Femininity

Maningrida - the word - is a complete anglo bastardisation of the Kunibidji name Manayingkarirra meaning 'the place where the dreaming changed shape'. A beautiful notion, but at the same time perhaps sad and ironic. I know very little about the dreaming. Perhaps it did change here. I couldn't tell you. In my (narrow and sheltered) experience I can only offer this; Maningrida, 'the place where femininity changed shape'.

I noticed it last night. Scanning the crowd I stumbled across a stunner. If I was in Melbourne I would have assumed she was of Middle Eastern descent, but here I choose to assume nothing. I was gobsmacked for a second. Not because she was all that much chop, but because she stood out like like an erection on a nudist beach. She was all decked out in eastcoast swank - make-up, fitted singlet, tight black jeans, hoop earings. You just don't get that here. Black, white or A-rab.

Maningrida ladies dress code; Aboriginals over 25s - flowing sarong-y type printed dresses or skirts and old T-shirts. Aboriginals under 25 - square-shouldered basketball type singlets and shorts. Balandas over 40 - what over 40 white women always wear to the beach. Balandas over 20 - singlets, sensible shorts and those fucking plasticy Birkenstocks. Sure, let's face it, fashion doesn't matter up here. That's fine - load off my bank balance (which, for the record, is still zero) - but that shouldn't necessarily mean that what-it-means-to-be-womanly instantly becomes "dripping with kids, tits to your knees, and sensible footwear".

I'm picking on whitechicks here. Two things - why are they all pregnant and/or fucking gingers!? Ok, most Balandas working here are married, 'giving up' time in their perfect lives to go and do some work in an Aboriginal community - why not pop out a couple of tots while the rent is cheap!? Sure. In actual fact it's a great place to bring up kids. Great sense of community, everyone looking out for eachother, heaps of kids for your little ones to play with - out of 2000 people, 700 of Maningrida's population are under 10. But the fact that there is not a single white person here between the ages of 8 and 20 say a lot. Balandas pack up their lives and head back to the cities to give their little albinos the chance at life they deserve. Pulling out the photos in adolescence, 'Remember when you used to play with black kids? They're just like us, aren't they, and not criminals at all!?'

And why is it only a certain type of white person makes it to communities in the first place. They're all fair-skinned and freckled - oddly the exact opposite type of person suited to the climate. Is it that they were the ranks of the middle-class who didn't ever entertain the illusion that they were good-looking enough to be an actor, hence relegated to the jobs less self-obsessed? It was either that or slit their freckled wrists. No no, they would never do that - they're all so darn enthusiastic. They say most fear comes from what you don't understand - I'm not afraid of algebra, or the French, but I'm afraid of white people.

Anyway, I'm straying here. Long story short - for Balandas the standard of femininity has become being independant, strong, teacherly/maternal (take your pick). Which brings me to Aborginals. I feel obliged to tread lightly here, but I'm too afraid of becoming just another bloody Balanda. Aboriginals have always had the rough end of the stick, They are, perhaps, the most desexualised race on earth. No, fuck it, it's true. We're all taught to admire the elgant beauty of the African Queen, the Bollywood Princess, and saucy Latin Diva. Asian has hotties all over from Japanese schoolgirls to Thai Trannies. Even the Native Americans had the steamy Pocahontis. Think about it. If (ever) we are offered an Aboriginal woman to be admired as beautiful, she is half-caste to the point of homogeny. It's the same with the men but Aboriginal male identity is a massive issue that is going to need more time for me to bake. Another day.

Some folks, at this point, would argue with me. They'd probably offer up a portrait and get me to see the beauty in the character of each crevis. But by that logic everyone in the world is beautiful, even if they've been disfigured in a fire and forced to appear on Maury Povich. The curse of modern art - beauty in everything from the tragic to mundane. I'm not saying Aboriginal women are unattractive - quite the opposite. I'm trying to point out what we're up against - a dominant world culture that has marinalised them as sexual beings. It's true though. Aboriginals always seem to somehow have kids, while white people are fucking freely in front of a camera.

As if puberty wasn't hard enough. The conflict is clear when girls break out in a fit of wild Carribean dancing ("Bam Bam"). It's charged with huge sexual energy - it's like their hips are a bucking bronco and their torso hangs on for dear life. The dance always stops abruptly after a few moments as they dive in to a pile of thier friends, hiding their face, giggling and blushing. They are experimenting with 'sexy', even if a little self-consciously.

Truth is there's plenty of sex going on in Maningrida - like I said 700 kids under 10 - and the kids are starting to have sex young, but in perspective that's pretty normal for any small town. Especially living at such close quarters. That's not the issue. The issue is indenity, confidence, pride. I don't know how they're delaing with it. I've been working with the health board for a (working) week. I see smoking, alcohol abuse, petrol sniffing, mental illness, molestation, pot, karva, runny noses and poor diets plastered everywhere. Not once have I read the words 'body image', 'self esteem' or 'sexual health'. I just wonder, what is being created here?

'The place where femininity changed place'. Sounds like a nice spot. Really, don't we WANT independant, strong, teacherly/maternal women? If Maningrida existed in a vaccuum, you might even get them. Sadly western culture is all-invasive and freckle-legged enthusiastics are not the only rolemodels girls are exposed to here. And, as time rolls on, the Aboriginal communities are forced increasingly to aglo-cise the problem grows. I'm not afraid of algebra, or the French, but I'm afraid of the West - my inheritance.