RECORDS OF THE WESTERN AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM 81 145–182 (2013) DOI: 10.18195/issn.0313-122x.81.2013.145-182 SUPPLEMENT

Island country: Aboriginal connections, values and knowledge of the Western Australian Kimberley islands in the context of an island biological survey

T. Vigilante1, J. Toohey1, A. Gorring1*, V. Blundell2, T. Saunders3, S. Mangolamara4, K. George1, J. Oobagooma5, M. Waina6, K. Morgan6 and K. Doohan7

1 Kimberley Land Council, PO Box 2145, Broome, Western Australia 6725, Australia.

2 Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Carleton University, 1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, Ontario K1S 5B6, Canada.

3 PO Box 10, Derby, Western Australia 6728, Australia.

4 Wunambal Gaambera Aboriginal Corporation, PMB 16, Kalumburu via Wyndham, Western Australia 6740, Australia.

5 Dambimangari Aboriginal Corporation, PO Box 648, Derby, Western Australia 6728, Australia.

6 Balanggarra Aboriginal Corporation, c/- Kimberley Land Council, PO Box 821, Kununurra, Western Australia 6743, Australia.

7 PO Box 5404, Albany, Western Australia 6330, Australia.

*Corresponding author: [email protected]

ABSTRACT – Our paper describes Aboriginal connections, values and knowledge of the Kimberley islands and their resources in the context of a terrestrial biological survey of 24 islands, initiated by the Western Australian Government and coordinated by the Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC). The Kimberley islands represent part of the traditional lands of Aboriginal people in the region and hold great signifi cance and value for them. The Kimberley Land Council (KLC) facilitated the participation of 50 Aboriginal Traditional Owners in this survey, which spanned fi ve Native Title areas, three of which have now been determined (Bardi and Jawi, Wanjina Wunggurr Dambimangari and Wanjina Wunggurr Uunguu) and two of which are still in mediation (Balanggarra and Mayala). The KLC and DEC negotiated a research agreement that provided for managed access to sensitive cultural sites, data sharing, the participation of Traditional Owners in fi eld work alongside scientists and input by Traditional Owners in the fi nal publications and recommendations resulting from this survey.

Our paper also places the island survey and its fi ndings into the broader context of Indigenous Natural and Cultural Resource Management (INCRM) in the Kimberley region, including the development of Indigenous Protected Areas and Indigenous Rangers, and other projects such as fi re abatement and tourism management, along with traditional management practices which operate independently from formal management programs.

KEYWORDS: Balanggarra, Bardi and Jawi, Dambimangari, Mayala, Traditional Owner, Unnguu, Wanjina Wunggurr 146 T. Vigilante et al.

INTRODUCTION work alongside scientists, and input by TOs into the fi nal publications and recommendations resulting The numerous islands and surrounding waters from this survey. The KLC is the Native Title of the north-west Kimberley have been used and Representative Body for the Kimberley and also occupied by Aboriginal people for thousands of supports native title groups in natural and cultural years. This use and occupation has included active resource management through its Land and Sea and passive management of valuable resources. Management Unit. For the Traditional Owners (TOs) of these islands Gibson and McKenzie (2012) provide a detailed they are places which represent complex entities of outline of the context, objectives and approach cultural and ecological values; for instance, islands of the KIBS. This paper aims to provide an are rarely known by a single name. Instead, they overview of TO connections, knowledge, values have layered meanings of cultural signifi cance. and management plans for Kimberley islands Complex relationships of caretaking and naming to complement other publications arising from have continued into the present period despite the KIBS project. It is organised into four major signifi cant geographic and mobility constraints. sections. The fi rst section describes the methods The islands are covered by several contiguous and approach employed in this project. The native title determinations (which recognise second section discusses the territories as well as private property rights of Aboriginal people in the the cultural and linguistic characteristics of the islands and the seas) and claims. Tenure includes Aboriginal people connected to islands in the exclusive and non-exclusive possession native title, surveyed area. Colonial impacts on their cultures Aboriginal Reserves and unallocated Crown land. and relevant aspects of native title and land tenure The islands are components of Indigenous are also discussed. Section three addresses issues cultural landscapes and seascapes that are of regarding Indigenous natural and cultural resource enormous signifi cance to TOs. As such, islands management, including the nature of Aboriginal are elements of the complex enculturated space occupation and knowledge of islands as well as which Kimberley TOs call their ‘saltwater country’. Indigenous values associated with islands. The As such, they include many specific sites that fi nal section considers issues regarding the future are focal points in the naming of islands, in local management of islands. and regional religious narratives, for ceremonial practices and other cultural activities. The islands METHODS AND APPROACH also have important freshwater, plant and animal resources. In recent times, TOs have undertaken natural and cultural resource management projects RESEARCH AGREEMENT AND TRADITIONAL OWNER and programs aimed at identifying and managing ROLES AND PARTICIPATION IN THE SURVEY the values and resources in their traditional For research projects to be truly collaborative country, including islands. The natural and TO groups need to be involved at the project Indigenous cultural values of the islands have also development stage so that they share the research been recognised in the recent listing of the West agenda and concept. In the case of the KIBS, the Kimberley on the National Heritage List under the State had already developed a project proposal Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation in order to secure funding from Commonwealth Act 1999 (Cth) (EPBC Act) (Australian Heritage and State Governments. In this case, the KLC Commission [AHC] 2011). (acting under TO instruction) agreed to negotiate a The Kimberley Islands Biodiversity Survey research agreement with DEC prior to the research (KIBS) was developed by the Western Australian commencing. In the past, there has been little or no Department of Environment and Conservation impetus for State Government agencies to engage (DEC). The impetus for the survey was the need with Kimberley TOs in biological survey work to obtain baseline information on the biodiversity although there are records indicating that TOs values of the islands for future management have attempted to secure a role in these processes planning (Gibson and McKenzie 2012). The (Johnston and Tann 1991). Earlier biological Kimberley islands are of high conservation surveys in the region, including an earlier survey value, containing many endemic and threatened of islands of the Bonaparte Archipelago (Burbidge species which are, to some extent, protected from and McKenzie 1978), did not involve TOs, with threatening processes prevalent on the mainland. one notable exception. This was the Kimberley The KIBS project demonstrated best practice for Rainforest Survey (McKenzie et al. 1991) which involving TOs in a research partnership. The KLC provides a precedent for TO participation in and DEC negotiated a research agreement that biological survey work. Here, the project leaders provided for managed access to sensitive cultural invited a senior Wunambal elder, Geoffrey sites, data sharing, the participation of TOs in fi eld Mangglamara†, to join the fi eld team and co-write ABORIGINAL CONNECTIONS, VALUES AND KNOWLEDGE OF THE WESTERN AUSTRALIAN KIMBERLEY ISLANDS 147 a paper on indigenous knowledge of rainforests group and were people with connections to the (Mangglamarra et al. 1991). There are also other specifi c islands or broader country within which precedents from elsewhere in the state (Pearson and the island was located. Over the three years of the the Ngaanyatjarra Council 1997; Brennan 2012). project 50 TOs took part in fi eld work. Their names The research agreement for the KIBS set a new are compiled in Appendix A (see also Appendix standard for collaborative research with TOs in A in Gibson and McKenzie 2012). Traditional the North Kimberley. It included a number of Owners played a number of roles on the field important provisions, such as the following: team. On arrival at the site, they were asked to provide an initial heritage site clearance to make • Field teams were accompanied by TOs to ensure sure that any sensitive cultural sites in the area cultural heritage could be protected. had not been missed in the desktop approach. • In accordance with Aboriginal law and culture, It was also important to ensure that activities visitors needed to be welcomed to country did not disturb cultural heritage sites. Some by TOs, and often this required some form of signifi cant stone arrangements were recorded at a ceremony such as a smoking ceremony. number of sites and were documented for future • TO participation in the field teams ensured reference. Traditional Owners were also required that TOs could impart relevant local and to participate in the fi eld work with the scientifi c traditional ecological knowledge to the team and team. The level of experience and knowledge also that TOs gained valuable new skills and varied widely among TO participants. Some knowledge from the non-indigenous scientifi c older people had grown up ‘on country’ and were team members (including some of the State’s knowledgeable about various animals and plants, leading biologists). while others who were young and had grown up ‘in town’ were less knowledgeable. For many • The research agreement also required that data younger participants this was their fi rst time on would be provided to the KLC at the end of the the surveyed island and it was therefore a valuable project. It also made provisions for the KLC to experience for them. review and contribute to fi nal publications to ensure that the interests of TOs are considered. Following the fi eld program, some TO participants were interviewed using semi-structured interviews Since the signing of this agreement, the KLC has established a research and ethics committee to document their experiences of the survey and, and developed a policy to guide future research where possible, photographs and cultural site data projects that relate to TOs and their land and were also compiled from fi eld teams. sea interests (http://klc.org.au/2010/12/02/klc- research-protocol/). DATA SOURCES This paper draws on information contained TRADITIONAL OWNERS AND FIELD WORK in both published and unpublished sources. The general KIBS methods have been outlined by Published sources are cited throughout the text. Gibson and McKenzie (2012). The survey involved Other information derives from semi-structured sampling of 24 islands over three years with both interviews that were recorded by the authors of dry season and wet season surveys. Sampling this paper with Aboriginal elders from various targeted mammals, reptiles, frogs, land snails, Aboriginal language groups associated with birds and vascular plants. Prior to the fi eld work, the KIBS (including members of the Angus DEC staff provided KLC with maps and satellite and Stumpagee families, Daphne Wilfred, Janet images of proposed fi eld sites. Based on these maps Oobagooma, Victor Barunga† , Jack Karadada†, and images, senior TOs advised if there were any Basil Djanghara, Sylvester Mangolomara, Sylvia cultural heritage issues that would make these Djanghara, Matthew Waina, Mary Taylor, Lionel sites unsuitable for access. In some instances TOs Mitchell, George Dixon and Selwin Meehan), and also joined DEC staff in a fl y-over of some of the with Aboriginal fi eld participants in the KIBS (as proposed sites. This desktop approach to cultural named in Appendix A). Statements attributed heritage site identification is not ideal as some to Aboriginal people are indicated and credited Indigenous people are not familiar with using throughout the text. This paper also draws on maps, and small islands within archipelagos can be data from earlier unpublished research and from diffi cult to recognise from maps. However, funds personal communications with TOs. Notes from did not allow for on-ground site visits prior to the field trips undertaken by the Kimberley Land survey. Council with Mayala TOs as part of the North Each fi eld team included one or two TOs. These Kimberley Saltwater Country Project also provided TOs were selected by the relevant native title some source material. 148 T. Vigilante et al.

