Development and Nyikina Woman’s Agency: The Importance of ‘Booroo’ (Country) in an International, Intercultural Space

Nine years of collaboration between three Yimardoowarra Marninil Nyikina sisters from the Lower Fitzroy River and French-Australian filmmaker and PhD Researcher, Magali McDuffie, has revealed the women’s determination to speak and re-affirm the Nyikina worldview into existence. They envisage all spatio-temporal interactions (social, political, cultural, educational) as being based in Booroo (Country), as a basis for ‘being-in-the-world’ (Heidegger, 1962). In this presentation which uses excerpts from filmed interviews, Magali will examine how the sisters conceived of development through time by referring to the Seaman Enquiry in 1983. Thirty three years later, the Bidan Community represents this vision embodying the family’s aspirations for future development on Nyikina Country through culture-conservation economy on country, self-sufficiency, sustainability and supporting others, particularly young Aboriginal generations, to overcome the social issues resulting from colonising institutional processes. The aspirations of the three sisters will be shown in terms of development based on living and acting in an inter-cultural space (Merlan, 1998). Multiple and collaborative cultural actions, or life projects (Blaser, Feit & McRae, 2004), are bringing two laws, two inter-related worlds, into one connected, non-hierarchical, respectful space. Through extending the spatio-temporal reach of Booroo in such life projects, films have brought the three sisters into the international arena, connecting with like-minded people to argue for every individual’s right to live a life they deem worth living and promoting development as freedom (Sen, 1999)