New Art from Yirrkala: Painting The Waters of Gangan
In Sydney, Annandale Galleries is hosting Young Guns: barks and ceremonial poles by emerging artists from Yirrkala, June 8 - July 15, 2006. This show features the work of five young artists from the outstations around Yirrkala. The paintings and poles can be seen now on Annandale's website, and they look to be ambitious expansions of the recent traditions of abstraction and "invisibility" from Yirrkala. Among the poles, Gunybi Ganambarr's three-dimensional relief work is breaking new ground in the larrakitj tradition.
At the Biennale of Sydney, Zones of Contact, new work by Djambawa Marawili includes barks and ceremonial poles. These works build on the exciting paintings Annandale showed a year ago in the Source of Fire exhibition. (Works from the Biennale will be available through Annandale as well.) And if Will Stubbs and Bill Gregory can pull it off, I understand that they are planning to mount an exhibition of the poles, complete with beach sand from Yirrkala, on the piers (Pier 2/3 Hickson Road, Walsh Bay). If you've ever seen the Gan'yu Gallery in the Botanic Gardens in Darwin, or elsewhere, you know that Will has a talent for dramatic outdoor presentation of Yolngu art. Please send pictures if you go.
On June 15 a new exhibition of works from Yirrkala opens at Raft Artspace in Darwin, and runs through July 7. It is entitled Gangan: The Discipline of Design - One Law, Three Hands, Watjurr Gumana, Yamutjin Wunungmurra, Djirrirra Wunungmurra. The advance publicity states: "This is an exhibition of works by related members of the Dhalwangu clan who are painting the same country through the template of sacred clan design using the same medium & the same palette of four colours."
Dhalwangu artists from Yirrkala have been painting the stories of Gangan for some time now in a radical new way, and I am eager to see how this exhibition shapes up. I've been following the development of paintings of Gangan for a couple of years now. My interest was piqued when I realized that several artists were using variations on the same vocabulary to construct new, abstract works. I love the complexity of Yolngu painting, but the density of symbols and meaning is endlessly daunting. And so I've been using the works of these Dhalwangu clan artists as a way of focusing my attention on both the "what" and the "how" of a slice of work from Yirrkala and as a means of educating myself. As an introduction here, I want to focus this post on some earlier works (reproduced below by kind permission of Will Stubbs at Buku-Larrnggay Mulka) that use this common visual vocabulary and palette to depict the waters of Gangan and Dhalwangu Law.
Gangan Outstation, which lies northwest of Blue Mud Bay in eastern Arnhem Land, is the homeland of the Dhalwangu people and the most sacred site of the Yolngu Yirritja moiety. Barama, the great creator Ancestor and lawgiver of the Yirritja, came upriver from Blue Mud Bay, emerging at a freshwater site known as Gulutji. It was at this site that he called together a council of Dhalwangu elders and sent off two, Lany'tjung and Galparimun, to give the law to all Yirritja people. This story is the Yirritja equivalent to the great, and better known, Dhuwa creation myth of the Djang'kawu Sisters, which begins on the beach at Yalangbara, just to the south of Yirrkala.
The area between Gangan and Blue Mud Bay is a vast flood plain. During the Wet, rainwater falling upstream flows southeast towards the Bay, eventually causing the river to spill its banks. At the height of the Wet, a plume of fresh water actually pushes out into the Bay so far that men in their canoes can dip their hands into the open water and drink from it. Conversely, as the land dries out after the monsoons stop, salt water from the Bay extends farther and farther upstream, and the waters of the swampland become increasingly brackish until the weather turns and the cycle starts over again.
The mixing of freshwater and saltwater, the literal ebb and flow of opposites, the balancing of contrasting forces, serves as a metaphor that captures the vital essence of Yolngu thought. This is perhaps most clearly seen in the division of everything in the natural world into the Dhuwa and Yirritja moieties, but it is a structure that pervades Yolngu philosophy and Yolngu art at every level. The correspondence of opposites finding expression in so many different ways, each echoing another over and over again, is a source of the great resonance in the Yolngu worldview and the seemingly endless complexity of meaning in their visual art and ceremonial practice.
In recent years a number of Dhalwangu artists have begun painting the stories associated with Gangan in the new, highly abstract style that has come to characterize a certain strain of Yolngu painting. Stripped of the usual representative iconography of the creatures associated with these stories (Gany'tjurr the reef heron, Baypinga the saratoga, Baraltja the serpent), the works employ instead geometric clan designs to present the essential law of the Yirritja. This is a revolutionary change in Yolngu painting, as purely geometric designs were formerly limited to use in ceremony and generally had a restricted audience. I confess to ignorance in truly understanding the implications of this change but I must assume that in some way these designs are public and differ from sacred paintings in an essential manner.
The painting below is by Waturr Gumana, son of the Dhalwangu lawman Gawirrin, the most senior man at Gangan and (I believe) the only surviving painter who participated in the creation of the Yirrkala Church Panels in 1962-63. I produce it as an exemplar of new work from Gangan in part because of its complexity and in part because when, about two years ago, I asked Will Stubbs to look into the near future of Yolngu painting, this is the painting that he chose as his example. Much of what I have to say is based on Will's documentation; I have made some additional inferences about certain elements of the design from annotations in the book Saltwater: Yirrkala bark paintings of sea country (Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Centre, 1999). As the disclaimer always says, the mistakes are mine, and I await corrections.
homepage.mac.com/will_owen/iblog/C1403073609/E20060514122418/
 Waturr Gumana, Dhalwangu Law, 165x63 cm, 2004 ^
First section: The uppermost of these three sections is itself divided into four horizontal parts, two of which are reproduced in the detail immediately above. The topmost of these contains a diamond pattern, with each row of diamonds separated from the next by a strong, straight line. |
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This represents Buyku, or "fishtrap," land that is shared by all the people who live along the river. The design is drawn from that of the fishtrap, made from strong, wooden stakes (the straight lines) and latticed strips of paperbark. The great hunter of Yirritja lore, Gany'tjurr (the reef heron) stalks Baypinga (the saratoga) from the waters of Gangan much as the Yirritja people take fish from the river with their traps.
The diamonds of the next part of the painting are the classic Dhalwangu clan design. Each of the Yolngu clans has a characteristic clan design used in its sacred paintings. In general, Yirritja designs are formed of diamonds and elongated ovals, while Dhuwa designs are more rectilinear.
This classic representation of the Dhalwangu marks Gulutji, the freshwater area near Gangan where Barama emerged. It thus serves to identify the Dhalwangu with the origin of Yirritja law. To either side of this diamond pattern are rows of black, wavy lines. Similar wavy lines run vertically from this point in the painting down to the bottom edge of the first major section. In many paintings where Barama is figuratively depicted, these wavy lines stream down from his arms. They represent ngurrutj, the weed that clings to him as he rises from the waterhole at Gangan.
The third and fourth parts (above) are composed of a design that combines diamonds and ovals. The lower left hand section shown in this detail is slightly different in that the design ends on one side not with a closed diamond but with an open half-oval. I have to admit I am puzzled by this slight variation, and its significance is not clear to me. The rest of the patterns shown here, though, are often associated with Baraltja, the sacred flood plain that empties into Blue Mud Bay.
Baraltja is the home of Burrut'tji, the lightning snake (also known as Mundukul). When the rains of the wet season begin to fall they drain toward the sea, pushing nutrients ahead of them on which Baraltja feeds, and clearing out the brackish water that has built up during the Dry. When Baraltja senses this change in the water, he rises up on his tail and spits lightning into the sky, bringing on the great monsoonal storms. The freshwaters then push out and mix with the salt of the bay.
Second section:
The pattern changes radically in this section, to the squared off designs typical of Dhuwa clans, and indeed the area where the floodplain of Baraltja flows out into the Bay is Dhuwa Djarrwark country. The Djarrwark clan is in the important yothu yindi (mother-child) relation to the Dhalwangu. The diagonal cross-hatch patterns within the overall design, though, indicate Yirritja presence, or as Waturr says, "we can easily mix it." As the mixing of salt and fresh water begins, it is mirrored here in a mixture of styles associated with both Dhuwa and Yirritja clans.
On the right hand side of this section, the Dhalwangu diamonds appear again. In this location they are associated with the design for Yirritja honey; the diamonds here represent the latticework of the bee's honeycomb. The place referenced is known as Dhulanmirriwuy, which belongs to the Manatja "arm" of the Dhalwangu. The sweetness of the honey is itself a metaphor for the sweetness of freshwater springs that often bubble up from the sand on saltwater beaches. This in turn reminds us of the freshwater plume that the wet season carries out into the salty waters of the bay.