INDIGENOUS CONTEXT FOR THE KIMBERLEY apart from other Kimberley Aboriginal societies. ISLAND SURVEY Within the overall country of a particular language group, individuals are members of descent groups sometimes called ‘clans,’ and as such they are PROJECT AREA – SOCIAL SETTING, NATIVE TITLE, connected to smaller areas of land called ‘clan LAND TENURE AND ABORIGINAL CONNECTION estates’ by anthropologists, or ‘my country’ by TOs The islands sampled during the KIBS are themselves. Each language group has its own term located across the Traditional Countries of several for these estates, such as dambeema (Worrorra), Aboriginal territorial groups. Historically, these guraa (Wunambal and Gaambera), kûraa (Pelaa), groups have been referred to by anthropologists and booroo (Bardi). Typically, each person has a as ‘tribes’ (Tindale 1940, 1974) and more precisely primary connection to the estate of their father, as ‘language groups’ (Blundell and Woolagoodja with associated rights and duties. Individuals also 2005; Kimberley Land Council [KLC] 2010; AHC have strong connections, with associated rights and 2011). For Kimberley Aboriginal people, language duties, to the estates of their other close kin. is a part of their country, and a group’s name and In recent years, Aboriginal people have formally the language of its overall territory are usually the defi ned themselves in terms of native title groups same or similar (McGregor 2004). In some cases, for the purpose of securing recognition of legal several Kimberley language groups comprise title through the Native Title Act 1993 (Cth). Native larger Aboriginal societies, referred to as ‘native title groups are often composed of one or more title communities’ in native title materials (see language group whose members comprise a below). Society members generally intermarry distinct Aboriginal society as well as a single native and they share beliefs and practices that set them title community (Table 1, Figure 1).

