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Reconciliation Australia
YOLNGU
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Blue Mud Bay traditional owners celebrate the High Court decision on their tribal >>> waters, 2008, NT.
Exteme Survival - Arnhemland To the uninitiated the northern coastline of Australia is a harsh environment; sharks and saltwater crocodiles inhabit the coastal waters and rivers, fresh water is scarce and food seems next to impossible to find. With the assistance of local Aboriginal experts Ray follows the harrowing journey made by a downed aircrew in the 1940s.
ENIAR
Welcome to the website of the European Network for Indigenous Australian Rights (ENIAR)
www.eniar.org/news/dreamtraces.html
Yolngu and the Northern Territory
“Defending Whose Country?" Yolngu and the NTSRU in the Second World War Limina: Journal of Historical and Cultural Studies Noah Riseman. <? from: www.limina.arts.uwa.edu.au/__data/page/59120/Riseman.pdf <<<Click
http://recollections.nma.gov.au/issues/vol_2_no2/ papers/cluttering_up_the_department/
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Ascertaining the Nature of Indigenous Intellectual and Cultural Property and Traditional Knowledge and the Search for Legal Options in Regulating Access in Papua New Guinea [2000]
... Like in the case of Terry Yumbulul, he was authorised at his last clan initiation rite, to carve the Morning Star Pole. One of the reason why he was authorised by his Galpu Clan is that he possessed artistic skills, and was therefore given the authorisation: not for him to appropriate it as his own by owning copyright in it, but to enable and ensure the continuity of the Morning Star Pole tradition; to make him a custodian so that he can then pass that onto the next generation. But if Terry Yumbulul or even Mrs. Makira in the Milpurrurru case, had produced a derivative art work, not a reproduction but a work derived or inspired by the imagery and story behind the Morning Star Pole or the ancestral story of Djanda and the Sacred Waterhole respectively, would this have offended the respective customs and traditions of their peoples? I think it would. And that is one of the main problems with copyright as well. As we know, copyright does not subsist in ideas; and creativity inspired by existing ideas etc. is exactly what copyright aims to encourage, promote and sustain economically. By copyright law, derivative becomes "original" works of the contemporary artist, not the clan or such other social from which the artist "appropriated" the idea or received the inspiration....
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Awaye! - 12 January 2008 - Fear of a Black Planet - part 2
In part two of 'Fear of a Black Planet', Tony Collins weighs up the economic prospects for a future north Australia.
While demographers predict a sharp increase in the Aboriginal population in the north over the next fifty years, economists point to a distinct lack of jobs and education in the growing black townships.
Regional Australia - 2008 - Awaye! - Subjects A-Z
from: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/awaye/stories/2008/2126787.htm
Dutch DNA link to Aboriginals in Western Australia ?
The VOC Historical Society, in collaboration with coastal Aboriginal communities and geneticists in The Netherlands, is investigating the possible existence of a genetic link between VOC shipwreck survivors and current members of the community. Should the work prove that such a link exists, it would settle all the speculation that exists today about what might have happened to the survivors. It would also mean that Europeans settled in Australia long before its Colonial history began and thereby change Australia's early European history.
from: www.voc.iinet.net.au/
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Aboriginal Ceremonies and Dances from the Top End - OzOutback <<< click The "Mardayin" ceremony is performed all over Arnhem Land, where it is also known as "Maraian" and, when performed, attracts men from far afield; they re-enact the myths in a festival that takes place over a number of weeks. In Numbulwar, an Aboriginal community on the eastern shore of the Gulf of Carpentaria, the ceremony is also known as "Ngarrag"...I have been very priviliged to experience intimately traditional Aboriginal culture and ceremonies, and was allowed to take thousands of photographs and many hours of video. Please note that, although I could photograph "restricted" rituals (only allowed to be viewed by initiated men) as well, none of the photos and videos on this site are of a restricted nature; that would have been a terrible breach of trust.from: www.ozoutback.com.au/...forms/.../index.htm
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1. Куда поехать отдыхать? - yirdaki - [ Vertaal deze pagina ] ... is used for both Yirritja (Ganalbingu) and Dhuwa (Liyagalawumirr) moieties. .... If you don't know Djalu, you should, read his profile on the following .... Elijah Wunungmurra playing a yirdaki made and painted by Batumbil Burarrwanga ... a technique he learnt from Don Dhakaliny which he says cures the wood, ... 2. Country Cars - yirritja Videos - [ Vertaal deze pagina ] Men of the Yirritja moiety, painted with red ochre and white clay, .... he watched his maternal uncle Don Dhakaliny making a yirdaki at Matamata outstation. ... 3. TUBE SENSE - yirritja videos - [ Vertaal deze pagina ] Men of the Yirritja moiety, painted with red ochre and white clay, ..... watched his maternal uncle Don Dhakaliny making a yirdaki at Matamata outstation. ... 4. TUBE SENSE - ididjaustralia videos - [ Vertaal deze pagina ] Tis an anthem for Reconciliation for those who don't know it. George ... Meer resultaten van 7s-b.com weergeven 5. Dhapi videos - [ Vertaal deze pagina ] Don Dhakaliny Burarrwanga was a bit of a legend in his younger days. ... It is the same in the sea country, we have borders for each moiety, Yirritja and ...
