 In part six of our series, Maxine Clarke looks
at GLBT life in Indigenous Australia.
The recent, long-awaited, and emotion-fuelled national
apology to Indigenous Australia for the Stolen Generations was an historic
moment for upholders of - and believers in - human rights, justice and
accountability.
It was a much-needed recognition of the disenfranchisement,
death, and destruction brought to a beautiful island, and a proud people, by
mysterious ghost-white men who arrived with ‘thundersticks’ and disease. But
the alienation, violence and depression caused by the white man’s bringing of
homophobic hate disguised as missionary morality has also impacted heavily on Australia’s
Indigenous gay and lesbian communities.
“It doesn’t matter
if nobody else wants you,” Tiwi
Island sistergirl Crystal Johnson Kerinaiua passionately assured the crowd at Gasworks Arts Park
during the recent Midsumma trans-lesbian gendermash event on January 26. “If nobody else wants you, then you are mine.”
Crystal, described as the
mother and respected elder of all Tiwi
Island sistergirls, knows
a thing or two about not being wanted.
The gentle but awe-inspiring indigenous gay rights
campaigner spoke at Gasworks of the stigmatisation of queers, who were prominent
in indigenous Australia,
since the arrival of Europeans and their Christian values condemning sexual
diversity.
Lack of documentation (caused in no small part by the customary
secrecy regarding sexual relationships in traditional indigenous Australia)
means there is little formal documentation regarding the place of GLBTI
Australians within their traditional communities.
Many Indigenous gays and lesbians, however, speak of a time
in which Indigenous queers were recognised as unique and valuable members of
the tribal community.
The word yimpininni
(‘sistergirl’) was used in the Tiwi Islands
to describe transgender people. The very existence of the word provides some
indication of the inclusive attitudes historically extended towards Indigenous
sexual minorities.
Today, ‘Sistergirl’
is now sometimes appropriated to refer to the wider GLBT Indigenous community.
As is the case with all sectors of the Indigenous community,
queers in traditional life had their own customary rites, taboos and rituals.
For example, Tiwi Islands’ sistergirls (estimated to account for an
extraordinary 4% of the Tiwi
Islands community) don’t
believe in sexually penetrating other males; a customary taboo still largely
observed in 2008.
Heart-memories of a time of acceptance, inclusiveness and
mutual respect present a stark contrast with the violent hate-crimes and
discrimination now faced by many Indigenous GLBTI Australians within their own communities.
Yarns within the wider Indigenous community in relation to
queer Aboriginal Australians include one suggestion that their sexual
preference in the result of a spirit curse, invoked by wrongs committed in a past life. In the context of Dreamtime
theory, this accusation has devastating implications.
At the Midsumma Trans-Destinations conference earlier this
year, Crystal Johnson spoke of violent hate-crimes perpetrated against her Tiwi
sistergirls from within their community. She stated that ongoing bureaucratic,
legal and social failure to address the injustices suffered by herself and her
fellow sistergirls made her feel as if they had no rights at all.
Wariness of homosexuality throughout Aboriginal Australia
has had serious implications in relation to the treatment of AIDS within
Indigenous communities. For example, many HIV positive people increasingly fear
that, on revealing their medical status and seeking treatment, they will be mistakenly
perceived as, or outed, as gay.
At a national level there has been some recognition of the
unique and serious issues affecting Indigenous queers. In 1994, Anwernekenhe,
the first national gathering of gay and sistergirl Indigenous Australians was
sponsored by the Commonwealth government. It is now an regular event. Organisations
such as ACON and the Australian Federation of AIDS Organisations (AFAO) have
established specialist Indigenous units to ensure that the cultural sensitivity
required to tackle issues within Aboriginal communities is no barrier to
education and medical treatment for those who are HIV positive.
Unquestionably, links between racism and homophobia place GLBTI
Aboriginals in a doubly vulnerable position. The harsh reality of being both a
racial and a sexual minority bestows the possibility of being excluded by the
Aboriginal community while also being marginalised by the wider GLBTI
community.
At a social level, networking organisation such as Victoria’s
Outblack, and Black+White+Pink in NSW have emerged to assist queer gay and
lesbian Aboriginals in maintaining contact with their community, and engage in
anti-racism dialogue with wider the GLBTI community in order to bridge the
black/white divide.
Dreamtime legend has it that each and every one of us has a
spirit-child; a part of us that will remain, and has always been, present for
eternity.
Each spirit was plucked from the otherworld of the Dreamtime,
entering this realm for a short time as a birth mother’s ancient gift. Every
butterfly, blowfly and brown snake has a metaphysically determined reason for
being, and will one day return to the parallel spirit place from whence it
came. But when our sistergirls return to the time of dreams, will the ancestors
be happy with what they have to say?
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