An understanding of individual experiences of leadership development in the region is required to provide a greater level of understanding of how leadership operates. Individual case studies of three pre-eminent leaders, each from a different age group, are presented below.[22] The first is about a man in his seventies, the second of a man in his forties, and the final case study is of a youth group leader in his late twenties.
Mr J was born in the Wadeye Church Hospital in 1942. The Japanese had bombed the town of Darwin only a few months earlier. He was initiated in the bush when he was about ‘8 or 9’. Mr J recalls spending much of his early life on his father’s clan estate. It was a time of much tribal conflict. War parties intent on capturing women would come down from Daly River and Pine Creek. He said they were ‘Ngan.gi-tjemerri, Brinkin, Wagaman, Mulluk-Mulluk tribes and others’. He says:
Sometimes the bastards would surprise us and we would have to run and hide until they left. But then my father and his brothers would join up with men from other clans and go and steal their women. It was wild days then!
Mr J informed me that a place of refuge when any intruders came on to country was a small sand island near the mouth of the Fitzmaurice River. Adults and children would walk across to the island at low tide, and because the going was treacherous they were not followed.
At the time of Mr J’s youth, Stanner was excavating an archaeological site on Mr J’s country. Stanner had befriended Mr J’s father and they all camped at the site together. At this time, Mr J’s father was still making spear and axe-heads out of stone. The women would collect seeds and berries and grind them in the rock hollows at the shelter.
Soon after, Mr J was sent to the dormitory at Port Keats to be educated by the missionaries. He was allocated an identification number, as were all the others in the dormitories. He recalls how he detested this life, because the missionaries were often very strict with their punishments. At the age of about 13 he ran away in the company of his uncle. They walked from Port Keats to Daly River (a distance of about 180km) and worked for a while at Elizabeth Downs Station and Wooliana Station (see Fig. 9.1). He has vivid memories of the station manager at Elizabeth Downs ‘going off his head’ and firing a rifle at all and sundry because someone had borrowed the truck without asking.
During this time, he recalls another uncle deciding to walk a long distance because he had run out of tobacco. The uncle then got very sick. Mr J made a bed of branches in a tree for his uncle to have some respite from the mosquitoes but during the night the old man fell out. Mr J. spent some hours trying to lift him back in and commented, ‘by gee he was heavy’. Some time later, Mr J went back to Port Keats to pick up his promised wife. But she had been given to someone else. He ‘got wild’ and left for a life in the pastoral industry.
During the next 15 years Mr J worked at Litchfield Station, Carlton Station, Billinuna Station, Ivanhoe Station, Legune Station (see Fig. 9.1), Mirrawong, and other cattle properties in the NT and Western Australia (WA). He is known as having been an excellent stockman and rodeo rider (as were others from Port Keats), riding in various events in WA and the NT. During this period of his life, Mr J also attended ‘five different types of ceremonies in Kununurra, Halls Creek and Billinuna’ that were performed by Aboriginal people from WA. In the 1970s, Mr J came back to the Port Keats area and joined a stock camp at Palumpa Station. Mr J was later elected to the Northern Land Council and served for many years, at one stage visiting the United States for business.
In recent years, Mr J has lived on his country, which is about 20km from Wadeye. He speaks Murrinh-patha as his primary language, is the most senior leader of his clan group, and is also well-regarded as a ceremony leader. In 2003, when the first elections for the Thamarrurr Regional Council were held, each clan group, by constitution, had the right to elect two councillors each. I visited each of the 20 clans on their own country with local Aboriginal people and Council officials to explain why the council was being established, the process, and the need for each group to conduct an election. Mr J, as the leader of his clan, spoke with passion. He spoke about his life—‘a bloody hard life I tell you’—and the need ‘for the young fellas to stand up and work for their people’. He said that his life was almost at an end but he was happy with the new Thamarrurr Council entity because ‘blackfellas could now have the same rights as whitefellas’.
After about an hour of oration, during which Mr J talked about the need for young people to ‘stand up’, he declared that he had decided not to sit on the council himself. On behalf of the clan, he said, two women would be the representatives. But he would be ‘looking over their shoulder to make sure they do the right thing. They got to report back by geez!’ The women have subsequently been regular attendees at council meetings. Mr J rarely attends, but when he does he always has something to say, which is accepted by those present with respect. On occasions, Mr J also attends some informal community meetings at places such as Peppiminarti, ‘caucusing’ on issues and he still has a very strong presence in the region. He is one of a number of elderly men who have heightened status across most clans and age groups.
Mr J has resided on his clan estate for many years now, driving into the Wadeye township each day to conduct social and business affairs. Despite ill health, he has no regrets, a contented attitude to life, is very proud of his career in the cattle industry, and interestingly, does not speak with any real bitterness about missionaries, stockmen or anyone else for that matter. His leadership style might be described as broad ranging, with leadership and social networks established far beyond Port Keats and extending into WA. Mr J maintains and nurtures such relationships with other leaders, often visiting for ceremonies, funerals and other activities.