In the center of the painting now a series of horizontal ellipses refer to motu, which is a build-up of mangrove leaves in the creek. Below, another set of irregular red and yellow ochre designs, aligned vertically with the flow of the freshwater out of the creek, resembles the Mardarrpa clan design for mangrove leaves. The Mardarrpa clan stands in relation to the Dhalwangu of mari-gutharra (mother's mother/daughter's child), the most significant and vital of relationships between Yolngu clans. Their lands lie east of the creek but within the flood plain; when the wet season rains come the river overflows its boundaries and inundates these Mardarrpa plains.
The horizontal bands that stretch across the painting (and frame the honeycomb design above and below) also reference sandbars which occur at the mouth of the mangrove creek of Baraltja. This sandbar, known as balin or barala, is another manifestation of Burrut'tji, the lightning snake.
Third section:
The zigzag design on this final section of the painting represents Garraparra, the Dhlanwangu saltwater blown into waves. Farther out these waters are known as Mungurru, which is Yirritja saltwater belonging to all clans. I don't know if the symmetry is intentional, but the design at the very top of the painting represents land which belongs to all the clans. It is here that the freshwater ends its journey. It mingles with the salt, evaporates, and gathers into the wet season storm clouds that will eventually shower the land again with life-sustaining rains. The cycle is completed through the unification and transformation of opposites.
Other representations:
The forthcoming exhibition of Dhalwangu painters at Raft aims to present the various ways in which these artists present and interpret the stories associated with the waters of Gangan. For illustration, I am including two other works, larrakitj or funeral poles, painted by Nawuprapu Wunungmurra (top) and his sister Djirrirra (bottom), who are children of Yanggarriny. For easier comparison of the two, I've rotated the images by 90 degrees.
Nawurapu Wunungmurra, Dhalwangu Gapa, 152x11 cm, 2003
Djirrirra Wunungmuura, Dhalwangu Larrakitj, 173x15 cm, 2005
The pole by Nawurapu uses the design of motu, the mangrove leaves; the diamond pattern in the center representing fresh water mixing with salt (the oval shapes), called gapuwiyak; and the zigzag of the salt water of the bay (garraparra). The more complex designs of Djirrirra's pole recombine all of the elements found in Waturr's bark painting, with slight variations and accommodations made to the three-dimensional structure of the larrakitj.
The journey of the freshwater down the creek from Gulutji to the sea, from fresh to salt, from liquid evaporating into clouds that will in return send fresh water back to the country, is a metaphor for the journey of the soul or spirit of man. The confluence of salt and fresh, the traversing of Yirritja and Dhuwa country with its connotations here of the yothu yindi relationship, all are central to Yolngu philosophy. When I explore these paintings, I am already reminded of the lesson Deborah Bird Rose described in Dingo Makes Us Human (Cambridge, 2000) learned from the Yarralin on the western coast of the Top End. Differences in life are a given. It is the Dreaming that forges the connections between them.
Posted: Tue - June 6, 2006 at 12:24 PM
Traditional Aboriginal owners had the right to exclude fishermen and others from tidal waters within
Blue Mud Bay in north-east Arnhem Land, the High Court of Australia held today.
* The listed native title holders are Gawirrin Gumana, Djamawa Marawili, Marrirra Marawili, Nuwandjali Marawili,
Daymambi Munuggurr, Manman Wirrpanda and Dhukal Wirrpanda, on behalf of the Yarrwidi Gumatj, Manggalili,
Gumana Dhalwangu, Wunungmurra (Gurrumuru) Dhalwangu, Dhupuditj Dhalwangu, Munyuku, Yithuwa Madarrpa, Gupa
Djapu, Dhudi Djapu, Marrakula1, Marrakula2, and Nurrurawu Dhappuyngu (Dhurili/Durila) groups.
'Garraparra is sacred country for the Dhalwangu clan. It is coastal peninsula known from maps of Blue Mud Bay as Grindall Point. It is the major mortuary site for the Dhalwangu "mother figure" Mamaparra who created the original Yingapungapu (mortuary sand sculpture). Yawirrin who is the current leader of the clan has his grandfather's and more distant relatives buried at this site. This carving was produced for the National Museum's inaugural exhibition in the new Aboriginal Gallery.' gallery.discoverymedia.com.au/ahc/award/artist/Wo_5180.htm
Transcript;Blue Mud Bay;Broadcast: 14/10/2005;Reporter: Murray McLaughlan
This is Blue Mud Bay in East Arnhem Land, a couple of hundred kilometres south of Yirrkala. It's Yolgnu country with a bloody history last century of contact between Yolgnu and European pastoralists and Yolgnu and Japanese
Fishermen. But the Yolgnu had a much longer and more peaceable history of contact with other outsiders. For many centuries before European settlement Macassan traders from what is now Indonesian did regular business with the Yolgnu.
RON LEVY:
Aboriginal people used to work on the boats trade material, some of them even went to Macassa in Indonesia and so it's important because it shows there was a trading relationship and an assertion of rights by Aboriginal people, relationship going on prior to European contact.
MURRAY MCLAUGHLIN:
The settlement of Yilpara overlooking Blue Mud Bay is permanent home to about 70 Yolgnu people. This was one of the first settlements established under the homeland centre movement which gathered pace in the early 1970s.
The Federal Court flew into Yilpara on Tuesday. A bough shelter served as a courtroom, under a spreading tamarind tree - the tree itself evidence of the old Macassan relationship. Marker flags flew symbolically off the beach. The colours and the cloth also a legacy of the Macassan contact.
The Yolgnu people who live at Yilpara and nearby settlements have a deeply spiritual relationship with the waters of Blue Mud Bay which has engendered a sense of eternal ownership.
DJAMBAWA MARRAWILI:
We name all those seas we sing those seas we dance and it's really important we patrol those area we go through those area every corner every bay every point we know those names.
GAWIRRIN GUMANA:
We've got a story in there from our people and not only our people but their father and their father and their father and that’s why we try to look at sea right.
MURRAY MCLAUGHLIN:
Federal Court Judge John Mansfield went to Yilpara to deliver the final determinations of a claim by traditional Aboriginal owners or exclusive ownership of the waters of Blue Mud Bay. The claim was heard over more than two weeks late last year by another Judge, Justice Bradley Selway.
But Justice Selway died in April before the final determinations could be settled - one of five serving Federal Court Judges to die this year.
The Aboriginal owners already have freehold title over the seabed out to the low water mark, and they were specially wanting title to the seawaters above - that is, the waters between the high and low tides.
JOHN DALEY:
The reason they want control is that they want to maintain the ecosystem they want to develop it and actually use natural resource for sustainable income in their communities. But not only that you know it's important that we protect our sights out in the sea and that and like.
MURRAY MCLAUGHLIN:
Justice Selway found that native title existed in the inter tidal waters off Blue Mud Bay, but as much as he said he wanted to, he couldn't give exclusive rights to the Aboriginal owners. His court felt bound by a higher authority which says there's a public right to fish and navigate inter tidal waters, even though there's freehold title to the seabed below. In spite of that, the Northern Land Council welcomed the recognition of non-exclusive Native Title.
RON LEVY:
It’s the second occasion in the NT the first being Croker Island case where Native Titles been found to exist non-exclusive native title to the seas of Blue Mud Bay.
MURRAY MCLAUGHLIN:
And the fishing industry was relieved that the native title recognised by the Federal Court at Blue Mud Bay was not exclusive.
IAN SMITH:
Our industry as you know fishes in the inter tidal zone and also in the tidal reaches of rivers, that’s the crab fishery that one and anything which denied access in other words gave exclusive right to traditional owners would devastate our industry.
MURRAY MCLAUGHLIN:
Parties to the Blue Mud Bay case say relations among them have remained cordial throughout. The Territory Seafood Council says it's relaxed at the prospect of the case going to appeal.
IAN SMITH:
The bottom line is Aboriginal people are key stakeholders in the waters that we utilise as a commercial industry and also the recreational industry utilises the tourism industry as well and due recognition of their Native Title rights, I think is a very important thing.
MURRAY MCLAUGHLIN:
Straight after the Federal Court's determinations were handed down on Tuesday, the traditional owners met and decided to instruct the NLC to appeal the case.
It's certain to go all the way to the High Court.
WALI WUNUNGMURRA:
We depend on the sea for food source and many other things
That’s why it is important that we would like to become owners of the sea and also partakers of the sea as well both from the aboriginal perspective I think it is important that we hold on to ties with the sea because we depend on the sea very much so.
