Annexure F Floodplain Land Forms, Soils and Sediments between Tuckurimba and Round Hill Report (Erskine, 2011)
Annexure G Report on Further Research conducted on Aboriginal Heritage Issues (Jefferies, 2011)
Report on Further Research conducted on the Aboriginal Heritage Issues arising from the proposed extension to Champion’s Quarry, Wyrallah Road, Tuckurimba N.S.W.
1.0 Introduction
This report aims to address the outstanding and unresolved issues relevant to the Aboriginal Heritage concerning the proposed Champion’s Quarry extension, Wyrallah Road, Tuckurimba indentified by Dr. Gaynor Macdonald in her affidavit sworn 22-03-2011 (Point 15 see below). As well as addressing the issues identified by Dr. Macdonald the report also describes the program of research conducted in the previous two months aimed at meeting the issues identified in the hearings of the Land and Environment Court in February 2011. The further research identified by Dr. Macdonald in Point 15 of her affidavit will be addressed under the following headings:
1.) The identity and ownership of the language-territory in which the site is located. 2) Whether or not the area is under the traditional ownership of Widjabul people and, if not, which people are recognised as having the authority to speak for this area. 3) The identity of person(s) culturally recognised (rather than self-appointed) who speak for the area. 4) Whether the case transcends language-territory (‘tribal’) boundaries and raises issues of local or regional significance. 5) Whether persons of cultural standing have been provided with a reasonable opportunity to confer on these and relevant matters. 6) What these people have had to say.
In addition Dr. Macdonald’s (Affidavit 22-03-2011, Point 38) following recommendations were addressed:
(a) That Mr Murray John Roberts be requested to provide any further cultural and site- based evidence he has not already placed before the Court directly or through the Ms. Riebe’s reports.
1 (b) That Ms. Riebe be requested to provide:
copies of any video and audio tapes and any notes of interviews with Bundjalang elders including her interviews with members of the Roberts family, Linky Gordon, Eric Walker, Laurence Wilson and any other Bundjalang elders referred to in her Statement of Evidence and oral evidence.
copies of the research she said she conducted in regard to Bundjalang ‘sacred pathway(s)’
copies of any reports in her possession or control regarding Bandjalang ‘sacred pathways, Tucki Bora Ring, Round Hill or any other site in the Tuckurimba area.
any other relevant material sources such as the written reports she references where these are not publicly available.
I contacted Inge Riebe on 23-02-2011 by email requesting her to provide me with the tapes and interviews she mentions in her Statement of Evidence as a means of furthering the research she regarded as necessary to fully understand the Aboriginal heritage of the proposed extension to Champion’s Quarry site. I received no reply. On 21-04-2011 I sent by registered post requests to Inge Riebe and to Murray John Roberts requesting the information described by Dr. Macdonald above. As yet I have received no response to these requests (see Appendix 2 Items 1-3).
In addition to the issues raised by Dr. Macdonald in her affidavit (22-03-2011) the following issues are commented on in light of the evidence forthcoming from interviews conducted in the last two months, and both taped and written material accessed from A.I.A.T.S.I.S. and other sources:
7) The further research, particularly that of archival tape recordings that has been undertaken. 8) The significance of Round Hill 9) The existence of ‘sacred pathways’ claimed to be associated with Tucki Bora Ring.
2 2.0 Structure of the Report
The report is structured to address the questions raised by Dr. Macdonald in her affidavit sworn 22-03-2011 as listed in the 1.0 Introduction. The report’s findings are summarised in Section 3.0 following. The report (Section 5.0) discusses each of the questions Dr. Macdonald raises in turn and adduces evidence to demonstrate the conclusions reached in respect of them. Sometimes the evidence for one question is relevant to, and carries over, to the question following. The provenance, and the reliability of that provenance in relation to the evidence adduced is also discussed.
3.0 Summary of Key Findings
The Key findings of the report are as follows:
The area of the proposed Champion’s Quarry extension is located on or about the boundary between two local groups, the Wiyabal to the north, and the Bandjalang to the south. This boundary is undefined, that is it is there is no hard and fast border between these two groups denoted either by an abstract line or by natural features. Such country is sometimes referred to by the expression ‘open country’. The Widjabal are not the correct people for this area. That name correctly applies to the Bandjalang-speakers who occupied country directly to the north of Lismore (i.e. around Nimbin, Blakebrook and Donoon). The right people to speak for this country are the Wiyabal (of the Wyrallah, Parrot’s Nest and Pelican Creek country), the Bandjalang (of Coraki and Bungawalyn Creek) and the Nyangbal (of the coast around Evans Head, Wardell and Ballina). The Widjabal and Wiyabal are not the same group of people. The groups listed above, the Wiyabal, Bandjalang and Nyangbal, have collective ownership (and therefore right to speak) for the area of the proposed extension to Champion’s Quarry. An extensive interview process has failed to uncover any evidence for Round Hill as a ‘teaching hill’ or any connection of Round Hill to Tucki Bora Ring.
3 The interview process has failed to uncover any evidence for the existence of a ‘sacred pathway’ linking Round Hill and Tucki Bora Ring. An extensive review of archival audio tapes of Bandjalang Elders (AIATSIS Visual Audio Library) has failed to reveal any evidence of significance for Round Hill or any evidence for the existence of a ‘sacred pathway’ linking Round Hill to Tucki Bora Ring or any evidence of a particular and important cultural significance for the area of the proposed Champion’s Quarry extension.
4.0 Note on Names Used.
Much of the argument to be presented hinges on the identification of those who have a right to speak for the Tuckurimba area in which the proposed extension to Champion’s Quarry is located. The three groups identified as having a traditional role, and therefore a say, in the understanding and disposition of cultural heritage in this district are the Wiyabal (sometimes identified as ‘the Wyrallah horde’), the Bandjalang (i.e. the Coraki and Bungawalbyn Creek group), and the Nyangbal (of the Richmond and Evans Rivers estuaries and lowlands). For the sake of convenience these groups will be collectively referred to as the Lower Richmond River people. As will be discussed there are a number of cogent reasons for the acceptability of this communal and collective designation. To make matters perfectly clear in respect of geography, ‘the Lower Richmond’ in this case consists of Wilson’s River (with a distinction made between the Wiyabal south of Lismore and the Widjabal to its north), the Richmond River proper to the west as far as where Bandjalang meets the Giabal (i.e. the vicinity of Tatham) and otherwise the lower reaches of the Richmond River including other watercourses such as the Evans River.
5.0 Questions raised in the Affidavit of Dr. Gaynor Macdonald 22-03-2011
1) Identity and Ownership of the territory in which the site is located
Key findings: (1) The area of the proposed Champion’s Quarry extension is located on or about the boundary between two local groups, the Wiyabal to the north, and the Bandjalang to the south; (2) This boundary is undefined, that is it is there is no hard and
4 fast border between these two groups denoted either by an abstract line or by natural features. Such country is sometimes referred to by the expression ‘open country’.
Considerable effort has been spent in attempting to identify the traditional boundaries that encompass the proposed Champion’s Quarry site and several key documents have been unearthed. These will be dealt with separately.
1 (a) The most accurate and best researched information on the various Richmond River Bandjalang language groups is found in N.C. Keats (1988) Wollumbin. In ‘Master Map of the Bundjalung Dialect Tribal Areas of the Richmond, Brunswick and Tweed Rivers of New South Wales’ (1988:18, see Appendix Map 1) Keats places the border between the Wiyabal and Bandjalang groups at approximately the junction of Pelican’s Creek and Wilsons River from where it heads E.N.E. to meet the toe of the N. to S. running ridge that separates Tucki Creek from Marom Creek. This demarcation runs approximately a kilometre north of the proposed quarry extension.
Elsewhere in Wollumbin Keats describes, with accompanying maps, the territory of the various Bandjalang dialect groups. Those that concern us here are the Lower Richmond River groups: the Wiyabal, Bandjalang and Nyangbal. (It should be noted here that Bandjalang in this context refers to the group often called the Coraki people, not Bandjalang the name given to the language and its speakers as a whole). Keats’ (1988:24) map Bandjalang ‘Tribal Dialect Area as envisaged by the author’ (see Appendix, Map 2) places the boundary described in precisely the same place as the Master Map, that is, linking the locality of Ruthven on Pelican Creek with the ridge separating Tucki Creek from Marom Creek. This boundary is a marked as a perfectly straight line and bears the annotation ‘open country’. In the accompanying text Keats (Ibid) describes Bandjalang boundaries as follows:
The northern boundary of the Bandjalang people had a common front with Wiyabal tribal territory approximately in the Ruthven area, then proceeded in an easterly direction across Wilson River, north of Coraki, and encompassed the headwaters of Marom, Youngman, Gum and Yellow Creeks […]
5 Keats (1988:26) map Wiyabal Tribal Dialect Area, Richmond River as envisaged by the author’ (see Appendix Map 3) places the Wiyabal and Bandjalang boundary in the same position as in the previous maps and has the same annotation ‘open country’. An addition to the previous maps is the Tucki Tucki Bora Ring placed just north of this open boundary. Keats’ (1988:28) comments on Wiyabal boundaries are in conformity with those made for Bandjalang, that the boundary ran from,
[…] Tuckean Swamp about due west across Wilsons River at Ruthven, then followed the south-eastern side of Pelican Creek through Pine Ridge and linked with the Mackellar Range […]
The Nyangbal map (1988:28) (Appendix Map 4) also indicates the Bandjalang Territory northern ‘open boundary’ as bisecting Tucki Tucki Creek and the ridge that separates that creek and Marom Creek, therefore, if anything, somewhat further north than on the previous maps.
Keats’ maps place the site of Champion’s Quarry and the proposed extensions to it on the southern side of an open boundary that separated the Wiyabal and Bandjalang groups. As will be discussed all three Lower Richmond River groups, the Wiyabal, Bandjalang and Nyangbal had interests in this area. Part of this was the shared economic interest of each, in their different sectors having frontage to Tuckean Swamp, as well as cultural and probably political interests that united all three as distinct from other Bandjalang-speaking groups, particularly to the north. These questions will be returned to but before doing so it is necessary to discuss something of the provenance of Keats’ work by way of establishing its credibility.
On page 27 of Wollumbin Keats has a photograph encaptioned: ‘Steve and Lyall Roberts (brothers) Wyrallah Horde Group, Wiyabal District Tribe Richmond River (Photo N.C. Keats c. 1950). The inclusion of this photograph in his chapter on Bandjalang group boundaries is not accidental. Keats was well-known in the Bandjalang Northern Rivers community and enjoyed friendships with Bandjalang people, including the Roberts, that went back decades. As relayed to me by his brother Warren Keats (Letter 02-03-2011):
6 […] Later in the early 1930s the NSW Government Department responsible for the Aborigines’ welfare constructed a camp of some twenty or so huts with a small church and a school on the property of Irvin Sommerville adjoining Leycester Lane at Tuncester via Lismore [i.e. Cubbawee]. Norman and wife lived for a time in a rented house on a hill overlooking the camp about 1km distant. In the years 1932 to 1936 Norman became well-acquainted with the identities in the camp particularly the elders. Here he would have met the Roberts, Steve and Lyall and others such as Ferguson and the Barkers. He probably conversed with them on a daily basis. They knew he was a descendant of John Boyd whom they all revered. They trusted him implicitly […] paspalum grass seed. This grass was well established on the roads around Tuncester and the Aboriginal families collected and bagged it but the merchants of the day would always underpay them below the going price (rob them). They approached Norman and when they were ready to sell they would load the bags onto Norman’s utility and he would sell it for them to the seed merchants, getting the proper price. Some of the Aborigines did so well out of the sales and several bought themselves old T-model Ford type vehicles and would be seen motoring around. The Aboriginals there held Norman in very high regard […]
Thus Norman Keats would have been in a good position to acquire information on Bandjalang boundaries direct from the Elders he knew so well. This is confirmed by Warren Keats (02-03-2011):
At the end of the 1960s Norman’s interest in Aboriginal history and affairs led him to proceed to do some in-depth research. Between the years 1960 to 1989 when Wollumbin was published he made many trips from Sydney to Casino/Lismore to do research at the Richmond River Historical Society and to talk with people. He had decided to publish something on the matter. He spoke with many people of European descent and with the Aboriginals too. Unfortunately, I cannot recall specific names but he told me often of these encounters at the time. He spent nearly twenty years compiling Wollumbin.
