Flight of the Kingfisher

This book was unfortunately paired with two other quite slow reads for me. While only a thin volume, it has a quite small font and dense line spacing, meaning that its 178 pages are easily comparable to 250 page book of larger type. It was published in 1996.

The content was excellent, and very detailed, and while there were some in-depth aspects that interested me less than other areas, there is little doubt the author did a great job of immersing herself in the community and learning much more about Aboriginal culture than most who make the attempt.

Monica Furlong was a British author and journalist (she passed away 2003) who had shown interest in the Aboriginal people, and was invited to Balgo or Balgo Missionary near the border of Western Australia and the Northern Territory, where it has access to both the Great Sandy Desert and the Tanami Desert. The Aboriginals who live there are the Kukatja (or Gugadja) people.

Luurnpa, the Kingfisher, is the totemic ancestor of the Kukatja people. The Aboriginal name for Balgo is Wirrumanu. Wirrumanu is the name of the track made by the luurnpa in the Dreaming when he led the people from waterhole to waterhole.

I am still sitting on the fence when it comes to the missionaries. I acknowledge they do a huge amount of good for the Aboriginal communities, who really have few other people standing up for them in a country which has an appalling record of dealing with their indigenous people. However I see little benefit to the Aboriginals who are converted to follow a religion so foreign to their culture. I concede though, on balance, that they do far more good than they do harm.

This quote (P134) stood out to me:

The anthropologist TGH Strehlow, by no means uncritical of missionary endeavours in Australia, nevertheless made the startling claim, that ‘the missions were the only agency that held up the complete physical annihilation of the Aboriginal race in this country from the beginnings of white settlement till the time when more enlightened Government policies were instituted in Australia.' Despite Christian bigotry and narrowmindedness, repression and ignorance, there was also a sense of human dignity and worth, and a devotion and love, however misguided at times.