The Voice of the Homelands - [ Vertaal deze pagina ] 31 May 2009 ... Don Dhakaliny Burarrwangga and Batumbil speak out in response to simple questions: what's different about Yolngu and Balanda law? ... homepage.mac.com/will_owen/iblog/.../index.html - In cache
Murngin ETHNONYMS: Miwuyt, Wulamba (Cultural Bloc), Yolngu, Yuulngu Yolngu has generally replaced the term Murngin to refer to the indigenous people of the northeastern part of Arnhem Land in Australia. "Murngin" was the term that the anthropologist Lloyd Warner adopted in the 1930s to identify the region and its culturally similar peoples. Linguists working in the area in the 1960s and 1970s introduced the term "Yolngu language," since yolngu is the word for "Aboriginal human being" in all the dialects. Aboriginal people in the Yolngu-speaking area refer to themselves as yolngu (as well as identifying all Aboriginal Australians as yolngu). Within the Yolngu area are some twenty such language-named, land-owning groups. In addition to the names of Language groups, Yolngu people describe and name themselves in a number of other ways, including the location and features of the land they own or where they live (for example, "beach people" or "river people"). >>> from: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3458000360.html
YouTube - G. D. Dhurrkay Memorial 2007 | Ski Beach, Gove Peninsula This is the 2nd Memorial Ceremony in commemoration of the late G. D. Dhurrkay, held at Gunyangara' (Ski Beach) in the Gove Peninsula region of eastern Arnhem Land. The primary theme in this Memorial Ceremony is the raising of the flag (Dhomala). The previous year's flags for the Wanderers, Kangaroos, and Fremantle football clubs were taken down and replaced with new ones. www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyIrl54NOAQ ********************************************* ................................................................................... YouTube Yolngu Boy2 WARUMPI BAND; THE CHANT OF JIMMY BLACKSMITH Yolngu Dance Party Township Style « Fieldnotes & Footnotes
B - b <<<ClickThe words contained in the original manuscript are largely from the Gupapuy\u dialect. Originally spoken by a numbers of clans in the region close to Gapuwiyak, Gupapuy\u is one of a several Yol\u dialects ccurrently spoken in the communities of Milingimbi, Ramingining, Gapuwiyak and Galiwin’ku. There are however a small number of words from other dialects in Beulah Lowe’s dictionary (see baymatthun, maltja]a, wa`irr etc.); and where these occur the dialect is cited. In all, a total of 4,120 words have been reproduced in .pdf format and these are alphabetically sorted according to the Yol\u alphabet developed by Beulah Lowe.
from: www.ards.com.au/language/B.Lowe_Web_Dict.pdf -
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WANDJINA – ROCK ART OF THE KIMBERLEY » Brolga Healing Journeys -
23 May 2010 ... The Wandjina represents the creator spirit for the Aboriginal people of the Kimberley region. These striking figures, some dating back thousands of years, are found throughout the Kimberley in rock art sites. The Aboriginal people treat these sites with respect and caution, indeed often approaching Wandjina sites with a wariness bordering on fear.
from: www.brolgahealingjourneys.com/?p=443 -
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Subject: "If you go sneaking around that country, I will kill you!"
Date: Fri, 27 Mar 2009 16:06:23 +0100 from: /www.yirrkala.com/about.html
Saltwater Collection: Yirrkala Bark Paintings of Sea Country Yolngu culture is based on a strong sense of connection to land and sea. Yirrkala is ancestral land belonging to the Rirratjingu clan. Yolngu have traded and intermarried with Macassans since c.1100-1600 AD. In 1935 when the Federal Government was considering a 'punitive expedition' (massacre) against the Yolngu, Mawalan Marika invited the missionary Wilbur Chaseling to establish a mission at Yirrkala.
In the following years the leadership of the Yolngu resisted their dispossession by: government; missionaries; potential Japanese invasion; and Bauxite miners. In addition to the Yirrkala Church Panels and Yirrkala Bark Petition, they have used their art to assert their connection to land in; the Gove Land Rights Case; the Woodward Royal Commission; the Barunga Statement,; the Yirrkala Homeland Movement; the Land Rights Act (NT) 1976; the Both Ways education bilingual curriculum; and the world renowned contemporary music band Yothu Yindi. In recent years the Garma Festival and Wukidi Larrakitj Installations have used miny'tji to continue to rebut the myth of 'Terra Nullius' (that Australia was 'unoccupied country' before colonisation).
Under Yolngu Law the 'Land' extends to include sea. Both land and sea are connected in a single cycle of life for which the Yolngu hold the songs and designs. To demonstrate their rights and responsibilities over specific areas of both coast and sea and to protect those same marine environments from abuse by outsiders the landowners combined to make the Saltwater Collection of Yirrkala Bark Paintings of Sea Country in 1997. The Collection of 80 bark paintings made by 47 Yolngu artists is featured in a publication of the same name (see Appendix for details).
After a national tour (1998-2001) the Saltwater Collection is now held at the Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney and forms part of the Yolngu legal case for recognition of these rights.
Journal of Material Culture
Widiyarr flows out of the mouth of the Baraltja River and joins up with Mungurru.
These brackish waters are associated with both Dhuwa and Yirratja moieties...
