Utopia is an Aboriginal homeland formed in November 1978 by the amalgamation of the former Utopia pastoral lease with a tract of unalienated land to its north. It covers an area of 3500 square kilometres, transected by the Sandover River, and lies on a traditional boundary of the Alyawarra and Anmatjirra people, the two language groups which predominate there today. The name is probably a corruption of Uturupa, which means ‘big sand hill’, a region in the north west extremity of the area.1 It has a number of unique elements:
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European occupation of the Sandover region began in the early 1880s in the southern Davenport Ranges, then on the Elkedra and the Bundey rivers. These outfits did not have good resources and were short of surface water; most were abandoned by 1895 because of drought and conflict with the Aboriginal inhabitants.
A second phase began in the decade 1915-1925. The two portions which later became Utopia station were first leased by cattlemen in 1928. Relations between the Aborigines and cattlemen appear to have been problematic north of Utopia in Alyawarra/Anmatjirra/Kaititja country, but more cooperative in the south: Utopia , MacDonald Downs, Mt Swan, and Bundey River. The Chalmers family sold the lease of Utopia as a going concern to the Aboriginal Land Fund in 1976. The cattle enterprise had largely lapsed by the time the two land claims were settled in 1978 and 1980.2
Alyawarra people displaced by the violence during European dispossession fled in significant numbers across Wakaya country to Soudan and Lake Nash on the Barkley Tableland, and to refuges in the east in Kaytete lands and beyond. That is why Utopia people today have close kinship ties with the communities of Ali Carung, Ti-Tree, Harts Range and Lake Nash.
The population at Utopia is a changing quantity, but is roughly 1000 people. A typical outstation complement is 20-100.
A community-owned store together with the council offices makes up a sort of municipal centre at the largest outstation, Arlparra. Five small schools are distributed among the outstations, and a bus provides transportation to children who do not live at one of these.
A medical clinic occupies its own site; it is staffed by a doctor, several nurses and a group of local health workers. The clinic delivers most of its services at the outstations by way of a schedule of weekly visits. Funding of essential services is provided by direct Commonwealth grants to the Aboriginal Corporation via the Community Council and the Health Council; both representative bodies are elected by due process annually. The Northern Territory Government provides the educational infrastructure and budgets.
The people harvest and consume traditional foods – and to some extent medicines – especially the elders. This practice is likely to have mitigated the advent of metabolic diseases, seen in other populations, which have been so damaging to Aboriginal health.
Alcohol is not permitted anywhere at Utopia, but although the ban is fairly regularly broken, the effects of abuse are intermittent. The problem is minor here compared with many other communities. There is almost no abuse of other intoxicants.
The most recent 30-year history of Utopia is a record of self-determination against a background of well-developed communal will and widespread participation. The era of settlement included some profitable relations with white pastoralists and some degree of continuous indigenous occupation. The community has had some success in mitigating the clinical disorders associated with transition to sedentary life, and minimising the advent of destructive behaviours and intoxicants. In addition, they have maintained a strong commitment to traditional practices and customs, which support identity in the face of coercive change.
To many observers, the outstanding deficiency in remote communities is education; when available, it is seen by the European-Australian society to provide people with capacities for choosing the terms of their integration. Education may work as a powerful integrative force and so shift the issue of cultural identity. The people in Utopia are subject to the tensions of trying to balance these forces.