Lincoln, Robyn --- "Book Review - Nyibayarri: Kimberley Tracker" [1995] AboriginalLawB 58; (1995) 3(77) Aboriginal Law Bulletin 19

• Book Review-Nyibayarri: Kimberley Tracker

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Book Review - Nyibayarri: Kimberley Tracker

by Jack Bohemia & Bill McGregor

Aboriginal Studies Press,

Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, Canberra 1995

Reviewed by Robyn Lincoln

Jack Bohemia was in almost uninterrupted employ as a police tracker in the Kimberley from 1938 until his final retirement in 1975. In 1970, he was awarded the British Empire Medal for his services to the police. His work involved finding the lost, culling dogs, catching escapees from stations, taking part in leper patrols, as well as the arrest, chaining and removal of people from situations where they were not wanted. Absconders from employment were one of the main targets for trackers and their police colleagues. This was not just because they had left their jobs, but because they were seen as 'flouting white control and domination' (page 108).

Trackers were essential to police operations in remote Australia; they had a superior knowledge of the local environment, and on this knowledge the police were dependent. Even though they were only classed as 'casual employees' they held positions of considerable responsibility. It is clear that Bohemia was one who exerted significant power and influence over the police with whom he worked. As is shown in his stories, lack Bohemia frequently takes the credit for controlling much of the organisation of police activity on patrol; on occasion he even tells the white policemen what to do' (page 118).

The book begins with a discussion of the collaborative writing process between Bohemia and McGregor. While it is acknowledged that this process of book publishing is a neo-colonialist enterprise, Bohemia was never a passive participant. He had his own reasons for recording his story and wishing it to be published, just as he had actively 'used' the police he worked with in his tracker days to his own advantage.

Generally, the political philosophy behind the employment of trackers was assimilationist. Yet Bohemia 'was not motivated by any desire to simply subjugate Aborigines under white control' (page 67). He 'understood his role as a tracker in terms of his efforts to bring the world to a more moral state by punishing (or seeing punished) those responsible for the amoral states' (page 67). Indeed, he saw himself as a 'righter of wrongs'. Some trackers were clearly brutal, while others were able to maintain respect within their communities; but as this book demonstrates it is not simply matter of being able to classify individuals as good or bad.

Bohemia was especially proud of his role in finding the lost and assisting the sick; for example, he claims responsibility for instigating leper patrols. He says 'I had brought all the sick people - those with syphilis and leprosy - and we put them into the compound ... the big lugger arrived, and we put them all on board. The boat ... took the sick people to hospital where the medicos gave them needles and medicine. Some of them died there; others lived on for some time there' (page 124).

The first few decades of settlement in the Kimberley were characterised by violence by both Aborigines and nonAborigines. What was then classed as savagery is now labelled generally as resistance or rebellion, but McGregor suggests that much of the violence was very situation-specific. This contrasts with the early decades of the 20th century which usually are described as some sort of 'golden age' with Aborigines and pastoralists working together. McGregor points out that this too is an oversimplification and that relations were never 'completely harmonious' (page 44).

McGregor is somewhat critical of the current view of 'resistance', largely because trackers do not fit comfortably into such a schema. He says 'the resistance model promoted by historians ... has become the paradigm for most investigations of Aboriginal-white interaction, and which critics have tended to accept unquestioningly' (page 31).. McGregor notes that the resistance model has recently been expanded to include one of cooperation, and it is into this category that Bohemia fits.

Nyibayarri: Kimberley Tracker is well-documented, matched to written historical records (generally police files) where possible. However, sometimes the use of supplementary documentation seems patronising in its attempt to authenticate Bohemia's own recollections. This book is nevertheless sensitively written and compiled, revealing the complexities of culture and relationships, and dealing with a myriad of issues from the frontier. One of its significant features is the retention and recording of elements of the oral tradition and contact history of the Kimberley region, such as the story of the man who escaped from the lockup at Fitzroy Crossing by tunnelling his way out.

In many ways Nyibayarri: Kimberley Tracker is not an attractive story and is often quite disturbing, for it involves murder, ambush, long journeys in chains, the tying of people to trees, death from disease, andd certainly violence and assaults by white police. There is some evidence of poor police decision-making, but the interrogation methods used and the general treatment of Aboriginal witnesses are not dealt within detail, as most stories involve the chase rather than what happened afterwards. What this work does show most strongly though is the almost daily contact that local people had with the police. It was the police rather than the welfare that dominated their lives, and as we know from works by Chris Cunneen and others (see for example 'Aboriginal Young People and Police Violence', Vol 2, 49 Aboriginal Law Bulletin 6) such surveillance has not changed much in the intervening years.

An important feature of the book is what it can teach us about how we approach contemporary criminal justice matters. There are now many programs springing up under the rubric of community policing or community crime prevention. Some of them are indeed community-initiated and many are quite successful, even though full evaluations are still limited. But how will we conceptualise night patrols, warden schemes, prison visitor or police aide programs in the future? Are these just new methods to co-opt individuals and communities to carry out the work of the criminal justice agencies? Do such schemes really acknowledge and integrate Aboriginal cultural needs? The point is that there are lessons to be learned from the life of Jack Bohemia, Kimberley Tracker.