Cultural Values of Water
Sue Jackson
|
Post-doctoral research scientist at CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems, Darwin, Northern Territory
|
Sue has lived in tropical north Australia
for 15 years. Her work has taken her many times to the Kimberley region of
Western Australia and throughout the Northern Territory. She has worked with a
number of Aboriginal communities during this time. She is fascinated by
tropical and desert remote environments and the differences between the
societies of northern and southern Australia. She thinks she will always be
absorbed by the issues facing Indigenous people, and their place in Australian
society.
At high school I developed a strong interest in geography and economics. During my final year when it was time to turn our minds to university courses I found an Applied Science degree in Economic Geography. There was no need to look any further. Geography is about the study of societies and their environments. I have always been interested in human environmental relationships and spatial patterns of human activity. It was not until I moved to north Australia that I started to think more seriously about the role of culture in influencing our environmental relationships, perceptions and actions.
I have been a researcher since the mid 1990s. In between my undergraduate and post-graduate degrees I worked for the non-government conservation sector in Sydney and Darwin. I have many funny stories about interactions with frontier politicians who are often more dangerous than our spiders. Since commencing a research career my working life involves personal risks of a different kind and a lower public profile! Remote area work requires a lot of travel, much of it on your own, where changing a burning hot tyre on a 4WD can be a challenge.
At present I am researching the Aboriginal cultural values of water with seven different language groups from the Daly River region of the Northern Territory. We have developed a good working relationship and a strong sense of shared purpose over the past year. I really enjoy visiting these communities and spending time with people who have a vastly different life experience to mine and who are happy to share their philosophies, concerns and knowledge with me. Their histories continue to fascinate me.
My family (parents, brother and now husband) have taken many years to appreciate that my expertise and interest lies in human or cultural geography, not in physical geography. Everyone gets a laugh at my expense when a question relating to the tides, the moon, or the longest river in the southern hemisphere gets raised in everyday conversation. They all turn to me and say ‘you should know the answer to that – you’re the geographer’.
As a change from work, every Saturday morning we take our kids to the Parap market where our friends gather for laksa and other Asian delicacies like cold lime juice. We eat and chat for many hours. Getting a table and chairs is very competitive at this popular market. One day I was holding on to about five empty chairs waiting for my friends who were due any minute. A woman approached and asked if any were free. After replying ‘no’ I turned to watch her walk off cussing to her one-legged husband. I have been teased and shamed mercilessly by the regular market-goers over this incident.
If I had to choose the achievements I am most proud of in my career so far, I’d suggest these:
at the age of 21 convincing Sydney’s Federal Airports Corporation to include anti-third runway action group information material in their community consultation shop-fronts
having my PhD research results submitted to the Federal Court to support the Yawuru people’s native title claim to land in and around Broome, and
seeing the students I taught at the Faculty of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (Charles Darwin University) complete their qualifications and working for their communities solving land management problems.
My goal is to fit a rewarding working life in with the needs of my family. One of my needs is to read more fiction.
We asked Sue about someone who has inspired her in her research and why:
These days I am most inspired by ‘the quiet achievers’ – people who live by their principles and work patiently and steadily at achieving their goals over many years of sustained effort. My PhD supervisor, Ritchie Howitt, has been a source of great inspiration for his ability to have time for everyone.
Books or reading material Sue recommends on her area of research:
Inventing Places: Studies in Cultural Geography by Kay Anderson and Fay Gale (1992).
