On the distance between researchers and mine-affected communities in Australia.
Kathryn Sturman
“Come in under the shadow of this red rock”
I came into Australia to study mine-affected communities, as a migrant into an economy of migrants, to a university full of migrants, self-styled as ‘global citizens’. I wanted to understand the relationship between people and rocks. I still do. Now that citizens of the global village are experiencing our own forced resettlement under pandemic travel restrictions, it is a good time to reflect on how we do our research.
I’ve realised that the more we roam places to compare mining impacts the less we can know about those who live their lives in one place. What it is like to live under the shadow of a large-scale mine in a remote place? How would I know? We can visit these communities, interview individuals or run focus groups. We can ‘hang out’ like anthropologists or hassle people with questionnaires. We get the questions wrong and struggle with the answers.
The scale of mining in Australia is as overwhelming as the distances between urban, rural and remote communities. Between migrants, descendants of migrants and indigenous peoples. Between iron ore, coal, copper and uranium mines. How can a university degree be used as a stake to claim a part of this red earth and a right to ask questions of the locals? When I can get over that thought, there are some thoughts worth sharing.
Someone in East Arnhem Land shared that she has a ‘love-hate relationship’ with both her Yolngu community and the mining company she worked for. The company has been mining bauxite there since before she was born and will soon leave. As for the community: things can’t go back to the way they were before the 1970s and they can’t stay the same as they are now. But what’s next?
There is a new indigenous-owned bauxite mine called Gulkula, a first in Australia. We get a tour and collect quotes from the manager: “At some point we realised that if our red earth has value to be dug up and shipped away, then it might as well be us who do the digging and the selling”. Fair enough, as they say here. I think I get it, but cannot be certain.
Of Earth For Earth (2020)
KATHRYN STURMAN
Dr Kathryn Sturman is a Senior Research Fellow and Postgraduate Coordinator at the University of Queensland’s Sustainable Minerals Institute (SMI). She has a PhD in International Relations from Macquarie University, Sydney and an MA cum laude in Political Studies from the University of Cape Town. Kathryn’s research focus is on the political dynamics shaping the extractive industries globally, particularly in resource-rich developing countries of Africa and South East Asia. Before joining SMI in 2012, Kathryn was program head of the Governance of Africa’s Resources Program at the South African Institute of International Affairs. She has conducted research and policy development in the minerals, oil and gas, and logging sectors. She has also worked as a senior researcher for the Institute for Security Studies and a speechwriter in the Parliament of South Africa.