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This essay about the museum’s Saltwater Collection by Professor ...- [ Vertaal deze pagina ]Bestandsformaat: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - HTML-versie either Dhuwa or Yirritja, land is either. Dhuwa or Yirritja, and water itself is similarly divided. Gawirrin Gumana’s painting Djarrwark ga Dhalwangu ... www.anmm.gov.au/webdata/ resources/files/Signals_60_pp4-7 _Saltwater- This essay about the museum’s Saltwater Collection by Professor Howard Morphy fi rst appeared in art&australia Vol 38 No 3 2001 when the paintings were touring Australia.1 It is reproduced with the kind permission of Professor Morphy and art&australia. All 80 artworks will be displayed until 27 October 2002. THE YOLNGU people, for the most |
mcu.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/11/1-2/67
Journal of Material Culture, Vol. 11, No. 1-2, 67-85 (2006) Centre for Cross Cultural Research, Australian National University Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research, Australian National University 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. http://wapedia.mobi/en/Yolngu Yolŋu life is divided into two moieties: Dhuwa and Yirritja. Each of these is represented by people of a number of different groups, each of which have their own lands, languages, totems and philosophies.
A Yirritja person must always marry a Dhuwa person and vice versa. If a man or woman is Dhuwa, their mother will be Yirritja. |
- Art, law, and the Yolngu people of East Arnhem Land - The Law Report - 18-August-2009 -
Last year the High Court handed down the Blue Mud Bay decision, which gave exclusive fishing rights in the inter-tidal zone to Northern Territory Indigenous people. This was the latest in a long line of political and legal battles where the Yolngu have used their art, which spells out their law, to articulate their connection to the land and to the sea.
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/lawreport/stories/2009/2658195.htm
Transcript
This transcript was typed from a recording of the program. The ABC cannot guarantee its complete accuracy because of the possibility of mishearing and occasional difficulty in identifying speakers.
Damien Carrick: Today we travel to East Arnhem Land and look at the intimate connection between art and law for the Yolngu people. Since the 1930s they've used their art in their legal and their political battles over both land and sea, mostly recently in last year's Blue Mud Bay decision of the High Court
This Blue Mud Bay decision, or Saltwater decision, gave the Yolngu exclusive fishing rights over the inter-tidal zone adjacent to their land. In other words the difference between the high and the low water mark. Following the decision, there was a great deal of concern and confusion over its implications, both commercial and leisure fishermen were very apprehensive.
But the traditional owners have not unilaterally asserted their new rights. Instead, they announced a 12-month moratorium on any changes and they're now currently negotiating with all the stakeholders.
Djambawa Marawili is one of the traditional owners of part of Blue Mud Bay, and he's also a member of the negotiating team.
Djambawa Marawili: One of the things that I would like to do to is create jobs for our people, for our young generation who are coming behind us, and making the pathway for them so they can have a good relationship with those fisheries.
Damien Carrick: You want jobs in the fishing industry?
Djambawa Marawili: Yes, jobs in the fishing industry, and create jobs right where the people want it, where I live.
Damien Carrick: On your land.
Djambawa Marawili: Where we live, where on behalf of those other clan groups. I think this is really a good way of looking after the land, looking after those areas, so the Balanda, the fisheries and the other foreigners, they will know where the sacred sites are, where the area that they can go and fish, and that way we are all respecting the main themes of what the land himself was telling to our ancestors before, to our grandfather and to us now, to our fathers, to us. We're true people who are living in this country, so that we will respect the country and respect the area where we call the sacred site and we respect that country, and that gave us a responsibility for both worlds, for community, Yolngu and [Madarrpa ?]. Thank you.
Damien Carrick: Thank you.
Djambawa Marawili. I spoke to him under a tree, close to his tent at the Garma Festival. Like many Yolngu, Djambawa Marawili is an accomplished artist, a strategic thinker, a good communicator and deeply connected to his land and to his culture.
Like many of his people he was distressed, when back in 1996 at a sacred site on the shores of Blue Mud Bay, barramundi fishermen desecrated a crocodile nest. This was the catalyst for the Blue Mud Bay case. In support of the litigation, Djambawa and 46 fellow Yolngu artists created a collection of works known as the Saltwater Art Exhibition. It toured the country. Its goal was to communicate to the mainstream the connection of the local people to the water. And some of this art was presented as evidence in the Blue Mud Bay court case.
Djambawa Marawili: I'm an artist. When we were on the Blue Mud Bay case and my father, like Wakuthi Marawili, mentioned that you don't need to write it on paper. We have already written the document on our arts. Those arts was related to the land. Those patterns and designs were related to the land. 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 those lawyers and the judges to make it into proof.
Damien Carrick: Yolngu art is famous for its beautiful patterns and designs, so often you'll have at the front a figure, like an animal or person or something else, but you'll often have these designs and these patterns which are often lines, maybe cross-hatching or lines, and they all have meanings.
Djambawa Marawili: Yes. The patterns. To me it's like reading in the Bible or reading in the book, or reading in the document. When I see all those patterns from different clans it tells me. We hear sometimes it shows us we do have connections to another clan or another tribes or to another neighbour. It's telling us, I know this pattern, those patterns almost create this country. It seems to me it's written likeI'm reading on a book.
Damien Carrick: So they're like title deeds.
Djambawa Marawili: Yes, title deeds, yes.
Damien Carrick: They show firm connection to the land.
Djambawa Marawili: It is a firm connection to the land. To me, when we talk about listing the country, or had listing the country today or to do mining, it is a new thing that for Yolngu people to understand all those languages, but for us, we did already lease the country, through the patterns and through the art, and by through the songs.
Damien Carrick: Djambawa Marawili. He's part of a long lineage of artists and law men whose art works document the land and the relationships of the people to it. They've been doing it for thousands of years. And since the 1930s, this art has played a key role in modern court cases. It's been used as evidence in legal battles.
And art is also used as a way of communicating connection to land, to white politicians and the wider Australian public. About 20 kilometres away from the Garma festival site, past the airport and the bauxite mine, is the coastal town of Yirrkala. The Yirrkala Arts Centre exhibits and sells contemporary Indigenous art. But it also houses a significant historical collection of Yolngu art. Art which has helped transform our legal landscape.
One-time criminal lawyer Will Stubbs is the coordinator of the Yirrkala Arts Centre. We sat down together in from of two works which have enormous spiritual, artistic, political and legal power.
They are the Yirrkala Church panels. The two panels are both about a metre and a half wide and about four metres high. And each panel is made up of eight sections, each one painted by a different artist. These panels unleashed a series of political and legal events which ultimately led to the Mabo decision and also to last year's Blue Mud Bay or Saltwater decision.
Will Stubbs, we're in a small room inside the arts centre, and there are some absolutely beautiful, beautiful panels. You can see sea creatures, you can see people, you can see animals, all sorts of beautiful things. Can you briefly describe and explain some of what we're looking at?
Will Stubbs: In answer to your question, No. I can't describe it.
Damien Carrick: Why not?
Will Stubbs: Well it's indescribable. I know because I pay the insurance premiums. It's not able to be photographed so the only way to see it is to come here. It's probably well described as destination art. You're focusing on the figurative imagery, but what's important is actually the patterns behind them. These patterns, as with all Yolngu art, is what holds the law, so it's a language. There are probably 30 or 40 different patterns underlying that figurative imagery there.
Damien Carrick: And it's made by a number of different artists. I can see different styles in the different parts of the two panels.
Will Stubbs: So there are eight different clans in each moiety, which is half of the world, and the kinship structure of the Yolngu is incredibly complex. It governs behaviour, it governs identity, it governs ownership of land.
Damien Carrick: And so these panels really spell out the relationship, the traditional law of this land, and the relationships of the people to the land.
Will Stubbs: So I liken this to an illuminated manuscript, in the sense that these are just the chapter headings, so these are the ornate letters they have at the start of a chapter, or perhaps like Play School, you can go within any one of these windows and there are hundreds more designs and songs and law. These title deeds if you like, to land, this knowledge of what is at the core of your country, is the symbol, the talisman of ownership for each clan. They're known as the Yirrkala Church panels, and they were made over a period of months between 1962 and 1963. They were made by the elders of the 16 clans of north-east Arnhem Land, with the assistance of an excellent non-Indigenous missionary called the Reverend Edgar Wells, in response to activity suggestive that mining was proposed and rumours that there was some sort of deal-making going on at a higher level of the mission hierarchy, the Menzies government and a Swiss mining consortium. And at this stage there was insecurity abounding and not much information. The strategy was to capitalise this small mission village of Yirrkala so to build things that would make it difficult for them to be moved.
Damien Carrick: Tell me about these panels, where were they designed to be placed?
Will Stubbs: They were made to go in the church, which was part of the capitalisation of Yirrakala. They were building a new church which is across the road here, and they relate to the law of north-east Arnhem Land as perceived by Yolngu, and so as a gift to the church. But before the church could be opened with the panels in place, the Menzies government announced a massive incursion into the Arnhem Land Reserve for the creation of a bauxite mine, without any reference to the landowners. And that led to great concern amongst the mission staff.
