The Hindmarsh Bridge Affair and Secret Knowledge

Abstract

Plans for a large marina complex on Hindmarsh Island date from 1980, and for the associated bridge project from 1989. A subsequent Australian Anthropological Society media release expressed 'deep concern at the impact on Ngarrindjeri people, and on Aboriginal people generally, of the intense media scrutiny and the multiple government inquiries related to the Hindmarsh Island affair'. Dr Deane Fergie's initial report, which was apparently influential in the Minister's decision to place a moratorium on construction of the bridge, presented conclusions that are at variance both with a large corpus of literature and with recent anthropological and archaeological reports. A key focus of criticism of the report was her assumption of the representativeness of the gathering of women at which the secret information concerning the women's tradition was transmitted. One prominent feature of River Murray societies that emerges from the literature is its openness, typified by the reported absence of separate male and female domains of secret knowledge.