Fortunately we have additional contemporary correspondence that confirms the information provided by his brother. On 08-06-1987 Norman Keats wrote John Weingarth, librarian at
7 the Northern Rivers Regional Library outlining his plans for further research. Among his other comments are the following:
The maps I showed you when I met you in Lismore which I procured from Aboriginal Studies, Canberra, more or less covered the Bunjalung people’s area which roughly stretched from the Logan River (Qld) down to the southern banks of the Clarence River and from the sea coast to the Great Dividing Range. Aboriginal Studies, Canberra, forwarded on four maps showing lingual groupings within the Bunjalung country. They were four entirely differing assessments of lingual dialect areas contained in the Bunjalung country; not only that, but they varied in names of these dialect areas and in numbers. I herewith enclose a copy of the most recent one. An estimated original dialect boundaries within the Bunjalung area by Terry Crowley in 1978. Crowley has not only presented this map but has named 25 of these dialect areas with some degree of studied authority. Whether he is correct or not at the moment is not a final question, but the fact is, it is in more detail than any previous one and should set itself up as a document for discussion and appraisal by advanced students of Aboriginal territorial locations, who have lived or worked inside Bunjalung country itself. In my mind despite the good intentions of academics on this question unless they have been prepared to discuss their thesis with advanced students and acknowledgeable descendents of the Bunjalung people in a collective manner, I am afraid that their findings are nowhere conclusive or necessarily correct. This is quite evident by their differing thesis on so many fronts. Just to wander about as an individual meeting this one and that from some of the relics of the dialect tribes is not good enough. I have now given much thought to this since returning home and as I am an historian who seeks to make in depth studies of my subject matter when I come to writing about the Bunjalung people of the Richmond and Tweed Rivers I have been greatly surprised at the lack of basic collusion and agreement about the tribal dialect areas, their boundaries, numbers, etc. This now requires a lot of research […] In pursuit of this I have in mind a plan of action for a responsible group of people within Bunjalung territory to come together and have an initial discussion on these questions. I have in mind an inaugural meeting between yourself, Ray Kelly, Frank and Audray Roberts, Adrian Piper and a few other advanced Bunjalung descendants and myself at Lismore as soon as possible. This could be the commencement of an active historical
8 group to study and re-establish Bunjalung culture within the boundaries of Bunjalung country […] I would be most appreciative if you could forward Frank Roberts address and phone number, also Ray Kelly […]
Whether Norman Keats’ aim to organise a group to study Bandjalang ‘the number of tribal lingual areas’, ‘the boundaries of those tribal lingual areas’, and ‘the names of the horde groups within those tribal lingual areas’ ever materialised is unknown1; surely however his comments on research and who it was appropriate to question must have informed his own study. As to the success or failure of the end result, whether or not Keats’ maps and written descriptions did in fact accurately portray the boundaries of the Wiyabal, Bandjalang and Nyangbal, we have the following testimony from Coraki local historian Noel Flaherty, who I interviewed on 23-02-2011. Around 1995 Flaherty had taken Keats’ Wollumbin to respected Bandjalang Elder the late Laurence Wilson to ask his opinion on the Aboriginal content of the book. In response to Flaherty’s questions Laurence Wilson confirmed that Keats had consulted him on the book’s preparation (‘I’ve okayed everything that’s in it’) and, in his opinion, ‘Wollumbin was as close as you’ll get to the story here (that is, in respect of clans, tribal areas, the divisions of tribal groups) without being a Bandjalang man (that is an initiated man), this is as close as a White man will get’.
In light of Laurence Wilson’s express approval of the boundaries Keats delineates and the strong probability that other Bandjalang Elders, including in all probability senior members of the Roberts family, were consulted, plus the fact these enquiries were made and collated before the advent of native title and the politicking, deal-making and trade- offs that has ensued as a result, there is every reason to believe that Wollumbin is an accurate guide to Lower Richmond River Bandjalang boundaries. If so, almost certainly the site of Champion’s proposed quarry extension falls into Bandjalang territory and not Wiyabal and, furthermore, that likelihood is that the site is in the neutral or open territory implied by Keats’ use of the expression ‘open boundary’. This conclusion raises further questions: is Murray John Roberts, as a self-identified Elder of the Widjabal people, the correct person to speak for this place (and, as will be seen there are questions over
1 Adrian Piper (03-05-2011) has no knowledge of the meeting ever taking place.
9 whether Roberts is in fact either an Elder or Widjabal by his own definition). And, if Roberts is not the correct person to speak for the Champion’s Quarry site who is? (and here it must be stressed that the singular ‘person’ is in itself inappropriate; proper representation should consist of a group of persons representing one or more of the three Bandjalang groups of the Lower Richmond River (i.e. Wiyabal, Bandjalang, and Nyangbal), and preferably all three.
1 (b) The second map of credible provenance to address the issue of boundaries and responsibility for land in the vicinity of the proposed Champion’s Quarry extension is that provided by Inge Riebe (2011:4) in her Statement of Evidence (Appendix Map 5) is entitled ‘Map prepared by Far North Coast Regional Aboriginal Land Council from information given by Bundjalung Elders in a Series of Joint Meetings with Myself [i.e. Inge Riebe] during 1990s.’ Although small, the map is accurate in detail, if blown up, printed on a transparency and juxtaposed on a topographical map it can be seen that it conforms to the conclusions to be derived from Keats, namely that the interface between Wiyabal and Bandjalang passes north of the proposed Champion’s Quarry extension. Although this map appears to be as much about contemporary divisions of land control in Bandjalang as it is about traditional boundaries the fact that it was created at the behest of Bundjalang Elders gives the map credibility.
1 (c) In addition to the information provided in these pre-native title maps there is other information derived from interview and written material that casts considerable doubt on the tribal affiliation of the Tuckurimba area, which includes of course the site of the proposed Champion’s Quarry extension. In an interview conducted with Desmond (Johnno) Morrissey (24-03-2011), the grandson of George Williams (‘from Lismore’) from whom Mr. Morrissey learnt traditional knowledge as a boy, he referred to Tuckurimba as Bandjalang country. When questioning Mr. Morrissey about his knowledge of the Tuckurimba area he recalled an incident of his childhood spent in Coraki where he had moved to live with his sister Lucy who had married a Breckenridge (‘I’m not from Coraki – I was brought there – if not I would have been sent to a home’). According to Mr. Morrissey the Breckenridges ‘were from Wyrallah’:
10 When we were kids he (Ted Breckenridge) took us up to Tuckurimba. [He said] ‘This is our country’. He showed us the bora ring [at Tucki] and said ‘You’re not allowed to walk in there. It’s djang – it’s bad to go there. When you go there you’ve got to talk to the ring in language’ […] ‘This is Breckenridge country’ […]
Mr. Morrissey noted also that the ‘White Breckenridges’ were from Wyrallah and that their tombstones can be seen at Tucki cemetery adjacent the bora ring (which was confirmed).2 Apart from Tucki bora ring Mr. Breckenridge did not point out any other places in Tuckurimba. There is no doubt the Breckenridges are Bandjalang (and are of course recognised as such today). Vincent Cowan, a Bandjalang Elder in his eighties who I interviewed in Casino on 26-02-2011 stated that his mother’s maiden name was Jessie Breckenridge and that both his parents spoke Bandjalang (the dialect not the language). He also stated that he regarded Jack Breckenridge (now deceased) as a particularly knowledgeable Bandjalang Elder.
2) Whether or not the area is under the traditional ownership of Widjabul people and, if not, which people are recognised as having the authority to speak for this area.
Key findings: (1) The Widjabal are not the correct people for this area. That name correctly applies to the Bandjalang-speakers who occupied country directly to the north of Lismore (i.e. around Nimbin, Blakebrook and Donoon) ; (2) The right people to speak for this country are the Wiyabal (of the Wyrallah, Parrot’s Nest and Pelican Creek country), the Bandjalang (of Coraki and Bungawalyn Creek) and the Nyangbal (of the coast around Evans Head, Wardell and Ballina); (3) The Widjabal and Wiyabal are not the same group of people; (4) The groups listed above, the Wiyabal, Bandjalang and Nyangbal, have collective ownership (and therefore right to speak) for the area of the proposed extension to Champion’s Quarry.
2 (a) Additional information in respect of the tribal identity of the proposed quarry site is forthcoming from both taped and written material from the Roberts family, namely Lyle Roberts Jnr. and Frank Roberts. Lyle Roberts Jnr. was recorded extensively by Marjorie
2 The Breckenridges in fact owned a sawmill in Wyrallah (Oakes Ms. 3831 REF).
11 Oakes over an approximate fourteen year period between the late 1960s and early 1980s. What is not in dispute is that the area around Wyrallah was the home country of the Wiyabal the most recognised family of whom is the Roberts. Throughout Oakes recordings and notes (as well as of course published documentation) Lyle Roberts refers continually to Wyrallah and Pelican’s Creek as the home country of his Guru:mbil or ‘Hoop Pine’ people (Oakes Ms 3831 Series 4 Item 9):
The Roberts family were the main Aboriginal family associated with the Lismore area but their original ground was Ghoorongbil, meaning ‘Hoop Pines’ and it embraced, according to Lyle Roberts, Parrot’s Nest, Pelican Creek and Wyrallah. According to Lyle they could at times go as far south as Jerusalem Creek, as far north as Broken Head and as far inland as Blue Knob though there is some veto on the Nimbin area according to Lyle’s sister Dolly (Lucy), which I do not yet understand. None as far as Lyle is concerned.
There is also a strong affiliation in the Roberts clan with places north of Lismore such as Blue Knob, Nimbin, Blakebrook, Terania Creek and Dunoon as emerges frequently in Oakes’ interviews, particularly with Lyle Roberts Jnr. Pastor Frank Roberts Senior’s mother’s country was Widjabul which includes places such as Blue Knob, Blakebrook and Nimbin (Oakes Ms 3831 Series 4 Item 8):
Pastor Frank born at ‘Black Rock’ [which is] Blakebrook Ngumbandunma:n […] Pastor Frank Roberts’ [Snr.] mother was Widjabul and his grandfather […]
Elsewhere, Lyle Roberts Jnr. refers to Blakebrook (which he calls by its language name Ngumbanbadunma:n) as his ‘homeground’ (Oakes Ms 3831 Series 4 Items 4-5, 08-12- 1968). What appears to have happened is that two separate lines of descent in the Roberts family, have in later days been conflated into one, and thus, for whatever political ends, Widjabal country has reached out further south to combine the patrilineal family connections around Wyrallah with the matrilineal connections that actually do apply to Widjabul. As will be seen in the following documentation as far as Lyle Roberts Jnr. was concerned the Wyrallah country was Bandjalang, not Widjabal. On Tape A1066 Track A
12 (AIATSIS Audio Visual Library) Oakes records a number of corroboree songs from Lyle Roberts Jnr. Oakes asks Lyle Roberts the following question:
Mr. Roberts you’re going to sing us a corroboree song?
To which she received the answer:
The corroboree song I’m going to sing belongs to my tribe Bandjalang from Wyrallah, Cabbage Tree Island and Lismore.
Oakes then asks:
Who made this corroboree?
Lyle Roberts Jnr. replies:
This song was made by my mother and father […] what he learned from the older generation.
Lyle Roberts Jnr. then describes the content of the corroboree, which includes the places mentioned that Lyle Roberts’ father had to leave when relocating to Cabbage Tree Island, Wyrallah and the Lismore district. Oakes, however, is clearly a little perplexed that Lyle Roberts Jnr. would describe himself as ‘Bandjalang’, a name she clearly, along with many others, assumes to apply to the post-World War 2 modern term that has been adopted (or extended) to include all groups and peoples speaking the Bandjalang language, and the following exchange takes place:
Marjorie Oakes: And what is the name of your tribe?
Lyle Roberts Jnr.: Bandjalang
Marjorie Oakes: Isn’t that a great big one?
13 Lyle Roberts Jnr.: Yes
Marjorie Oakes: Did you belong to a small section of that – with another name?
Lyle Roberts Jnr.: Only this name [?]
Any ambiguity or doubt as to the self-identification of Lyle Roberts Jnr. and Pastor Frank Roberts is allayed by the continual and specific references throughout Oakes recorded and written material and in the recorded material of Margaret Gummow and John Sommerlad in which the Roberts Elders identify themselves as Bandjalang. The context of these references prohibits any convenient assumption that for some altogether unlikely reason these elder Roberts are referring to themselves as Bandjalang meaning the modern pan- Bandjalang language group entity (for example, as in the following quote the Roberts Elders consistently, and specifically compare their father’s ‘tribal’ identity as against their mother’s). On Sommerlad’s Tape A2142, the following exchange takes place:
John Sommerlad: With these ceremonies did they ever do any marking, do any painting?
Lyle Roberts Jnr.: No […] It seems very strange to me why they didn’t […] I’m sorry they didn’t put some marking, you know, as their territory.
John Sommerlad: But the starting point of the Bandjalang tribe is Parrots Nest? Do you know where that is? On the way to Casino?
Lyle Roberts Jnr.: On your right, oh about 5 mile down I think, 6 mile it would be. You see a little hill […] You’d be surprised in the early days there was a nest there and little eggs, just stones. That’s why they call it Parrot’s Nest. That’s the start of the Bandjalang tribe right down to Evans Head.
John Sommerlad: How far this way? Where’s the boundary coming this way [i.e. towards Lismore where the interview is taking place]
14 Lyle Roberts Jnr.: This way to Lismore, and back that way. North Lismore is the boundary. My mother’s lot would live on the other side [i.e. north of Lismore].
John Sommerlad: Who do you say yours is… Bandjalang?
Lyle Roberts Jnr.: Bandjalang
John Sommerlad: And your mother’s was?