Tasting the Waters
Discriminating Identities in the Waters of Blue Mud Bay, door H MORPHY - 1967 -
This article focuses on the pattern of sea ownership in the north of Blue Mud Bay in Arnhem Land, north Australia. Detailed research into the specificities of sea and land ownership in the region has revealed a more complex pattern than has previously been supposed to exist. It is nonetheless one that can be accommodated within previous models of estate ownership in Australia. In the article we seek to explain the pattern of ownership observed according to ontological (mythological), ecological and sociological factors. We argue that these factors are relatively autonomous and act as co-determiners of a system that is both flexible and structured. We argue that the Yolngu view that land/sea ownership is ancestrally determined is entirely congruent with evidence of the long-term stability of the system of relationships between groups over time, in particular given that the Yolngu perspective includes ancestrally sanctioned processes of succession. We show how, through the rhetoric of sea ownership and the metaphoric discourse in which relationships between different estate areas are embedded, the land/seascape serves as an underlying template for spiritual and social relationships which simultaneously underlie, and emerge through, social action. (Key Words: Aboriginal art • Blue Mud Bay • kinship and marriage • maps • native title • sea-rights)
From: Howard Morphy Centre for Cross Cultural Research, Australian National University
Frances Morphy - mcu.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/11/1-2/67.pdf
Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research, Australian National University
Madarrpa garma Baru balanda
The earliest history of Eastern Arnhem Land is recorded in the paintings, dances and songs of the Yolngu, which tell of creation ancestors bringing lands and waters, people, animals and plants into being and laying down the Law that governs them all. The Law defines who owns and manages the lands and waters, essential features of Yolngu identity and culture. Arnhem Land is one of the few areas in Australia where Aboriginal people still live a traditional life and maintain a strong culture
from: www.aboriginalartdirectory.com/news/feature/garma-festival.php
A powerful presence – and never more so than when Galarrwuy introduced a big Crocodile Dance during the Bunggul. For this was a special celebration of the very recent High Court decision in the Blue Mud Bay case which had given the appellants land and sea rights over what's called the inter-tidal zone, the consequences of which are that traditional owners now have a say over 80% of the NT coastline in determining both commercial and recreational fishing rights. Big stuff; big in economic terms; bigger in standing four-square behind the Yolgnu's own perception of their relationship with both land and water.
So it was great to see centuries of belief translated into a danced evocation of Baru, the primal force in Yolgnu mythology which takes both human and crocodile form as well as being the source of fire.
But it was not just joy that discharged from the dance in the flames that burst forth and the sand that was kicked up wildly in the balmy evening air. It was also relief; relief that the 14 years of this particular legal battle and the 45 years of Yolgnu petitions and other attempts to explain their law had, for the first time, come to a successful conclusion.
So often, these explanations have been offered in the form of art. In 1962/3, miners were negotiating with the Methodist mission to dig bauxite from Yolgnu land, so the Aborigines poured the intensity of their power structure into two mighty Church Panels; only to see the land excised from the Arnhemland Reserve just days later. They responded with the two-sheet Bark Petititon to Federal Parliament - still displayed there, but rejected at the time on the technicality that it was impossible to prove the signatories were over 18 years old!
Then in 1996, at Baniyala on Blue Mud Bay, the ancient home of Baru was desecrated by illegal fishermen, who left behind the severed head of a croc in a hessian bag. Djambawa Marawili, senior leader of the Madarrpa clan and a descendant of Baru reacted in the only way he knew. He initiated the fabulous Saltwater Bark collection – an even more extensive statement of claim to a system of law than the Church Panels, detailing land and water rights from Blue Mud Bay in the south, up the coast and into every inlet to Arnhem Bay on the North-western tip of the Gulf of Carpentaria. It needed 80 substantial barks from the 15 clans in that area. An unprecedented coming-together.
Those barks are now in the National Maritime Museum. But the content of them was tested to the full during the High Court case when lawyers for the NT Government insisted on 4 weeks to come to Yirrkala to cross-examine that traditional knowledge. After 6 days, they gave up, defeated by the Yolgnu's depth of understanding of their law and art. According to Will Stubbs, co-ordinator of the Buku Larnngay Arts Centre, they then moved on to buying such powerful art. And for Stubbs, relating these stories to Garma Festival participants in the Indigenous Cultural Tourism program, there was a catch in his voice as he humbly concluded that after all these years, we Balanda had at last proved ourselves lawful people.
"The Baru travels from Madarrpa to Gumatj but was in its Gumatj guise when punctured."
Baraltja galpu
Where the Clouds Stand: Coastal Life and Coastal Ownership in Blue ...
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat
9B: Detail from Painting of Baraltja by Djambawa Marawili ...... (gara) and spear thrower (galpu). They walked along the shoreline or through shallow ...
eprints.jcu.edu.au/1702/01/Thesis_with_title_page.pdf -
Headline from the Melbourne Argus Newspaper, 7th Oct 1932.
National Australian Archives, 130
In 1932 five Japanese trepang fishermen were speared at Caledon Bay, north of Blue Mud
Bay, and it was Waka’s own father Wonggu who ordered them killed.169 In the
repercussions that followed, Dhukal and Manman’s grandfather (FF) speared a policeman
on Woodah Island, an encounter famous on both sides, and two white fishermen were also
killed in northern Blue Mud Bay at around this time (Egan 1996). The recent arrival of the
frontier also means that memories of open armed resistance are still fresh, and to this day,
Blue Mud Bay has a reputation in the professional fishing industry for being a hostile area.
Yet this reputation was not just earned because of memories of seventy years ago:
"If you go sneaking around that country, I will kill you!"
Gawirrin Gumana, speaking to a crab fisherman operating in the waters of Blue Mud Bay without
Yolngu permission. November 2002
Quite simply, Blue Mud Bay people believe that they own the sea, and should be able to
control who goes there. Gawirrin is an ordained Christian minister as well as a kind and
gentle old man, but he is also a Dholupuyngu leader. He made this threat in calculated
anger rather than offended, uncontrolled rage, and in full awareness of wider Australian
law, yet he still made it, demonstrating the seriousness of his intent to protect what he
believes he owns. The Yolngu word for place, wänga, means everything from ‘home’ and
hearth to ‘country’, and so, whilst the analogy is imperfect, there is a sense in which
entering a local bay like Yathikpa unannounced is the equivalent of walking straight into
someone else’s back yard. In the past, Yolngu protocols about visitors were that they
should light fires as they approached, and those who did not announce their presence in this
way were considered to have ill intent. In contemporary life the telephone has replaced the
fire, but the principle is the same. One characteristic of sea space is precisely its openness,
the way it lends itself easily to travel and movement, and the attitude non-indigenous
society takes to it only enhances this tendency.
