My experience with "Aboriginal land claims" arose in the early 1980s when i was senior anthropologist in charge of land claims at the Central Land Council in Alice Springs. As well as the bureaucratic duties this involved, i was also helping to prepare and present the original Warumungu land claim in the Tennant Creek area, 500 km to the north.
I did not know then, as i tried to assist the senior Warumungu/Alyawarra men to prepare and present their claim, of Lyotard's term 'differend'. Recently i was reading an Icon Book "Introducing Critical Theory" (by Stuart Sim and Borin Van Loon) and the concept fairly leapt off the page. They say:
"Differends are irresolvable disputes in which neither side can accept the terms of reference of the other. For example, first nation inhabitants disputing the property claims of their territory's colonizers without surrendering their own claims in the process."
"Unless these differends are respected, Lyotard contends, we drift into an authoritarian society in which many voices are simply silenced by the superior force of their opponents - as in the case of most first nation inhabitants in the "New World" who have found themselves marginalised and ignored by their colonizers."
This pretty well sums up the situation in respect to the original Warumungu land claim. The senior indigenous men with whom i had a close working relationship were seeking to have their comprehensive life rights recognised, while the Anglo-Australian state was only interested in progressing its own agenda of limited land rights.
While the original Warumungu land claim hearing started in Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory in November 1982, its preparation had been building up for a number of years. I arrived in Tennant Creek as a temporary researcher in February 1980 and spent the next couple of years - off and on - helping them to prepare and present their claim.
Rod Hagen, a former CLC anthropologist provided me with back-up and worked on writing up the history of area. Jane Lloyd halved the work load by working with the women (in keeping with a strong norm in Warumungu/Alyawarra life which required men to work with men and women with women). Under great pressure in 1982, we produced the land claim book necessary to trigger the formal hearing process.
It was a difficult claim to prepare for a number of reasons. A key senior man (M. Taylor Jappanangka) died in 1981. People - including the researchers - needed time to pass before work continued. The 'claimant' groups were scattered over wide areas; we had few resources. A large part of the 'main' claim area was difficult to research. This meant that the requirements for recognition of Aboriginal ownership under the Aboriginal Land Rights Act would be hard to satisfy. My hunch was that we would fill this gap with more time and effort.
I pleaded with lawyers in the CLC (who had enormous power with the organisation) for more time. There were signs that some very senior men were getting ready to talk about that part of their country which, to date, they had revealed little about. The process involves them revealing a certain amount of knowledge and then assessing -over months and years - if they need to disclose more.
From a Western perspective we are inclined to say "But of course they should provide information which helps them gain recognition of their ownership of land!" While this is generally correct, it is not that simple.
The senior men already know it is their land. They have to work out what it is they are getting in return for what of their form of capital (esoteric knowledge) they may be giving away. A researcher/claim worker can never know if there is no more left to say (an easy - but perhaps mentally lazy - conclusion to draw) or whether there is some other kind of inhibiting process at work.
While the wishes of the senior men must be respected - these matters related to their lives - some types of information are released in a gradual manner when a situation of trust has been built up. And when new information is respected things can move to a yet another level.
Gut instinct is the only guide and my gut instincts were that there was something yet to emerge for a large area of 'unalienated' Crown land.
There had been this unrealistic idea - back in the CLC office in 1980 - that the Warumungu claim should have been prepared in three months. After three months research i was still making contact with the people in whose name the claim was made. There were also power struggles going on within the CLC to determine if its practices were to match its description as an "Aboriginal" organisation.
Additionally, life in the early 1980s in the newly self-governing Northern Territory was that a kind of 'war' had been declared on Aboriginal land rights by the Country-Liberal Party which had a powerful hold on government. Chief minister Paul Everingham knew his popularly rose enormously (in places which mattered to him) when he got stuck into Aboriginal land rights. The whole symbolism of White supremacy was at stake.
Everingham was an ace conflict-feeder. The Central Land Council was at the centre of the negativity generated by placing a whole state apparatus in the hands of a cowboy government and carpet-bagging lawyers-cum-politicians.
Tennant Creek was a gold-mining town. There was gold in the claim area surrounding the town as well. Vast fortunes to be had before the blackfellows got their hands on it. It felt as though the government may move to cut off the Warumungu claim before it could get officially started.
So, despite wanting another year for more research and preparation, in a few torrid weeks in 1982 the Warumungu land claim book was produced - virtually without time for proof-reading and mature reflection. This was dispatched with haste to the Aboriginal Land Commissioner to comply with practice directions which required the him to receive such a book before he would set a date to commence the formal hearing with the claimant First Peoples.