FIGURE 1 Map of coastal language families, languages, language groups and native title groups covering the Kimberley Island Biodiversity Survey area. ABORIGINAL CONNECTIONS, VALUES AND KNOWLEDGE OF THE WESTERN AUSTRALIAN KIMBERLEY ISLANDS 149 compiled for the purpose of this compiled for shed in Aklif (1999). Aklif (1999). shed in al groups. Orthography conventions conventions al groups. Orthography urrulgu/Wurroolgu ulalam Muludb/Mulugudba Ganjal Yuwadan/Yeewadan Yuduwala/Yoorruwala Junulgu/Joonoolgoo Miya/Meeyaa Jarra Marrgalarlg Manjalaaly nalised within groups. For that reason there may be some inconsistencies in this table. that reason there may In some nalised within groups. For ew Gumalamala sher Un-named island near Storr (called Un-named by KIBS) Heywood Island Group sampled by KIBS) (Jungulu/Darcy Byam Martin Augustus W Uwins IslandAndrew Basin including St St George Champagny (short wet season visit) Nyallingarni Nimenba St Andr Offi cial Place NameOffi Language Place Name Kingfi Wulalam W Un-named island in Talbot Bay Un-named island in Talbot (called NW Molema by KIBS) Worrorra Storr Winjarrumi WORRORRAN Language name LANGUAGE FAMILY WORRORRAN publication and may not be the only names by which these islands are referred to by different Aboriginal individuals and cultur different to by these islands are referred which not be the only names by publication and may not been fi vary between language groups and in some cases have languages are publi and Jawi names of some islands in Bardi The the same name. for spellings are provided cases two alternative A list of language names for islands in the Kimberley Island Biodiversity Survey. Note that the island names provided here were Note that the island names provided Island Biodiversity Survey. islands in the Kimberley A list of language names for Native Title Group Native Title Dambimangari Umiida/Umiide TABLE 1 TABLE 150 T. Vigilante et al. Bunjinii Wargul Wargul Offi cial Place NameOffi Language Place Name Sir Graham MooreAdolphusHidden Banggoon LachlanLongSunday Niiwalarra Jirritmirii/Jirridmirii Ooloogija Oonggaliyan Iwany BiggeKatersMiddle Osborn OsbornSouth West Un-named island at Cape Bougainville by KIBS) Wargul (called Wargul Mary Wuyurru Ngurraali Wung-gaarindjii/Wunggaarindjii Umpatayi/Umbadayi Garrlala CoronationBoongaree Garlinju Wunandarra Language name LANGUAGE FAMILY & Umiide/Umiida WORRORRAN NYULNYULAN Forrest River language Forrest WORRORRAN WORRORRAN Gaambera WORRORRAN WORRORRAN Mayala Ugarrang/Unggarranggi and JawiBardi Jawi/Jaawi Balanggarra Kwini/Belaa Native Title Group Native Title Uunguu Wunambal ABORIGINAL CONNECTIONS, VALUES AND KNOWLEDGE OF THE WESTERN AUSTRALIAN KIMBERLEY ISLANDS 151

The Wanjina Wunggurr native title community gender or noun classes. covers most of the North Kimberley with their Bardi and Jawi are very similar languages with overall territory consisting of the Wilinggin, some slight differences in vocabulary; for example, Uunguu and Dambimangari native title the noun for ‘dugong’ is odorr in Bardi and urdorr determination areas. Members of the Wanjina in Jawi (Bowern 2007). There are also grammatical Wunggurr community share a law and culture differences; for example the inflected form ‘for derived from Wanjina and Wunggurr ancestral fi ghting’ is biilingan in Bardi and biilan in Jawi - beings (described below). Within the overall note the different purposive case ending (Bowern Wanjina Wunggurr community, the Wunambal 2008). Yawijibaya and Umiida are closely related and Gaambera language groups and the Wunambal to Worrorra. There are some differences in verb and Gaamberra languages are associated with the forms for example compare Yawijibaya beyagal, Uunguu determination area, while the Worrorra Umiida bayalgolgo with Worrorra bengkaal , all language group and the Worrorra language are meaning ‘come here’. Grammatically, the ablative associated with the Dambimangari determination case (meaning ‘from’) also differs, Yawijibaya –ga, area. There are also Wanjina Wunggurr people who Umiida –naga and Worrorra –aalb(a) (McGregor are the TOs of islands and adjoining waters in the and Rumsey 2009). Areas associated with Jawi, Dambimangari native title area associated with the Yawijibaya and Winjarrumi languages consist Yawijibaya, Winjarrumi, Umiida and Unggarrangi entirely, or largely, of islands and ocean water, languages, which are no longer spoken but were while areas associated with the other language closely related to Worrorra. Members of the groups in the survey areas include islands and Dambimangari and Uunguu native title groups ocean waters as well as large sections of the have strong connections to islands which form part mainland, such as for Wunambal. of their traditional country. The Wanjina Wunggurr native title community also predominately includes ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE OF OCCUPATION AND the Ngarinyin language group associated with the COLONIAL IMPACTS Ngarinyin (also known as Ungarinyin) language, and whose Wilinggin native title claim area lies Archaeological evidence suggests that Aboriginal inland from the coast. people have occupied north-west Australia for at The Balanggarra Native Title claim area stretches least 40,000 years and that the Kimberley was a from Napier Broome Bay to Cambridge Gulf and likely entry point for the arrival of the fi rst people Wyndham town. TOs associated with the Belaa across land bridges from Asia (Mulvaney and (also known as Kwini) and Yeiji language groups Kamminga 1999). Throughout this period, sea levels and the Argna, Arawari, Gular and Guragona have risen and fallen with glaciations, and offshore ‘tribes’ among others are connected to this country islands have rejoined the mainland and separated with a distinctive set of local laws and customs again. O’Connor (1989) has remarked that there (Kaberry 1934, 1935a, 1935b; Ben Ward & Ors are relatively few archaeological remains on many v. Western Australia & Ors [1998] FCA 1478 [24 islands despite ethnographic evidence of long and November 1998]). The Bardi and Jawi native title intensive occupation. However, some signifi cant community includes the Bardi language group archaeological deposits have been investigated in from the tip of the Dampier Peninsula and the rock shelters on High Cliffy Island, Koolan Island Jawi from Sunday Island and other neighbouring and Macleay Island, confi rming a long history of islands. The Mayala native title claim covers many island occupation as early as 27,300 +/- 1100 BP of the islands of the Buccaneer Archipelago and based on radiocarbon dating of deposited materials. Sunday Strait. Other islands have rock art, stone arrangements, shell middens and scattered artefacts. The 24 islands in the KIBS cover the country of some 10 language groups. The majority of the Estimates suggest that prior to European languages in the North Kimberley area belong colonisation, the total Aboriginal population in to a distinct Australian language family, the the coastal area between Yampi Sound and Cape Worrorran. All of these languages are derived from Londonderry was in the vicinity of 4000 people an ancestral language called a proto-language, a (Crawford 1969). single language source (see McGregor and Rumsey In many cases, Aboriginal people residing on 2009). One of the typological characteristics of this islands experienced greater or earlier impacts from family is that its languages have several (four or colonisation than those on the mainland (Crawford more) gender terms or noun classes. Jawi belongs 2001). Much of the early colonization came from to the Nyulnyulan language family together with the sea, followed later by land-based expeditions Bardi and other languages found predominantly on and pastoralism (Jebb 2002). Also, because of their the adjacent Dampier Peninsula and adjacent lower smaller countries and smaller numbers of people, Fitzroy River catchment. These languages have no the island people and languages may have been 152 T. Vigilante et al. more susceptible to the effects of colonisation. Of of the earliest recorded encounters on 17 September the three distinct island languages in the Kimberley 1819, Phillip Parker King documented Aboriginal (Yawijibaya, Winjarrumi and Jawi), only Jawi is still people on Lacrosse Island harvesting turtle eggs spoken – albeit by a small number of old people. and burning vegetation (King 1969). By comparison, larger culturally distinct language Explorers were soon followed by colonists. Most groups remain on large islands in the Northern signifi cant, was the failed attempt to establish a Territory, namely the Tiwi on Melville and Bathurst pastoral colony at Camden Sound, which brought Islands and the Anindilyakwa on Groote Eylandt; Europeans into conflict with coastal Worrorra these languages still being spoken by more than people in the 1800s (Martin 1864; Richards 1990; a thousand people. The 2005 National Indigenous Crawford 2001). There are Aboriginal oral accounts Languages Survey Report estimated approximately of confl ict and massacres taking place between 1500 speakers of Anindilyakwa, whereas the 2006 early seafarers, including some on islands such as Australian Bureau of Statistics Census counted 1283 Mary Island and Sheep Island (Crawford 2001). speakers (www.sorosoro.org/en/anindilyakwa), The emerging pearling industry in Western accessed June 2012). Australia expanded north and led to the establishment Makassan sea traders (from present day Indonesia) of the township of Broome in the 1880s (McGonigal had already begun visiting the Kimberley coast 1998; Edwards 1991). During this time coastal from sometime between 1669 and 1763 (Crawford Aboriginal people were forced into indentured or 1969; 2001). They established seasonal camps and slave labour (AHC 2011). From the 1890s pearling processing centres for sea cucumber, including on luggers from Broome also began to exploit the some islands – Jar, Woku-Woku, Low, Corronade, North Kimberley, often coming into confl ict with Champagney, Augustus and Cassini (Crawford Aboriginal people (Crawford 2001). By the 1920s 2001), and operated between Cape Londonderry in the conflict had eased somewhat. Pearlers and the north and Brue Reef in the south. Aboriginal beachcombers encouraged Aboriginal people people’s interactions with Makassans varied. to remain on the coast to work on luggers or in There was some exchange of language, trade and camps during the dry season rather than move marriage partners (Crawford 2001). Some groups inland, causing some disruption to traditional worked with Makassans in the harvest of sea lifestyle (Crawford 2001). During this time, both cucumber. The Juarinanda people of Sir Graham Herbert Basedow (1918) and E.J. Stuart (1923) Moore Island adopted many words of possible undertook coastal voyages on luggers and recorded their observations of the coast. Their accounts Malay origin into their language and personal suggest that there were still reasonable numbers names of individuals were derived from Malay of Aboriginal people residing on islands at this boating terms (e.g. Lain-moro, the gap between two time, despite the increasing colonial presence. ships lying parallel at anchor) (Hernandez 1941; They encountered Aboriginal people or evidence Crawford 2001). Aboriginal people in the Kimberley of Aboriginal people on many islands still also obtained dugout canoes from Makassans and living traditional lifestyles. Basedow (1918) also local indigenous words for canoe ‘namandi’ and documented the detailed island knowledge of ‘barawa’ may have been derived from Malay dialect Aboriginal men from Sunday Island who worked (Crawford 2001), but this remains to be tested. as crew on his vessel. In 1916, in the far north of However, evidence also suggests that relations the Kimberley, he observed that ‘natives are often between Aboriginal people and Makassans in seen on rafts’ in the area of the Holothuria Banks, the Kimberley region were often hostile and between Penguin Shoal and Warn Rock (Basedow that Aboriginal people changed their movement 1918). patterns between islands and the coast, and the Following the failed pastoral attempts at Camden inland to avoid Makassans (Crawford 1983). Sound, more pastoralists and farmers began to settle European seafarers began to arrive soon after in the North Kimberley, near Wyndham and Derby the Makassans and found that Aboriginal people but also further north, including on Sir Graham had already adopted hostile behaviours to visitors, Moore Island and Barton Plains (Crawford 2001). sending smoke signals to warn each other of the The Victorian Pastoral Company built a homestead arrivals and, in some cases, lighting fi res to drive near Forrest River in 1886 (Green 2008). Confl ict the visitors away (Sholl 1865 cited in Crawford between pastoralists and Aboriginal people led to 2001; Perez 1977; Crawford 1969; 2001). The fi rst killings and massacres and police patrols began European visitors were mostly navigators and capturing Aboriginal people and imprisoning them explorers, including William Dampier in 1688 and in gaols in towns (Jebb 2002). The most recent and 1699 (Dampier 1981 [1699]), Baudin in 1801 and 1803 well documented massacre occurred near Forrest (Baudin 1974 [1803]); King from 1819 to 1822 (King River in 1926 where a police patrol killed a large, but 1969 [1827]) and Stokes in 1838 (Stokes 1846). In one unknown, number of people (Green 2008). ABORIGINAL CONNECTIONS, VALUES AND KNOWLEDGE OF THE WESTERN AUSTRALIAN KIMBERLEY ISLANDS 153

