Funcionalidades

How  do  kigay  see  themselves  in  comparison  to  whitefellas  and  more  generally  da   atsaida?  I  have  already  noted  that  they  tend  to  embrace  the  image  of  themselves   as  destructive  and  rebellious,  and  they  are  additionally  aware  that  people  in  da   atsaida  see  them  in  this  way.  There  was  a  notorious  incident  in  2007,  when  video   footage  of  a  riot  that  was  shot  in  the  town,  and  later  made  it  onto  national  

television  and  the  internet.  In  relation  to  this  one  kigay  explains:    

Wurda-­‐warda  mange  pana  piyemum  ku  ngalla-­‐ngalla-­‐yu.  Da  Sitni,  Melbun   pawathu  pibimkawuk,  pibimdjewup-­‐pibim  tju  vailens-­‐yu  …  Da-­‐ka  Purtkits-­‐

yu  da-­‐ka  Rambo  City-­‐wa  pumamna-­‐yu.  Da  mangini  atsaida  anaka  da   mangini  violence-­‐imini  pumemdha-­‐panam,  da  atsaida  pana-­‐ya  Efrika  da   mangini  ini-­‐ya.  

The  government  said  we  shouldn’t  act  like  this.  Down  there  in  Sydney  and   Melbourne  they  hear  about  the  violence  …  They  call  Port  Keats  “Rambo   City”.  It’s  like  those  violent  places  overseas,  like  Africa  or  something.  

            (JL,  2013-­‐06-­‐22)  

Through  comparison  to  whitefellas,  and  through  imagining  themselves  in   whitefellas’  eyes,  kigay  come  to  view  themselves  as  kardu  tjipmam  (PERSON  +   black)  “Aboriginal”.  They  express  some  positive  views  about  Aboriginal  people,   noting  for  example  their  sharing  of  food  and  tobacco,  their  right  to  their  own   country,  and  sometimes  point  out  to  me  proudly  certain  Aboriginal  physical   dispositions,  such  as  sitting  on  the  ground  rather  than  chairs,  or  walking   barefoot.  

But  kigay  also  sometimes  express  an  exasperated  view  of  Aboriginal  people,   criticizing  their  own  people  for  humbugging,  fighting  and  not  working.  These   critiques  are  often  “broadcast”  in  public  to  no  one  in  particular  (Walsh,  1990),   and  Facebook  offers  a  new  medium  for  such  broadcasts.  Figure  3.8.1  illustrates   one  such  broadcast,  though  this  is  by  a  middle-­‐aged  woman  rather  than  a  kigay.  

  Figure  3.8.1  A  public  “broadcast”  unfavourably  comparing  Aboriginal  and   whitefella  attitudes  to  private  property  (Facebook  feed,  17/02/2014)  

Kigay  subculture   82  

But  there  is  also  a  less  clearly  articulated  discourse,  apparent  in  certain  stories   and  statements,  which  puts  Aboriginal  people  on  the  wrong  side  of  a  moral,   cosmological  divide.  

There  are  reports  elsewhere  of  Aboriginal  spirituality  being  seen  in  opposition  to   Christian  redemption.  Austin  Broos  (2009,  p.  98)  reports  that  for  some  Arrernte,   the  interpretation  of  Christianity  includes  the  concept  that  tywerrenge  

“Aboriginal  sacred  objects”,  (elsewhere  “churinga”)  are  wicked  and  un-­‐Christian.   “Bloody  heathen”  is  a  common  insult  between  one  Arrernte  person  and  another.   In  Wadeye,  there  is  a  quite  pervasive  conceptual  opposition  between  Aboriginal   sorcery  practices  and  Christianity.  Sorcery  is  mostly  associated  with  old  men,   and  with  bush  life  before  the  Mission  (cf.  McKnight,  2005),  while  the  saving  force   of  Christianity  was  brought  to  the  community  by  the  Mission  founder  Father   Richard  Docherty.  Docherty’s  redemptive  power  also  saved  the  people  from  ku   kanamkek  “the  Rainbow  Serpent”,  who  may  also  be  referred  to  as  ku  pangkuy  ku   warratj  “the  devil-­‐snake”  (Notes,  2013-­‐01).  This  may  be  a  somewhat  scandalous   epithet,  since  kanamkek  is  at  the  same  time  quite  central  to  MP  creation  stories,   ritual  and  story-­‐telling.  Right  across  northern  Australia  the  Rainbow  Serpent  is   both  powerful  and  dangerous  (Elkin,  1930;  Merlan,  1998),  but  it  is  perhaps  only   through  the  cosmological  syncretism  with  missionary  Christianity  that  (s)he  can   come  to  be  associated  with  evil,  requiring  some  counterbalancing  force  of  

goodness  and  redemption.    

One  contemporary  story  tells  of  how  kanamkek  caused  massive  flooding  and   destruction  at  Daly  River  and  other  places,  but  Wadeye  was  spared  thanks  to  the   blessing  of  yile  ngala  “the  Great  Father”  Docherty.  It  is  also  said  that  kanamkek   dwells  under  the  ruins  of  the  old  Wadeye  Club  (once  the  site  of  much  drunken   disorder),  whence  he  lures  kigay  into  solvent  and  petrol  abuse:  temteishen   mampurra  “he  tempts  them”  (Notes,  2013-­‐01).  In  another  recent  local  song,  the   singer  calls  upon  Saint  Mark  to  save  the  kigay,  who  are  afflicted  with  ngepan  wiye   “bad  spirits”  (Notes,  2013-­‐11).  

In  these  oppositions,  traditional  Aboriginal  supernatural  forces  are  dark  powers,   while  the  spiritual  forces  brought  by  Christianity  offer  redemption.  This  is  

somewhat  reminiscent  of  the  situation  reported  by  Kulick  (1992,  pp.  59,  160)   among  the  Taiap  people  of  Papua  New  Guinea,  who  have  assimilated  missionary   ideology  to  view  themselves  as  far  removed  from  God,  who  lives  in  Belgium.   They  aspire  to  speak  “English”  (actually  Tok  Pisin)  and  for  their  skin  to  become   white  so  that  they  may  achieve  modernity  and  become  close  to  God.  The  

racialised  aspect  of  the  discourse  is  not  so  explicit  in  Wadeye  cosmology,  though   the  damnation/redemption  opposition  has  been  described  to  me  in  terms  of   “black  angels”  versus  “good  angels”  (Notes,  2011-­‐08).  

Though  sorcery  is  the  business  of  old  men,  kigay  also  align  themselves  with  the   devil  when  they  embrace  heavy  metal  symbols.  Heavy  metal  music  is  widely   recognized  as  being  associated  with  ku  karratj  “the  devil”,  and  it  is  also   occasionally  linked  explicitly  to  black  magic.  For  example,  a  middle-­‐aged  man   was  said  to  be  lying  very  sick  in  his  house,  cursed  and  perhaps  dying.  He  was   fixated  on  a  poster  of  the  metal  band  Manowar  (ku  spidi  of  his  sons)  that  was   hanging  on  his  wall.  He  could  not  stop  looking  at  this  poster,  which  was  causing   the  sickness  inside  him,  though  all  the  while  he  was  calling  out  for  help  to   kangkarlmawu  “he  who  dwells  above,  God”  (Notes,  2013-­‐11).