The Ship's Mast. The legacy of the Macassan presence in northern Australia

Abstract

A ship's mast with flags attached stands anchored to the ground in a cleared area near the centre of a number of Yolngu (Aboriginal) communities in north-east Arnhem Land. The mast is, I argue, the most significant and enduring legacy of contact with Macassanl trepangers from Sulawesi, who ventured onto the northern Australian coast from at least 1700 until the early years of this century. Drawing on Taussig's ( 1993) text 'Mimesis and Alterity,' and more recently Merlan's (1998) examination of the mimetic quality of the Aboriginal social agenda, I discuss the ways in which lessons from the Arnhem Land mast are of political import for contemporary Arnhem Landers pursuing self-determination. I also examine the proposition that the revelation of sacred Dreaming law by Aborigines, in particular those narratives incorporating representations of non-Aborigines, is a strategy being pursued by Yolngu in order to advance the reconciliation process in Australia.