Tyson Yunkaporta's Blog

Posted by Tyson Yunkaporta

The Kimberly Process guarantees that diamonds from Tsila (Bushmen) homelands are not "conflict diamonds," meaning diamonds that are associated with civil wars and conflict. However, this leaves out the criteria of human rights abuses and contravention of international law regarding the consultation of traditional landowners by mining companies. The Bushmen have been evicted illegally and forcibly from their land to make room for this mining activity. By any definition, this could be described as "conflict."

The government and mining companies have backpedalled on this issue in recent years, claiming that the Bushmen were removed for their welfare, not because of mining interests. This contradicts what they initially told the Tsila when they were evicted in 1985, when the Bushmen were told explicitly that they were being moved to sedentary settlements because of the diamond deposit.

These "relocation camps" are referred to by the Tsila as "places of death." De Beers backed their removal to these concentration camps with bogus research claiming that Gope has only recently been inhabited by Bushmen, and that they have no ancestral claim to the territory. Read more on this.

Posted by Tyson Yunkaporta

"I am fair, I am aware that I am not what people are looking for when they want something black, something real, something authentic, something truly Aboriginal, but I am here. I am aware that as I look through magazines they are not of me, for me. The models white and pure, or black and foreign, and/or exotic, not from here not of me. I turn on the television and the advertisements make me feel that I have travelled to some other country, I am not at home. I see reports of our people and we are down again, so far down it is hard to see daylight. When observed, when exposed, we are mere microbes, lucky for some space, alien to white Australians, unknown quantities. Sad, sorry, other peripheral, not their problem. I travelled overseas and was amazed at how I became the exotic, the foreign, the other. Displacement, the other side. By placing myself behind the camera I am taking control of my self image and images of ourselves. I cannot, do not, take sole responsibility but challenge and attempt to reverse the expected. My mother marrying my father, white dress, black suit, the negative makes me laugh, the story makes my cry. Reverse roles. Look at me/us and do not see through me/us. Acknowledge me/us. I am right beside you."

July 1998

Posted by Tyson Yunkaporta

Erosion of tribal culture in Corsica began with loss of language in the 1950s and 1960s, when school children were forbidden to speak Corsican, of which there are several different dialects on the island. Today the language paradoxically has a high status, and is used by the elite of the island to exclude poorer natives and migrants - kind of a secret password language for the upper echelons of Corsican society. However, these few Corsican words always exist within a colonial context - playing second fiddle to the French language of the island's invaders.

Corsica's cultural renaissance seems to consist mostly of exotic and colonial-friendly symbols of native "culture", with native icons being romanticised in much the same way as the didgeridoo in Australia. Corsica's leading families use language and culture in this way to foster a dominant tribal elite, designed simultaneously to exclude peripheral classes and minorities, and to stir nationalistic pride in the hope of attracting home prodigal sons and daughters who have enjoyed financial success on the mainland. Read more here about how this situation has led to racism on the island.