Widjabal, Widjabal [spells] W-i-d-j-a-b-a-l […]
Elsewhere on the Sommerlad tape (A2142) Lyle Roberts Jnr. reiterates the same point:
[…] Now, I’ll sing one more. This is the Bandjalang tribe on my father’s side, and my mother’s side, she was Widjabal, out there at Nimbin and mixed up with the Tree [?] Tribe see – Widjabal. And my great grandfather he roamed around out here, Blue Knob, we call it, Bordil [Bural] […]
‘Other senior members of the Roberts family are recorded as making statements to the same effect. For example, Margaret Gummow (A13009), when interviewing Fletcher Roberts in Lismore on 10-10-1988 played to him a tape that had been recorded of his father, Pastor Frank Roberts by John Gordon on 17-05-1968. Pastor Roberts’ first comments on the tape are as follows:
I am going to sing songs of the Bandjalang and Widjabal Tribe… Bandjalang is my father and Widjabal is my mother […]
In addition to the taped assertions of Bandjalang patrilineal identity, as opposed to matrilineal Widjabal identity, there are also the written comments on the subject made by Marjorie Oakes in the extensive diaries and notebooks she kept of her work with Lyle Roberts Jnr. over a long period. A certain ambiguity prevails in Lyle Roberts Jnr. (and Marjorie Oakes) understanding of the relationship of the Roberts clan to these names. On 15-12-1968 (Ms 3803 Series 4 Item 4-5) for example, Oakes reports:
15 A question I asked him about was Widgabul. He calls his mother’s and Jim Morgan’s language ‘Bandjalang’ but I know that Pastor Frank said on J.D.’s [sic John Gordon’s] tape that his mother was Widjabul and Lyle started saying ‘could be’ and giving an example which I couldn’t quite cotton onto […]
In a subsequent letter to Jim Boydell of AIAS (02-01-1969) Oakes (Ms 3831 Series 4 Item 4-5) reported:
On the subject of Widjabul, I have found that my man’s [i.e. Lyle Roberts Jnr.] deceased brother said on John Gordon’s tape that their mother was Widjabul, but my man is puzzled by the word. To him it’s all Bandjelang […]
In Mildred Norledge’s (1959, R.R.H.S.) ‘Memories of Mr Lyle Roberts [Snr.], recorded in 1959 ‘about two weeks before he died’ Lyle Roberts Snr. states: ‘My people were the Bundjalung people. I was born in 1881 and am the last Aboriginal citizen to have passed here on the Richmond through the full Rite of the Initiation […] During my life we lived with three different tribes of people. Finally they went to Cabbage Tree Island. (see Oakes AIATSIS Ms.3803 S.1 Item.1).
Finally, there is the report of at least one researcher whose long history of work with Bandjalang people is well-known and respected (Robyn Howell 01-04-1989 R.R.H.S. File: Wiyabal):
[…] The dialect group known as the Wiyabal occupied an area which extended from Lismore, through the Big Scrub to Dunoon and on to the Nightcap Range. The western boundary was formed by the Mackellar Range. The name ‘Bundjalung’ is taken from the dialect group – Bundjalung – which occupied the area covering Wyrallah, Parrots Nest, Gundurimba, Tucki Tucki, Pelican Tree, Pelican Creek, the Tuckean Swamp, south to Bungawalbyn Creek, and east to the coast at Broadwater, Evans Head and the area covered by the Bundjalung National Park.
16 Howell gives as her ‘Source of Reference’: ‘Personal interviews and field trips with the Bundjalung people of the respective dialect groups between 1984 and 1991.’
The consistent point that emerges from these various discussions and descriptions is the extent of the territory, rather than so much the name it was called by. For example, Oakes (Ms 3831 Series 4 Item 8, 10-11-1974) made the following non-attributed note (her underlining):
Weabul [i.e. Wiyabal] stretches from Blue Knob [to] Evans Head [to] Parrot’s Nest important.
Several things emerge from a close scrutiny of the statements recorded from the genuine Roberts Elders: firstly, there is a differentiation between what their patrilineal and matrilineal heritages: the former is the Wiyabal associated specifically with Wyrallah, Pelican Creek and Parrot’s Nest; the second is the Widjabal, associated with the places north of Lismore already mentioned: Blue Knob, Nimbin and Dunoon. Secondly, the affiliation of the Wiyabal of Wyrallah is with the peoples to their south, the Bandjalang and the Nyangbal, or, as I have described them collectively, and with only approximate accuracy, the Lower Richmond River people. As evidence above as to boundaries shows, and as evidence going to social and cultural behaviour to be adduced will show, these groups frequently acted collectively and can be regarded as possessing a social and cultural unity, perhaps conforming closest to the generally accepted notion of ‘tribe’. It will be argued that it is these people collectively who have a say over any Aboriginal heritage assessment of the proposed Champion’s Quarry extension.
The literary record confirms the assertions made by the legitimate Roberts Elder quoted above. Crowley (1978: 148) describes the territory of the Wiyabal as follows:
Past Coraki the Richmond River divides, with the North Arm passing through Lismore and the Richmond River proper passing through Casino. It seems that there was a separate dialect spoken along each arm […] Smythe and the Geytenbeeks place Wiyabal to the north of Lismore, though the actual extent differs in each. Since
17 no other dialect is known for this area, it will be suggested here that Wiyabal was spoken around Lismore, Alstonville, Dunoon and Nimbin […]
It might appear, however, that the earlier linguist, W.E. Smythe, who worked about Casino, had a more accurate view of Wiyabal’s distribution (Crowley Op. Cit.: 255):
The Wi:abal, located by Smythe around Lismore, apparently comprised two groups speaking different dialects, one along the North Arm of the Richmond River […] and the second along the lower reaches of the Richmond River […]
Sharpe (1997:369) advances the view that there are two dialects: ‘Wiyabal and Wuyebal from Lismore and Coraki [respectively]’. Sharpe (Op. Cit.: 370) also notes another dialect ‘possibly Wujehbal or Dinggabal […] from speakers at Woodenbong’.3
Riebe’s (2000:19) description of Widjabul country (‘Wiyabal in some accounts’) is both more detailed and more specific:
The Widjabul territory boundary is along Stibbard Creek across to the Wilson River through Paffs Hill, then along the Wilson River to Pelican Creek. Then the boundary follows Pelican Creek to the Mackellar Range, runs north-west of Hanging Rock into Mebbin State Forest then back down the watershed to Nightcap Range. From there it runs across to Koonyum Range, then along the main Coastal Range and Black Wall Range to the east and, taking in the upper Wilson River and tributaries, back down to Bagotville.
Clearly what has happened here, and what we see happening in the native title process, is that in order to advance the claims of the Roberts family, and specifically those of Murray John Roberts, the patrilineal and matrilineal descent lines of the family have been amalgamated and reconstructed as the Widjabal, not possessors of their traditional land north of Lismore but embracing an area that coincides almost exactly with the boundaries of the Lismore City Council and Ngulingah Local Land Council. Apart from the
3 Note necessarily however a dialect of Woodenbong; simply that speakers of the dialect were residing at Woodenbong.
18 amalgamation of two separate classical era identities the boundary of this manufactured entity have been extended south to the vicinity of Paff’s Hill, that is well south of the boundaries Riebe claims to have obtained from Bandjalang Elders in the 1990s (i.e. prior to the advent of native title).
As described by the legitimate Roberts Elders and in credible anthropological and linguistic literature two groups in the classical period, the Widjabal and the Wiyabal. From a linguistic point of view the names /Wiyabal/ and /Widjabal/ themselves embody a contrast. Sharpe (1997:375) differentiates ‘a shift in pronouns’ between /wiye/wiya/, /wudhah/, /wudhe/wudha/wuje/wuja/, and /wujeh/ for the second person singular pronoun (i.e. ‘you’) in various Bandjalang dialects. These sorts of variations typically define different dialects, which, in turn, imply local groups that have their own domain and distinguish themselves from their neighbours. In other words, the existence of the two names applied to the same area implies two (at least) dialects, and hence two local groups (cf. Calley 1959:60). These are not, as Riebe (2010: Point 8) asserts somewhat contradictorily two names for different aspects of the same group: ‘[…] the subject site is located within Wiyabal country, the traditional owners of which are the Widjabul people who were forest people, the term Wiyabal being used for the forest country […]’ This derivation is wholly fictional.
The social amalgamation of two (or more) local groups in the area defined in Riebe’s description is not unlikely given the devastating effects European colonisation had on Aboriginal society in the 19th century (see Calley 1959:60). Prentis (1972:308 quoted Riebe 2000:21) noted ‘The epidemics of 1854…reduced a population of 1,200 to only 807 in 1881’. This was one of several waves of disease which spread through the Aboriginal communities of this region to which can be added the indiscriminate violence permitted against Aboriginals and the effects of alcohol and the suppression of traditional economic activities. Lyle Roberts Snr. (Norledge 1960:411) stated:
[…] I was born in 1881, and am the last Aboriginal citizen on the Richmond to have passed through the full rite of the Initiation. Tribal life even at that time was being broken up. During my life we lived with three different tribes of people. Finally we went to Cabbage Tree Island […]
19 There is no evidence to suggest that the Wiyabal and Widjabal amalgamation is anything other than a native title construction. There is no evidence to suggest Roberts Elders thought of themselves or their heritage in this way or that they distinguished themselves from their neighbours at Dunoon, Cubbawee or Cabbage Tree Island in this way. As will be examined in the section to follow, the Roberts family connections socially and culturally were throughout to the people to their south, the Bandjalang of Coraki and the Nyangbal of the estuarine Richmond River. There are indications throughout Riebe’s (2010) Statement of Evidence that this native title assertion is based on either faulty or misleading anthropology. For example, in response to my production of a statement emanates originally from the research of Marjorie Oakes (Ms.) who first ascertained there were two Johnny Bob families:
[…] Johnnie Bob, Elder of the Tucki Tucki people is not to be confused with Johnnie Bob of the Wiyabal people, who married Emily Richmond from the Tweed River people […]
To which Riebe (2010 Point 95) responds:
This gives a false impression that there are somehow two families. The elder Johnny Bob is Johnny Bob II who was strongly associated with Tucki due to his ownership of it, and his periods of residence at the main permanent camp below the ring. He was also strongly associated with Terania Creek and its Bora. He is the father of Johnny Bob III who married Emily Richmond in an arranged marriage between Widjabul and Tweed mobs. Clearly they are both Widjabul men […]
‘Clearly’ however the strong possibility is that it is Oakes’ research that is right and not Riebe’s for it is impossible for the one man, Johnny Bob II, to have been both ‘strongly associated with Tucki due to his ownership of it’, and ‘strongly associated with Terania Creek and its Bora’, as these were places of high cultural significance in two separate territories. Either Johnny Bob II was Wiyabal, in which case he lived in Tucki, or he was Widjabal and had an association with the Terania Creek Bora – he could not have been both. One has to go no further than the distinctions repeatedly drawn by the Roberts Elders themselves to see this was the case. In my view this is another example of the hyperbole
20 and loose respect for the facts that has characterised Riebe’s anthropology in respect of the Champion’s Quarry case, a topic that will be returned to in Section following.
It can be deduced from the various descriptions provided that for the generation of Marjorie Oakes’ chief informants: Lyle Roberts Jnr., Aubrey Roberts, Fletcher Roberts and George Cook the entire area from Blue Knob and Nimbin down the Wilsons and Lower Richmond River to Evans Head was the area they regarded as their homeland, rather than necessarily the sub-divisions it is possible to make within it. As regards the sub-division of this region into the groups mentioned, the Nyangbal, Bandjalang and Widjabal (notwithstanding the latter-day political machinations of native title claims) clearly the evidence links the name Widjabal to the areas north of Lismore, places such as Blue Knob, Blakebrook, Nimbin and Dunoon. South of Lismore the actual ‘tribal’ identity of the country must be regarded as being in dispute (which is not to say that the Roberts affiliation to Wyrallah, Pelican Creek etc. is in dispute – clearly it is not; however, by their own assertion, it is doubtful whether the land should be identified as Widjabal).
The further significance of the Roberts Elder’s (Pastor Frank Roberts Snr., Lyle Roberts Snr., Lyle Roberts Jnr., Fletcher Roberts) self-identification as being Bandjalang on his father’s side, and Widjabal on his mother’s, and the various sources that contest the identification of Tuckurimba as Widjabal, are discussed in the ensuing section.
2 (b) The self-identification by the Elders of the Roberts family as Bandjalang, and the various other indications that Tuckurimba and the surrounding areas are Bandjalang not Widjabal country, raises a number of questions: Does the name Bandjalang refer to the people based on Coraki, most of whose country is contained in the catchment of Bungawalbyn Creek, or to some larger entity? The Roberts Elders certainly were not referring to the Bandjalang in the context with which it is most associated today: the Bandjalang language and the totality of the people whose ancestors were speakers of it. Despite the assertions of those who would argue a pan-Bandjalang affiliation in traditional times clearly this was not the case and the use of the name in this context is a post World War II innovation (see Calley (1959:4), Oakes (Ms 3803; S.4 I. 4-5; 27-10- 1968) for the well-documented history of this development). Nor is it likely that the Elder
21 Roberts would refer to themselves as Bandjalang, the modern entity, in the context of being asked about their traditional affiliations.
Ethnonyms are notoriously difficult to attach to specific peoples and countries in the traditional context – much depends on who is describing whom and the context of that description. The suggestion made here is that, despite the three distinct sub-groups (or dialect groups as they are sometimes called) that occupied the Lower Richmond River and its tributary the Wilson River (i.e. Wiyabal, Bandjalang and Nyangbal) these groups frequently acted in concert (i.e. as is well-documented: for warfare, initiation and other ceremony, and in economic co-operation) and that the name Bandjalang was extended from one of these sub-groups (i.e. that centred on present-day Coraki) to refer to Lower Richmond River people generally. If this is the correct explanation for the wider employment of the term in this area, it is not hard to imagine the name expanding from there to include those Bandjalang speakers of the Clarence River, the Upper Richmond River and the Pacific Coast north of the Richmond River to the Logan River under that modern-day rubric.
