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Damper and Fish, Tea and Sugar: Post-Contact Changes in Resource

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RECORDS OF THE WESTERN AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM 79 093–108 (2011) DOI: 10.18195/issn.0313-122x.79.2011.093-108 SUPPLEMENT Damper and fi sh, tea and sugar: post-contact changes in resource use and residence on Groote Eylandt Anne Clarke Heritage Studies, Department of Archaeology, School of Philosophical and Historical Inquiry, The University of Sydney, News South Wales 2006, Australia. Email: [email protected] ABSTRACT – A number of the archaeological sites located and studied on Groote Eylandt were occupied during the very recent past covering the time of contact with Macassans and missionaries. Historical sources relating to the early period of the Church Missionary Society Mission from the 1920s to the 1950s are used in this paper to examine the material record and processes of cross-cultural interaction and change, rather than to recreate a generalised ethnographic past located at some unspecifi ed point in the late Holocene. KEYWORDS: Northern Australia, cross cultural interaction, Macassans, missionaries INTRODUCTION and processes of cross-cultural interaction and change, rather than to recreate a generalised Sylvia Hallam, together with a number of ethnographic past located at some unspecified her students, produced a series of important point in the late Holocene. This is particularly ethnohistorical accounts of Indigenous societies the case in coastal Northern Australia where in Western Australia (papers this volume). These Indigenous people experienced at least 200 years ethnohistories were by and large reconstructive, of engagement with outsiders prior to the arrival of aimed at providing detailed accounts of pre- permanent European settlements and where recent contact Indigenous economies and social systems. archaeological research has identifi ed substantial Collectively, these studies now provide a valuable changes in resource use, settlement patterns and historical archive in their own right and form a local environments from around 3,000 to 500 years key element of Sylvia Hallam’s contribution to ago and then from 500 years ago to the present Australian Indigenous studies. The paper presented (Bourke 2000; Brockwell 2001; Faulkner 2006; here is part of a research project about the Hiscock 2008). archaeology of cross-cultural interactions on Groote Eylandt in the Northern Territory of Australia. GROOTE EYLANDT With this paper I would like to acknowledge Sylvia Hallam’s contribution to archaeological The Groote Eylandt archipelago in northern scholarship by presenting this analysis of historical Australia is located about 630 km east of Darwin sources relating to the early period of the Church and 43 km east of the Arnhem Land coast, on Missionary Society (CMS) Mission from the 1920s the western side of the Gulf of Carpentaria. The to the 1950s. However, rather than using these Indigenous people of Groote Eylandt experienced documents to construct a narrative of pre-contact contact through two distinctive groups of outsiders, Indigenous society, I will use them instead to firstly Macassan fishermen and then European present an analysis of post-contact changes in missionaries. resource use, residence and technology. The fi rst cross-cultural encounters involved a A number of the archaeological sites located seasonal bartering relationship with Indonesian and studied on Groote Eylandt were occupied fi shing fl eets from southern Sulawesi (Macknight during the very recent past covering the time of 1976). The fi shermen, often referred to as Malays contact with Macassans and missionaries (Clarke in many 19th century texts, or more commonly 1994, 2000a; Clarke and Frederick 2006). In this as Macassans (Macassar was the major port of context, I would argue that the historical sources origin for many of the boats), came to northern are better used to understand the material record Australia in search of commodities to sell in the 94 ANNE CLARKE marketplaces of island South-East Asia and beyond. INITIAL ACCOUNTS OF GROOTE The main focus of Asian commercial interest in the EYLANDT SOCIETY region was trepang (bêche de mer), but pearl shell, There are two published accounts of Groote pearls, turtle shell, sandalwood, tin, manganese Eylandt society that date from the fi rst fi ve years of and dried shark tails were also sought after by the the Emerald River Mission (1921–1926), one written trepangers (Flinders 1814; Warner 1932; Berndt and by Norman Tindale (1925–26) and the other by G.H. Berndt 1954; Worsley 1955; Macknight 1976). The Wilkins (1928). archaeology, history and operation of the trepang industry in Arnhem Land, or ‘marege’ (as it was NORMAN TINDALE: 1921–1922 called by the Macassans), has been described and analysed in extensive detail by Macknight (1969, Norman Tindale spent 15 months on Groote 1972, 1976). Subsequent studies have broadened Eylandt and