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Islam Dreaming: Indigenous Muslims in Australia
Indigenous Australians are increasingly finding in Islam the possibility of reconnection with lost Indigenous traditions and a model of community unavailable elsewhere. But this is not a new story. From the Makassan trepang fisherman of Arnhem Land, the Malay pearl-divers of Broome, through the Afghan camel drivers of the interior, Muslims have lived and worked in Australia for over three centuries, and were among the earliest peoples to form connections with Indigenous Australians. Islam Dreaming tells the stories of Australia's Indigenous Muslims.
336 pages, Hardcover
First published November 1, 2010
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November 14, 2010Heard about this book on ABC Radio National today. You can hear the podcast of the program "The Spirit of Things" here;
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/spiritofthin...
"Part Aborigine and part Afghan, 'Ramiz' realised he did not 'fit in' and spent his youth finding alternative paths, until his life hit rock bottom. That was when Islam offered a way out. Also on the program is Dr. Peta Stephenson, author of Islam Dreaming: Indigenous Muslims in Australia, who has surveyed the phenomenon of Aboriginal Australians turning to Islam.
Dr Peta Stephenson
is an ARC Fellow with the Asia Institute at the University of Melbourne. She is currently researching 'Islam in Indigenous Australia'. This is the first national study of this recent phenomenon and its historical antecedence.
Further Information
Dr Stephenson's Academic Homepage
The Asia Institute at the University of Melbourne. According to the website, Dr Stephenson's research project "will recover the existence of a religious and cultural phenomenon that goes back to pre-colonial times and, not only persists today, but enjoys a renewed vitality. To date the long history of absorption and transformation over time of imported Islamic religious ideas and customs in Indigenous Australia has been overlooked. The project's recovery of these experiences makes an essential contribution to an enlarged understanding of Australia's roots and traditions that will significantly add to our country's on-going project of collective self-definition."
For those wanting to know more about this subject, Islam Dreaming will be launched in Sydney at Gleebooks, Tuesday 7 December, 2010.
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/spiritofthin...
"Part Aborigine and part Afghan, 'Ramiz' realised he did not 'fit in' and spent his youth finding alternative paths, until his life hit rock bottom. That was when Islam offered a way out. Also on the program is Dr. Peta Stephenson, author of Islam Dreaming: Indigenous Muslims in Australia, who has surveyed the phenomenon of Aboriginal Australians turning to Islam.
Dr Peta Stephenson
is an ARC Fellow with the Asia Institute at the University of Melbourne. She is currently researching 'Islam in Indigenous Australia'. This is the first national study of this recent phenomenon and its historical antecedence.
Further Information
Dr Stephenson's Academic Homepage
The Asia Institute at the University of Melbourne. According to the website, Dr Stephenson's research project "will recover the existence of a religious and cultural phenomenon that goes back to pre-colonial times and, not only persists today, but enjoys a renewed vitality. To date the long history of absorption and transformation over time of imported Islamic religious ideas and customs in Indigenous Australia has been overlooked. The project's recovery of these experiences makes an essential contribution to an enlarged understanding of Australia's roots and traditions that will significantly add to our country's on-going project of collective self-definition."
For those wanting to know more about this subject, Islam Dreaming will be launched in Sydney at Gleebooks, Tuesday 7 December, 2010.
April 2, 2013
Having lived in the Kimberley and Central Australia for many years I am familiar with many of the families that Peta writes about - the Ahmat's, Mark Bin Bakar, Sally Bin Demin, Bin Swani's, Tuguy Eskin, Khan's, Rosie Sahanna and the Sultan's. However, never once had I stopped to consider their ancestral roots and especially their connection to Islam.
I found the first half of the book, especially the historical information, totally fascinating and absorbing. I did get a little bored with the book in the middle but that's more a reflection of my own interest, or lack of, than the writer's inability to convey her story.
For anyone interested in understanding a deeper appreciation of the diversity of Indigenous Australians, I would certainly recommend this book as it is both well researched and well written.
I found the first half of the book, especially the historical information, totally fascinating and absorbing. I did get a little bored with the book in the middle but that's more a reflection of my own interest, or lack of, than the writer's inability to convey her story.
For anyone interested in understanding a deeper appreciation of the diversity of Indigenous Australians, I would certainly recommend this book as it is both well researched and well written.
September 24, 2021
Intriguing!
April 18, 2012
From reading Peta Stephenson's earlier work, The Outsiders Within: Telling Australia's Indigenous-Asian Story and Regina Ganter's Mixed Relations: Asian-Aboriginal Contact in North Australia, I had some awareness of contact between Indigenous Australians and Makassan traders, "Afghan" cameleers and "Malay" pearl-divers but it didn't really click for me that the history of Islam in Australia is therefore a longer one than that of Christianity.
