INTRODUCTION

Murray Garde

here is something very special about emus Like emu, this book too is somewhat unusual. T — the enormous, ever-curious bird who A great deal of the text is bilingual, with cannot fly. In the Aboriginal Australian world the primary data consisting of transcripts view, animals are other kinds of people and and English translations of conversations emu, perhaps more than most animals, is a in the Bininj Kunwok language which is special kind of person. She wanders the bush spoken (along with other languages) from constantly in search of food, always returning in the west through to places in the right season to get what she to Maningrida in the east (see the map in wants. In the Bininj Kunwok languages of Figure 1). An entire book dedicated to the western and Kakadu National exploration of a single topic, and written in Park, she is described as ‘ngal-rongmiken’, both English and an Australian Indigenous which means ‘always turning from place to language, is a rare thing. There is an increasing place, a bush traveller’. awareness among speakers of endangered languages, such as Bininj Kunwok, that The Bininj people of western Arnhem Land literacy and the development of a body of in the of Australia refer to literature are among the many ways that a emu as a woman; this can be explained in part speech community can make a contribution to by her history. Bininj say that in the period the maintenance of their threatened minority of creation when the world began, in what languages and the special world views that some English speakers call ‘the Dreaming’, these languages afford their speakers. the animals we see today were in human Again like emu, the development of this form. As is the case for all Bininj today, emu book has involved a process of wandering, has a skin or ‘subsection’ name — one of the ‘turning from place to place’ over time, to eight social categories into which a person arrive in this current bilingual and bicultural is born. Emu was a woman in the Bulanjdjan form. From 1988 to 1992 I worked as a visiting or Ngal-kangila skin group in the yirridjdja homeland centre teacher with the Northern moiety — one of the two halves into which Territory Department of Education. This everything in the world is classified (see involved living on remote outstations where Appendix 4). As a result of emu’s position Bininj had returned to their own country in the world of kinship, people in western surrounding the settlement of Maningrida in Arnhem Land can fix emu into their social the north of central Arnhem Land. I worked networks. ‘Emu, she is my grandmother’ or in small, family-based outstation schools ‘Emu, she is my auntie’ and so on. This stands in these remote communities with the in stark contrast to the way non-Aboriginal Kuninjku and Kune peoples to the south and people think and talk about animals. south-east of Maningrida in the Liverpool,

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Cape Cockburn Area covered by this map Murgenella Maliyardang North Goulburn Island South Goulburn Island Warruwi k C W EL a LI r ll NGTO NGE e e N RA iv n R ge ur r r r Skirmish Point M ive e e King R e v i d C R Maningrida oop a er Creek i

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Figure 1: Map of Bininj Kunwok in western Arnhem Land and Kakadu National Park.

xvi INTRODUCTION

Mann and Cadell Rivers districts. We held the documentation of knowledge about the classes in the morning through to the middle plants, animals and cultural landscapes of this of the day and would finish formal schooling region. when the community would disperse to go There are about eight different languages hunting, fishing and collecting food. Many spoken in the Maningrida area1 and these of the experiences we had in the afternoon language groups typically have very small became the basis for lessons in the classroom speech communities compared to the large the next morning. I would follow my Bininj world languages of nation states. Today, there friends each day on these excursions when it are about 2000 speakers of Bininj Kunwok became their turn to play the role of teacher and although this might seem to be a small while I tried to learn how to speak Kuninjku number for a language group, it is actually and Kune. This opened up to me a whole one of the larger Indigenous language groups new way of seeing their world, their families, in northern Australia today. For Bininj people, and the plants, animals and landscapes that knowledge about the natural world and the held so much significance to them. Through way they interact with it is of course best these experiences I had the good fortune of expressed in the Bininj Kunwok language. It meeting and developing friendships with might seem obvious, but it is still necessary many knowledgeable Bininj elders and their to remind ourselves that the English language families, many of whom have contributed to comes from England in Europe and languages this book. such as Bininj Kunwok are the real Australian After five years as a visiting homeland languages, and as Australians we have much centre teacher I then took up a position with to learn about our country and history by the Bawinanga Aboriginal Corporation as learning an Australian language. But, like emu Cultural Research Officer and Curator of the herself, I’m now wandering off into another Djómi Museum in Maningrida. I continued, direction, so let’s return to the story of how however, to spend much of my time out this book came to be. bush and at Yikarrakkal outstation in the beautiful Mann River valley. I built a cabin out Around 2001–2, the Bininj ecologist Dean of local sandstone and cypress pine which Yibarbuk commenced work on recording then became my base for almost a decade. information and stories about emus with I started working with a group of Aboriginal the assistance of a research grant from the and Balanda (non-Aboriginal) colleagues Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres at Bawinanga Aboriginal Corporation, and Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS). Having a together we developed a variety of programs multitude of commitments at the time, Dean to support the cultural, artistic and linguistic invited some colleagues, of which I was one, heritage of the many language groups in the at the Centre for Indigenous Natural and Cultural Resource Management at Charles Maningrida region. Darwin University in Darwin to continue with In the late 1990s there were new opportunities the project. I then commenced a collaboration developing for Aboriginal people to work in with senior Bininj across Kakadu and western land management and the burgeoning ranger 1 These languages are Ndjébbana, Na-kara, programs that were being established across Gurr-goni, Burarra, Kuninjku, , Kunbarlang northern Australia. Part of this work included and Djinang.

