Right To Ceremony

Claim on the right to ceremony, by Donald Gumurdul, Philip Mikginmikginj, and Jacob Nayinggul from Arnhem Land, Australia

This is the most important. Abbott has told central Australian Aborigines in Pitjantjatjara lands that spending months on ceremony doesn't work in today's Western culture. He told an Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara meeting that "if you're going to develop a working culture, you can't have a three-month ceremony season and you can't take six weeks off because your cousin has died. I wouldn't imagine that long before white man came (a death) would have stopped hunting."

He is wrong. Our ceremony is part of our work. That's why we call it "business". In our country, in Arnhem Land, ceremony has continued uninterrupted for a very long time. It is important to our culture, our art and our moral beliefs.

Does the minister say that Jewish, Christian or Muslim rituals should be changed? Ceremony is carefully structured, with everyone holding significant roles for the various important things to be done. It takes a lot of organisation. People come from all around the country for these ceremonies. We have to organise transport, food, healthy places to live. Work doesn't stop. Everyone has to work for ceremony business. Young kids are initiated to learn the hard rules; we don't want that to stop. Trouble comes when they lose the culture.