Mr N was born at the Wadeye mission hospital in 1957. His father’s clan estate was the original landing site of the early missionaries in 1934. Mr N lived in the mission dormitory for ‘about 6 or 7 years’. Like Mr J, he still recalls his dormitory identification number. On the weekends he was allowed home to stay with his family. Mr N remembers these days as being ‘good fun—especially being with my friends in that age group’. This age group was made up of young men from all of the various tribes ‘mixed up’.
Mr N describes a ‘turning point’ in his life. This was in 1970 when he visited Brisbane and other places. He says:
We saw how other people live. It was the first time we had seen a big city. We were very well looked after and respected by strangers. I started to realise that there are people out there that don’t care where you come from.
He attended a private high school in Victoria during the period 1971–73 and went on to complete Year 12. He remembers it as ‘good times’, particularly when mixing with boys from Nauru and Central Australia. He says, ‘I got to know a lot of people’, but also that he saw racism—not so much directed at him but to other Indigenous students. These students were referred to with such names as ‘the blackies’. After observing this, Mr N said that it actually made him more resolute—‘So now I can take anything’.
Mr N underwent djenbitj (initiation) in Darwin Hospital. In 1978, he commenced his ceremonial introduction into the senior ceremonies. The initial ceremony took place at a site where a major gas pipeline is currently being built. Other men being initiated were from his dormitory group and they went through at the same time. He says, ‘The old men really gave us a lesson. They made us sit down and talk things over’.
Mr N says that his father said to him as a young boy ‘One day you will take my place as a leader’. But his father also said that ‘I want you to go down south to study. It is better that way’. Mr N says, ‘But I missed a lot of stuff [culture]’. In 1983 his father died. Mr N says that his father ‘In Council meetings … was strong but he would also let other people have their say’.
Mr N returned to Wadeye following his education in Victoria and began to pursue a career as a teacher at the Catholic school at Wadeye. Whilst rising through the ranks of the NT education system, he has also become a prominent and influential member of the local council.
Reflecting on where he is today as a senior educational official in the Wadeye community and an influential spokesperson on intercultural affairs, Mr N says: ‘If we hadn’t been made to speak English at school—I would never have gone on to matriculation’. He argues: ‘This is important—you have to be able to speak English whether you like it or not’. Mr N maintains cordial relations with most clan leaders in the Port Keats region and is highly regarded. He often acts as a negotiator and peacekeeper. He is of the Kardu Keke age bracket (see Fig. 9.2) and has been delegated various responsibilities by senior clan leaders. Such status enables him to effectively operate and negotiate with non-Indigenous interests as well.
Mr K is in his late twenties. He is a large man with an imposing presence. For many years he has been regarded as the leader of one of the youth groups or ‘gangs’. He prefers to refer to the group as ‘family’. Mr K attended boarding school in Darwin to Year 10. He has been charged by the police on many occasions, usually for assault, and has spent much of the last 10 years of his life in prison.
Mr K has a large following of male and female supporters, most of whom are younger than him. He is called on, and usually responds, to lead battles against other groups or to intervene in matters of contention. He is rarely involved in routine events in the community and for many years was not even seen enough to be recognisable by non-Indigenous residents (although most have heard his name).
Mr K has a reasonable knowledge of matters related to his estate but does not participate very often in ritual affairs. He regards this as the fault of elders in the community. The elders have often been reluctant, he says, to pass on information of sacred importance to some individuals in case it is used wrongfully. Mr K’s relationship with the other two levels of leadership in Wadeye—the elderly and middle-aged—is terse, although is improving noticeably as he grows older. In more recent times, Mr K’s relationship with the police has also improved and this has generally translated into a better state of community affairs.
Mr K is regarded as a strong leader by his young followers and many fellow clan members, and they revere his strength of character. However, unlike Mr J and Mr N, he is yet to gain credibility in the wider community arena of leadership. This could change if his style becomes more peaceful and embracing of others. The other leaders previously mentioned, Mr J and Mr N, have developed networks of leadership, particularly through their work experience, whilst Mr K’s opportunities to construct a leadership base have been mainly restricted to prison or illegal activities.
These three case studies reflect the temporal related life-experience of leaders from the region.[23] They indicate not only that leadership development begins at an early age and builds over time, but that it also occurs in a particular historical period, which provides a range of associated opportunities that one might experience. Individuals who have worked or studied in environments outside of the immediate region may develop more constructive community roles later in life. The case studies highlight the continuing importance of ceremonial knowledge plus education (not necessarily in the same person), and also the importance of networks in the region. The studies also strongly point to negative styles of engagement, as some individuals progress through life-stages within prison walls.