xvii INTRODUCTION

Arnhem Land, and after 2004 combined this out to the spirits of their deceased ancestors, expertise with that of Wendy Telfer, a zoologist requesting that they increase the numbers of with whom I had collaborated previously on emus for the benefit of the living. a project focused on rock kangaroos of the After searching for the stone arrangement Arnhem Land plateau (Telfer & Garde 2006). for a couple of days, we finally located it. As part of our quest to learn more about The senior men present that day — Jimmy emus, Wendy and I travelled across Kakadu Kalarriya, Djawirdda Nadjangorle and Isaiah and western Arnhem Land seeking out Burrunali — promptly conducted the increase knowledgeable people who had stories to tell ritual by whipping the stones with branches about ngaleh ngurrurdu, ‘that woman, the and calling out to their deceased relatives. emu’. We camped at the many outstations and After witnessing my first religious ritual homes of these knowledgeable people where relating to emus, we all talked about emus we made audio and video recordings of their for the rest of the day and I learned a great stories about emus. In the appendices to this deal more about their importance to Bininj. I book you can find Wendy Telfer’s invaluable felt that the knowledge that these and other summary of this knowledge about emus, based on the conversations presented in this book. senior men and women had about this very special Australian bird was worth recording In July 2004 I was involved in a cultural site and sharing. And so our emu odyssey began — survey of land in the upper Goomadeer kulurlk kulurlk! River region in western Arnhem Land. The senior cultural advisor during that work In 2005, Wendy Telfer and I set out to record was the celebrated Kundedjnjenghmi artist knowledge about emus from senior Bininj and traditionalist Jimmy Kalarriya. We across Kakadu National Park and western criss-crossed the region in a 4WD vehicle and Arnhem Land. This work was supported by helicopter in order to document traditional by an AIATSIS grant and support from the walking routes, much loved camping places, Australian Research Council (ARC) Key Centre rock art galleries and sacred sites of great for Tropical Wildlife Management at Charles importance to the Bininj people of western Darwin University. We camped at a number of Arnhem Land. outstations in the region between Gunbalanya and Maningrida, and encountered the One site that Kalarriya was keen to relocate, generosity and hospitality of many Bininj who and which he had not seen for some enthusiastically shared their emu knowledge decades, was a stone arrangement in the and experiences with us. form of an emu at a site called Kurdukadji Dedjbarlkarrhmeng, ‘Emu slipped on her Quite a few years later, in late 2013, our friends arse (dodging a spear)’. It was a djang — at Gundjeihmi Aboriginal Corporation in a sacred totemic increase site that was Kakadu National Park suggested we publish located on an important Bininj manbolh the results of our collaborative work with the or ‘Aboriginal walking route’. In order to many esteemed Aboriginal elders who had ensure the abundance of emus in the region, generously shared their knowledge about visitors passing through would stop at the emus. With the assistance of the Australia site and strike the stones of the emu-shaped Council’s Languages Other Than English arrangement with branches while calling Program and the Australian government’s

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