The significance of the above culturally is that ‘ownership’ of sites is about the right to share rather than exclude. In other words Tucki Bora Ring (and other significant sites in this area) although on the country on one or other of these particular groups for whom maintenance and protection was a primary duty, was not a right to exclude others with a spiritual affiliation from the site. Many sites were shared on a spiritual basis – although located within country owned by a particular group. The owners of that country however could not make decisions concerning such sites without the consultation and involvement of others who also had a connection to the site. The expectation is that if a site – such as Tucki Bora ring – is regionally recognised then it is regionally significant. Were Murray John Robert’s claims as to the significance of sites associated with Tucki Bora Ring to have been acknowledged by others then there may have been some possibility of assessing that significance. As it is that recognition, and hence the evidence for significance or otherwise of those sites, has been entirely lacking.
22 2 (c) Whether or not the interpretation made above is valid there is ample evidence to support the notion that the people of the Lower Richmond – the three sub-groups mentioned – not only acted in concert but shared a great deal culturally that was not shared with Bandjalang-speaking peoples generally. One sees this in economic co-operation, for example the well-documented downstream migration of Wiyabal and Bandjalang people to coastal Nyangbal country to take advantage of the seasonal plenitude of mullet, oysters and other seafood (Gummow A13009 AIATSIS):
Pastor Frank Roberts: […] The tribe that was living around the Lismore area. When the food runs out they would wander down to Evans Head. And they’d be there for six months. When the food runs out [there] they’d go to Ballina. The fishing, that they worked on, [controlled] by the Elders, which is good […] Fletcher Roberts: By that time there was food in Lismore […]
The organised and regular nature of the contact between the Lower Richmond groups is also attested in oral history. Lois Cook (phone interview 12-03-2011) stated that groups arriving at the coast (i.e. Nynagbal country) would bring with them their long hunting nets (these nets could be as long as 100 metres). The ‘tribes’ would join their nets and collectively make large collective drives of game, ensuring thereby adequate food for the large numbers gathered (see Ainsworth for a description of these drives).
2 (d) It is also apparent in mythology where there is abundant evidence to show that Lower Richmond Bandjalang shared affiliation to sacred places on each other’s country (which, however, does not imply outright ownership or primary responsibility for those places)(see Lois Cook). Lyle Roberts Jnr., for example, on many occasions in his work with Marjorie Oakes talks of the Goanna Cave at Goanna Headland, Evans Head, and its significance for Lower Richmond River people generally (Margaret Oakes Tape A1066):
Marjorie Oakes: Now you told me about a cave at Evans Head. Is it the same word as that? (i.e. djiling ‘cave’ – Blue Knob ‘where the cave is’: Gilbil).
Lyle Roberts Jnr.: The cave down at Evans Head. It’s a gwanayi, that is a nyama:l or djirawang (i.e. ‘black or tree goanna’) that is clever. That is, usually, if any person
23 goes there who is a stranger to it you can be sure you’ll end up with a big flood on the Richmond [River] but to stop that only the Older people go there and talk to him and the rain will stop. That is a djurbil down at Evans Head and that midden that they’ve found there, just up from Evans Head boatshed, that’s a djurbil […]
Lyle Roberts Jnr’s comments on the significance of the Evans Head Goanna djurbil to Lismore people were reiterated by Fletcher Roberts in an interview with Margaret Gummow on 10-10-1988 (A13009):
Margaret Gummow: What sort of song was this? Was it a dance song, a corroboree song?
Fletcher Roberts: It was a corroboree.
Margaret Gummow: Did they have special names for it?
Fletcher Roberts: Yes, special names.
Margaret Gummow: Do you know some of those names?
Fletcher Roberts: Well, I don’t know too much… Every tribe had a sacred item for instance. Have you ever heard about the Goanna Headland at Evans Head? Well that was very sacred…
Margaret Gummow: What did they do there?
Fletcher Roberts: It was sort of sacred see. According to Dream stories if Lismore [and] around the region had a drought, the old Elders would go down there, go with a stick and poke the goanna, and when they disturbed him it would start to rain; but if they kept poking him with the stick they would end up having a flood.
Margaret Gummow: That’s why it always floods here?
24 Fletcher Roberts: Yes
Marjorie Oakes, in fact, already knew quite a bit about the Goanna Cave at Evans Head, having first visited it in 1969. On that occasion accompanied by Lyle Roberts Jnr. they had called in on Aubrey Roberts home at Evans Head (Oakes Ms 3831 Series 4 Item 4-5, 12-10-1969):
[…] Then we called back to Aubrey’s place (Lyle’s brother) and Mrs Aubrey was back home. She told me she remembered when she was living at Cabbage Tree Island, there was a drought and two old fellas came along in a sulky and Tom (aged 14) went with them. He reported that they’d gone there to invoke rain. They spoke to the goanna then sang to it (a ritual song or prayer I suppose), then threw a lot of little stones (to symbolise falling rain?) – And did they get rain? – Yes! The next day.
Later in Oakes’ manuscripts it emerges that the men who visited the Goanna Cave that day were Jack Cook, Tom Hart (Granny Dot’s father) and Tom Roberts her son [who] did the Goanna Cave ceremony (Oakes Ms 3831 Series 4 Item 7, 10-09-1972). Although not specified it is probable her informant for this information was Dorothy Roberts (Granny Dot). Later Fletcher (‘Bluey’) Roberts confirmed this story (Oakes Ms 3831 Series 4 Item 7, 12-06-1974):
Bluey also spoke of the goanna at Evans Head. He said Papa Cook, Tom Hart, Tom Roberts and a fourth took the sulky and drove it Evans Head then got a launch to the cave because of the drought. Here is a stone in that cave just like a goanna. They throw stones at it. And you wouldn’t believe it, but in a few days rain came […]
Finally (07-08-1974) it emerged who the fourth person to visit the cave was:
[…] Doug Cook told her the story after this […] He said he was with Papa Cook (Doug about 8 years) when they went to invoke the goanna for rain with Tom Hart. They scratched. First they scratched at Wardell without success, then they scratched
25 at the Goanna Cave. Douglas had to wait up above. Before they got home it was raining […]
There are several points to be deduced from the Evans Head Goanna mythology thus far. The fact that the Elders would travel down from Lismore and environs to the coast to perform ceremony with the Goanna djurbil, and that the behaviour of that djurbil could effect all of the Richmond River links all those of the Wiyabal, Bandjalang and Nyangbal with that Dreaming. Also, it is apparent that the Lower Richmond peoples (i.e. Nyangbal, represented by the Cooks, Bandjalang and Wiyabal, represented by Tom Hart and Tom Roberts) could combine to invoke this power for the good of the Lower Richmond River groups as a whole.
Further evidence for the above comes through the events that Oakes records as having taken place in 1974 when dissention erupted between the Upper Richmond River people (Gidabal) and the Lower Richmond River people over who had primary rights and control over the Goanna Cave and its Dreaming. On 16-05-1974 Marjorie Oakes (Ms 3831 Series 4 Item 7) reported that:
[…] Howard [Creamer] got a budjaram story from an old woman at Woodenbong to the effect that a gaungan flew from Woodenbong to Evans Head and became a rock on the beach.
This woman it appears was ‘a Mrs. Myles from Woodenbong who is a militant’ (Oakes Ms 3831 Series 4 Item 7, 25-07-1974):
[…] She said that jurraveel belongs to her and some other Gidabal people. She can talk to it. It hurts others to do so. She wasn’t sure if this was so with white people. In vain did I mention that Papa Cook talked and djiladjam spoke as he could. No, only her lot […]
Oakes (Ms 3831 Series 4 Item 7, 16-05-1974) makes the point that:
26 I know it ‘belongs’ to Lyle’s [Roberts’] lot and the Cabbage Tree Island and Coraki lots but does it also ‘belong’ to the Woodenbong, Tabulam etc. lots?
Later Oakes notes that Coraki women also consulted the Goanna Dreaming and expressed an ownership of it (Ms 3831 Series 4 No.7 13-07-1974):
[…] Mrs Henderson has had a good yarn with Gummi Ethel Wilson, the Yukes and Mrs Gomes about the goanna and the midden. It appears that the Coraki women never crossed the river but Gummi Ethel said she’d speak to the goanna and then go in the boat to the midden […]
From these discussions it is reasonable to deduce that the Evans Head Goanna Dreaming had a wide influence, probably over all those who dwelt on the Richmond River and its tributaries. For the purposes of our investigation here it is clear that the Lower Richmond River people regarded themselves as a corporate entity that was separate to other Richmond River groups such as the Gidabal. The Goanna Dreaming might have a wider influence but the Lower Richmond groups collectively shared primary responsibility for it. This is borne out not only in their collective usage of the site but in their willingness to oppose others from further afield who might wish to assert ownership of the site.
2 (e) The dialects of these three groups are also an important indicator that they shared a social and cultural relationship among themselves that was not shared either collectively or independently with other Bandjalang-speaking groups. One aspect of dialect similarity between the Lower Richmond groups receives quite extensive discussion in Marjorie Oakes’ papers, namely the two words for ‘black or tree goanna’: dirawang and ngama:l. The significance of these two words becomes apparent in 1974 in the dissention discussed above between the Upper Richmond River people (Gidabal) and the Lower Richmond River people over who had primary rights and control over the Goanna Cave and it’s Dreaming. Oakes (Ms 3831 Series 4 Item 7, 25-07-1974) noted that ‘Mrs. Myles doesn’t use dirawang but ngama:l for goanna.’ The distribution of the term (as calculated from its appearance in wordlists) is perhaps a little more ambiguous with attestations of both these words being more widespread and to some extent transgressing the territories claimed for them above. Nonetheless, it is probable that an upper river vs. lower river
27 nexus did apply, and therefore, again, we see the Lower Richmond River groups combined in a shared ritual relationship implied in the use of the term dirawang rather than ngama:l.
There is no corroboration between the statements of John Murray Roberts and those recorded from his forebears. Some of his interpretations appear to be factually incorrect, for example, in Riebe (2010: Point 40) Murray John Roberts is ‘quoted’ as saying:
[…] There’s two dialects two languages: one is a sacred language, the other one is the ordinary language spoken every day, in ordinary language we call the goanna a Ngamal. When you speak about the goanna in ceremonies like this then you call it a ‘Dirrawong’ […]
In all probability there was once a specific sacred vocabulary associated with initiation. If spo, however, Murray John Roberts’ examples are not evidence for this. These two words for ‘black or tree goanna’ are not only widely distributed, they are dialectally differentiated, as attested by the comparison of Bandjalang wordlists. Roberts’ assertions are also contradicted by the comments on dirawang made by his uncles Lyle Roberts Jnr. and Fletcher Roberts throughout the Oakes tape and manuscript collections housed at AIATSIS. If, as Murray John Roberts asserts, the word dirawang ‘goanna’ was replete with sacred or spiritual connotations it would never have been heard repeated by people such as Oakes – as it is the word is heard familiarly throughout her tapes and manuscripts (and in the work of others)(Oakes Ms 3831 Series 4 Item 4-5: 07-04-1969):
Aubrey (of the grey eyes!) chatted to me about the cave of the dirwang because the headland [is] shaped like a dirwang but he wouldn’t go there no fear. Lyle said he would and [he] would take me. Aubrey spoke of a ‘boorie’ ring (clue? does Boorie Creek and Boorie Mountain refer to Bora?) which he gave another name, in Bandjalang, on which he danced as a boy in a silly muck-up way and his father hit him good and hard for irreverence and he got all swollen up the arms and his father had to rub them. That’s because he done that and shouldn’t you see. I said ‘jurraveel eh?’ and his eyes lit up that I knew the right word.
28 Other comments found in Oakes (Ms 3831, Series 4 Item 7, 25-07-1974) demonstrate that these two words could be freely used without any sacred vs. mundane distinction (‘[…] I met a Mrs. Myles from Woodenbong […] Mrs. Myles doesn’t use dirwang but ngama:l for goanna […]’ Elsewhere (Ms.3831, Series Item 28-07-1974) Oakes records: ‘[…] Mrs Miles of Woodenbong who claims her lot are the only ones who can talk to the goanna (she used ngama:l not dirwang). She can’t eat goanna because of this affiliation [Additional comments]: […] Albert Yuke says dirwang’.
Margaret Sharpe has commented on the similarity of the Lismore and Coraki dialects within the Bandjalang language generally (Jefferies, Margaret Sharpe 22-02-2011):
Margaret Sharpe first came to Lismore in 1977 ‘to round up everything on Bandjalang’ (i.e. the language). She lived on Lismore Heights for six months while she engaged in this work. Lyle Roberts spoke ‘Lismore Bandjalang’. Lismore and Coarki were one dialect. Bob Turnbull said he spoke [the] Lismore dialect. Holmer [1971] has him as Bandjalang (Coraki)
The fact that the Lower Richmond River dialects did share lexicon indicative of close social and cultural relationship is particularly evident in kinship terminology and in certain key terms to do with human beings and human anatomy.
