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STORIES from the DESERT Audrey Bolger

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STORIES from the DESERT Audrey Bolger WANGKAJUNGA WOMEN; STORIES FROM THE DESERT Audrey Bolger When Phyllis Kaberry published Aboriginal woman, sacred and profane in 1939 this was a lone contribution to the understanding of the position of women in Aboriginal society for, until then, anthropologists had concentrated almost exclusively upon the role of men. Since then the balance has been redressed somewhat in the publications of other women, both anthropologists and historians, but there is still a need for more research concentrating on women’s place in Aboriginal society and particularly on the changes brought about by contact with white Australians. In most cases this contact took place so long ago that it is now only possible to piece together the story of the impact from historical documents. How­ ever, in a few cases the contact is very recent and it is still possible for the women them­ selves to tell us what happened, how their lives and the lives of their children and grand­ children have changed as a result of this contact. In 1982 I spent five months with the Wangkajunga community1 documenting the stories of women who in recent years moved from a traditional life in the desert to residence on pastoral stations. These women now live in a new village, Kurungal, built at Christmas Creek station, which is situated approximately a hundred kilometres south-east of Fitzroy Crossing in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. But they are desert women by origin and forty years ago their people were still living in the desert. The older women thus have clear memories of desert life as well as of their move to the fringes of pastoral stations and even­ tually to Christmas Creek. The Wangkajunga move out of the desert took place comparatively recently; most adults over the age of thirty-five were born in the vicinity of the Canning Stock Route and older people lived in the desert until well into adult life. It was probably during the years of the Second World War, when the Canning Stock Route was reopened due to fears of a Japanese invasion of the north,2 that many of the present Wangkajunga community had their first contacts with white people and began the movement which eventually brought them to Kurungal. Many older women talk about first seeing white people, bullocks, camels, etc. during this period. Tindale noted that some Wangkajunga people, or south-west hordes of the Kukaja, appeared near Billiluna before 1940 and were known to Capell as Julbre.3 Others, referred to by Tindale as Kukaja of the eastern hordes, appeared from east of the Canning Stock Route in 1953 and some of these people were then taken to Halls Creek in government vehicles.4 Audrey Bolger is a lecturer in the Department o f Social Work and Social Administration, University o f Western Australia. She has degrees from the Universities o f Papua New Guinea and York. 1 This research was made possible by grants from the University of Western Australia and the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies. 2 Bolton 1953:296. 3 Capell 1940:425-30. 4 Tindale 1974:43. 102 WANGKAJUNGA WOMEN N^O R T H E R N TE RRITORY £ n) s , * V 8- 'S' W> % £ M ___ J it Kimberleyit and desert region throi C3 ÄO g GO 103 ABORIGINAL HISTORY 1987 11:2 It is not clear exactly why the movement out of the desert took place. Mary Walmajarri people, whose country was farther north than that of the Wangkajunga, were drawn into Billiluna station when it was established in the 1920s, and to Balgo Hills mission when that was set up a few years later. It is quite possible that normal inter-tribal contacts with their Walmajarri neighbours led some Wangkajunga to Billiluna and Balgo. However, other events probably contributed. In some cases people became isolated and could not survive in the desert when their economic groups were wiped out by pastoralists and police in retaliation for the spearing of bullocks. In other cases desert Aborigines were deliberately sought out by pastoralists who feared the depredations of Svild blacks’ and tried to encourage them to settle near the stations. Finally, there is some evidence that a period of extreme drought in the 1940s forced many people to move north in search of food and water. Wangkajunga people arrived at Christmas Creek by a variety of routes. Some followed the tracks of relatives and friends in a north-westerly direction and eventually arrived at Koolena, a sheep station adjoining the southern boundary of Christmas Creek which operated between 1947 and 1953.5 Here they had their first taste of station life, learning fencing, shepherding and the milking of goats. Those who were still there when the station closed in 1953 then moved north to Christmas Creek, where a number of Walmajarri people and a few Wangkajunga had already settled. Other Wangkajunga travelled up the Canning Stock Route and arrived at Billiluna station or Balgo Mission. From there some drifted on to other stations and made their way through Ruby Plains, Lamboo and Bohemia Downs stations, eventually arriving at Christmas Creek. Others were forcibly transported from Billiluna to the Aboriginal feeding station at Moola Bulla, near Halls Creek, and later made their own way to Christmas Creek when they heard of relatives being there. Evidence for the arrival of Wangkajunga people at Christmas Creek is contained in the reports of the Department of Native Welfare where the Aboriginal population of Christmas Creek station is shown as having increased from 100 in 1952 to 180 in 1963. Since then most of them have remained in that area, apart from a period in the early 1970s when many of them were expelled from the station following the introduction of the Pastoral Industry Award. However, by 1978 most had returned to Christmas Creek and in 1980 they were granted an excision of 255 hectares of land about a kilometre from the station homestead. Houses were begun the following year and the first eleven were completed at the end of 1981. In early 1982 Wangkajunga people moved from the old camp by the station home­ stead to Kurungal village and into the first houses in which they had ever lived. Older women, particularly, have been through immense changes in their lifetimes, moving as they have from a traditional life-style in the desert to camping and working on stations and finally to the new housing complex in which they live today. Although they have now been at Christmas Creek for many years, older women retain vivid memories of their early lives in the desert and constantly talk about returning to their country one day. The follow­ ing accounts contain the reminiscences of some of these women who were born in the desert and spent their childhood years and much of their early adult life there. The stories tell of traditional life in the desert, travelling with their parents and close relatives, meeting other 5 Bolton 1953:330. 104 WANGKAJUNGA WOMEN relatives and people from neighbouring tribes, observing ceremonies. During that time they were also gradually learning their place as women in the society, including the skills necessary for survival in the harsh desert environment. In addition, there are memories of their earliest contacts with white Australians and of intermittent residence on the fringes of cattle stations or missions before coming to Christ­ mas Creek. From the early contacts they gained some knowledge of the artefacts of white society. Later, as contact became more intense, they learned a little English and a few skills which enabled them to be incorporated into station life to some extent. The four women whose experiences are documented in this paper were all in their late fifties or early sixties and their stories were told in either Wangkajunga or Walmajarri and translated by one of the young women, Eva Lawford. These women did speak some English but preferred to tell their stories in their own language and were more comfortable and fluent when doing so. Many of the childhood stories are idyllic. Mary Jarju described life in the desert area west of the Canning Stock Route thus: Mother and father used to go hunting, with a dog. Big mob of dog we used to have — dingoes. My mother, when she used to go hunting she used to cook the meat out bush and bring it to us when it was cooked. Except for father — he used to bring back raw meat and we used to cook it in the camp. We used to eat and eat and eat. Full up we used to go sleep. We used to live by hunting. Meat used to be there. Every morning we used to eat meat and night-time we used to eat meat. Next morning we used to go to another waterhole. We used to walk, walk, walk till we used to get to that waterhole. Mother and father used to go hunting again. They used to dig for water. They used to give us drink of water with bark, bark from a tree. I mean coolamon. Until we got big in bush just by eating bush tucker . That’s what we used to do — just walk to waterhole to waterhole, and hunting all kinds of bush tucker. Bush potato, goanna, snake, blue tongue, jarran [a species of goanna]. Mum used to do the hunting, and Dad, we was small see and it was too far to walk around with them . We used to play around at the camp and my sister was in charge of us because she was the biggest in the family.
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