Contact with Europeans brought new disease One Arm Point and Oombulgurri. A number of epidemics, such as leprosy and infl uenza, which outstations were established during the 1970s and exacted a huge toll on Aboriginal people. An 1980s with the support of government funded epidemic was said to have swept through the North programs, including Nilagoon on Sunday Island Kimberley coast in 1880 with so many people killed (however, it is no longer permanently occupied). that mortuary ceremonies could not be performed Today, TOs predominantly reside in the (Green 2008). Crawford (2001) provides an account communities of One Arm Point, Djarinjin/ of the Juarinanda people of Sir Graham Moore Lombadina, Mowanjum, Kalumburu, Oombulgurri Island who are said to have been killed in the late and the towns of Broome, Derby, Wyndham and 19th century by a mysterious disease involving Kununurra. Small outstations exist at Cone Bay worms under the skin, with the remainder of the (Yaloon), Kandiwal (Mitchell Plateau), adjacent to local population moving to Drysdale River Mission. Kalumburu, and adjacent to Oombulgurri. It is Drysdale River Mission diaries also document diffi cult to provide current and accurate population epidemics, coupled with low birth rates and fi gures for TO groups with connections to the area intertribal killings (Perez 1977). of the KIBS. However, there are at least several Christian missions were established along the thousand TOs with connection to the saltwater coast in the 1890s and early 1900s at Lombadina, country covering the islands in this survey. Sunday Island, Port George/Kunmunya/Wotjalum, Drysdale River/Kalumburu and Forrest River. NATIVE TITLE RIGHTS AND INTERESTS The Christian missionaries wanted to protect Aboriginal people from colonial impacts and ‘Native title’ is a form of interest in land and convert them to their denomination (Choo 2001). waters recognised by the common law of Australia. Over time, Aboriginal people became increasingly Unlike other forms of land tenure, it is derived settled at missions but it was common practice from legal systems outside the current Australian for groups of people to return to the bush for legal system, but if it meets certain criteria it can some periods to observe cultural traditions and a be recognised by Australian laws. The ‘other’ legal traditional lifestyle (Crawford 2001; Blundell and systems from which native title comes are the laws Woolagoodja 2005). With the threat of Japanese and customs of the Aboriginal society, community invasion during WWII, police patrols forced all or group who were in occupation of the claimed but a few people remaining in the bush to move to area of land or waters at the time that the British settlements (Choo 2001). Missions often supported asserted sovereignty (in Western Australia, 1829). themselves with shelling work that also enabled If native title claimants can demonstrate that Aboriginal people to visit island country. As was the claimed land and waters were traditionally the case for Janet Oobagooma who, until she owned by their ancestors under a system of laws was about 11 years old, grew up on the islands and customs which has continued to be observed in the coastal region out from Kunmunya with through to the present, and certain other legal her grandparents and other old people. They criteria are met, the common law of Australia will stayed on the islands throughout the year – even recognise the ‘native title rights and interests’ in the during cyclones – using canoes to travel and hunt claimed area. for foods. Before Kunmunya Mission moved to Wotjalum around 1953, Worrorra people used Like other land interests, native title rights can to travel to Augustus Island for Christmas and be either exclusive (like freehold title) or non- Easter holidays and for ‘shelling work’, collecting exclusive (like pastoral or other limited purpose pearl shell, baler shells, cowrie shells and living leases). Native title interests in land and waters off bush tucker like yams and fruits. Similarly, are private property interests which are protected Sunday Island Mission was sustained by shelling by the common law from wrongs such as trespass work until it closed in the 1960s. Aboriginal people or nuisance, in the same way that other land from Sunday Island Mission spent several weeks interests are protected. However, because claims camped on various islands during the holiday for recognition of native title can take in excess times collecting trochus shell throughout the of a decade to resolve, claims which are not yet Buccaneer Archipelago; Daphne Wilfred spoke determined (or recognised) by the Federal Court of doing this in her childhood. After the 1950s, provide some protection if they meet certain Wotjalum and Sunday Island were forced to close technical criteria and are registered on the Register or relocate closer to towns due to lack of fi nances. of Native Title Claims. These pre-determination Forrest River Mission also closed in 1968 but was protections are limited to procedural rights in re-established as Oombulgurri four years later. This relation to proposals to grant competing interests led to a period of dislocation before communities over the claimed area, such as a proposal to grant a re-established themselves at Old Mowanjum, lease or a mining or exploration tenement. 154 T. Vigilante et al.