Table 1A Lexical comparison Lower Richmond, Clarence and N.E. Coastal Bandjalang gloss Lower Richmond River Clarence R. Coastal Bandjalang dialects dialects (Mibiny) woman /milgiri/ /dubay/4 /djalgan/ old man /ma:bang/ /danday~gam/ /gidjum/ boy /djanang/5 /djanang/ /djabu/ father /ma:mang/ /ma:mang/ ~ /da:ri/ /biyang/
4 Also shared with Upper and Middle Richmond River dialects. 5 In some cases words such as /djabu/ ‘boy’ can be found shared across Bandjalang dialects; the point is, however, that synonyms, such as /djanang/ ‘boy’ are only found in the dialects designated.
29 mother /guni:ng/ /wadjang/ ~ /mami/ /wadjang/ wife /nyubanggan/ /banidargan/ nyubanggan/ nulla nulla /djunung/ /murumdang/ /djabari/ tomahawk /wagar~a/ /mugim/ ~ /wagara/ /bundan/ breast /mi:rang/ /guru:m/ /ngama/
2 (e) There is considerable ethnographic evidence that the Lower Richmond River peoples (i.e. Wiyabal, Bandjalang and Nyangbal) collectively defended their territory from the excursions of outsiders. These latter seem primarily to have been Clarence River people (both Yaygir speakers of the Lower Clarence River or Bandjalang speakers from further upstream depending on proximity to the coast) or those from the western arm of the Richmond River (i.e. the Richmond River proper) or Galibal. Early accounts are full of descriptions of these encounters, which could involve as many as several hundred warriors. While the cause of these is often described as ‘the theft of a woman’ (much like Helen of Troy) the scale and intensity of these encounters points to the obvious conclusion that they were disputes over land, specifically attempts to acquire it aggressively or defend it.
Tindale (1974:191) mentions ‘An anonymous note (Science of Man 1911 V.12:214) [which] says the boundary between the dialects spoken on the Clarence River, presumably Bandjalang and that of the Richmond River comes at a place called Moonim, which is near Coraki.’ As the location of this place is east of Coraki (between Coraki and Woodburn) no doubt this points to the place being a boundary between the Clarence River (i.e. Yaygir) and Lower Richmond River Bandjalang.6 In Lower Richmond River folklore Moonim was the site of an historic struggle which probably settled a fixed boundary between these two groups. Marjorie Oakes first encounters the myth concerning the site from Aubrey Roberts (Ms 3831 Series 4 Item 7, Easter Monday 22-04-1969):
6 Oakes (Ms 3831 Series 4 Item 7, 27-07-1973) identifies the site as follows: ‘On the way home Lyle [Roberts] said the big hill near the Bungawalbyn Bridge is the ‘heap of blue stones’ dropped on the warring Clarence and Richmond mob in Aub’s story. [Annotation 1:] Not at the Whipore turnoff but at the one near the Swan Bay – New Italy turnoff, on right going to Woodburn.’
30 […] I was a bit annoyed but decided to betray nothing and found out later that they’d been telling the others where I’d taken them and talking of Parrot’s Nest and Blue Knob and two circles at Dungarubba. I forgot to mention that Aubrey said the men had the Rule at one circle and the women at the other and ‘Lyle he knows more about the Rule than me.’ He also told me about a place ‘Dad telling them where they had a fight [for] fourteen days I think it was, somewhere round this way and Jesus drop a heap of stones in the middle and stop[ped] them – that’s the only way. But I can’t find them stone[s]’.
Later, Oakes (Ms 3831 Series 4 Item 7; 22-07-1972) confirms that the story of this battle obtained from Aubrey Roberts was indeed that between Clarence River and Richmond River people:
There may be some tie-up with Aub’s story of the great battle between the Clarence and Richmond tribes which ‘Jesus’ stopped by dumping a heap of blue rocks out of the sky onto the battlefield.
Beyond this mythical (or quasi historical) account frequent historical accounts of the Lower Richmond groups, and sometimes their neighbours) fighting with the ‘Clarence River tribes’ (which probably included in fact the Richmond River Galibal or ‘Casino tribe’) to their west, and, seemingly less often the ‘Tweed River tribes’. H.M.M. (‘A Blacks’ Corroboree’, Richmond River Herald 11-03-1887, RRHS, Case 15), are documented. One such encounter which occurred in the mid-19th century is described as follows:
A corroboree or dance of the blacks, taking place at Tucki, I acted upon the invitation of one of the tribe, and was present last night. About 150 natives mustered, this number being made up of the Ballina, Lismore and Tweed tribes, each tribe having their corroboree in turn to find out which is the best, as they are going to meet the Clarence blacks at a stand-up fight and corroboree at the Pelican Tree (Codrington) in a fortnight […]
‘Aussie’ (‘An Aboriginal “Hop-Over”: A Tomki Memory’) (unsourced clipping RRHS Case 15) mentions a fight that occurred when he was a boy living at ‘Tomki Bight’ between
31 ‘the Upper River Blacks and the Bungawalbin tribe’, the latter it is reasonable to expect probably including Wiyabal or Nyangbal warriors as well. Fran Welch (1994) in A Short History of Broadwater (‘Reminiscences’ by Peter Bolton) mentions how at Wardell ‘The Bingal tribe and the Clarence River [i.e. Yaygir] tribe used to have wars here […]’. Similar occurrences were reported from Lismore: ‘[The] Casino tribe came to the Lismore district to administer a punishment […]’ (William Mallett ‘Aboriginal War in the Mid 70s’ RRHS file: Aboriginal Information; envelope: (Richmond River) or Tribal War); similarly George Edwards, ‘Native Fight: Lismore As A Battle Ground’, Northern Star 03-01-1925) remembered a fight in Lismore between ‘the Tuggerimbah tribe’ and that the ‘[…] opposing party came from the Clarence River, and the cause of the fight was that one of the opposing blacks eloped with a gin from this tribe.’
Undoubtedly the cockpit of battle (or one of the major ones at least) was along Pelican Creek where open river flats permitted the deployment of large numbers of warriors (and where besides Pelican Creek itself permitted the access of western ‘tribes’ into the heartland of the Lower Richmond River peoples) (Oakes 1972 ‘The Aborigines of the Richmond Area’, RRHS Pamphlett No.2). G. Munro (The Northern Star, Wednesday 19- 10-1927) reported:
When I first came to the Richmond I had my first glimpse of the Blacks in their natural state. They were very plentiful, more so just at that time on account of there having been a very big Bullen Bullen or tribal fight at the head of Pelican Creek a few weeks before, and the different tribes were making back to their own camping ground. They used to come to the river at our place and swim across [i.e. Wilsons River where it is adjoined by Pelican Creek].
The purpose of what might appear to be a digression is to illustrate by means of this ethnographic material two points: firstly that in some sense the Lower Richmond groups saw themselves collectively threatened by outsiders, specifically the Yaygir on the Clarence River to the south, and the Richmond River and Clarence River Bandjalang to the west. Part of their collectivity undoubtedly sprang from this desire for mutual defence (which is not to say that individually these groups did not on occasion pursue conflicts with others who were not perhaps a collective threat, for example, Nyangbal with coastal peoples to its
32 north and south). The second point is to highlight some of the geographical implications of these conflicts: one major one of relevance was certainly the accessibility via Pelican Creek of outsiders into the Wilson River Valley. This becomes important to note when we compare some of the comments made by contemporary Bandjalang people of this area in respect of their boundaries. We can, for example, compare the statements made by Lois Cook (Jefferies 29-01-2011):
[…] According to Lois, Nyangbal country extended as far south as Evans River, north to Brunswick Heads and inland as far as Marom Creek. One could say therefore that the western boundary of the southern portion of Nyangbal country was Tuckean Swamp. Lois pointed out that Baba Jack Cook also had responsibilities in the Tuckurimba area west of Tuckean Swamp, while acknowledging however that this was Widjabal country. According to Lois the status of this country was still being contested in traditional times with big fights between the Nyangbal and Widjabal occurring at Hospital Hill (‘A lot of our mob fought with the Widjabal at Hospital Hill (Base Hospital) on the way to Goonalebah’). From the perspective of those contesting ownership of the North Arm country: ‘[The] Widjabal [were] on the other side [i.e. western side] of Wilson River’.
There are several ways to interpret Lois Cook’s statements, accepting as we do that they have an historical reality (albeit one that may not be remembered entirely accurately). It is possible the defence mounted by the Bandjalang and the Nyangbal (and perhaps the Wiyabal (‘the ‘Wyrallah horde – i.e. the Roberts) was actually against interlopers from ‘the Clarence River’ (i.e. those to the west). Alternatively it is possible the Widjabal, whose country historically (and by Lyle Roberts Jnr’s account: ‘North Lismore is the boundary. My mother’s lot [i.e. Widjabal] would live on the other side [i.e. north of Lismore]’ (Sommerlad Tape AIATSIS Tape 2142) was in the Big Scrub north of Lismore were impinging south into Wyrallah and Tuckurimba and hence the conflict Lois Cook describes. I rang Lois Cook (27-04-2011) to clarify her comments on the Widjabal and her opinion was that although the Roberts family (and the Cooks) were undoubtedly connected to Wyrallah her understanding was that Widjabal belonged to the country north of Lismore (Also Widjabal – further north: Nimbin, Dunoon; Wiyabal – south of Lismore (Lois Cook 26-02-2011).
33 2 (f) Beyond these cultural indications of Lower Richmond River regional unity beyond the realm implied in the dialect groups themselves (i.e. Wiyabal, Bandjalang, and Nyangbal) there is the abundant evidence of genuine Lower Richmond River Elders speaking of the boundaries of the whole of the Lower Richmond River groups as though they were their own. This, I believe, also accounts for the many instances documented in present-day interviews with knowledgeable Lower Richmond River descendants who not infrequently make wider claims for their own dialect-group on the basis that the knowledge they possess actually applies to the wider Lower Richmond River ‘Bandjalang’ as opposed to whatever dialect group they represent. An example of this might be Lois Cook’s claim that her boundaries were on the ‘other side of the Wilsons River’ – as indeed their were, if the group she is part of is being referred to collectively (i.e. the Lower Richmond River Bandjalang) as opposed to the Nyangbal of the coast specifically).
Similar instances to the former are found in Marjorie Oakes (Ms 3803 Series 4 Item 4-5) account of excursion to Evans Head middens on 01-12-1968 in the company of Lyle and Aubrey Roberts and their wives, from which the following is recorded:
We walked back a slightly different way [from Evans Head beach] and found another eating ground but not a heap. We also saw where a bee’s nest had long ago been cut from a tree. Lyle Roberts was all eyes the whole time looking for trees that could have had sheets of bark removed to make camps for the women and children away from the river and the sea weather. It is not the little Evans River but a side-arm of it. A very tiny river. Lyle Roberts said this was the southern boundary of his tribe (the Evans River) […]
From our ethnographic knowledge we know that the Little Evans River is the southern boundary of the coastal Nyangbal (where they meet the Yaygir of the Lower Clarence River) and neither Wiyabal nor Bandjalang. Of course Lyle Roberts could have been making a general comment about the southern boundary of Bandjalang-speakers, an unlikely concept and an unlikely statement given the context. Alternatively it could be argued Roberts’ knowledge emanated from the family’s stay at Cabbage Tree Island after 1936. Possibly so, but this in itself begs the question: why did the Roberts find the move to Cabbage Tree
34 Island acceptable (say in advance of possible alternatives like Woodenbong or Tabulam) in the first place? The answer, as foreshadowed in the material on traditional inter-relationships already examined, is that they were socially and culturally more comfortable with the prospect of living within a Lower Richmond River community.
Similarly, Lyle Roberts Jnr., on occasions when asked to describe his country (or that of others) could include a broader sweep of country that included (apparently) that of the coastal Nyangbal with his own Wilsons River country (Oakes Ms 3831:Series 4 Item 4-5; 26-10-1969):
I questioned him about Minyung and he said he talked that it was a nickname for Bandjelang. Minyang or Minyang was a question you ask (see Ryan: ‘Place Names’; Geytenbeek’s notes facing p.26). Only Lyle’s district designation was different. He said their territory (i.e. his) stretched from Jerusalem Creek in the south to Broken Head in the north. I don’t know how far west but Blue Knob was in it. I don’t know who were north of Broken Head but according to him the Brunswick lot belonged with the Tweed.
Jerusalem Creek is recorded elsewhere as separating Nyangbal from Yagir (or Bireen as it also called in Oakes)(Note also Oakes comment in 1e): ‘Weabul [i.e. Wiyabal] stretches from Blue Knob [to] Evans Head [to] Parrot’s Nest important.’ (Oakes Ms 3831 Series 4 Item 8, 10-11-1974).
The sort of confusion alluded to between genuine and honest misconceptions about traditional affiliation, as already pointed out, can also be found in the testimony of present- day informants.