However that openness also means that it is country on which movements are hard to
disguise, where those out on the water are readily seen, and therefore coastal Aboriginal
169 Egan recounts the story of this period in Blue Mud Bay history (Egan 1996). There are versions of the
story which suggest that Wonggu was actually one of the killers, rather than just ordering it.
191
people who claim such country are both more vulnerable to incursions and more likely to
be aware of them. Blue Mud Bay is remote, so recreational fishermen do not travel there by
boat, and it is very shallow, poorly charted, and far from major shipping routes, so passing
boat traffic is extremely rare. The incursions that people have to deal with are from
professional fishermen, who seek the valuable mud crabs and barramundi that can be
caught near the mangroves and river mouths. In many ways, Yolngu sea space in the Bay is
far more heavily colonised than the land, something that disrupts the neat picture of
continuities that has been painted to this point by exploring Yolngu understandings of place
and country. The influence of outside forces has been a relatively muted thread of the
ethnographic analysis, partly because of the singular local conditions and partly because of
the research orientation. Here, although the focus will remain on Yolngu responses to
situations, the wider context of colonised Australia is a major frame of reference for
contemporary contests over the sea.
Such encounters demonstrate how Yolngu people think about ownership, how they
understand both their rights and their responsibilities. It is tenure as a complex ongoing
process in everyday life, as an array of responses to situations, both benign and hostile. The
continuities with themes already developed are clear, as manifestations of the importance of
coastal country emerge in another domain of life. Particular characteristics of ownership
can be drawn from such encounters with outsiders, and along with a desire to be recognised
as the owners, these characteristics include controlling access to the country, safety
concerns, care for the country itself, resource sustainability, sharing the value of extracted
resources, building social relationships, and controlling access to information. Yolngu
responses in these encounters are grounded in memories of past engagements and
confrontations, but they are also concerned with the future, for people see greater control
over their country as one of a number of paths to a better future. Although there are echoes
from the colonial past, contemporary life and contemporary engagements with the wider
world have presented new struggles and demanded new articulations of ownership from the
Dholupuyngu. But in those new struggles they also believe they see new opportunities.
Fishermen Past and Present
The spearing of the Japanese men was not the first encounter with outside fishers, for
Yolngu people have been dealing with foreigners arriving from over the horizon for
hundreds of years. From at least the early 1700s, Macassan fishermen sailed across from
the Indonesian archipelago to fish for trepang along the Northern Territory coastline
(MacKnight 1976). Yolngu oral accounts today tell of amicable relations, of how the
Macassans respected them as the owners of the country, supplied them with dugout canoes,
and made trading agreements at which flags and knives were exchanged. Some
archaeological evidence suggests that the two groups camped near each other, and the
number of Macassan words in Yolngu dialects and the number of Macassan names as
personal names suggests that at least some interactions were positive. However, not
surprisingly, there is also evidence of cool or indifferent relations, and of conflict
(MacKnight 1976:83-87). For the Dholupuyngu, dealing with outsiders from across the sea,
whether amicably or with hostility, is not a phenomenon of the 20th century, but goes back
much further.
192
The Macassans, and to an extent the Japanese fishermen of the 1930s also complicate a
vision of the frontier as the site of colonial encounters between white and black. The
situation in Blue Mud Bay, as with many other places across the north of Australia, has
always been more complex than that, and this complexity continues in different forms in
the present day. Yolngu people are still engaging with people from Southeast Asia as the
professional crab fishermen who now work the bays are migrants from Vietnam,
Cambodia, and Thailand. However the owners of the large barramundi boats are wealthy
and powerful Anglo-Australians, and much of their workforce shares that heritage. The
encounters between these groups and the Yolngu reflect their different histories, cultural
backgrounds, individual personalities, status within Australian society, and attitudes to
Australian law.
However history and cultural background are only part of the story, for these encounters are
also critically shaped by the nature of the fishing operations and by the division between
land and sea in law. The public right to fish and to navigate are important parts of maritime
law in the Northern Territory, albeit mediated by State regulation of commercial fisheries
through licensing and quotas. However through government legislation,170 the
Dholupuyngu control the land down to low water mark, and this control, coupled with their
remoteness from coastline which is not controlled by Aboriginal people, is fundamental to
their relations with local crab fishermen. These men need convenient access to land and
reasonable roads and airstrips in order to efficiently get their live crabs out to Darwin for
sale, and so they have had to reach formal agreements with the Dholupuyngu about access
conditions and royalty payments.
Statement to the Government
From the oldest of the Arnhem land tribal leaders, Dr Gawirrin Gumana AO
Of Gangan, May 21 2009
(photo of) -The oldest of the Arnhem land elders Dr Gawirrin Gumana (right)
and young Yongu leader Yinimala Gumana. Photo: Glenn Campbell-
My name is Dr Gawirrin Gumana AO of Gangan, and I am one of the old people who fought for our Land Rights.
Government, I would like to pass this on to you, my words now.
If you are looking for people to move out, if you want to move us around like cattle, like others who have already gone to the cities and towns, I tell you, I don’t want to play these games.
Government, if you don’t help our Homelands, and try to starve me from my land, I tell you, you can kill me first. You will have to shoot me.
Listen to me.