LAND TENURE AND NATIVE TITLE As noted above, native title rights and interests can be recognised as ‘exclusive’ or ‘non-exclusive’. During the early 1900s the Government of While the actual content of these rights and Western Australia declared Aboriginal Reserves interests will depend on the rights that come from over some lands adjacent to Aboriginal missions traditional laws and customs, exclusive possession and settlements, including Sunday Island, native title rights and interests are the rights to Wotjalum, Munja, Kunmunya, Admiralty Gulf, possess, occupy, use and enjoy land and waters Cape Bougainville, Kalumburu and Forrest River. as against the whole world. Non-exclusive native In 1949, the Australian Presbyterian Board of title rights and interests will depend on customary Missions applied, with partial success, for the rights in the land, but often include the following Kunmunya Reserve to be extended to include rights and interests: islands off the coastline (Augustus Island and parts of the adjacent Bonaparte Archipelago, and • To live on the land, camp, erect shelters and the High Cliffy and Montgomery islands, and move about the land and waters; parts of the adjacent Buccaneer Archipelago) and • To engage in cultural activities on the land and waters adjacent to protect Aboriginal interests in waters, including the protection of places of native dugong, turtle and fi shing grounds from cultural signifi cance from physical harm; and the intrusion and exploitation by non-Aboriginal people (Department of Land Administration File • To hunt and fi sh the land and waters and use 55426 based on Government Gazettes, 13-06-49). the resources of the land. The islands were annexed but the waters were not included in the reserve. Many other islands remain INDIGENOUS NATURAL AND CULTURAL unallocated Crown Land (meaning land over which RESOURCE MANAGEMENT no other tenure has been created), including Bigge, Aboriginal peak bodies dealing with land, law, Adolphus and Long islands. Part of Sir Graham culture and language have emerged over the last Moore was leased in the 1920s to grow cotton but 30 years including the KLC and its Land and Sea this lease has long since expired. Management Unit, the Kimberley Aboriginal Law Over the last 20 years, the State Government and Culture Centre (KALACC) and the Kimberley has released planning documents recommending Language Resource Centre. The last 20 years has conservation reserves for several islands (Burbidge also seen the emergence of a formalised Indigenous et al. 1991; Burbidge and McKenzie 1978) as well natural and cultural resource management as marine reserves (CALM 1994). In 2010 the State movement. Government released the Kimberley Science and The movement of people from their lands Conservation Strategy which includes a proposal to and seas during the colonization period created declare reserves over some 30 islands (http://www. a context where traditional practices were dec.wa.gov.au/content/view/6171/2183/. Accessed constrained and which saw the rise of some 10/06/2012). These reserve proposals are subject to environmental problems. Most significantly, negotiation with native title holders. given the events of colonisation, the diffi culty of The majority of the area of the KIBS was covered maintaining traditional land management through by native title claims in the period that the surveys seasonal burning by Aboriginal people across were done, and the balance of the area was subject some remote areas has led to a rise in large and to a native title determination. In the period since intense unmanaged wildfi res in the late dry season completion of the KIBS, the majority of the area (Vigilante et al. 2004). Bowman et al. (2001) coined subject to native title claims has been recognised the phrase ‘the Wilderness Effect’ to explain the in two further determinations to be subject to both environmental consequences of people moving ‘off exclusive and non-exclusive native title rights and country’. There has also been a rise in physical and interests. social/cultural impacts on cultural values and at These claims and determinations cover the sites of signifi cance, largely because of unmanaged islands, seas, reefs, intertidal zones and adjacent visitation from tourists, government land managers, mainland. At the commencement of the KIBS pastoralists and mining and exploration companies there was only one native title determination, the (discussed below). Bardi Jawi native title determination. The Wanjina One area of particular concern to TOs is the Wunggurr Dambimangari native title claim and the largely unregulated expedition cruise industry Wanjina Wunggurr Uunguu native title claim were accessing Aboriginal cultural sites and Aboriginal subsequently determined on 26 and 23 May 2011, lands without consent (Scherrer et al. 2008, 2011; respectively. The registered native title claims are Smith et al. 2009; Scherrer and Doohan 2011). In the Mayala native title claim and the Balanggarra response to these concerns, the KLC initiated The Combined native title claim. Saltwater Country Project with North Kimberley ABORIGINAL CONNECTIONS, VALUES AND KNOWLEDGE OF THE WESTERN AUSTRALIAN KIMBERLEY ISLANDS 155 coastal TOs in 2004. The Saltwater Country Project the Environment (see AHC 2011). The listing of the aims to document TO values and concerns for the West Kimberley on Australia’s National Heritage coastal region and develop management strategies list led the federal Environment Minister Tony to protect cultural values. The project resulted in Burke to remark that this is the nation’s largest the development of a plan with recommendations land-based National Heritage listing and the fi rst from TO groups about the ways to manage tourist to proceed with the full consent of the TOs (http:// visitation through permits, Aboriginal ranger www.ens-newswire.com/ens/aug2011/2011-08-31- programs and Indigenous Protected Areas (IPAs) 01.html. Accessed 30/03/2012). (North Kimberley Saltwater Country Plan 2010). The following themes and their associated An IPA is a voluntary conservation covenant heritage values were authorised by TOs and were registered on the Australia National Reserve ultimately included in the listing (see AHC 2011; System to International Union for Conservation http://www.environment.gov.au/heritage/places/ of Nature (IUCN) classifi cation with an objective national/west-kimberley/index.html. Accessed to protect at least 75% of the area. There is also 17/04/12): a funding commitment from the Australian Government. A number of TO groups (including • Wanjina Wunggurr cultural landscape and Wanjina Wunggurr Uunguu and Bardi and sea-scape, including rock art and other Jawi) have now established Aboriginal Rangers manifestations of Wanjina Spirit Beings, and through the Australian Government’s ‘Working Gwion Gwion/Girrigorro rock art (Gwion On Country Program’. Five coastal groups are also Gwion and Girrigorro are descriptive terms developing IPAs with funding from the Australian used by North Kimberley language groups Governments IPA Program. IPA management plans to refer to a particular type of rock art and are being developed using a participatory planning associated narratives found in the region. We tool developed by The Nature Conservancy also note that Balanggarra often spell Girrigorro called Conservation Action Planning (The Nature as Kirakiro or Kirrakirro). Conservancy 2011; Moorcroft et al. 2012). In 2010 • The Fitzroy River Catchment cultural landscape, Wanjina Wunggurr Uunguu TOs became the fi rst Kimberley coastal native title group to declare described through the narratives of the Snake an IPA over two large Aboriginal reserves. It also (Rainbow Serpent). released its ‘Healthy Country Plan’ with support • The double log raft (Kalwa/Kalum often spelt as from Bush Heritage Australia and the KLC gaalwa by Bardi and galam by Worrorra). (Wunambal Gaambera Aboriginal Corporation [WGAC] 2010). Other significant natural and • Pearl stories – riches of the sea. The description cultural resource management projects are the of this value also includes the concept of wunan Bardi-Jawi Dugong and Marine Turtle Management /wurnan cultural trade and exchange. Project (Kennett and Kitchens 2009), the North • Bungarun Leprosarium, sites associated Kimberley Fire Abatement Project (http://klc. with the Noonkanbah dispute, the Bunuba org.au/land-sea/north-kimberley-fire-abatement- resistance and the role of Jandamarra and project/; Fitzsimons et al. 2012) and Traditional Sacred Heart Church at Beagle Bay, all of Knowledge recording projects (Horstman and which TOs authorised for listing as part of the Wightman 2001; Karadada et al. 2011). listing’s overall theme of resistance, survival and In 2008, the Australian Heritage Council adaptation. commenced a National Heritage assessment of the West Kimberley. The assessment involved INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE OF ISLANDS AND THEIR identifying natural, historic and Indigenous values BIODIVERSITY that meet the technical criteria. The KLC was funded by the Commonwealth to work with TOs The physical environment and setting of the 24 to identify values of outstanding heritage value to islands and the wider region has been described the nation. TOs wanted the entire West Kimberley by Gibson and McKenzie (2012). TOs have their to be listed for its heritage values. Although they own detailed system of classifying landscape and have their own distinct cultural traditions, they seascape features. For example, TOs use the concept share a common history of resistance, survival and ‘saltwater country’ (lalanggarram in Worrorra adaption over many thousands of years, with the [Clendon 2000] and gaarra in Bardi [Aklif 1999]) in result that their ‘stories’, cultures and history are an effort to demonstrate to others that their country interconnected. On 31 August 2011, following a – no matter what its component parts (water, reef, comprehensive culturally appropriate consultation salt water, islands, beaches and the hard ground process, the West Kimberley as ‘one place with of the mainland or of rivers) – is meaningful (see many stories’ was included on the National for instance WGAC 2010). At the more local and Heritage List by the Commonwealth Minister for tangible level, Indigenous classifi cation of country 156 T. Vigilante et al. emphasizes soil type and geomorphology which of the Dreaming resonate in the present. Ancestral infl uence the distribution and abundance of plant creator beings continue to inhabit the country and animal resources. These same classifi cations where they manifest themselves as rock art, stone apply to islands as microcosms of the mainland arrangements and other tangible and intangible (Crawford 1982). Each TO language group has features of the land and the sea. As such, these its own word for islands, including Iinalang features provide visible evidence of creative (Bardi – Aklif 1999), Ungajon (Worrorra – Janet labours of these Dreaming Beings (Blundell Oobagooma pers. comm.), Uumerige (Wunambal 2003). Moreover, as powerful sentient beings, the – Jack Karadada†, pers. comm.) and Mudu (Belaa – Ancestral Beings have the capacity to bring good Crawford 1982). fortune, but also harm to humans and country. The plant and animal knowledge of North The language groups whose territories are Kimberley TOs has been documented by included in the KIBS project have different accounts ethnographers working with TOs (Crawford 1982; of the Dreaming as well as different bodies of Lands 1997; Mangglamara et al. 1991; Paddy and laws and customs, as refl ected by the native title Smith 1987; Rouja 1998; Smith 1997; Smith and communities. Some ‘stories’ and some aspects of Kalotas 1985; Kenneally et al. 1996). More recently their law are restricted and secret, particularly the KLC has undertaken ethnoecological work parts of the male initiation ceremonies. Other with TO groups initially funded through the aspects are not restricted in the same way, but are Tropical Savanna Cooperative Research Centre. still controlled by rules and protocols of disclosure This work has resulted in plant and animal such as who can grant an outsider permission to knowledge lists for the Wanjina Wunggurr Uunguu visit country. and Balanggarra Native Title Groups including For members of the Wanjina Wunggurr words in Wunambal and Gaambera languages Community, the Dreaming is ‘Lalai’. As was and Belaa and Yeiji languages respectively (KLC indicated above, this community includes the 2000). In 2009 and 2010, the Wunambal Gaambera Dambimangari and Uunguu native title groups (as Aboriginal Corporation undertook further work, well as the Wilinggin native title group). Members the results of which were published as a book in May 2011 (Karadada et al. 2011). Belaa speakers of these groups are TOs of islands and adjacent have done further work on their lists but this waters associated with Worrorra, Gaambera, remains unpublished. Worrorra speakers also Wunambal, Yawijibaya, Winjarrumi, Umiida and commenced similar work but their list also remains Unggarranggi languages. Members of the Wanjina unpublished. Wunggurr Community share a unique set of beliefs and practices including a patrilineal moiety system of political organisation represented by ABORIGINAL CULTURAL BELIEFS AND VALUES two nightjar birds, and other animal species. In Aboriginal peoples’ connection to country contrast to other Kimberley peoples, they consider is influenced by their religious beliefs, long themselves to be the descendants of ancestral occupation, and an extensive body of knowledge, beings called Wanjina who are responsible, along all of which relate to both extended and more local with the Wunggurr Snake, for the creation of their stretches of country. Traditional Owner beliefs and country and for their particular laws and customs values have been articulated by various Aboriginal (Blundell et al. 2009). The Wanjina Wunggurr people and by anthropologists (Chalarimeri 2001; TO, Janet Oobagooma, describes the creation of Blundell and Woolagoodja 2005; Ngarjno et al. the Prince Regent River and Saint George Basin 2000; Mowaljarlai and Malnic 2001). More recently, through the actions of two Wanjina who appear as noted above, Aboriginal cultural values were in Lalai in their animal forms as Rock Cod and documented for assessment for national heritage Baler Shell (Blundell et al. 2009). As she recounts, listing (Blundell and Doohan 2009; Blundell et al. in the process of this creative labour, Baler Shell 2009; Crawford 2009; Vachon 2009). transforms into St Andrew Island, which takes its Like Aboriginal people across Australia, Worrorra name ‘Ngarlangkarnanya’ from the baler Kimberley TOs believe in an era of creation when shell. The other names associated with the island ancestral beings formed features of the land and are Gumalamala and Jirinii which are associated the sea, created animals and plants, implanted with the local historical narrative coming from languages in the country and gave Aboriginal Wunambal country to the north. Both of these people a set of laws and customs to live by narratives are also associated with the prominent (AHC 2011). Generally glossed in English as ‘the Mt Trafalgar. This is one example of the complex Dreaming’, or ‘the Dreamtime’ (Stanner 1979, 1987), layered meanings that are associated with places the events of the Dreaming are conveyed through within the traditional country. These narratives complex religious narratives that Aboriginal are embedded in the country and reflect the people call their ‘stories.’ Importantly, the events interwoven nature of people, Lalai and place. ABORIGINAL CONNECTIONS, VALUES AND KNOWLEDGE OF THE WESTERN AUSTRALIAN KIMBERLEY ISLANDS 157