2 (g.) Family connections
There is significant evidence in Oakes’ material for the connection of many families otherwise recognised as Nyangbal to Wyrallah and Tuckurimba. This documentation reinforces the present-day assertions made by the families concerned. One such, the testimony of Desmond Morrisey (Jefferies 24-03-2011), connecting the Breckenridge family
35 (otherwise Bandjalang) to Tuckurimba has already been noted. Desmond Morrisey also referred to his father John Williams as a ‘Lismore man’, which would indicate that the father’s side of his family is Widjabal. He described his father’s father George Williams Snr. as also being from Lismore. All the places with which the Williams family are connected to are in Widjabal country, his father with Dunoon, his grandfather with Nimbin. According to Mr. Morrisey ‘My grandfather used to roam all around this place – he told me all the stories about that place’. When Desmond Morrisey was taken from Cubbawee to Nimbin to live with his grandfather at an early age at which time his grandfather told him:
You’re from the Nimbin area. Don’t be frightened to come here. This is your country all around here. The carpet snake is djurbil – you’re totem. Don’t be afraid of it.
Mr. Morrisey commented: ‘Other people can eat it – I can’t.’
In support of Mr. Morrisey’s assertions it is worth noting that Oakes (Ms 3831 Series 4 Item 4-5, 09-03-1969) obtained the following information about the Williams family from Lyle Roberts Jnr:
A further point was that he [Lyle Roberts Jnr.] saw ‘me second cousin’ in the park, her mother [is] Mrs Charlotte Williams, you know, Mrs Charlotte was my mother’s sister, really like her too. [I] haven’t seen her for years now. She’s about 85 and she [is] in Kyogle Hospital. I asked him what he meant by ‘second cousin’; if she was the daughter of his mother’s sister and all I got was ‘she could be jigga too’. I said ‘daughter of mother’s sister is first cousin to us’. Maybe she is married to Mrs Charlotte’s son as her name is Williams too, so she’d be cousin-in-law. Anyhow Canberra [i.e. AIAS with whom Oakes appears to have had a relationship as a researcher] says Mrs Charlotte Williams is a Widjabaul informant so that could tie in with Pastor Frank’s statement that his mother was Widjabul too.
The generation of Aubrey Roberts and Lyle Roberts Jnr. appear to have had a particularly close relationship with the Cook family. Marjorie Oakes first encountered George (‘Jack’) Cook, who was to become a useful informant (although the relationship never developed to
36 the degree of that she had with Lyle Roberts Jnr.) at Lyle Robert Jnr.’s house (Ms 3831 Series 4 Item 4-5, Thursday 12-06-1969):
[…] Lyle went on with a great rigmarole some of which was relevant and spoke of Jack Cook brother of Henry Cook who passed away you know and out came Jack Cook himself, a big and very black man who is going to repair Lyle’s violin! Anyhow it appears Lyle had been telling him about us and our work and Jack Cook said he knew plenty; he knew ‘the mythology’ and lots of places and the wandarl ring at? Broadwater? And goanna at Evans Head etc. […]
This appears to have been an assessment with which Lyle Roberts Jnr. was in complete agreement. Oakes (Ms 3831 Series 4 Item 9, 30-08-1976) records his opinion as ‘Oh Georgie know a lot!’ [Oakes underline]
Oakes states the following about the Cook family (‘The Aboriginal Family Called Roberts (1977)’ Ms 3831 Series 4 Item 9):
According to George Cook of Cabbage Tree Island (son of Baba Cook) all Cooks and Roberts trace back to their nucleus area, Wyrallah, and even though they now live scattered around the district, the Bora ring in Tucki cemetery, Parrot’s Nest and Amphletts’ Lagoon are special for Robertses just as the totemic sites in Radcliffe- Brown’s well-known paper are special for Woodenbong Williamses (but not Coraki Williamses who are another lot).
This understanding is shared by the present-day generations of Cooks. Lois Cook (Jefferies 29-01-2011). Marcus Fergusson (Jefferies 12-03-2011), for example, noted ‘[his] grandfather Arthur Fergusson was born at Wyrallah’. Lois Cook also speaks of her great- grandfather Baba Cook coming down from Wyrallah to Cabbage Tree Island.
2 (h.) Tuckean Swamp prior to its drainage in the last decades of the 19th century and early decades of the 20th century was an extensive area of tall spike rushes (Eleocharis equisetina), Melaleuca swamp forest, some ‘fresh meadow dominated by knotweeds and smartweeds’ and intermittent open lagoons covered in water lilies (Tuckean Nature
37 Reserve Plan of Management NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service 2002). Roy Keats (quoted E. Smith ‘Tuckean Swamp – a history of land use’) described Tuckean Swamp as ‘teem[ing] with wild duck and water fowl or every known specie’. Flying foxes were plentiful (Smith 1997:8). Bailey (1975) in his thesis ‘The Role of Shell Middens in Prehistoric Economies’ describes middens of mussel shell along the edges of the swamp. The bulbs of the waterlily were highly sought articles of food (Louis Cook pers. comm. 03-2011).7 On the debit side the swamp also teemed with various varieties of extremely poisonous snake and clouds of mosquitoes. In short there were a great many attractions for a hunter-gatherer society in terms of resources but significant impediments for permanent habitation. Consequently camps for accessing and making use of Tuckean Swamp were concentrated on the flat open country and low hills that surrounded it on all sides; only rarely would people camp in the few actual suitable places within the confines of the swamp area.
Tuckean Swamp may be characterised therefore as a place of great value for the Aboriginal peoples that surrounded it on all sides – but one that it was impossible to live in for long, or to own or to defend. This, I believe, accounts for the various attributions of Tuckean Swamp as belonging to the country of one or other of the three Lower Richmond groups that bordered it. As we have seen in Keats (1988: 24-5) attributed Tuckean Swamp to the Bandjalang (i.e. the Coraki sub-group); Louis Cook regards at least part of the swamp as Nyangbal country; Murray John Roberts, after which a deal was done transferring ownership claims from the Anderson’s [Name of n.t. claim i.e. Nyangbal] to Roberts’ putative Widjabal native title claim. The swamp therefore is in a unique position of consolidating the three groups whose country faces onto it while simultaneously separating them. It is probable that Tuckean Swamp was genuine shared country, which all Lower Richmond groups could access (from their independent directions) for the abundant resources it provided but which none could wholly own, if only for the reasons it was impossible to reside in or to guard. It might be seen therefore
7 Lois Cook (Jefferies 29-01-2011) also recounted: ‘[…] that Baba Jack Cook would hunt and fish in Tuckean Swamp during the layoff times of his European employment. The eggs of the black swan were a particularly sought after prize from this locality and this activity continued in the family even into relatively recent times. Louis Cook fondly remembers expeditions to gather the eggs (and other bush tucker) in Tuckean Swamp from his younger days.
38 as a physical symbol of their cultural and social unity as well as a guarantor of their respective independences.
2 (i.) Consistent with the foregoing: the wider social and cultural connections that embraced the three groups of the Lower Richmond River, the Nyangbal (Ballina and Evans Head), the Bandjalang (Coraki and Bungawalbyn) and the Wiyabal (Wyrallah), and perhaps including the Widjabal (Nimbin, Bladebrook, north of Lismore) the bora ceremonies that are recorded from Tucki Bora Ring probably centred communally on these three groups collectively. Something of this might be implied in H.M.M.’s (‘A Blacks’ Corroboree’, Richmond River Herald 11-03-1887, RRHS, Case 15) account of ‘the Ballina, Lismore and Tweed tribes’ meeting at Tucki (although the bora ring is not specified in this case). As well as the three Lower Richmond River groups mentioned it is also possible others from further afield attended these ceremonies – as we have seen in the previous documentation concerning ‘ownership’ of the Goanna Cave Dreaming at Evans Head people from as far away as Gidabal (Woodenbong) had connections to the area through, in that case, the Dreaming of the tree goanna. Nonetheless it is important to single out that the groups with actual first-hand affiliation to the Tucki Bora Ring were those mentioned, the three groups of the Lower Richmond River.
This, I believe, is implied in the disposition of the bora rings of all three sub-groups of the Lower Richmond (for which see J.G. Steele’s (c. 1982) map drawn in preparation for the publication Aboriginal Pathways, Appendix Map 6). The location of the three rings circles Tuckean Swamp: the Wiyabal ring at Tucki, some couple of kilometres to the west of Tuckean Swamp, the Bandjalang ring at Box Ridge some further distance south of the Richmond River and Tuckean Swamp, and the Wardell ring of the Nyangbal located right on the eastern edge of the swamp. This configuration might be seen as symbolic as well as practical – allowing the access of their fellow Lower Richmond River groups while still permitting them to be in range of their home country and neutral territory. It is entirely consistent with what we know of Aboriginal ceremonial life, and the social, cultural and political unity I believe is implied in the ethnographic record of the three lower Richmond River groups, that these three rings were attended in series for initiations (which is not to say in regular or repetitive series but that initiation ceremonies alternated
39 between the three sites). Symbolically it is important that all three rings circle the Tuckean Swamp, which, as indicated, was ground neutral or shared by all three groups.
It is also important to note in this context that the first initiation, although there was a ritual element to it (i.e. it was the first of a series of progressively more testing and elevated initiation ceremonies) its primary purpose was social: to inculcate a new generation of male youth into the rights and responsibilities of adulthood, specifically to make the young men warriors and to marry them, thus beginning the responsibilities of adult life. As the groups were exogamous (i.e. married outside their own social group) introduction to the eligible young women of other groups was a prerequisite, and the opportunity to find wives or to cement already arranged relationships was an important factor in the gathering together of these groups for bora ceremonies. Marriages cemented political and social alliance and it therefore highly probable that the relations we know existed between the three Lower Richmond River groups were facilitated by the alternation of initiation ceremonies in the three tings indicated.
2 (j) Conclusion
Two facts emerge with clarity from the preceding analysis of the anthropological evidence. Firstly, there is not one (this quite apart from the issue of whether an individual is entitled to present themselves as sole representative of communal interests for his own group let alone the interests of groups in the immediate region) but three groups that have the right to a say in the Aboriginal heritage value of the Champion’s Quarry proposed extension: the Wiyabal, Bandjalang and Nyangbal, collectively what I have described as the Lower Richmond River peoples (but whom collectively appear to have first been known among themselves as the Bandjalang – a term I will refrain from using in this context owing to the misinterpretation it raises). Instances of this close social and cultural relationship recur throughout the literature and throughout the testimony of contemporary Bandjalang people (Lois Cook interview, Jefferies 29-01-2011):
The Coraki mob (i.e. Bandjalang), Ngangabal and Wiyabal would also meet on a flat below Meerschaum Vale (Meerschaum Vale Bridge). Ngangabal had a particularly close relationship with the Bandjalang (N.B. the local Coraki group – not the
40 language which all these people spoke collectively). The Cooks had a particularly close relationship with the Turnbulls of Bora Ridge. Baba Jack Cook would give them permission to come to Ballina to camp, avail themselves of seafoods and perform ceremonies. These however were invitations for visits lasting a certain period of time – it did not equate to ownership of land. Reciprocally, Baba Jack Cook would go with the Turnbulls to camp at Pelican Creek. They would also meet and fight other groups at Pelican Creek.
The perception of the Lower Richmond River people representing collectively a sub-set of Bandjalang people is well understood among contemporary Bandjalang (or, to be more precise, those that concern themselves with an appreciation of this). Bill Walker (Jefferies 23-03-2011), for example, made the following comment:
Lismore – Coraki - Cabbage Tree Island people are one mob [because they are] all married in – because they are close together.
Furthermore, at least with some informants, the symbolic significance of certain places and behaviours is also recognised:
Bertha Kapeen’s father Ernie Bolt: Old fellow buried up at Goonellabah – so he’s looking over his country (Bill Walker 23-03-2011).
Respected tribal Elders were traditionally buried in a sitting position usually on an eminence overlooking their country (cf. Ridley1875:159). From Goonellabah facing south of course one has a broad panorama over the whole Lower Richmond River Valley down to the sea at Evans Head.
6) The identity of person(s) culturally-recognised (rather than self-appointed) who speak for the area.
On the basis of the argument that has proceeded hitherto there are two orders of Aboriginal people that in my view ought to have some say over the heritage status of the proposed extension to Champion’s Quarry: firstly, those families who can be identified as having a
41 connection to one of the three groups comprising the Lower Richmond River Bandjalang, that is of either the Wiyabal, Bandjalang (Coraki) or Nyangbal. Beyond that the opinion of Bandjalang people, particularly those with a connection to the Richmond River at any part of its course (i.e. including the Giabal and Gidabal), should be sought. People identifying (or identified) as Widjabal (i.e. of the country to the immediate north of Lismore) should perhaps form an intermediate category. The knowledge and opinion of Bandjalang people from elsewhere in the Bandjalang region should be sought for the purpose of whatever light they might be able to cast on the traditional heritage of the area. Their actual say in the determination of land use in the Lower Richmond River area should be minimal, as should that of Aboriginal people who are regionally connected but not Bandjalang. Ideally, discussion and comment on the site of the proposed Champion’s Quarry extension should, in my view, be the responsibility of Elders representative of these three groups. Traditionally this would have been a disposition arrived at by consensus – a set of circumstances we are unlikely to arrive at in the present day.
Although the present-day political and legal process often involves the advancement of claims concerning developments such as the proposed extension to Champion’s Quarry devolving on certain individuals or particular families it is important to recognise that determination of the relevant value of claims should be based on the will of the community (i.e. the collectivity of Lower Richmond River community opinion) rather than that of individuals. It should also be the case that individuals articulating the Lower Richmond group’s opinions and ideas concerning this development should have the cultural and social respect of their community – that they not be ‘self-appointed’ but have achieved their right to speak on behalf of the community through the respect they have engendered in the community.