Anyway, I found this an interesting book and I like its focus on personal and family narratives. Stephenson's Indigenous Muslim informants include descendants of mixed Indigenous and Muslim families, some of whom maintain some Muslim cultural traditions without really subscribing to Islamic theology, and others of whom have reclaimed the faith; as well as converts (or "reverts") who don't have Islam in their family history. She dedicates one chapter to the influence of Malcolm X's autobiography, especially among Indigenous men who have been imprisoned, and another to how women negotiate gender, family and religion. I appreciated that she seemed careful to distinguish between the different social, political, cultural and religious contexts for how her informants and their ancestors encountered Islam. For example, I can't find the reference now but I think she said that Torres Strait Islanders were able to maintain Indigenous religious traditions more than Aboriginal mainlanders. Several informants discuss how they feel Islam coheres with what they know of Indigenous cosmology. Others talk about how Indigenous traditions have been broken through colonisation and Islam provides an answer that isn't the culture of the colonisers - Sulaiman Menzies talks about learning Arabic because he was craving a language other than English but his Dainggati language not being documented enough to study.
The family narratives are sometimes humorous, sometimes heartbreaking. Lots of sad stories with families being broken up because of the Stolen Generations or other colonial policies, as well as men having to leave because they were on limited work visas (during the WAP era) or in one case, a patriarchal father making his unwed daughter give up her child for adoption. And some funny ones like one guy being happy to pretend his meal was halal if he killed a chook in the halal manner before sitting down to eat. Sometimes both, like when Goolbegum Khan's father Nameth rides a camel to an Adelaide hospital and walks in twirling two curved Afghan swords to get his grandson when the child was taken just as it was born.
Stephenson doesn't shy away from looking at patriarchy and sexism; racist attitudes towards Indigenous people on the part of some Muslims and Islamophobia or ignorance about Islam within Indigenous communities (which can compound issues of invisibility, particularly for women who veil). Multiple identities are often rendered incomprehensible, but especially to a dominant culture which is so invested in representing Islam as foreign and Indigeneity as dying. The conclusion draws together some of the themes of the book but also looks to contemporary demonisation of Indigeneity and Islam in Australian politics and proposes that Indigenous-Muslim connections, which represent the ultimate threat for Anglo-Australian supremacists, can produce powerful resistance to racist narratives and instead provide new ways of thinking about sovereignty, security and cross-cultural exchange.
Also, one of the Indigenous Muslims mentioned in this book is Eugenia Flynn who's on my blogroll. Her blog's called Black Thoughts Live Here: http://eugeniaflynn.wordpress.com/ Check it out.
Anyway, I found this an interesting book and I like its focus on personal and family narratives. Stephenson's Indigenous Muslim informants include descendants of mixed Indigenous and Muslim families, some of whom maintain some Muslim cultural traditions without really subscribing to Islamic theology, and others of whom have reclaimed the faith; as well as converts (or "reverts") who don't have Islam in their family history. She dedicates one chapter to the influence of Malcolm X's autobiography, especially among Indigenous men who have been imprisoned, and another to how women negotiate gender, family and religion. I appreciated that she seemed careful to distinguish between the different social, political, cultural and religious contexts for how her informants and their ancestors encountered Islam. For example, I can't find the reference now but I think she said that Torres Strait Islanders were able to maintain Indigenous religious traditions more than Aboriginal mainlanders. Several informants discuss how they feel Islam coheres with what they know of Indigenous cosmology. Others talk about how Indigenous traditions have been broken through colonisation and Islam provides an answer that isn't the culture of the colonisers - Sulaiman Menzies talks about learning Arabic because he was craving a language other than English but his Dainggati language not being documented enough to study.
The family narratives are sometimes humorous, sometimes heartbreaking. Lots of sad stories with families being broken up because of the Stolen Generations or other colonial policies, as well as men having to leave because they were on limited work visas (during the WAP era) or in one case, a patriarchal father making his unwed daughter give up her child for adoption. And some funny ones like one guy being happy to pretend his meal was halal if he killed a chook in the halal manner before sitting down to eat. Sometimes both, like when Goolbegum Khan's father Nameth rides a camel to an Adelaide hospital and walks in twirling two curved Afghan swords to get his grandson when the child was taken just as it was born.
Stephenson doesn't shy away from looking at patriarchy and sexism; racist attitudes towards Indigenous people on the part of some Muslims and Islamophobia or ignorance about Islam within Indigenous communities (which can compound issues of invisibility, particularly for women who veil). Multiple identities are often rendered incomprehensible, but especially to a dominant culture which is so invested in representing Islam as foreign and Indigeneity as dying. The conclusion draws together some of the themes of the book but also looks to contemporary demonisation of Indigeneity and Islam in Australian politics and proposes that Indigenous-Muslim connections, which represent the ultimate threat for Anglo-Australian supremacists, can produce powerful resistance to racist narratives and instead provide new ways of thinking about sovereignty, security and cross-cultural exchange.
Also, one of the Indigenous Muslims mentioned in this book is Eugenia Flynn who's on my blogroll. Her blog's called Black Thoughts Live Here: http://eugeniaflynn.wordpress.com/ Check it out.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews