Events that have become popularly known as ‘the Hindmarsh affair’ arose from conflict over a bridge development, and refer to an Aboriginal heritage issue that has had a significant impact on Australian society.1 The attendant controversy and dissension have ramified widely, beyond matters of Aboriginal heritage and its relationship to development, to include the status and role of anthropological research and reporting, past and present. A brief chronology of developments both prior to and following the Hindmarsh Island Bridge Royal Commission (1995) is provided here as a backdrop for discussion of these matters. Other salient issues also examined include: the nature of culture in relation to the complexities of ‘tradition’ and the effects of change; the structural correlates of secrets; the politics of interpretation; and the legitimacy of innovative processes in Aboriginal cultural construction and representation. In conclusion, some implications of the Hindmarsh affair for the anthropology profession are considered.
Vanuatu's transformation into a predominantly Christian country entailed the loss of much traditional culture and the devaluation of the pre‐contact era. In the 1970s the growing independence movement used kastom as a rallying cry to evoke a distinctive non‐European national identity. In promoting unity and solidarity, the movement's leaders promulgated kastom on a safe ideological plane, avoiding any definition or differentiation of the concept, whereas the populace attempted to interpret kastom pragmatically. This led to confusion and difficulties because kastom is so ambiguous; its capacity to unite at one level is offset a t others by its political utility in defining difference and in marking boundaries. For Christians, a major problem has been to reconcile the new positive view of kastom with long‐ entrenched negative attitudes. For the nation‐builders, the challenge has been to uphold the virtues of kustorn‐within‐Christianity while avoiding as much as possible its inclusion in legal codes or in structures and strategies associated with Vanuatu's functioning as a Pacific republic.
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