Another example is St Andrew Island – it is but a Bardi and Jawi languages. Like Wanjina Wunggurr part of a rich and textured space that includes river people, Bardi and Jawi people have a distinct beds, mountains and sea water. set of beliefs and practices. Their country is also In some of the Wanjina Wunggurr people’s characterised by a distinct Indigenous cultural religious narratives, Wanjina transform themselves landscape and seascape, where various features into rock paintings, including some on islands are said to be the result of the actions of ancestral (Crawford 1969). Wanjina appear in these paintings Dreaming beings. Although TOs are very familiar as anthropomorphic fi gures, characterised by their with these manifestations of the Dreaming or lack of a mouth (although there are exceptions). Iniminongoon Jawal, such physical features of the These fi gures have been widely represented in the landscape, and seascape, may not be recognised by mainstream media and are depicted by Wanjina people outside the cultural group. Wunggurr people in their contemporary art. There Bardi and Jawi people attribute many features are also paintings in rock shelters on islands in in their country to a Dreaming ancestor called Wanjina Wunggurr territory that are identifi ed as Galalong (also spelled Galalang) who also created Kaira beings, similar to Wanjina but originating natural resources in their country as well as many from the sea. One such painting occurs on Bigge of their laws (Petri 1938/40; KLC 2010). Along with Island (Crawford 1968). Wanjina also manifest as Galalong, there are other ancestral Dreaming features of the landscape and seascape, and they beings associated with Bardi and Jawi country. appear in the sky in the shape of the Milky Way. One of them, Loolooloo, associated with saltwater, There are also Wanjina and Wungurr that are manifests as a shark that helps guide people if they manifest as stone arrangements, of which there are are in trouble whilst travelling or hunting on sea many on the islands. As well, Wanjina are closely country (Frank Davey, pers. comm.). associated with the formation of clouds and the Bardi-Jawi country is also inhabited by the pre- life giving rains that arrive at the end of the dry existing spirits of Bardi and Jawi children called season, and with the child-spirits of their children ‘rai’ (KLC 2010). While other Kimberley Aboriginal which men ‘fi nd’ in a dream and then pass to their groups have beliefs about the pre-existing spirits wives. These child spirits, which people refer to of their children, as we have seen in the case as ‘wunggurr’, reside in the country at wunggurr of Wanjina Wunggurr people, the expression sites, for example in whirlpools in the sea, stone of this belief among Bardi and Jawi (as well as arrangements on islands and waterholes on land. among culturally similar groups on the Dampier The northernmost islands in the KIBS occur Peninsula) is quite distinct. in the Balanggarra claim area. ‘Balanggarra’ Rai comes to you in a dream. Sometimes they make unlike other terms of reference, does not have any themselves visible to certain people and will leave language, country or so-called ‘tribal’ connotations. markers, like tracks in the sand. Rai live near fresh Balanggarra, which means ‘one mob together water places and in caves, you have to be respectful for country,’ was chosen as an appropriate term when you’re near their place otherwise they will get to describe the collective. Members of this claim upset. Rai choose who they belong to. When a rai group have their own narratives regarding the becomes human it takes on certain characteristics and creation of their country and the source of their can often be identifi ed by distinct markings on the laws and customs. These accounts emphasize the body. (Frank Davey pers. comm.) ancestral Snake Wunggurr, also called Lu, who For Bardi and Jawi people, their country, created the King George Falls. This ancestral inhabited by rai, constitutes the physical and the Snake resides at Sir Graham Moore Island and in spiritual source of their very identity as human the adjacent waters of the sea. The Balanggarra beings. elder, Matthew Waina, describes how many years The Mayala claim area consists entirely of islands ago, some of his grandparents were drowned in and the adjoining waters and other features of the this area during a canoe voyage because of strong sea. In contrast to the other native title claim areas currents attributed to this Snake. The Balanggarra covered by the KIBS, TOs of the Mayala claim area people’s saltwater country includes a reef called are connected to their island country on the basis ‘Rinjii-barda bindingei’, located to the north of of two distinct cultural traditions, rather than one. Cape Londonderry in the vicinity of Stewart Island, Some are connected on the basis of the Wanjina where the Dreaming Star ‘fell down’ to become the Wunggurr culture, while others are connected on highly prized and ritually important pearl shell the basis of beliefs that are more similar to those (Pinctada maxima) (Blundell et al. 2009). of Bardi and Jawi culture. This situation appears to The southernmost island in the KIBS lies in the refl ect the geographical location of this claim area territory of the Bardi and Jawi native title group, between the Bardi and Jawi determination area, to whose members, as we have seen, are connected its south, and the Dambimangari determination to areas of land and water associated with the area of Wanjina Wunggur people, to its north. 158 T. Vigilante et al.