I don’t want to move again like my father moved from Gangan to other places like Yirrkala or Groote. I don’t want my children to move. I don’t want my family to move.
I will not lose my culture and my tribe to your games like a bird moving from place to place, looking for it’s camp or to sleep in other places, on other people’s land that is not our land.
I do not want my people will move from here and die in other places. I don’t want this. We don’t want this.
I am an Aboriginal from mud, red mud.
I am black, I am red, I am yellow, and I will not take my people from here to be in these other places.
We want to stay on our own land. We have our culture, we have our law, we have our land rights, we have our painting and carving, we have our stories from our old people, not only my people, but everyone, all Dhuwa and Yirritja, we are not making this up.
I want you to listen to me Government.
I know you have got the money to help our Homelands. But you also know there is money to be made from Aboriginal land.
You should trust me, and you should help us to live here, on our land, for my people.
I am talking for all Yolngu now.
So if you can’t trust me Government, if you can’t help me Government, come and shoot me, because I will die here before I let this happen.
Gawirrin Gumana;
Thursday 21 May 2009
Born in the 1930’s, Gawirrin Gumana is a leader of the Dhalwangu clan. He is one of the most senior Yolngu alive today and is renowned for his artwork and knowledge of traditional culture and law. Gawirrin was a contributor to the Yirrkala church panels that are a statement by clan groups regarding their equal authority with the church and in 1992 he was ordained as a Minister of the Uniting Church.
He was a major litigant in the 2005 Federal Court Blue Mud Bay decision that granted inter-tidal rights to traditional owners.
Following the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976, Gawirrin led his clan back to its traditional country at Gangan, about 150 kilometers southwest of Nhulunbuy. Gangan, with a population of around 80 people, has been acknowledged as one of the notable success stories of the homelands movement.
from: stoptheintervention.org/facts/your-voice/dr-gawirrin-gumana-ao. <<<
GAWIRRIN GUMANA BIOGRAPHY
Gawirrin Gumana was born in northeastern Arnhem Land in about 1930.
He grew up around Gangan, near powerful sources of traditional lore and culture and alongside the continuing presence of the creative ancestors. His early life was steeped in tradition and the learning of skills such as the making of canoe voyages across the open sea to Groote Eylandt.
When he was a young man Gawirrin was diagnosed with leprosy. It was then a fearful disease and Gawirrin was brought into the Channel Island leprosarium for confinement and treatment. Later, he was moved to the new East Arm facility. Gawirrin underwent treatment for more than a decade.
During that time he learned English, got married and became a Christian. He also began painting, drawing on his memory to depict scenes of his country and its stories.
That way he kept strong his links with his land. Gawirrin said later that during his time around Darwin he learned three ways to look at the world – the Yolngu Aboriginal way, the western way, and God’s way. His importance as a mediator in many complex situations flows from that ability to see and understand things from these different points of view.
Eventually Gawirrin returned to Arnhem Land. He settled at Yirrkala and was given an important place in local life as the eldest son of the clan leader Birrikitji. By then, issues were arising about the future ownership and management of the land which the Yolngu people had thought was theirs alone.
Birrkuda Ringgitj
An area where the male elders of a group of clans display and jointly bury sacred objects belonging to their respective clans is termed a ringgitj area.
Gawirrin Gumana; 2002
Saltwater country
Indigenous views on sea water: rights and culture
| Broadcast date: | 9–13 November 2009 |
| Duration: | 12 minutes |
| Presenter: | Nathan Ramsay |
| Content: | Indigenous views on sea water: rights and culture. TD |
| Talent: | Associate Professor Stephan Schnierer, Southern Cross University, Lismore, NSW Vivien Mason, Chair, Wagonga Local Aboriginal Land Council, Narooma, NSW Djambawa Marawili, traditional owner, Blue Mud Bay, NT Kim Hill, Northern Land Council, NT. |
PRESENTER: Hello I'm Nathan Ramsay and this is Newslines Radio – a weekly program on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander issues bought to you by the Australian Government.
This week we're looking at the strong connections Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have to salt water country.
For example, the Yolgnu owners of Blue Mud Bay in Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory have created paintings which explain their connection with the salt waters alongside their traditional lands.
Djambawa Marawili, one of the traditional owners of Blue Mud Bay, explains how strong their connection to the sea is.
MARAWILI: The waterholes in the land, also the coral, the rocks in the sea, had names and patterns and had songs, and those patterns was telling “you don't need to write it on paper. We have already written the document on our arts”.
Australian Aboriginal Belief, "Baru"; How the Crocodile Came To Be The baru is the saltwater crocodile, the primary symbol of the Gumatj people. The Gumatj people are also known as the saltwater people and the crocodile people. They come from the pristine coastal region in the northeast corner of Australia's Northern Territory. The language the baru speaks is full of fire and wisdom and strength. Long ago, in Dream Time, the sky was close to the land and everything crept or crawled upon it. Yondi the warrior found a magic stick with which to raise the sky. When the sky had been raised Yondi threw away the stick which had become bent under the weight of the sky. To Yondi's surprise, the bent stick returned to him, and so the Boomerang was born! Yondi threw it again and this time it did not return. Instead it struck a long, rock-like object which suddenly came to life! The object began to writhe. It was Croonar the Crocodile who had been sleeping on the banks of a lagoon. Croonar was angry at being disturbed. He opened his mouth many times and it became very large. All the creatures cowered in fear. But Yondi,the warrior, stood tall. To this day Croonar sleeps in the swamps and lagoons among the mangrove trees, with his wide mouth and rock-like form. And Yondi the warrior, and all warriors to follow, have been careful to throw boomerangs with the greatest of skill and respect, so as not to disturb other legendary creatures. | Baru Baru was an extinct genus of Australian mekosuchine crocodilian. It was semi-aquatic, around 4 m (13 ft) in length. Being semi-aquatic its habitat was around fresh pools of water in wet forests, ambushing their prey, much like modern species. The word Baru is Aboriginal and means "crocodile's ancestor". from: www. ozmagic.homestead.com Fossils have been found in Australia at Riversleigh in north-western Queensland and Alcoota Station it the Northern Territory. Species: There are currently three valid species within the genus Baru. The type species B. darrowi is known from the Middle Miocene of the Northern Territory and is the largest reaching size of 4-5 m in length, whilst two older species, B. huberi and B. wickeni are known from the Late Oligocene of Queensland.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baru
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www.flickr.com/photos/rwirrpanda/ Gangan & Dhuruputjpi Families' photostream Image may be subject to copyright.
Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu on his Aboriginal culture, the person he most admires and why he hates travelling.
As I've got older I've learnt more about Balanda (non-indigenous people) and how to trust them. The person I admire most is the strong Yolngu, and the leaders. Also people who respect me and what I need, not what they want. How Balanda are thinking. Not really anyway, just a little bit. *********************************************** | Gupapuyngu Funeral Ceremony in Ramingining, 2008 9 min - 21 juni 2008 - Geüpload door ididjaustralia This is a funeral ceremony for a Gupapuyngu woman. The ceremony was held at Ramingining in north-central Arnhem Land... youtube.com - Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu Blind since birth Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu, or Gudjuk as he is also called, is from the Gumatj nation, his mother from the Galpu nation, both First Nations peoples from North East Arnhemland. Very rare footage of Djarimirri, about the Rainbow Serpent. Second performance ever at Darwin Festival 2006. http://www.wipo.int/tk/en/studies/cultural/minding-culture/studies/carpetscase-main.pdf Djangkawu were the original ancestors of the people of the Dhuwa moiety. The right to use the image is one of the incidents arising out of land ownership.When the Djangkawu handed over this land to the Rirratjingu they did so on the condition that we continued to perform the ceremonies, produce the paintings and the ceremonial objects that commemorate their acts and journeys. Yolngu guard their rights in paintings and the land equally. Aboriginal art allows our relationship with the land to be encoded, and whether the production of artworks is for sale or ceremony, it is an assertion of the rights that are held in the land.
MEDIA RELEASE NTFO Congratulates Tony Collins on AIDC Triumph -6 Mar 2007 ... NT Film Office director Penelope McDonald has congratulated Darwin filmmaker. Tony Collins
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George Burarrwanga Obituary George Rrurrambu Charismatic Aboriginal singer working for reconciliation with a rock-reggae sound Garth Cartwright Thursday 19 July 2007 Bone cancer has killed George Rrurrambu at the age of 50, thus depriving Australia of one of its most charismatic Aboriginal citizens. He gained fame in his homeland - and a degree of international recognition - as a musician and frontman for the Warumpi Band, whose celebration of Aboriginal identity and socially conscious songs represented a breakthrough in what remains a racially conservative nation. Rrurrambu identified himself with the Yolngu people of the Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory. The word yolngu literally means "person" in the local language. The name of the band derives from the honey-ant dreaming site near the Aboriginal settlement of Papunya, 260km west of Alice Springs, where the band originated in the early 1980s. Initially playing to local Aboriginal communities, outback sheep stations and isolated townships, they toured Australia's hottest, dustied and desolate regions, developing a loose, soulful rock-reggae-country sound. The band wrote, recorded and released the first rock song in an Aboriginal language, Jailanguru Pakarnu (Out From Jail), in 1983. A year later, they released their debut album, Big Name No Blankets. Its cheap production values could not hide the band's original vision and lyrical eloquence. Good reviews and a degree of radio play followed. One song, Blackfella/Whitefella, with its lyrical refrain of "Black fella, white fella/ Yellow fella, any fella/ It doesn't matter what your colour/ As long as you are true fella", has become a classic of contemporary Australian music. In 1985 the band toured Australia, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu, and a year later released their Go Bush album, which contained My Island Home, a hymn to Ruruuambau's tribal land that would become an unofficial national anthem to many Aboriginals. With his huge Afro hairstyle and energetic stage performance, Rrurrambu, who also introduced Aboriginal clap sticks into rock'n'roll, began to be compared to Mick Jagger and James Brown. But alongside success he struggled with alcoholism. He later admitted, "I started off singing ... with the alcohol in my hand. I was singing about 'When are you going to stop drinking?' but I was falling all over the place. I realised that I was cheating my own people, saying, 'You stop drinking so I can drink it myself.'" The Warumpi Band folded in the late-1980s, although Rrurrambu continued to perform as a solo artist. In 1995 the band reformed, released the album Too Much Humbug - with a launch party in Alice Springs before a tour of Australia, Germany, France, Poland, Switzerland, Italy and Britain. Although now commanding a degree of international recognition, and viewed as pioneers in Australia (where they had inspired a new generation of Aboriginal musicians and artists), they again split up in 2000. Rrurrambu, now concentrating on performing reggae-flavoured original material (both solo and fronting Birdwave), embarked on a theatrical career with Nerrpu Dhawu Rrurrambuwuy (The Story of George Rrurrambu) and gave workshops and lectures on the traditional Yolngu way of life. For these he travelled internationally, sometimes upsetting western clients when he insisted on sticking with traditional lore. "I was speaking overseas," he recalled, "and this wealthy woman, she wanted to play the didgeridoo. That's all she wanted to do. I explained that she couldn't (only men can), and she got upset. I told her, 'I should be the one getting upset! It's our lore, you have to respect it.'" Rrurrambu was active in promoting reconciliation and cross-cultural understanding between Australians. In later years, he returned largely to traditional life, attending funeral and circumcision ceremonies with his father, a Gumatj clan leader. He was a proponent of combining the technical experience of Europeans with the knowledge of the land of the Aboriginal people in order to build a future that engaged all Australians. He retreated to Elcho island, the place that inspired My Island Home, last February when the cancer diagnosis was terminal. For cultural reasons, upon his death he became referred to as George Burarrwanga. His last album, Nerbu Message, concluded with the song Wake Up Australia, something Rrurrambu had spent his adult life striving for. He is survived by his wife Suzina McDonald, two sons and four daughters. · George Rrurrambu, singer, songwriter, born 1957; died June 10 2007 ************************************************** www.theage.com.au/news/music/yolngu-rocknroll-man/2005/07/25/ Yolngu rock'n'roll man Darwin George |