Thus far in the court proceedings concerning Champion’s Quarry several individuals have provided evidence as to the heritage implications of the proposed quarry extension: Murray John Roberts, a native title applicant for a as yet unresolved Widjabal Native Title Claim that includes the Tuckurimba district, Lewis and Lois Cook, who are recognised Nyangbal knowledge holders, Gilbert King whose connections are to Widjabal, Roslyn Sten and Jenny Smith whose connection to Wyrallah are through the Cooks. As will be discussed further three of the people listed here have the status of Elder
42 in the wider Bandjalang community: Lewis Cook, Gilbert King and Lois Cook. All are ‘knowledge holders’ in the sense of having acquired some knowledge. The use of this term however is no necessary reflection on how that knowledge was acquired. In terms of actual connection to the area under question, in my view, all except Gilbert King have a direct connection to the Lower Richmond River Bandjalang: Murray John Roberts, by virtue of the well-documented connection of the Roberts family to Wyrallah, Pelican Creek and Parrot’s Nest, Lewis and Lois Cook through their well-documented identity as Nyangbal and Roslyn Sten and Jenny Smith through their connection to the Cook line. Gilbert King’s connection, as I have said, is I believe to Widjabal (as Gilbert has himself commented: ‘I am not sure we go down this far…’). In that sense he has as much right to comment on the proposal as has Murray John Roberts in his identity as Widjabal.
In my view the missing piece in the puzzle (if I can use those terms) has been the Bandjalang people of Coraki who arguably have the closest physical (i.e. geographical) connection to Tuckurimba, besides which of course forming one of the three groups the evidence indicates as comprising Lower Richmond people. This has not been for want of trying. I have interviewed Vincent Cowan, a Bandjalang Elder, who was able to shed no light on the area. I have spoken to Bonnie Wilson, Kim Wilson and Douglas Wilson, the children of the highly respected Bandjalang Elder the late Laurence Wilson. It was put to me, very correctly in my opinion, that it was up to the group collectively to deal with questions such as those I wished to pose rather than Bandjalang claimants as individuals or as families. Despite knowledge of the Champion’s Quarry development none of the Bandjalang group has expressed interest in the quarry site.
I have interviewed the following Bandjalang and Aboriginal people (as well as pursuing the taped and written records of the deceased Bandjalang Elders8 commented on below). The people listed form a wide cross section of Bandjalang (and regional Aboriginal) society and all have had something to offer, from illuminating the traditional knowledge of the area to insight into the machinations of present-day Bandjalang power-brokers; some have been interviewed more than once, on the days listed:
8 Elders are defined by their membership of the Bandjalang Elders Council Aboriginal Corporation (as of 30-06-2008).
43 21-02-11 Marcus Fergusson, Jali Land Council, Wollingbar 23-02-11 Russell Kapeen, CEO Kurachee Land Council, Coraki Lance Manton, Kurachee Land Council Bonnie Wilson, Coraki 25-02-11 Lois Cook (Bandjalang Elder) 26-02-11 Vincent Cowan, Casino 26-02-11 Lois Cook (Bandjalang Elder) 02-03-11 Marcus Fergusson 04-03-11 Ashley Moran, Lismore 04-03-11 Bonnie and Kim Wilson, Coraki 09-03-11 Bonnie Wilson, Kim Wilson Coraki 11-03-11 Lois Cook (Bandjalang Elder), Gilbert King (Bandjalang Elder) 12-03-11 Lewis Cook (Bandjalang Elder), Wardell 16-03-11 Yvonne Stuart, CEO, Theresa Nichols, Bandjalang of Byron Bay 17-03-11 Douglas Wilson, Evans Head 17-03-11 Lance Manton, Kurachee Land Council, Coraki 21-03-11 Bertha Kapeen (Bandjalang Elder) 22-03-11 Lewis Cook (Bandjalang Elder), Wardell 22-03-11 Gilbert King (Bandjalang Elder), Ballina 22-03-11 Des (Johnno) Morrisey, Ballina (Bandjalang Elder) 23-03-11 Bill Walker, Casino 24-03-11 Des (Johnno) Morrisey (Bandjalang Elder), Ballina 28-03-11 Harry Boyd, Lismore 29-03-11 Lewis Cook (Bandjalang Elder), Wardell 30-03-11 Dean Bolt, Lismore
7) Whether the case transcends language-territory (‘tribal’) boundaries and raises issues of local or regional significance.
As stated, I think those most entitled to comment on the proposed Champion’s Quarry extension are the Bandjalang people of the Lower Richmond River catchment – that is, the Wiyabal, Bandjalang and Nyangbal. I do not believe the quarry extension constitutes an issue beyond that compass, and, if so, it is unusual that the Bandjalang (and other
44 Aboriginal people) I have spoken to have all expressed no great, and certainly no passionate, interest in the outcome of the case. Most people in fact see it as a question much as I would imagine the general community sees it – namely environmental interests balanced against the essential material requirements of civilization.
8) Whether persons of cultural standing have been provided with a reasonable opportunity to confer on these and relevant matters.
Since late February 2011 when I undertook to do the current round of work the process of finding and interviewing people with something to contribute to our knowledge of the Aboriginal heritage of the Champion’s Quarry site has been ceaseless. It has turned up a number of people who have been able to shed light on one or more aspects of the case. I might say that the list (3) above does not include Bandjalang people such as Artie Williams and Mavis Combo who were contacted by a third party and stated they did not wish to be interviewed but, in some cases, made comments to the third party arranging an introduction (and which were passed on), nor others such as Ron Heron who declined to return phone calls. Nor does it include the more than twenty White Australians who were also interviewed or spoken to in connection with knowledge of the Aboriginal history or culture of the area and were able to pass on knowledge they had received from Aboriginal informants.
From that perspective therefore I have no hesitation in saying that all Bandjalang persons of cultural standing have been provided with the opportunity of conferring and commenting on the Champion’s Quarry extension question. It might be added that the current round of enquiry is on top of the publicity and opportunities for comment that have already attended the Champion’s Quarry case over the last couple of years. It might be also added that the objector to the quarry extension, Murray John Roberts, who is employed as sites officer at Ngulingah Land Council, has also had ample time and opportunity to find appropriate individuals who have some knowledge of the Champion’s Quarry site and to interview these individuals. As far as I know, no information has been forthcoming from that quarter.
45 9) What these people have had to say.
I think it is fair to say that almost universally cynicism has been expressed from those members of the Bandjalang community I have interviewed about the assertions made concerning the Aboriginal heritage of the Champion’s Quarry site and the motives and modus operandi of those making them. Often these assertions were seen as reflecting the selfish personal and political (i.e. native title) agenda of those making them. This particularly applies to the relationship between Riebe and Murray John Roberts who most saw as compromised.
As regards the comments made on specific aspects of the assertions made by Murray John Roberts, such as the purpose and significance accorded Round Hill, and the existence or otherwise of a ‘sacred pathway’ connecting Round Hill and Tucki Bora Ring, the presence of caves with a sacred and/or secret purpose, these quotes, where applicable, are included in the discussion of these places provided below. To summarise, however, it can be said that no support for any of these propositions was found among the people I interviewed.
10) The further research, particularly of archival tape recordings, that has been undertaken.
Key finding: An extensive review of archival audio tapes of Bandjalang Elders (AIATSIS Visual Audio Library) has failed to reveal any evidence of significance for Round Hill or any evidence for the existence of a ‘sacred pathway’ linking Round Hill to Tucki Bora Ring or any evidence of a particular and important cultural significance for the area of the proposed Champion’s Quarry extension.
Between Monday 11-04-2011 and Thursday 14-04-2011 was spent in the Audio-Visual Library of A.I.A.T.S.I.S. Canberra with the express purpose of listening to, and recording information from, as many tapes of Bandjalang informants that may have contained information relevant to the proposed Champion’s Quarry extension as it was possible to do. The following tapes were listened to, and information gathered from, in accordance with the relevance they were found to possess for the issue being researched:
46 1.
Margaret Gummow Collection No. M03 A13004-A13011 (15-10-1978 to 18-10-1978) title: Discussion of songs, stories, oral history NSW [i.e. Bandjalang]
Tape A13008 informants: Eric and Una Walker
Tape A13009 informant: Fletcher Roberts (with Pastor Frank Roberts recorded by John Gordon)
Tape A13010 informants: Fletcher Roberts, Lincoln Gordon, Lucie Daly, Irene Morgan, Millie Boyd, John and Marie Breckenridge, Charlotte Page, Louise Smith.
2.
John Sommerlad Tape A2142A informants: Lyle Roberts Jnr., Dick Donnelly
Tape A2142B informants: Lyle Roberts Jnr., Dick Donnelly
3.
Marjorie Oakes Tape A1066 Track A (08-09-1968) informants: Lyle Roberts Jnr., James Morgan
Tape A1066 Track B
47 informant: Lyle Roberts Jnr.
Tape A13140 (20-09-1968) informants: James Morgan, Reg Stitt, Lyle Roberts Jnr.
Tape 13148 (02-03-1969) informant: Lyle Roberts Jnr.
Tape A13149 Side 2 (09-03-1969) informant: Lyle Roberts Jnr.
Tape A13150 (04-05-1969) informant: Lyle Roberts Jnr.
Tape A 13151 (01-06-1969) informant: Lyle Roberts Jnr.
Tape A13152 (15/16/20-06-1969) informant: Lyle Roberts Jnr.
4.
Howard Creamer Tape 5044 (field tape B) informants: Dick Donnelly Gordon Williams Lyle Roberts Jnr.
In addition to the tapes audited I was able to spend a few days examining and copying sections of Marjorie Oakes’ Papers in AIATSIS (Ms. 3831) some of which contained diaries and notebooks that were kept in conjunction with the tapes she made of Lyle Roberts Jnr. These proved an invaluable adjunct to extracting the maximum amount of information possible from the tapes themselves.
48 11) The significance of Round Hill
Key finding: An extensive interview process has failed to uncover any evidence of Round Hill as a ‘teaching hill’ or any connection of Round Hill to Tucki Bora Ring.
Much of the claim made against the proposed Champion’s Quarry extension on Aboriginal Heritage grounds rests on the significance or otherwise of the so-called ‘Teaching Hill’. The claims made for the ‘sacred’ significance of this physical feature rest entirely on the assertions made by Murray John Roberts (30-09-2010; 18-01-2011) in his two affidavits and Inge Riebe in her Statement of Evidence (05-10-2010). Without exception these have been met with disbelief by the members of the Bandjalang community I have interviewed in the last two and a half months drawing comments such as:
‘No one has ever said Round Hill is the Teaching Hill’ (Gilbert King 11-03-2011).
‘If (Round Hill) was a sacred place we all would have known about it’ (Bill Walker 23-03- 2011).
‘It’s not a teaching hill – it wouldn’t be. How could a lot of people go into a swamp to teach – kind of silly. What are they going to eat out there? What would they go in the swamp for? Having a rest, having a feed, travelling through’ (Harry Boyd 28-03-2011).
‘If there’s anything else around the country we’d have known it – they would have told us about it. The Elders tell you: ‘this is here, this is there (places)’ (Desmond ‘Johnno’ Morrissey 24-03-2011).
‘[I’ve] never heard of a teaching hill’ (Mavis Combo relayed by Marcus Fergusson 12-03- 2011).
49 None of the [Nyangbal] Elders I have spoken to have ever mentioned a ‘teaching hill’ (Marcus Fergusson 02-03-2011).
Perhaps the only comment that describes a particular role for Round Hill was made by Lois Cook (11-03-2011): ‘Round Hill [was] a meeting place for Elders before they went over to Pelican Creek’. In my view this is the most accurate assessment of the probable role Round Hill may have played in the lives of traditional Lower Richmond River people’s lives.
It is also interesting that in the many hours of taped interviews made by Marjorie Oakes, Margaret Gummow, John Sommerlad and Harold Creamer no mention is ever made of Round Hill. Equally, in the exhaustive diaries and notebooks kept by Marjorie Oakes between the years 1968 and 1982, most of which concern Lyle Roberts Jnr. but also such Lower Richmond River Elders as Aubrey Roberts and George Cook no mention is ever made of Round Hill. This is despite the extensive information provided by these and other informants for sites in this part of Bandjalang country, sites furthermore that would have every reason to have been thought of as being as ‘sacred’ (and therefore ‘secret’) as the putative Round Hill (for example, the site of the mythologised battle between the Richmond and Clarence tribes at Moonim near Bungawalbyn Bridge; the bora rings at Dungarubba and numerous sites around Wyrallah, besides which of course could be added Parrot’s Nest, the Blue Knob Cave and the Goanna Cave of Evans Head). These sites are all discussed freely and openly with Marjorie Oakes. Despite numerous accounts of trips having been made from Lismore to Evans Head (which almost certainly were made by way of Tuckurimba and Coraki) not one mention is ever made of Round Hill. The excuse that is usually forthcoming: ‘that this site was simply too sacred to mention to a White person’ simply holds no weight in light of the great deal of other information about sites freely given to Marjorie Oakes and these other informants, or the fact, that were the place to have been considered especially secret, its existence could have been mentioned without necessarily going into the details of what that particular significance was.