Where we're sitting now was, under the initial plan, to be mined itself, so the whole of Yirrkala was to be shifted down to Culloden Bay, which is 150k south of here, and this led to something akin to a fake email scandal in which the Reverend CF Gribble of the Methodist Missionary, said, 'Oh no, I've had a meeting with the Aborigines and they're quite fine with the idea.' Wells, who was present at the meeting, and the meeting took place under the mission house up here on the hill, and Wells fed this information to Gordon Bryant and Kim Beazley in the Senate, or in the Parliament. And so with the assistance of Wells, they did get those two parliamentarians up here, and Wells recounts in his book that it was while sitting in front of these panels at 6.30 one morning, in a context not unlike yourself arriving early for the Garma festival, sitting in front of the panels early in the morning, that Kim Beazley Senior had a moment of what he described as divine inspiration, that the Yolngu should make a petition. And that petition was sent off to parliament. It was received and that led to the Senate Select Committee into the grievances of the Yirrkala Aborigines which made a series of recommendations which were all promptly ignored, and the sequence of events continued on and is now well known, with what became the modern land rights movement.
Damien Carrick: There is a bauxite mine not too far away from this site, so Kim Beazley saw this, he had his epiphany; that inspired the petition, it went to parliament, but ultimately the mine was built.
Will Stubbs: Yes. I should stress that it's Kim Beazley Senior we're talking about. But yes, I'm not entirely up to date on the exact negotiations of how Yirrkala itself was spared, but the mine was imposed on the Yolngu. You've got to remember that these people were regarded as fauna under the Australian Constitution at the time that these were made, so the concept of consulting the Aborigines, let alone listening to them, just wasn't going to be a reality.
Damien Carrick: You're listening to the Law Report on ABC Radio National. Today we're looking at the intimate connection between art and law for the Yolngu people of East Arnhem Land.
When the petition was rejected and the political doors closed, the Yolngu turned to the courts.
In the now famous Milirrpum and Nabalco case, the Yolngu took their sacred objects to show Justice Blackburn.
Will Stubbs: So they went to the Northern Territory Supreme Court in front of Justice Blackburn, and they argued in a sweaty Darwin courtroom for months, and in closed session, including showing what's beyond these paintings, but what exists within the secret realm, sacred objects that are conclusive of that title. And they were rewarded by— well Justice Blackburn said 'If ever there was a government by law rather than a government by man, then this is it. But basically there's no way we're going to stop a major resource development program, so I think the sophistry was oh, but they don't own the land, the land owns them.
Well if you wander around and spend any time with the Yolngu, I mean everything is about I own this land, my mother owns that land, my mother's mother owns this land. This is how people define themselves. The concept that they also grow out of the land or are owned by the land is just an enhanced level of ownership, not a reduced one. But basically people were clutching at straws to find a way to bat these people down who were so sincere, and conclusive in their ownership.
Damien Carrick: At some point the Europeans, or the Anglo Australian system recognised Yolngu ownership of the land. When did they recognise ownership of the land?
Will Stubbs: OK. So one of the outcomes that again relate to these panels, is that the Counsel for the Crown in Milirrpum and Nabalco, in that sweaty court room, went on to become Malcom Fraser's Attorney-General, which may or may not be coincidental. But essentially I've met some of these people who made these panels, and any contact with them is life-changing. I'm here because I've met some of the people who worked on these panels, and my theory is that whoever— and I saw it happen in the Saltwater case— all the counsel who came here were converted basically to the understanding of what it is to be Australian and what the strength of this law and the connection to country is all about. And whatever their job was to oppose or to defend, essentially there was no doubt in anyone's mind, including the judge's, that these people have the moral high ground; these are honest, forthright, sincere, virtuous people who are simply doing what their law requires them to do in defending their country. There's no cynicism or opportunism involved, it's simply a legal system.
Damien Carrick: That legal system was finally acknowledged by the Australian High Court in the historic Mabo decision of 1992. The decision recognised Native Title, if claimants could establish an ongoing connection to the land.
Now the Yolngu weren't affected by the Mabo decision because they already had ownership of their land as a result of the land rights legislation of the 1970s. But they still wanted to secure exclusive rights over the tidal waters overlying Aboriginal land. Last year after a long legal battle the High Court ruled in their favour.
As in previous legal and political struggles, the Yolngu communicated their law through the visual arts, through songs and through ceremonies. This time around the judges and the lawyers and the public were more receptive.
Will Stubbs: Shooting forward in terms of court cases, we come to Gawirrin, Gumana and others versus the Northern Territory government, which is the most recent incarnation of the use by north-east Arnhem Landers at least, of art, design, law, songs, because it's a whole, in establishing their title to land, or in this case land that exists under the sea between the inter-tidal zones, which is historically very difficult to establish ownership over, and the Anglo Australian system I might be correct in suggesting, that hasn't been done since the Magna Carta. The litigants themselves, their grandparents, their great-great-grandparents long deceased, they have a holy bond with those people and their job whilst here is to literally look after the land, and that isn't often unpicked to explain. They're looking after the souls of people whose existence and endless cycling through existence will be cut short by a prawn trawler dragging its net through that reef and destroying the sanctuary of those souls and their stepping stones through existence.
The issue is that there are places that Yolngu people can't go on their own land because of their own law, and for someone to be able to go there simply because they don't know the law, and to do so with impunity, is illogical, and it's really that logic that offends.
Oh, you know, I'm going to go and camp on the MCG. Oh, you can't do that we're playing the Boxing Day Test. Oh no, well I didn't know. Oh, that's OK, just remember to clear up after your barbie and we'll play around you. It's an offence. And I'm talking about something slightly less sacred than what the Yolngu are talking about, although I'm not criticising the sacredness of the Boxing Day Test.
Damien Carrick: So some years ago the Yolngu people brought an action which is known as the Blue Mud Bay case, to try and establish their control over this inter-tidal zone. And again, they wanted to communicate to the white people using art. What art did they create?
Will Stubbs: Actually through this art centre, Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Centre, in tandem with the court case run by the Northern Land Council but independently, a body of paintings were created, 80 bark paintings called The Saltwater Collection, which is now housed in the Australian National Maritime Museum.
Damien Carrick: In Sydney?
Will Stubbs: In Sydney, yes, in Darling Harbour. So these works toured the country and there was a catalogue created, which has sold 10,000 copies, and it informed the court case. It was sort of in the wings, and as I understand from talking to the participants, very much in the ether around this court case.
Damien Carrick: Were they presented as evidence?
Will Stubbs: I think technically not. But I'm not entirely sure about that. If they weren't then certainly the designs and the law and the songs around them were, and I'm positive that, I know for a fact that all of the participants in the case were well aware that this collection existed, and the collection is just one manifestation of the law. The designs are ageless, the designs are etched within every molecule of saltwater around this coast and the variant designs indicate where the character of the saltwater changes. In our minds, the sea is the sea, and it has one identity. We might call one area of it a bay and another area of it a gulf, but conceptually we see it as a continuum; the sea that laps on our shore is the same sea that washes up on Brighton Beach in England. But that's not the case from the Yolngu perspective because the water itself has a different identity in each of its manifestations concurrent with its sacred identity. It has a different pattern within it and this is how the Yolngu understand the sea.
Damien Carrick: This Blue Mud Bay case, it wound its way through the courts. I think it went to the Federal Court, the Full Federal Court, and ultimately the High Court.
Will Stubbs: Yes, and I think it's a great credit to our democracy and to our legal system that the outcome was totally different to that Milirrpum and Nabalco. By this stage the maturation process was still not complete within Australia. To understand the reality of where the colonists arrived, and what it is that surrounds them, is much advanced, and unbelievably, for some of us, our High Court was able to recognise the justice of the situation, although it was a difficult fit with British law, to understand that there is a law, and it's not Yolngu law that says because there's a pre-existing law it should be recognised, it's British law that says that, and that's a lawful way to be. They're not saying that they should override everyone else's interests, they just want some acknowledgement that they exist, that they're a people, that they have a law, and indicative of that is that there's a moratorium in place where there's been no exclusion of anyone from these areas, and the matter is to be negotiated and it's not about excluding, it's about creating economic development, and about recognising those sacred areas and protecting them.
Damien Carrick: Will Stubbs, Coordinator of the Yirrkala Arts Centre.
The Northern Land Council, who ran the Blue Mud Bay case, inform that some of the works of art in the exhibition were indeed admitted as evidence in the court case.
Djambawa Marawili, tell me about the paintings that you made for the Blue Mud Bay case.