MEDIA RELEASE NTFO Congratulates Tony Collins on AIDC Triumph
NTFO Congratulates Tony Collins on AIDC Triumph NT Film Office director Penelope McDonald has congratulated Darwin filmmaker Tony Collins, who recently shared top honours at the Australian International Documentary Conference (AIDC) in Adelaide. Mr Collins’ biographical documentary about well known Territory performer George Rrurrambu won $10,000 at the AIDC MeetMarket “pitching” competition, with one of the seven other finalists also walking away with $10,000. The competition was judged last week by Australia’s ABC and UK’s Channel 4 commissioning editors. Ms McDonald said the money would further support the documentary’s journey to the small screen. “Tony presented this documentary about the man who used to front the Warumpi Band, who has been called the black Mick Jagger, to a large and critical audience to resounding applause,” Ms McDonald said. “National and international audiences are interested in stories from the Northern Territory and when these films are shown they promote the Territory around Australia and the world. “The NTFO has contributed more than $16,000 towards Tony’s project including a $1500 Screen Grant to fund his trip to Adelaide and his success is an indication of a great future for this documentary and other Territory developed films.” Ms McDonald said this was the third year the NT Government, through the NTFO, had offered support to the screen industry to travel to the AIDC through the Screen Grants Program. Mr Collins thanked the NTFO for contributing towards his project’s current level of success. “With the help of the NTFO and Australian Film Commission I have been able to develop a first draft script for Rrurrambu and now I need to get it to a second draftand assemble a creative team to further the project,” Mr Collins said. “Not only is the $10,000 a welcome financial reward but sharing top prize at the pitching competition creates exposure for the project and the potential of international pre-sales.” Mr Collins said that while the focus of the documentary would be on George Rrurrambu it was generally about the triumph of Aboriginal culture. “George grew up during the mission era and the Warumpi Band’s music basically became the soundtrack to the Aboriginal Land Rights movement and at the height of their success he became engulfed by the worst excesses of the rock n’ roll lifestyle,” Mr Collins said. Department of Natural Resources, Environment and the Arts Edwin Edlund 8999 4730 Mobile: 0437 915 366 www.nt.gov.au/nreta “But by returning to his traditional lands and traditional culture he was able to turn his life around and become the role model he is currently recognised as being. “The documentary highlights the resilience of Aboriginal people and shows that Aboriginal culture is alive and functioning and this documentary provides the world with an inside glimpse of that culture.” Ends Media Note – For more information contact Penelope McDonald on 8951 1163 or Tony Collins on 0407 729 681 Issued: 8.30am Tuesday, 6 March 2007 The Battle Of Blue Mud Bay :: ABC Radio Regional Production Fund - www.abc.net.au/radio/rpf/.../s1315756.htm The Battle Of Blue Mud BayCommissioned: March 2005 Status: Completed State: Northern Territory Producer/s: Tony Collins George Rrurrambu and his father Matjuwi Burrarrwanga tell the story of their famous ancestor who organised an ambush of Dutch sailors in the 17th Century. The documentary reveals a powerful story of resistance by their forefathers as they repel a landing party from the first Dutch vessel to reach the shores of Arnhem Land. ........................ Tony Collins
First commission: April 2003 Commissions for the Regional Production Fund: After graduating with a BA in Communications in 1980, Tony joined ABC Radio in 1985. He worked in various roles, including the triple j NT reporter and producing and presenting at Local Radio in Darwin until 2002. He has also lecturered in Radio Journalism at UTS. Performing Arts Market 2006 - [ Vertaal deze pagina ] This compelling, multi-lingual story is delivered in monologue, and chronicles the life of a famous Indigenous Australian whose aim is to share the heritage of his clan with the world. George Rrurrambu exposes a hidden history of northern Australia and confronts current social problems in Aboriginal communities while revealing something of the rich cosmology of his people. The show spans a period from pre-contact to pop-culture. A flowing backdrop of multi-media imagery brings the spectacular scenery of Arnhem Land and the stunning ceremonial dance of the Burrarrwanga Gumatj clan to the stage. It tells the story of Rrurrambu from the displacement of his family before his birth in north east Arnhem Land, his education at a mission school at Galiwin’ku, his exodus from Arnhem Land to the Central Desert region in the 1970s to his rise to fame as a rock singer with the well-known Warumpi Band, his struggles with alcohol and his eventual return to traditional culture. NERRPU also reveals a powerful story of resistance by Rrurrambu’s forefathers as they repel a landing party from the first Dutch vessel to reach the shores of Arnhem Land. This story matches documented reports of clashes between Dutch explorers and Aborigines in the Gulf of Carpentaria between 1606 and 1623 and brings to life a hidden part of Australia’s pre-colonial history in graphic detail drawn from Yolngu legend. Rrurrambu is a thoroughly engaging storyteller who demonstrates the mastery of Yolngu dance and song with the haunting authenticity of his tribal upbringing. He brings to the stage a living tradition of dance that beats with the heart and soul of ancient Australia. |
Yolngu rock'n'roll man - Music - Entertainment - theage.com.au 26 Jul 2005 ...
