Creating Mangroves: The Vibrant Living Space Between Polarised Others. A Reflection on My Encounters with Traditional Owners in the Native Title Setting

Entering the applied field of native title anthropology was a daunting experience as I was not prepared for the legal framework within which I was required to work. A framework which sets polarised parameters: a dichotomised objective-subjective paradigm between the objective requirements of an anthropologist working with evidence and the lawyer advocating their client. I felt distanced to what seemed to be the far reaches of objectivity. This was a stance I had not anticipated and soon realised that the objectivity created a polarisation between myself and the traditional owners with whom I worked. In my paper I use mangroves as a metaphor to describe my lived experience of working within the native title setting: through a phenomenological lens I reflect on my ‘being-in-the-[native title]world’ as I navigate the objective-subjective paradigm to establish many vibrant symbiotic working relationships with traditional owners, whilst maintaining the required objective stance. I describe how the phenomenological concept of intentionality or the ‘directionality of action’ has a bearing on the formation of consciousness as two people from polarised positions stand before each other. I explain how emotions play an integral part in this as they are both embodied and ‘in-the-world’, in that emotions are simultaneously experienced physically, psychologically and sociologically. And how sociologically, through processes of intentionality, emotions can both divide and repair these relationships.