Djambawa Marawili: Well I had six, seven clan was involved. Yirrkala did their own patterns about the sea on those areas. We did, the Yirrkala people did the same thing too. We did the same thing like what they did for their land, we did paint to our own land like for example, for Bunyala and for nearby, we painted crocodiles, which is the story about crocodiles, because crocodiles create the place near Bunyala but Bunyala there were some of these patterns and stories, and we paint another way of describing it, so by the fish, canoe, and a person hunting into the sea, paddling into the sea, catching all those fish, and also it's the story about Bunyala too, it's about flat-tail stingray in that area. So those particular paintings was really connected on to to those particular country, particular place, where like Bunyala and nearby in the Blue Mud Bay area, they did the same there too, the other clan, with the other tribes. And that's telling us they knew the story, it was given from them from their ancestors to their grandfathers to their father, and that was patterns was in their hands today, and we have them wanted to ask us, you know., how did you lose— lost your country? Why can't you written in the book you know, why don't you fill this form? We don't do that, we did already it's listed on our patterns and designs and the stories.
Damien Carrick: You'd been making these paintings, you'd been singing these songs, you've been having the ceremonies for thousands of years.
Djambawa Marawili: For a thousand years ago.
Damien Carrick: How were these used in the court case?
Djambawa Marawili: Well you know, some lawyers didn't know about it, so it's really important that they got those messages by getting all those books of Saltwater book. That's told them exactly what we are talking today, and it's got lots of information in it.
Damien Carrick: You won the case about a year ago. I understand there's a moratorium, when the people won the case, they said, OK, we won't exclude people, the commercial fishermen or the leisure fishermen, for a year nothing will change. Are you part of the negotiating team to work out where you're going to go from here on in?
Djambawa Marawili: Well to negotiate with those fisheries, we are ready to talk with those people so we can have a really good, solid message cross between the landowner and these people who are fishing in the country. In that way we are really making a really negotiation with those people and also making a contract clearly so we will deal with those people in the right rules.
Damien Carrick: Djambawa Marawili, artist, activist and elder.
That's The Law Report for this week. Thanks to producer Anita Barraud and to technical producer this week, Chris Lawson.
Guests ; Djambawa Marawili
Artist and traditional owner, part of Blue Mud Bay
Will Stubbs
Coordinator, Yirrkala Art Centre, Northern Territory, and former criminal lawyer
http://www.yirrkala.com/
Publications; Title: Northern Territory of Australia v Arnhem Land Aboriginal Land Trust [2008] HCA 29 (30 July 2008)
URL: http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/HCA/2008/29.html
Title: Mabo v Queensland (No 2) ("Mabo case") [1992] HCA 23; (1992) 175 CLR 1 (3 June 1992)
URL: http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/sinodisp/au/cases/cth/HCA/1992/23.html?query=^mabo Presenter; Damien Carrick, Producer; Anita Barraud
090612
Celebrations for Blue Mud Bay anniversary
Posted Fri Jun 12, 2009 9:19am AEST Satellite image of Blue Mud Bay, in north-east Arnhem Land. (Google Maps)
Updated Fri Jun 12, 2009 9:32am AEST
A celebration is underway in Arnhem Land to celebrate the Blue Mud Bay High Court decision.
Last year's decision gave traditional owners exclusive rights over commercial and recreational fishing in waters overlying Aboriginal lands.
It includes the inter-tidal zone and rivers to the low water mark.
Today, a group of traditional dancers dressed in blue and white danced to the water line and then back up the beach in celebration of the decision.
Several people involved with the case addressed the audience and a local band played.
The Northern Land Council and the Northern Territory Government hope to conclude negotiations over permits and licensing arrangements for fishing by the end of the year.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/06/12/2596216.htm
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080730
Blue Mud Bay decision 'may impact Aust-wide Indigenous rights'
Posted
Updated
The ruling gives traditional owners control over valuable resources. (www.flickr.com: robstephaustralia, file photo)
- Map: Darwin 0800
- Related Story: Indigenous win in fishing rights case
- Related Link: Read the High Court's judgment on Blue Mud Bay
The rights of Indigenous people in other parts of Australia could be extended following a High Court decision giving traditional owners exclusive rights over tidal waters along Aboriginal land, one expert says.
The decision on the rights at the Northern Territory's Blue Mud Bay means traditional owners will be able to determine when and where commercial and recreational fishing is carried out along 80 per cent of the territory's coastline, as well as in tidal rivers.
The head of the Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research, Jon Altman, says the case will not directly flow on to other places but it should influence the rights given to Aboriginal people in other parts of Australia.
"I think morally other Aboriginal people would now be able to argue that if these sorts of rights have been provided to Aboriginal people in the
"Given that the overarching aim of Government policy is to close the gap between Indigenous and other Australians, a number of commentators, including myself, have said that this can only happen if you also provide Indigenous people with the commercially valuable property rights that they have historically missed out on in Australia."
Professor Altman say the ruling extends unprecedented control to the traditional owners over commercially valuable resources.
"What this decision does is give Yolngu people in north-east Arnhem Land, but by extension all Aboriginal people in the
"So what people have to understand is that this gives a right of exclusion over a column of water between the low and high water mark.
"In that sense it's an extraordinarily significant outcome for Indigenous people because it gives them effectively a commercially valuable property right which is really unprecedented in the Australian context.
"Indigenous people hold all the power and the levers in these negotiations and that's what fundamentally different and that's the significance of this case," Professor Altman added.
Fishing licences
For traditional owners, the decision ends a 30-year fight for exclusive rights, while commercial and recreational fishers will be forced to negotiate terms for access.
The issue of the common law right of the public to fish in public waters and the issuing by the Northern Territory Government of fishing licences will now need to be negotiated with the Northern Land Council.
It is expected the ruling will lead to the introduction of a permit system for recreational fishermen.
Professor Altman says attention is also likely to turn to the impetus that the High Court ruling could give to wider claims, particularly where Native Title claims have been recognised to offshore areas.
The claims will have to be examined with a view to looking for a commercially valuable property right, in contrast to the more limited right of access for only customary use of resources.
"And this will certainly give some impetus for people to say that there is now a precedent in the Northern Territory where Aboriginal interests again have got effective control over commercially valuable resources because they've got the right to exclude all others from access to those resources," he said.
"Standing Up Alive" Men's Gathering-
.......The Power Of Spirit.......
PAGE 1
To write about this week, feels like one of the hardest writing tasks I've embarked upon. I feel adrenalin pumping and heart beating as I begin to type. I can't share in detail for many reasons, but by telling my story of it and many parts of the journey I will endeavor to share the spirit and learning's that came from a powerful week.
Being with a hundred and ten men in a beautiful bush setting, in sacred space for such a time was bound to make it an amazing time. Add 9 Yolngu (aboriginal) men from East Arnhem Land, three who were elders and custodians of Yidaki (didgeridoo), Bilma (Clapsticks) and dance and the recipe was spiced and bound to be something else.
Before I share more on a week with this special mob , I'll share a bit of background on the Yolngu people.
The Yolngu mob as a people only became connected with white folk in a substantial way 50 years back. Their language is totally intact and English is their second language. They live in the far far north on the north eastern tip of Arnhem Land. They are surrounded by land that they continue to own and care for as they have for thousands of years.
When we consider what has happened to most other tribes across Australia, their country is largely as it always was and they live a very traditional life and have found and continue to find ways to integrate both worlds. There are nethertheless many challenges to their people that have come out of colonization. Thankfully though they feel to have the strength to find a way through so their culture lives on rich and strong.
As you folk know too well, yidaki - didgeridoo and indigenous contempory music have become popular throughout the world. Interestingly Djalu as elder and custodian of the yidaki, and Yothu Yindi as a succesful rock and dance band, are both Yolngu In their respective ways they lead the aboriginal peoples Australia wide in being examples of aboriginal culture shared from a place of strength and balance.
Both Djalu and Yothu Yindi have become highly respected and loved for the beauty in their work and music. It carries the spirit of their people. As Mandaway from Yothu Yindi shared in a speach he once gave, "Our music is all about continuing to sing love songs to the land, and as Djalu so often shares with his hand over his big heart and chest, "Yidaki shares spirit and comes from the heart".
Mandaway went on to encourage us all to find ways to sing love songs to the land. Djalu encourages us to find ways to sing our own heart song through the didg.
I share what I have so far to give a background to the blessing it was, to have these special men come so far; interested in us white fellas coming together, to find sacred ways to live and work together.
I reread what I've written so far and feeling the power behind what they share, my heart pumps fast again.
Back to SUA (Standing Up Alive gathering) and a bit on the history of it as a gathering. In Northern New South Wales, since the 60's there has been a large influx of people interested and committed to finding alternatives to our western culture. From Bellingen in the South where I live to the Melany area in southern Queensland in the north, this area has often been referred to as the Rainbow Triangle. Interestingly I've heard said, that its the positive pole to the Bermuda Triangle directly opposite on the other side of the globe. Either way it has been the home of multiple occupancy communities, festivals, gatherings, workshops and sharings as well as businesses and cottage industries, grounding positive alternatives. Many of the folk who were in their 20's and the 30's when they first moved here full of vision have been through much over the years in the natural challenge to bring them down to earth, and the seeds planted are now bearing fruit.
