Professor W.E.H. Stanner and The Selectivity of Mr Pascoe’s Scholarship
Mr Pascoe cites, as a reliable reference in Dark Emu (1), the work of Bill Stanner [Prof W.E.H. Stanner] (2). In particular, Mr Pascoe quotes several paragraphs from a paper presented by Stanner in 1956, called, “The Dreaming” (3), where Stanner discusses Aboriginal philosophy, spirituality, religion and the joy and stability of Aboriginal camp life, and the lack of Aboriginal wars, conflict and class distinctions. Mr Pascoe, in Dark Emu, thinks we should open ourselves “to the depth and subtly of the [Aboriginal] spiritual manifestation” described by Stanner (ibid, p200).
However, when we actually check Stanner’s, “The Dreaming”, paper, so extensively quoted by Mr Pascoe in Dark Emu, we find that Mr Pascoe has completely ignored what Stanner had to say with regard to Aboriginal society and economy. We can only assume that Mr Pascoe is very selective in what he quotes from this paper because Stanner completely contradicts Mr Pascoe’s theory that the Australian Aborigines were settled agriculturalists.
Stanner provides in his paper a succinct description of Aboriginal society when he writes:
“They are, of course, nomads — hunters and foragers who grow nothing, build nothing, and stay nowhere long. They make almost no physical mark on the environment. Even in areas which are still inhabited, it takes a knowledgeable eye to detect their recent presence. Within a matter of weeks, the roughly cleared camp-sites may be erased by sun, rain, and wind. After a year or two there may be nothing to suggest that the country was ever inhabited. Until one stumbles on a few old flint-tools, a stone quarry, a shell-midden, a rock painting, or something of the kind, one may think the land had never known the touch of man.
They neither dominate their environment nor seek to change it. ‘Children of nature’ they are not, nor are they ‘nature’s master’. One can only say they are ‘at one’ with nature. The whole ecological principle of their life might be summed up in the Baconian aphorism — natura von vincitur nisi parendo: ‘nature is not to be commanded except by obeying’. Naturally, one finds metaphysical and social reflections of the fact.
They move about, carrying their scant possessions, in small bands of anything from ten to sixty persons. Each band belongs to a given locality. A number of bands — anything from three or four up to twelve or fifteen, depending on the fertility of the area — make up a ‘tribe’. A tribe is usually a language or dialect group which thinks of itself as having a certain unity of common speech and shared customs. The tribes range in size from a few hundred to a few thousand souls.
One rarely sees a tribe as a formed entity. It comes together and lives as a unit only for a great occasion — a feast, a corroboree, a hunt, an initiation, or a formal duel. After a few days — at the most, weeks — it breaks up again into smaller bands or sections of bands: most commonly into a group of brothers, with their wives, children, and grandchildren, and perhaps a few close relatives. These parties rove about their family locality or, by agreement, the territories of immediate neighbours. They do not wander aimlessly, but to a purpose, and in tune with the seasonal food supply. One can almost plot a year of their life in terms of movement towards the places where honey, yams, grass-seeds, eggs, or some other food staple, is in bearing and ready for eating. (ibid p 230-231 - our emphasis)
Another example of how Mr Pascoe selectively uses only quotes and references that support his narrative of ‘Aboriginal agriculture’, while ignoring other, contradictory quotes by the same author, and often in the same paper, is provided by his use of Stanner’s, “The Dreaming”, paper. Mr Pascoe completely omits to mention in Dark Emu that Stanner wrote :
“Their [the Aborigine’s] tools and crafts, meagre — pitiably meagre — though they are, have nonetheless been good enough to let them win the battle for survival, and to win it comfortably at that. With no pottery, no knowledge of metals, no wheel, no domestication of animals, no agriculture, they have still been able to people the entire continent…” (ibid p 234-235 - our emphasis).
Our conclusion? Check the original references before believing Mr Pascoe’s theories and claims.
And it is not just us who rely on W.E.H Stanner’s views with regard to Aboriginal Australia. Praise for The Dreaming & Other Essays come from :
Henry Reynolds : ‘Bill Stanner was a superb essayist with a wonderful turn of phrase and ever fresh prose. He always had important things to say, which have not lost their relevance. It is wonderful that they will now be available to a new and larger audience.’
Canberra Times : The most clear-headed, compelling and sensitive portraits of indigenous Australians ever written’
Noel Pearson : ‘Stanner's essays still hold their own among this country's finest writings on matters black and white.’
Marcia Langton : ‘The most literate and persuasive of all contributions to Australia’s indigenous people.’
Indeed, a writers award, The AIATSIS Stanner Award, has been established for the best academic manuscript written by an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander author, indicating the very high esteem that Stanner holds within the Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander community.
(1) Dark Emu (2018 Reprint pgs, 180 and 200-1).
(2) Prof W.E.H. Stanner was one of Australi’a most preeminent anthropologists who worked extensively with Indigenous Australians, and was a prominent figure in the 1967 referendum and early land rights movements.
(3) In Edwards, W.H., (Ed) Traditional Aboriginal Society – A Reader, MacMillan, 1987, p 225-236.