Historically, Mayala TOs have had important links landscape and seascape (and their sky-scape) (cf. with both Wanjina Wunggurr groups and Bardi McNiven and Russell 2005). In contrast, the recent and Jawi, including intermarriages between their listing of the West Kimberley on the National members. Their island country is also strategically Heritage List, described above, was supported by located at the nexus of a coastal trading network TOs because the listing recognises the broader that has extended along the Kimberley coast Wanjina Wunggurr cultural land- and sea-scape of and has involved TO traders associated with which this rock art is a part (AHC 2011). different cultural traditions. This coastal network In addition to rock art sites, islands contain is part of a much broader exchange system that scatters of stone tools and middens as well as continues to operate across the Kimberley region stone arrangements, some of which are sacred and is known as ‘wurnan’ to Wanjina Wunggurr manifestations of Dreaming beings while others people and ‘anggarr’ or ‘rubarn’ to Bardi and Jawi are the foundations of shelters or windbreaks people (Blundell and Woolagoodja 2005). In the (Blundell 1975; O’Connor 1987). There are also past, the participation of Mayala people in this engravings and burial sites on islands which are coastal network allowed them to obtain mangrove of great signifi cance to TOs. According to senior logs required for making the double log rafts (to men and women the islands have been used on a be described below) that they depended on in seasonal basis for hunting turtle, collecting turtle order to move from island to island and access eggs and harvesting vegetable foods. Elders also the mainland. Logs for making these rafts were talk of ‘blackfella roads’ (morr in Bardi, and mayirri obtained either directly or in trade from the large in Jawi [Bowern 2008]), walking trails that connects mangrove swamps located on the eastern shore camping areas and water places on islands. Across of King Sound in the Dambimangari claim area. the saltwater countries of West Kimberley people, The Jawi, on Sunday Island (in the Bardi and Jawi there are also sites that relate to contacts between native title determination area), were middle men Aboriginal people and outsiders that figure in in this network, trading rafts and raft poles to Bardi Aboriginal people’s oral accounts of their history. based on the Dampier Peninsula mainland; these Through time, places become marked through the items were exchanged for spears which were in ceremonial as well as the more mundane practices great demand by island people given the scarcity of TOs: an island in the Dambimangari claim area of suitable woods for making them on the islands is now known by the name of a Worrorra woman (Tindale 1974). who is buried there (Love 1938), while another spot Throughout the survey area, a range of images is referred to as the place where a Worrorra man ‘lost his glasses’ a few years ago. are found at rock art sites. Islands in Wanjina Wunggurr country contain the world famous anthropomorphic paintings of the Wanjina CARING FOR COUNTRY described above, as well as paintings of other While members of the native title claim groups animals and plants, some said to be Wanjina have different beliefs and practices, they all have a in their animal form. Both Wanjina Wunggurr deeply felt responsibility to maintain the spiritual country and Balanggarra country contain paintings health of their countries. Because the country is of small, delicate fi gures that Worrorra people refer perceived as sentient and alive, it is important for to as Gwion Gwion, Wunambal and Gaambera TOs to regularly ‘visit country’. Country that is not people call Gwion, and Balanggarra people call regularly visited by its TOs is said to ‘get lonely’ Girrogorro (Crawford 1968; Ngarnjo et al. 2000). or in the case of shelters and caves along estuarine These small lively fi gures are depicted in scenes river systems, ‘hide themself’ from TOs. that show activities such as hunting. Wanjina Caring for country involves landscape scale Wunggurr people consider the Gwion Gwion to burning during the dry season to facilitate the have been put there by a Lalai (Dreaming) creator growth of fresh vegetation with the arrival of the bird, who is said to have painted the fi gures with its annual rains. During bush trips, TOs will clean blood by using its beak, while Balanggarra people away the overgrowth at places such as the graves consider the figures to represent the everyday of deceased relatives. Such activities are said to activities of their human ancestors (Blundell et al. keep the country ‘bright.’ For Wanjina Wunggurr 2009). people, caring for country includes ‘freshening’ (i.e. The Wanjina and Gwion/Girrogorro rock art was repainting) the Wanjina who have ‘put themselves’ the subject of a proposal for World Heritage listing as paintings across their homeland (Blundell and in the last decade; however, this proposal was Woolagoodja 2005). Arriving at a painted site, TOs rejected by TOs because they believed that such ‘call out’ to alert the Wanjina of their visit before a listing would disconnect these sites from their repainting their fading images. Bardi and Jawi broader cultural/country context. For them, rock and Mayala people talk to the ‘rai’ places that are art sites are components of their broader cultural inhabited by ‘rai spirits’. ABORIGINAL CONNECTIONS, VALUES AND KNOWLEDGE OF THE WESTERN AUSTRALIAN KIMBERLEY ISLANDS 159