After the Womens Liberation movement of the 60's & 70's and onwards, it wasn't until the 80's and 90's that the mens movement took foundation out of the gaping need for new role models and forums and circles to support men healing the damage done. In 1993 the first SUA gathering came out of a strong mens movement throughout the region. John Allen , Rob Fleetwood,and others with Rein Van der Ruit who brought David Mowaljarlai from the Kimberlies and Davids’ dream made this gathering to be what it is. Arne and Bere have also for many years been running a Pathways to Manhood initiation process for teenagers coming into manhood.
Harry who lives in Arnhem land, and attended SUA a couple of years back shared of his journey with his best mate a Yolngu teacher Timmy Burarrwanga , who is very passionate about his culture. Timmy saw a few photos from the gathering with David and looked at the book Yorro Yorro and said to Harry that in the photos he saw sacred business shared amongst white fellas and this interested him. He asked to go down with Harry next time around. The story went around the community and three of the elders also wanted to be part of the long journey down south . By the time the 9th gathering came to be, 9 Yolngu men had their flights booked. Djalu, Alfred , Samuel ,Timmy, Wesley Hamish, Andrew, Wapit and Nunukwuy
So at this point 110 guys from the far north to the far south and from overseas, prepared for a journey to Byron Bay to meet and share in powerful ways.
Hearing that there was to be a few tipis set up, I packed the tipi and with a few fella's from our mens group in Bellingen and a couple of other mates we headed north 3 hours. The site immediately felt to be home. Hearing from a mate who came up in my car, Jonathon, about " Pathways to Manhood" and previous " SUA" events that have been on that land, it was clear this was a powerful site and the land was charged. It is beautiful coastal dry rainforest, with old big Squiggly Gum trees many who were hollow and emanated strong spirit. A short walk away was a river who flowed into the sea. A short walk down the river and over the sand dunes and into the ocean. Soft and naturing land.
The day we arrived, the clouds were low and soft rain blessed the setting up of camp. It felt perfect. The energy was coming inward and the rain settled the dry bush and land that was in need of rain so much. Next morning was to be the beginning of the journey officially. The day dawned and the camp grew as folk arrived, we helped out, settled in, and explored the terrain. After a jump in the ocean and returning to camp I heard that the Yolngu mob had arrived. We were close to our first circle as a mob and the grounding and anticipation was doing its work.
When I first decided to come, hearing that the Yolngu mob were coming, did clinch the decision, and wanting to go to SUA for a couple of years and Djalu coming , I had to go. Being into Yidaki so much as I am, it would be understandable to be carried away with excitement and expectation, meeting and being with Djalu. I have always felt though, that that aboriginal folk carry so much that us western folk now desire to know or adopt, and at times it must be a pain in the neck being in their shoes having us so needy of them. Especially Djalu. I hear how sought after he is, by travellers going to Arnhem land wanting to be in his presence and learn from him.
If I was to be around the fella and the mob I didn't want to bring any of my needs with me, I wanted to simply allow what was to unfold to unfold. Deep down I couldn't ignore the build up but I did also allow it to be in trust . This felt healthy. I planned to only bring a couple of didgs, but then at the last minute John asked me to bring a mob of didgs in case we needed some for others who didn't have any. This mirrored the two parts of myself, one wanting to blend in and just drink in what flowed, the other wanting to connect directly and share together of Yidaki and culture.
Theres so much that unfolded over the coming days, so much thats hard to put in words and so much thats not appropriate to share, but I will try to share glimpses of the essence shared and journey had, in ways that we can relate to, in our lifes journey and in our interest in playing yidaki.
Yidaki draws so many of us to aboriginal culture and I see it does so for reasons of its many gifts it has to offer, on our own journey.
Interestingly though as I've heard it said before, Yidaki is a tool for connecting with or sharing spirit not the focus itself. In our western way its easy to get carried away by all the amazing sounds we can make and how we can improve our skills in producing sounds and rhythmic and intricate playing, but this is the didgeridoo as a musical instrument but as Yolngu folk know, there is more to the yidaki than that. Djalu sais, " it is the song of Spirit , it is the song of the rainbow serpent and the dreaming."
When I reflect on the most moving and powerful times playing didg it is when there is a purpose or power in the playing. Playing to the dance of stomping feet the didg player is part of a story being enacted, a celebration, and the player is one with the story and is not focused on playing in a technical sense but empowering and supporting the dancers and the purpose of sharing.
With this essence as the truth, any interest in this event being yidaki focused I'd let go of a lot, well before the event unfolded, but within the first day of being together , it was perfectly clear that the power of the gathering was not about yidaki playing or cultural knowledge, it wasn't about asking questions and satisfying all our wonderings, it was about a journey that was into the unknown, a journey that perhaps hadn't ever happened before. A white fellas gathering, a mob who out of cultural drought had been unfolding and exploring sacred space and ritual together as men. A bunch of black fellas then seeing this and themselves coming from a place of cultural strength, excited by what we were doing and interested to come and share time with us, to see what came of that. The recipe was strong , the result was in itself the big question.
Now understanding the important juice of the gathering, it can be appreciated that in enacting this journey, many forces , feelings and needs were being unleashed.
Cultural sharing in Australia has only in the last few years in very isolated situations began to embrace at a depth of truth and reality. This gathering was part of a shift needed beyond cultural exploitation and consumerism that has avoided the pain and issues unresolved between white and black.
The gathering had leaders thankfully who knew that despite their picturings and plans as to what would unfold during the week, that the important need was to listen to the moment and the dance symbolically that unfolded and find a way to support what was truly trying to come through.
This wasn't necessarily easy at times for the leaders or for any of us participating, as for Yolngu mob to share their gifts meant hat they had to take us on a journey and that involved trusting them and respecting them. It involved us letting go as to understanding everything at every point in time. It also challenged us, when stuff came up that looked like being negative and damaging that it was a gift to further clear the way, to the power and the gifts coming through.
Respect was and is such a powerful gift that they offered us. Respect for their culture and what they wanted us to hold as sacred, respect for their stories shared , respect for the sacredness of the journey they took us on and that the detail belonged for those on that journey and not for others who weren't there, respect for elders and those holding knowledge, respect or in their language "rapirri" was the word , gently but very firmly made clear, important and essential.
Long ago in our western culture, respect and ritual with deep meaning and relevance has been lost. The spoken word is now used loosely and sacredness is hard to fine. From this place as a generalization, white culture would like aboriginal or native indian or the like to share its depths, we crave it, we want it but in the place of need there is little foundation to be able to appreciate it and respect it. With this understanding indigenous people largely contain their knowledge and hold it close. Aboriginal Australians particularly, by nature, in reflecting the land are both open and receptive and yet centred and contained. Their easygoing nature made them easy to succumb by those who colonised Australia but alternatively it makes them also contained and and boundryed to the people and the indifference with which they have been treated.
PAGE 2
Through the foundation of SUA, and the likes of Harry and others, Yolngu elders saw the openness and receptiveness, normally so missing. They felt a drawing to come and share, to share things never shared before, and empower us folk to learn what sacredness is, and to empower us to be part of building a bridge between our cultures. This wasn't something that just happened day one and continued throughout. This was something we all worked upon over the days. There were moments when as two mobs the camps were split as stuff came up and we realized how easily we misunderstand each other, we realized how easily it is for white folk to be insensitive.
There were some fellas that found the white leadership lacking as there own stuff came up around that insensitivity. Some wanted stronger leadership, some found themselves too much on the sea not knowing or understanding the journey, finding it difficult to surrender to the white and black elders. For every person that struggled there were most that trusted and respected those darker moments, the challenges and their gift. As someone commented strongly in the circle, as with other gatherings , its generally after a strong conflict, drama or feeling unfolding that the gathering moves to a more centred and powerful place. After one phase where something that white folk intitiated, that triggered feelings in the Yolnga mob; then with some sharing it led to a powerful sharing of this process, whereby the Yolnga mob saw the power in our white fella ritual.
Each challenge somehow took us to a greater sense of connectedness as a mob and as two cultures sharing and finding our way.
So with commitment to the journey and respect, the way was found.
