Saltwater cowboys: life in a time of death and destruction

Abstract

This paper begins at the Derby (western Kimberley, WA) bull rides, where young Aboriginal men compete to be champion bull riders – with the prize of a social status akin to that of an AFL football star. The abundance of life performed in this arena lies in stark contrast to the too often rehearsed appalling health and social statistics, which has produced policies such as the Northern Territory National Emergency Response, Shared Responsibility Agreements and ‘Closing the Gap’. Too many Indigenous Australians are in a state of grinding poverty, ill health and social distress. What do these forms of account say about how (or what) life is valued in Australia? Achille Mbembe argues that the ultimate expression of sovereignty resides in the power and the capacity to dictate who may live and who must die – the creation of death worlds.1 Notably, above the Tropic of Capricorn, 90% of the prison population is Indigenous, leading some to contend that we are in a state of war. The ‘wounded’ Indigenous body is represented as an aberration – outside of the healthy civic body – and in need of mainstreaming. In the political moment there is a focus upon the war on terror, but what of the war at home? War upon Australian soil has seemingly been consigned to history. Yet government agencies have responded to the current ‘crisis’ in Indigenous Australia largely by reinforcing mainstream values and experiences, which fosters particular life worlds at the expense of others.