teach the child.
An expression like ‘Auntie’ might also simply be an expression of respect.
Aboriginals traditionally define themselves by their moiety/totem or clan rather than their People; but one’s relationship to another person is the key to knowing which rules apply to interaction.
As the rules of relationship are complex and binding, there is a protocol to be followed when one Aboriginal person meets another – they must be sure of their rights and of their obligations relating to place and to each other before they can get down to business. Sometimes, there may be a relationship which prevents them from getting down to business at all.
Relationship affects every aspect of traditional Aboriginal life.
At a group level, there is a protocol to be followed when people wish to enter onto or across land to which others belong. The ‘welcome to country’ ceremonies we now see on official occasions are part of this protocol, no matter how much they may look like a token acknowledgment by whitefellas that this or that bit of land used to belong to such and such a people. The ceremony might be viewed, not passively as a piece of theatre, but as an opportunity to acknowledge and respect local protocols and Dreaming.
Unfortunately, complex relationship rules or even traditions and protocols have an important role to play in maintaining the gap as well as in offering positive models of community.
Relationship rules and traditional ways of thinking have an impact on every aspect of life whether it is a traditional life, a remote life where there is some contact with westerners, or an urban life. The values, beliefs and ‘manners’ of Aboriginal people – and some very real language barriers – must be allowed for in education, the delivery of health services, legal and bureaucratic matters and allowing for family obligations.
But Aboriginal culture is only half the story: If we are to assess our differences honestly, we need to compare Aboriginal beliefs with unconscious whitefella assumptions about life, death and the universe. The differences between these two ways of viewing the world are significant.
Комментариев нет:
Отправить комментарий