The time flowed in Koori time and the days slowly passed and the week felt like a month. As a mob we had broken up into clan groups of about 8-10 and daily at different times we'd meet together, to share our process, have some fun or work in the camp kitchen, collect firewood, whatever was needed. As a whole mob we'd gather at least daily in the big sharing circle that involved housekeeping business, processing and unfolding leadership and direction. Often magical moments and unfoldings came out of the big circle. Men would stand up to themselves, so to speak, and share strongly, whether their journey, a challenge, their struggles or a strong vision or gift of knowledge. This would often take on, a life of its own until somehow, the mood of the circle was fulfilled and spoken for. At circles end, another step was taken as to the journey we were on. Then onto the day and handing ourselves over. The circle was the chance to integrate what was going on, but as soon as it was over, it was time to surrender again to the unknown.
I thought I held strong a choice to honour elders, but the time with the Yolnga men dug up the holdings in me, where my culture has eroded this and I realized in a whole new way what respect for elders means. Being around these fellas who spoke their lingo most of the time and struggled with English meant that in communicating, a greater depth of listening was required. Listening to the words, the tone, the body language and feeling deeply. In western culture our elders are sent to homes with their own age kin and given little forum to share their wisdom. Being with the Yolngu elders we learnt to look out for them, care for their needs and give them the physical ease to help support what they worked with best which is spirit - wisdom.
In some ways I've been taught to look out for myself and getting my dinner before the elders one night, I felt the shame and the sadness as to my relationship with myself in that place. As well, early in the piece a young Yolngu man probably younger than me asked me to do something for me. I noticed for a couple of days my difficulty with that, but as my perspective shifted ,I saw him differently and I acknowledged the strength he offered and my willingness to humble myself shifted. By putting them first or anyone for that matter I felt the resistance at first, then in acting anyway, I felt the joy of giving. I feel to be a giving person but I got to know the parts of myself that isn't. As I felt this awareness and clearing unfold, I looked out more for where I could be of service. Watching the young white men who were asked to wait on the elders, or others who wanted to and looked for the opportunity, I felt that magnet draw me in. Just being of service in some way was freeing.
Giving Djalu a sholder massage at some point, knowing he wasn't feeling well came out of genuinely caring and I realised deep down it wasn't just out of respect and from me.Its flowing with spirit. Being around Djalu and hearing him share from his heart, putting his hand on his heart as he so often did, or playing his yidaki with healing heart purpose, it was enivitable to be touched deeply and feel my heart opening wider. It was enviitable unless I blocked this love out, to want to give back to him and the others in any way I could.
Tears in the eyes was a constant unfolding, listening to Djalu or Ranald interpreting or other men sharing from their heart and truth. Tears of joy was a constant daily experience.
Those tears and feelings of joy came in so many ways. Sitting next to Alfred one day, as we waited for a moment, in between a process, as the mob was around , I said to him breaking the silence. "We're a big mob". I weas referring to us all there, he thought I was asking about his people. He looked to me with a faraway almost teary look in his eyes and said
"We're a big mob.yoh.. very beautiful.... humble people" When they talk, its in broken English short and to the point but carrying strong feeling. His description of his people as humble carried much feeling and truth. It wasn't big noting, it was factual and loving.
Whilst they were away they got word, that a couple of family members back home had passed over and this troubled them, they knew they weren't there where they were needed and they knew there was work to do when they got home. Ceremony to support the passing. This coincided with challenges in our time together at SUA and that day the old men weren't feeling well. They were troubled.
In our time there, the healing came , as it does; they taught us constantly what it was to remain open. There was a man that came and went against the wishes of the white and black elders. He brought his anger to the pot and also the things that we didn't want to look at. He did it with intent. As men we were confronted with looking to whether we were in integrity as a gathering, he also triggered in some of us, our fear of fighting and our desire to fight or react with anger. This man was an important gift. The Yolngu elders were amazing examples of acceptance and love in how they worked with this energy . I was proud how everyone handled and worked with what it triggered up. It could have gone either way a couple of times, but the example was set by all the elders and compassion and personal responsibility led the way.
Healing came in song too, yes song, yidaki and bilma supporting dance. It was their lifeblood.
They shared so much. One day sitting in a circle learning some yidaki rhythms from Djalu, Samuel who is 84 joined us and in a break in our playing ; I can't remember what led to him saying it, but he looks over towards a couple of us and sais with a gleam in his eye, leaning towards us to accentuate it "maybe.. we dance tonight".
I decided to treasure that moment, I couldn't help but treasure that moment. His desire to dance was his desire to embrace fun and love for life . And doing so in his 80's, he danced like a young man. He spoke of traditional dance like a young fella would speak of going out and partying with his mates.
There were various moments when their handle on English would get across so powerfully the essence of what they were trying to say. But there were many times when some of the content would go right over our heads. Thankfully there was Ranald, a white fella who understood lingo. He walks as shaman in his own way, facilitating mens groups and trips into the outback connecting with culture and grounding journeys of power. He would often explain the dances, the stories and the old fellas wisdom and put it in language we could understand. He would also embody the emotion of the journey we were on and bring it to the surface.
A lot of what I share may sound cryptic and not of detail and content. This is true of the journey we went on and even though we experienced detail and content, the essence of the journey and what is meant to come out into the world is the essence and the action it encourages. In sacred rituals, indigenous peoples build power and teach wisdom in a way that it is embodied, so that when we come back from a place of spirit, the body finds itself renewed and empowered with energy. The journey is a dreaming journey, sacred and held within.
The energy, the essence, is the juice and if you hear the words and feel between the lines and the words the juice is imparted. Djalu often spoke of the Yidaki going out into the world and spirit touching people world wide. If we play with heart or feel the hearts message in this sharing that comes from Yolngu mob and the land in Australia, from the aboriginal peoples and the earth mother, this is the purpose fulfilled. Djalu spoke of feeling our heart connection and following this. This is our connection with Spirit. As Djalu repeated often, it doesn't matter whether we black or white. Speak from our heart and play from our heart. Sitting in a circle playing didg he would occasionally ask each of us to play our song. The essence of sharing was more important than learning something practically. He shared technical playing tips, for some there was some practical learning, for some and for all as well, it was simply being with the man, and feeling the spirit he shared. This was the juice, not the techniques.
Yidaki could be heard at various points in the day or by Djalu in focused ways but it was not the priority. For the amount of didgs there and players and folk interested it was just a piece in the puzzle not the main picture.
As the week gradually came closer to completion, there was a feeling of peace that built and came over the camp. The week started with settling rain, then sunny days unfolded that brought passion and fire. As healing and unity unfolded the sun stayed in the background and a soft cloud covering and stillness reflected what was happening for us. With the peace that descended there was a lightness and humour that came with.
As we sat in a big circle one morning, someone honoured a Murri fella ( Queensland aboriginal) 'Peter', whose gift during the week involved sitting and painting a big canvas with a crocodile at the centre. The crocodile is a central totem animal for some Yolngu people. He'd also completed a couple of other canvases which he brought partly worked on and gifted them to the Yolngu elders . In the circle we honoured his genorosity, and a fella 'Bear' started an auction of the crocodile painting knowing he needed some income for his family for Christmas. Bere was not an auctioneer and was just hamming it up , when others took it on as more than fun and before long with Peters quiet approval to run with it, we had an auction happening. One fella jumped in with disaproval at money being involved, reflecting our distrust for money realities. This brought various men forward to share and so a process clearing this, but it was short and sweet and we continued on. As one other fella said, "Yolngu people have traded for four centuries since the Dutch travelled by and what we unfolded was all about gifts of utmost generosity of spirit acknowledged by money in as giving way as we could muster. Its all just spirit in action. Days earlier Peter had told me had hoped to sell his painting one day for $1500 if he could. It sold for $2500. He was over whelmed.
Before the trip south, the Yolngu fellas had planned to bring some art and yidakis to sell but as it turned out they couldn't, so consequently there was no plan to sell anything. Djalu had only brought his own didg.
Well Petes painting being auctioned started something. Samuel the old fella had been painting during the week and his piece held incredible power as it spoke of our gathering. He offered it up. The first bid was $1500, the second was $6000 and sold. A set of Bilma (Clapsticks) for $1,000, a spear and woomera $1300 and it went on. Other spears were sold. Then Djalus didg . Starting price $2000, it was sold for $3000 and then gifted back to SUA for future gatherings. With each item the artist and creator was honoured and men stood up to speak for them and honour and respect their work. Another Murri fella Anthony whose powerful didg was played by Djalu quite a lot through the gathering, offered his didg for sale, and much healing and blessings came through the men that shared about Anthony and the acknowledgment that came his way. It was bought for $1500 by Mick who lives on the same community as Anthony. A double blessing for Anthony, is the type of man that gives much away and it was beautiful twist that he both received income for his family and he will continue to be able to play the didg. The buyers stretched and gifted more than what they could afford, it was a beautiful unfolding it all happened swiftly and with so much fun and laughs.
PAGE 3
On the eve before the last day, some men were blessed to witness our gatherings journey reflected in the dance of two snakes. It was back in the camp area which was a a trail of tents and tipis along a a track and tucked away in the bush of to each side.