at the Roper River between 1921 and our knowledge of both the scope and social impact 1922 (Tindale 1925–26: 61). He lived on Groote of the industry (Mulvaney 1975, 1989; Mulvaney Eylandt for six months from November 1921 to April and Green 1992; Mitchell 1994, 1996; Clarke 1994, 1922. He fi rst accompanied the Reverend Warren 2000a, 2000b; Morwood and Hobbs 1997; Clarke and in September 1921 on a boat trip around the island Frederick 2006). inspecting sites for the Mission Station and returned two months later with Alfred Dyer to the site of what The CMS established the Emerald River Mission became the Emerald River Mission on the west coast in 1921 following the expeditions made by Warren of Groote Eylandt. Even though Tindale was the fi rst and Dyer in 1916 and 1917 from the Roper River European to describe Groote Eylandt Indigenous Mission (Warren 1918 in Macknight 1969: 186–203; society in any detail, one of the striking aspects Cole 1971: 20–28; Dewar 1992: 13). The Emerald of his account is the extent to which materials and River Mission was set up as a mission station for artefacts introduced by Macassans had already ‘half-caste’ children from the Roper River Mission been integrated into the existing material culture to bring them up away from what was seen as the and economy. His observations were made only 15 negative cultural infl uences of their ‘native’ families years after the last season of Macassan visits in 1906 (Macknight 1976: 125). (Dewar 1992: 25–29). The fi rst children from the Roper River arrived in 1924 (Cole 1972: 52), but by Tindale (1925–26: 64) considered that three 1933 the population had dropped from the original hundred people was a generous estimation of the island population. He recorded six local groups with 34 to only 9 children. The CMS then turned their the largest one located at Bartalumba Bay (Table 1). missionary activities towards ministering to the The Bartalumba group is recorded as having country local Groote Eylandt clans (Dewar 1992: 35). on Bickerton Island as well as at Bartalumba Bay. In 1943, after the outbreak of World War II, the The Bartalumba group was the main group with RAAF constructed an airstrip near the Mission sea-faring skills and they possessed most of the 25 and the CMS shifted to the present-day site on sea-going canoes Tindale observed in operation the Angurugu River (Cole 1983: 43). In 1978 the around Groote Eylandt (Tindale 1925–26: 110). CMS handed over fi nancial administration of the The Bartalumba group visited Caledon Bay and Mission to the Angurugu Council and in 1982 the the Rose River and they also spoke Nungubuyu Community Government Council was established (Tindale 1925–26: 66). Their sea-going canoes were (Cole 1983: 44–45). capable of making journeys of up to 30 miles (1928: 111) and Tindale notes that people had the In 1938 Fred Gray established the settlement of navigational skills to sail out of sight of land. Umbakumba in Port Langdon. Gray had operated a fi shing and trepanging boat in the coastal waters of eastern Arnhem Land since the early 1930s (Dewar TABLE 1 Local Groups Recorded by Tindale in 1921– 1992: 81–84.) In 1938 when Qantas built a fl ying 1922 boat base in Port Langdon to serve as a refuelling depot for the Sydney to London fl ight, the CMS LOCAL GROUP LOCATION approached Gray to work for them, to oversee the relationship between the Aboriginal population Bartalumbu North-West and the fl ying boat base staff. Gray preferred to Yetiba South-West remain independent of the CMS and received offi cial permission to establish Umbakumba in 1940 (Dewar Talakurupa East and South-East 1992: 82). Umbakumba was later taken over by the Amakurupa North-East CMS who ran it from 1958 and 1966. In 1966 it was Pbara-pbara North administered by the Welfare Branch and became self-governing in the 1980s (Cole 1983: 45–46). Angoroko West DAMPER AND FISH: POST-CONTACT CHANGES ON GROOTE EYLANDT 95 Contact with the mainland appears to have been for materials imported onto Groote. Tindale states a regular occurrence, with trade and exchange (1925–26: 98) that stone came to Groote after passing being one of the main motivations. This trade went through groups located much further to the south both ways with the Groote Eylandters trading (Allawa, Ngalakan, Mara and Nungubuyu). This fi ghting spears to mainland groups in return for may mean that another more southerly source is bamboo spears from the Balamumu of Caledon Bay, involved in stone trade or that this is the direction emu feathers, red ochre and quartzite implements that stone materials moved through the exchange (Tindale 1925–26: 97). Tindale (1925–25: 97) noted cycle before travelling to Groote Eylandt. how the Groote Eylandt spears would often pass Bush foods were observed to be plentiful with the inland, eventually being redecorated by the coast being the focus of subsistence and camping receiving groups, and he recounted seeing spears activities (Tindale 1925–26: 76–84, 113–115).
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