European sources are equally scant on information concerning Round Hill: ‘In one of the back paddocks and slightly within the boundary of the Tuckian swamp, is a peculiar outcrop of sandstone, of a few acres in extent, almost dome shaped, and bearing one huge gum tree, and need scarcely say that it bears the very appropriate name of One Tree Hill
50 (‘The Richmond River Farm’ The Lismore Chronicle 08-06-1888). This appears to be the sum total of the literary attention Round Hill has drawn in the last one hundred and fifty years of European occupation.
Round Hill receives no mention in Collins, M., 2000 ‘Wiy-abal Aboriginal Clan (Bundalung Nation) Cultural Heritage and Values Relating to the Lismore City Council Local Government Area.’ (Archaeological and Anthropological Assessment by Ron Heron B.A., BLitt (ANU) with the assistance of the Wiy-abal/Widjabul Bundjalung Elders Final Report). This is despite Murray John Roberts having contributed to a number of Ron Heron’s cultural heritage reports including this report despite the fact that the country it concerns is that over which Mr. Roberts is prosecuting a native title claim and which he claims as his traditional country (the boundary equivalent between the area covered in this report and the area claimed in the Widjabal native title claim appear to be exactly equivalent). Although Roberts was an informant for 12 sites mentioned in Heron’s report there is no mention made of Round Hill nor any ‘sacred pathway’ between Tucki Bora Ring and Round Hill. This is despite other sites, the scar trees to the west of Wyrallah Road not far from Champion’s Quarry, being identified (see Appendix Map 7, with accompanying list).
Given the unprofessional methodology adopted by Riebe (05-10-2010) in her Statement of Evidence concerning Round Hill (i.e. no tapes, notes or any other record of interview – relying essentially therefore on her word as to what was said and what was meant (‘[…] while travelling along Wyrallah Road Mr Roberts made a range of statements that I give here’) it is interesting to examine the language she does use in her description of the place and what she was told about it. Riebe (Points 38, 30, 47, 96) refers to ‘teaching hill’ in lower case and inverted commas. There is no mention in the presumably reconstructed – or recalled from memory – conversation about the hill Roberts recalls visiting as a boy. Roberts only comment was, purportedly, that ‘[…] this was part of that ring all this is part of that and what I am saying is the landscape shouldn’t be changed […]’ Given Roberts documented involvement in environmental causes that become linked to Aboriginal heritage issues, and of course the utter absence of any corroborating material (as is frequently the case with Roberts assertions), the complete lack of any detail as to what supposed traditional activities were meant to have occurred at Round Hill, makes for a
51 very poor case that this was the ‘teaching hill’ Roberts and Riebe purport it to be. As Roberts (Point 36) is reported as having said, perhaps it was: ‘Lack of interpretation, that’s the problem […]’.
Equally problematic is the inconsistency of the site of Round Hill and its geographic relationship to Tucki Bora Ring and the information on bora rings we do have from the literature and from the statements of Bandjalang Elders such as Lyle Roberts Jnr. Mathews (1895:39) describes the main instruction associated with Bandjalang initiation ceremonies taking place as follows:
The next morning the novices are taken some distance into the bush to a place where a circle about fifty feet in diameter has been formed on the ground, similar to the wandarral, but of smaller dimensions. This ring is called Mahgin, and the trees growing around it are marked with tomahawks in different patterns. The turf is also marked in different wavy and zigzag lines cut into the surface of the ground with sharp pieces of wood used as spades. These grooves in the soil have narrow pieces of bark layed in them to make them all the more conspicuous and ornamental. All the drawings on the trees, and on the surface of the soil are called moombeery […] they are next shown all the marked trees, one after another, in the same way […]
It is difficult, even allowing for the variations that must have occurred between one Bandjalang group’s country and an others owing to variations in topography and the environment, to see how the features described by Mathews for the Mahgin could have applied to Round Hill, quite apart from the difficulties mentioned by informants as to providing the basic necessities of life. This last point, while perhaps seemingly innocuous, is highly significant: all credible accounts describe a period spent in the bush learning the rights and responsibilities of adulthood as occurring over a weeks rather than days; despite periods of deprivation in the inculcation of the initiates it is difficult to see how Round Hill could have fulfilled these basic requirements.
Bill Walker (Jefferies 23-03-2011), a knowledgeable Bandjalang Elder who amongst other things discovered the scar trees we examined on the site visit at the last court hearings and was responsible for getting them listed as an Aboriginal site (on the AHIMS
52 register), sees the main “ritual” area associated with Tucki Bora Ring as being on the Western side of Wyrallah Road. This is because this side of the ridge faces important places such as Gooroombil (Parrots Nest) and Nimbin Rocks. If there was a pathway of any description it would of connected Tucki Bora Ring and the caves that are believed to exist below and to the west of Wyrallah Road. This is the cave Steele (1984:14) described as follows: ‘To the south of the bora ring, about three kilometres along the ridge, are some small caves which contained stencilled drawings. These drawings were destroyed about 1930.’9
12) The existence of ‘sacred pathways’ claimed to be associated with Tucki Bora Ring.
Key finding: The interview process has failed to uncover any evidence for the existence of a ‘sacred pathway’ linking Round Hill and Tucki Bora Ring.
It is not denied that, on the basis of 19th century descriptions of Bandjalang initiation (bora) ceremonies that other sites related to the bora ceremonies existed around Tucki Bora Ring (as in fact discussed in my initial report Jefferies 2010). There is no disagreement with the generalisations Riebe draws from Bowdler (2000) and Fife (1995). Nor is there on the identification of at least some of the sites known to exist around Tucki Bora Ring. Some of these, such as the Robson’s Knob campsite are well documented. What is contested is Riebe’s assertion that such sites form a ‘linked’ complex: that the connections between some of these places formed an invariable ‘sacred pathway’ that was followed in the course of initiation ceremonies. There is no evidence for this in the Tuckurimba area, Murray John Roberts’ claims again being instances of uncorroborated and unproven assertion. Roberts and Riebe’s (2010:Point 30) assertions as to knowledge of place in the Tuckurimba area are in fact a hotchpotch of miscellaneous facts about the area all of which, with the exception of the ‘teaching hill’ are public knowledge.
[…] number of sites in the area that are still visible: the larger of the two rings, a related stone formation, hoop pine inclusive tree cover and stone arrangements
9 On information provided by Mrs M. Larrescy 1980. Oakes (Ms. 3831 Series 7 Item 69-70) has a note saying the cave was dynamited to get rid of a colony of foxes.
53 within the main camp, corroboree hill and young man’s creek, and the remains of the ‘teaching hill’. The landform of the ridge that marked the pathway from the large Lismore showground camp and that indicates the edges of the swamplands still there. While sandstone rock overhangs and caves have been removed or damaged there are records of their presence, including some within the subject area. There is also said to be a rock site on a treed hill in the subject site. Worked tools and other stones are said to have been removed, some from the subject site. Canoe trees are recorded as having been along the swamp edge and one is said to remain […]
From a basis of a very general and diverse body of knowledge obtained from a variety of sources, and the equally general anthropological assertions on bora rings by authors such as Bowdler (2000) and Fife (1995), Riebe attempts to construct a theory of a fixed and invariable ‘sacred pathway’ that linked sites such as the putative ‘teaching hill’ (Round Hill) to Tucki Bora Ring and which young men travelled along in the course of their initiation ceremonies. Riebe bases her argument for a rigid and formalised ‘complex’ of sites around Tucki bora ring on work she has done for the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service around the Great Dividing Range (The Aboriginal Place Assessment of Significance for Sugarloaf (Gwidyr) and Waratah Trig (Riebe 2000 NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service); The Aboriginal Place Assessment of Significance of Chinaman’s Creek Area Bora (Riebe 2001 NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service). Nowhere are the specific ‘sacred pathways’ of these works described in her Statement or Evidence nor is any convincing argument as to their relevance to the Tuckurimba area surrounding Tucki Bora Ring made.
As stated, like Riebe’s statements concerning the Tucki Bora ring, there is nothing in the anthropological literature to support her claims. The only pathway that is consistently mentioned in the literature, and which could reasonably be described as in any way ‘sacred’ is that linking the larger of the two rings with the smaller of the two rings (Mathews 1895, Fife). In the case of Tucki Bora Ring that path has been destroyed. There is evidence for the existence of paths in the vicinity of Tucki Bora Ring: Oakes (Ms 3831 Series 7 Item 69-70) mentions ‘[…] a track leading from the camp on our ridge (Larrscey’s) to the Bora Ring.’ However, the concept of a ‘sacred pathway’ itself finds no mention in the credible
54 anthropological literature either in respect specifically to Bandjalang or to eastern Australia generally.
55 Appendix 1
Map 1 Master Map of the Bundjalung Dialect Tribal Areas of the Richmond, Brunswick and Tweed Rivers of New South Wales’ (Keats 1988:18).
Map 2 Bandjalang Tribal Dialect Area as envisaged by the author (Keats 1988:24)
Map 3 Wiyabal Tribal Dialect Area, Richmond River as envisaged by the author (Keats 1988:26)
Map 4 Nyangbal Dialect Tribal Area as envisaged by the author (Keats 1988:28)
Map 5 Map prepared by far North Coast Regional Aboriginal Land Council from information given by Bundjalung Elders in a Series of Joint Meetings with Myself [i.e. Inge Riebe] during 1990s.
Map 6 Collins, M., 2000 ‘Wiy-abal Aboriginal Clan (Bundalung Nation) Cultural Heritage and Values Relating to the Lismore City Council Local Government Area.’ (Archaeological and Anthropological Assessment by Ron Heron B.A., BLitt (ANU) with the assistance of the Wiy-abal/Widjabul Bundjalung Elders Final Report; plus attached list of Aboriginal sites described.
Appendix 2
1. Copies of Registered Post – Lodgement Receipts to Murray John Roberts c/- Ngulingah Land Council (21-04-2011) and Inge Riebe, 46 Walgett Street, Katoomba NSW
2. Text of letters sent to a) Murray John Roberts and b) Inge Riebe 21-04-2011 (see i. above).
3. Text of email sent to Inge Riebe dated 23-02-2011
Appendix 3
Affidavit Dr. Gaynor McDonald
Dr Gaynor Macdonald Senior Lecturer and Consultant Anthropologist
1 June 2011
The Director, Champions Quarry Pty Ltd PO Box 5261 East Lismore NSW 2480 [email protected]
Dear Sir
I provided to the Land and Environment Court, in relation to Champions Quarry Pty Ltd v Lismore City Council, an affidavit dated 22 March 2011 (hereafter referred to as my affidavit).
In my affidavit, I suggested the need for further research and evidence to be carried out and supplied by Tony Jefferies.
I wish to confirm that I have now had the opportunity to review Tony Jefferies responses contained in his report dated 12 May 2011 and its many annexures. Tony Jefferies’ report addresses the issues raised in my affidavit in a detailed fashion.
I consider that detailed research has now been completed by Tony Jefferies to sufficiently address all outstanding issues.
Yours faithfully
Gaynor Macdonald
Department of Anthropology T +61 2 9351 3351 ABN 15 211 513 464 CRICOS 00026A School of Social and Political Sciences F +61 2 9351 3046 Rm No 164, R. C. Mills (A26) M 0418.220888 UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY E [email protected] NSW 2006 Australia
Annexure H Report on Interview with Auntie Patricia Cook dated 19 November 2011 (T Jefferies)
Tony Jefferies BA(Hons) Email: [email protected] TJA Anthropologist
Report on interview with Auntie Patricia Cook on 19-11-2011.
On 19-11-2011 I interviewed Auntie Patricia Cook at her home at Cabbage Tree Island via Wardell, N.S.W. Present also was Auntie Patricia’s niece Jenny Smith.
The purpose of my interview was to elicit from Auntie Patricia as much as I could of her traditional knowledge of, specifically, the proposed site for the expansion of Champion’s Quarry in Tuckurimba, and also, more broadly, her traditional knowledge of Tuckurimba and the wider area.
Unfortunately, Auntie Patricia’s traditional knowledge proved rather slim. As she herself said: ‘We’d sit at their [the Elders] feet, and they’d tell us everything, but all we wanted to do was play – if only we’d had the commonsense to listen’; and, ‘Your grandfather [Jenny Cook’s grandfather] Henry Cook told me a lot of things but I was too silly [i.e. too young] to listen.’
My specific queries drew only negative responses. She was, for example, unaware of any birthing site on the proposed quarry extension site. When, however, I later mentioned to her that I had been informed in the course of my research of the possibility that there was a women’s site on the property previously owned by Bill Mason at Tucki, that seemed to trigger some old memory. In answer to all the other questions I raised concerning specific places or possible activities the answer was inevitably in the negative: ‘Never heard of ‘Teaching Hill’ is a typical example. Auntie Patricia did of course know of Tucki Bora Ring. She was also familiar with a women’s birthing site on Goat Island, which is the Richmond River directly opposite Cabbage Tree Island community.
My conclusion from the interview was that Auntie Patricia had quite limited traditional knowledge. As imparted to me, most of her traditional knowledge concerned the sighting of ‘hairy men’ and similar supernatural occurrences.
1