One fella had noticed one then another snake as he came back into camp, a Yellow bellied black snake and a Bandy bandy snake which is black and white in bands. One grabbed the other and a monumentous journey begun, and before long both of them each, had the others neck in their mouth. A group of fellas watched these two snakes tussle and hold each other right through the night. There was a time when it looked like the black snake would succuumb the Bandy Bandy snake. But it stayed strong and present and committed to life. The number of fellas dropping of as the night wore on until one fella remained as the dawn approached. All of a sudden as if a place of peace was found, they released each other, and there was no more venom in their being so to speak. They calmly, in almost an acknowledging way went on their way and slithered slowly of, as if nothing had happened.
This story was brought to the circle in the morning reflecting so much the journey we had been on. It was blessing that everyone felt.
The last day was here and the closing ceremony involved coming out into the wider community again and being greeted by the women and children and friends. 110 men coming out of the bush after a week of mens business was impacting for both men and women. The build up , the build up, the process, the sound, the chanting, the feelings, the sight , the ceremony it brought many to tears. We met by a river not far from camp and we ate and talked and laughed in a shady grove that was idealic. What a time. Swimming, sharing and celebrating.
That evening the Yolngu folk were to put on a performance in Byron Bay ( the easternmost point of Oz and the capital of alternative and beach culture) as a part of celebrating and completion; so we all moved on and out into the world. Seeing cars again, driving, people everywhere and lots of beautiful women, it was a culture shock Hey when I say beautiful women I'm not just talking exteriors. Yes a week with just fellas and yes it helps us appreciate the fairer sex. And Byron Bay well it was almost overwhelming. It was in so many special ways . Byron Bay is so spirit, there's so much happening there, so many people enjoying being there, it is uplifting. It was the perfect place to come to. We set up camp in a camping ground, showered, ohh the luxury, and then out to town for a feed. We took our feed and sat down by the ocean. The beach is integrated into the town in away that somehow still holds onto a spirit of non exploitation. Byron bay fought Mc Donalds and kept them out and despite money and values going through the roof, the surfers and the alternates are still integral and continue to remain. They are what made Byron what it is.
At some point through the gathering someone spoke of rains blessing ; and that before and after a gathering of importance, rain is a powerful reflection of spirits blessing. We've had drought up this way for 8 months, full on, sunny day after sunny day. Very few cloudy days and little rain. The rain that preceded the gathering was a shift. The cloudy soft weather of the last couple of days also was similar. When we rocked into the outdoor ampitheatre where the performance was to be, hundreds of people filled the place, sitting on the grass in front of the stage which was a truckload of sand brought in for the dancers. The rain started to come down. Many people dashed for cover. Many folk stayed and lapt it up. After being in nature so strongly for the week and feeling the gift of this rain, us fellas weren't running for cover. The rain was not too heavy and before long it eased, then stopped. During the the performance it sprinkled again for a short while but it remained clear. It brought its blessing.
The Yolngu mob as with all of us, were in high spirits and it showed in their song and dance. It was powerful and present and shared their love of culture. Their dance is in every cell of their body, its not practiced, its lived and the applause was full after every dance. There was acknowledgment of the local Bundjalung elders , custodians of the local area, and thanks from SUA organisers to the Yolngu mob and from the Yolngu mob to SUA and to the people of Byron Bay.Timmy, a Yolngu fella spoke to the audience of how much he loved Byron Bay and all the people he and his people have connected with in visiting. Once again the teary eyes were felt as heart felt acknowledgments were offered back and forth. This was history, this was cultures coming together, this was healing and heart. White and Black finding a way to journey in richness, Yolngu as strong culture finding ways to support other tribes who had lost their culture. Timmy finished his short but so powerful sharing by saying," ....we came here to help build a bridge of our common unity" Yoh!
Afterwords folk milled around and met and celebrated the eve. I came up to Samuel at one point to thank him and as we met face to face his eyes and faces light up and we embrace. I didn't expect it , I was one of hundreds of folk there, touched by their sharing, song and dance but he remembered our journey over the week and he laid open his love and excitement as to the evening. He was touched and so happy to be there. No words needed. At 84 his spirit is so young. He and Djalu and Alfred and the rest of the mob afterwords went onto to another gig where they danced into the night. They ended up performing again. The night ended for them after 3.30 am. and in a few hours time they were to get on one of three planes back to Arnhem Land.
An unforgettable time. I camped with a few fellas in Byron that night and the following day we very slowly moved homewards. It took till 1 pm to be able to drive out of Byron. We had a special morning.
The power of Spirit was the name of the gathering. Interestingly I started to type this name for another reason. The power of Spirit works in magical and powerful ways. I'd like to share a syncronistic or power story that ties in with this journey and didgeridoo. Over ten years I've made and played didgeridoo, I've never felt it was my place to paint a crocodile on a didg. The croc doesn't come from my land, I'd said to myself. The thought came in along the way but it never felt right. I've had didgs come through that others had painted or carved but not me, no.
A few weeks before the gathering a didg came through that I made , that had a shaping on it that looked like a crocodile. Funny though, I didn't feel any concern anymore ,it just came in and I felt clear and fine. I felt its time and I did a painting of a crocodile that felt special and powerful.
Just before I left for the gathering I sold it over the web and another person in liking it and wanting to buy it too, I said I'd do another, which is now nearly complete. Funny enough the person who wanted it, in the first place chose another didg and I now have two didgs here right now, one that reflects the beginning of a journey that I was unaware of , as to its connectedness, and one that is nearly complete. I see this writing that I now pour out now three days after the gathering, as being part of a the completion of a journey and the planting of a seed.
As this writing comes together the crocodile yidaki will be completed and the seed planted.
What is the seed? It is the intent that Timmy shared, to build a bridge of common unity. How can we do this? Theres endless ways and each of us has a calling if we listen to our heart. For me I come home with a clear vision to work with our local mens groups and local Goories (aboriginals) towards grounding shared rituals. We all have our own way. It can be as simple as sharing our love and light in our dailly work , life and family, or giving service and connecting with others in need whether indigenous or not. Its not the content as much as the intent and space it comes from. The seed is, the sharing and the promptings from the Yolngu men. What we do with it is up to us. Its moved me greatly.
When I got home some books I'd ordered had arrived for the shop. Voices of the First day- Awakening in the Aboriginal Dreamtime. by Robert Lawlor. I was sharing with a brother who I'd shared the week with, about this book and how it was such a powerful book for helping further instill the juice of aboriginal culture in a way us westerners can drink in. In opening the book a line jumped out of the page. It was ...When the last of the Tasmanian tribal Aborigines were told they were to be exiled to an island reservation, they replied in resignation. " We will surely die on that island, but sometime in the future we will pop up again as white men"
We often look to others for answers, whether indigenous or an elder or a wise or seemingly successful individual. This is important, it is essential we remain open and drink in wisdom where we find it. The Yolnga people is one of the most profound sources I have come across. I am deeply thankful. But I must also, take the challenge to heart and remember I too am indigenous of this earth and in my very being and soul also lies strength and wisdom. In doing so I respect the Yolngu people, by honouring their example. Its time to honour these people, like the native peoples in the Amazon and all around the world where tiny pockets just hang on to the richness of culture, by doing all we can to respect culture and rebuild culture.
A friend that helps facilitate mens circles walked in a few minutes back and we talked for awhile. We ended our conversation on a powerful note. he said...... "yeh, ...theres a bush fire burning out there" referring to men and people hurting inside and calling out for help but not knowing how to get it.
I felt this calling, in the week together and I feel it in walking and talking with brothers and sisters now. Its time to walk our talk even more, and come from a place of power and heart.
I pass on through this writing, the blessing received from Djalu for us to share our heart song through yidaki- didgeridoo. It is a blessing and carries spirit forth into the world. Lets remember to put aside our ego and be heart centred in our playing. Through this we send love and thanks to its birthplace and to whoever and wherever spirit needs to be.
And as Yothu Yindi the aboriginal rock band show us, there are many ways to sing love songs to the land. We too will find our way and it is equally important and powerful as anothers.
All power, courage and heart to each and everyone of us. Much thanks to the Yolnga mob and the richness of their generosity.
Much thanks also to John Allan, SUA main facilitator, a humble generous man whose courage and presence, was just what was needed to navigate a very difficult and powerful journey. Thanks also to all the others who backed him up. Thanks Rob Fleetwood for handling the power of the practical $'s realm and dealing with all that it brings up. Thanks Harry for bringing the Yolngu people down. Thanks also to the Bundjalung elder Mick and fellas who came to the gathering and the other elders who came to the performance. Thanks for your embracing of the journey. May it be a blessing to your people.
Tynon
