Amidst conflicting gender roles and stereotypes, Indigenous boys explore their options for becoming men in the modern world.

In many remote communities in Australia, Aboriginal boys still have the opportunity to undergo traditional rites of passage and initiation into manhood. But for most Indigenous adolescents, this is no longer an option in communities where initiation rituals are no longer practised. So what are the options for these boys; what opportunities exist for them to become men? The odds are stacked against our young Aboriginal men, with higher suicide and substance abuse rates, and lower standards of health and education than other demographic groups in Australia.

In a remote Indigenous community in New South Wales, one class of male adolescents is struggling to come to terms with what it means to be a man in a world where competing social roles and interests can be confusing at best, and destructive at worst. The class has identified three male roles from conflicting Indigenous and non-Indigenous worldviews, and is struggling with the question of how to draw on the positive aspects of these identities to construct themselves as men in an uncertain future. These roles are warriors, soldiers and fighters.

Warriors

Warriors are who we are and where we come from. Our ancestors lived by a warrior code. Violence was structured and had rules, so that it made the community stronger, not weaker. Today we still have those strong warrior behaviours, but we have lost the code. This makes our community weaker.

• Kinship system, community structure, marriage rules and Law.
• Trade, cultural exchange.
• Men’s Business, Elders, initiation at the Bora.
• Balance, gender roles defined, male nurturing roles, structured violence and dispute resolution, controlled ritual substance use.
• Connectedness to land and spirit.

Soldiers

The Europeans who invaded our country were a people of soldiers. Soldiers do what they are told, even if it is wrong. Soldiers have discipline from outside and inside themselves. They usually destroy things rather than create things. They have strict rules in their work, but not in their life, which can make a lot of problems

• Government control.
• Individual choices and responsibility.
• Social substance use/abuse as rite of passage.
• Violence criminalised, legal for government but not individuals.
• Market economy, big business, culture as commodity.
• Welfare System, nurturing as women’s business, government role in care of young.
• Exploitation and private ownership of land.

Fighters

This is what we have become today, from fighting for our rights and fighting to survive, and even fighting each other. There are strengths to be found in this way, but a lot of problems to overcome. We need to find new ways of becoming men that build on the strengths of old ways and new ways together.

• Aboriginal politics, activism.
• Scrambled family structure, wrong-way marriage, no nurturing roles for men.
• Welfare dependency, drugs and alcohol as culture, tourist-oriented culture.
• Unstructured violence, jail as a rite of passage, economic, health and learning disadvantages.
• Erosion of connection with land.

This is not a good news story, with improved outcomes and answers. These boys are merely struggling with the question, “How can I become a man today, and still keep my identity?”

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