www.theage.com.au/news/music/yolngu...man/.../1122143782740.html During the multilingual show, co-written and directed by Carmel Young, Rrurrambu appears near naked on stage carrying a spear and woomera. He tells the story of his ancestral "grandfather", who heroically repels a landing party from a Dutch ship, slapping away musket balls fired at him and eventually spearing three men with one spear. Aged 48, Rrurrambu shows amazing agility. On stage, he will act out the moment he decided to give up the grog and talk in a humorous way of his years as a rock'n'roll singer, which he says "brought fame but not much fortune". Members of his family will be seen singing and dancing in a multi-media backdrop produced by video artist Tony Collins.
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Why Warriors Lay Down and Die History from a Yolngu Perspective
According to the traditions of the Yolngu people, life started in Arnhem land at the dawn of creation, when the Great Creator Spirit, Wangarr, sent women as creators to an island east of Arnhem Land. |
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These women created the features of the land and the people themselves. They gave the people language and the way to live. This way of living, called Madayin, provided the basis for laws about property, resources, crime, economic, political, moral and religious life. It involved boundaries for clans, conservation and production of plants and goods and trading highways. It taught the people discipline of mind, body and soul and respect for all life and the importance of the greater good of the community and cosmos over individual need and greed.
For centuries the Yolngu traded, not only with other Aboriginal groups, but with people from Macassar, and through them with the Chinese. Sea slugs and oysters were traded for implements made of metal such as knives and axes, fishing line and fish hooks, string and alcohol. Some Aboriginal people visited the lands of the Macassan traders.
The first contact with white people was probably with Portuguese and Dutch sailors in the 17th century. The Yolngu people recorded their visits in their song cycles and their art galleries located in rock shelters.
50 Years of War
According to Trudgen, the Yolngu people became aware of the conflict between Aboriginal people and white people in the south of the continent as trade dried up in the 19th century. They heard of the wars between the Aboriginal people and the white people (whom they called the Balanda). They had no knowledge, however, that Arnhem Land had been divided into eleven pastoral leases by 1885 by the South Australian state government.
In 1885, the first pastoralist tried to take up his lease in east Arnhem Land: J. A. Macartney. The Macassans had always respected the Yolngu people and their law. They never encroached on their land without permission. The fact that Macartney showed no respect for the sovereignty of the Yolngu, ignored the official trading highways, and aggressively fired at the Yolngu people trying to force them off their land, made the Yolngu very angry. According to their law, animals feeding on their land were rightfully theirs. They killed some cattle to feed their people, not knowing the white pastoralists thought they had a legal right to both the land and the animals.
Some pastoralists offered a group of Yolngu people some meat, which was soon discovered to have been poisoned. Battles developed in which many Yolngu and some white people died. In 1893, the white people left the area.
Nine years later, more white people arrived with larger numbers of cattle. One day, while the men were hunting, all the women and children of a village were rounded up by the white stockmen and shot dead. Then they hunted down the men of the village killing them with their rifles. Using horses for travel and superior weapons, and with the help of some Yolngu people whom they had captured, they hunted down the clans of Yolngu people, shooting men, women and children to the point where some clans became extinct. Remaining Yolngu planned many campaigns against these law-breakers and murderers, attacking the stockman and their cattle and horses. In 1908, the white men moved south.
In 1906, Trudgen tells of another blow to the Yolngu way of life. The Macassan traders failed to appear. The South Australian government had revoked the licences of the Macassan to trade the sea slugs. The Yolngu people were concerned that their source of axe heads, flint spears, fish hooks and fishing line had disappeared.
Other problems emerged, such as boat crews which molested the Yolngu women, lawless crocodile and buffalo shooters, and new diseases. In 1917, malaria spread through Arnhem Land.
In 1916, the first missionary arrived in the area, the Rev. James Watson. Trudgen says that the Yolngu found that he treated the people fairly as no other white person had ever done, and he traded fairly. They found it most difficult to understand how he could argue with other white people, who were armed, and would win. They wondered about his power and authority and wondered if it was because he knew about the Great Creator. Most of the Yolngu clans decided to work with the missionaries to try to defeat the other white people.
In 1927 or 1928, another group of white people arrived. They were welcomed into a village and allowed to sleep there. But in the morning, they turned upon their hosts, killing them in cold blood.
Other pressures came from Japanese hunting the sea slugs. Some Yolngu were employed by them, but then the Japanese would demand the wives and daughters of the Yolngu. The Yolngu decided to fight back and killed a group of Japanese. A policeman from Darwin came to arrest the Yolngu. He captured a wife of one of the Yolngu and handcuffed her to himself over night. The Yolngu retaliated and killed the policeman. The result was trials in which several Yolngu were sentenced to 20 years jail with hard labour and one to death.
The Yolngu were emotionally and physically exhausted after these years of war. Their trading patterns were broken and their homeland sovereignty shattered. Dependence on the mission stations grew as the Yolngu needed to trade in order to survive. However, it was not until the 1950s that serious attempts were made by white people to learn their language.
from: Christian Research Association - Why Warriors Lie Down and Die www.cra.org.au/pages/00000038.cgi -