In all the claim areas described above, islands ACCESS TO ISLANDS, OCEAN TRAVEL AND are inhabited by the spirits of deceased ancestors NAVIGATION and by the Dreaming ancestral beings. In the case On the north-west coast from One Arm Point of the Worrorra people, the last place where the and Sunday Island to Napier Broome Bay, rafts deceased ‘foot touches ground’ before entering the made from logs cut from the trunks of the Kapok afterlife is an island. There are culturally specifi c Mangrove tree, Camptostemon schultzii, were rituals that must be followed so as not to offend widely used for water travel in the sea (Vachon these resident spiritual beings. For example, when 2009; Love 1936; Tindale 1974). Bardi, Jawi, Umiida, they arrive at islands, Aboriginal people call out Ungarranggu, Worrorra, Yawijibaya, Winjarrumi, to announce their arrival and then perform other Wunambal, Gaambera and possibly Kwini people rituals to ensure a safe visit. Strangers, or TOs utilised a raft made up of two overlapping raft who have been absent for a while, undergo a ritual platforms, referred to as a ‘double-raft’ in the whereby they walk through smoke produced by literature (Akerman 1975; Love 1936) and catamaran placing green leaves or certain kinds of seaweed by some Aboriginal people. Names for the raft vary on a small fi re. It is imperative that strangers to a between languages: gaalwa (Bardi - Aklif 1999; country be introduced in this way; the smoke is Kevin George, Angus and Stumpagee families, said to eliminate strange scents from the visitors pers. comm.), Biel Biel/biyal biyal (Jawi), galam/ galum (Worrorra) (Love 1936; Akerman 1975), which allows the country to recognise them. As the walawa/bililu/wurndala (Wunambal, Capell 1941; Balanggarra TO, Neil Taylor, stated: Karadada 2011) and wundana (Belaa) (Dolores A lot of old people used to walk around here before, Cheinmora†, pers. comm.). Mayala people describe on the side of this beach, in this country. So when another raft called a munjilal/manjilal kalwa strangers come here...they got to get smoked by smoke of the same design but larger, lighter, and more fi re...so they don’t get sick walking around in the bush, buoyant, made from mangrove trees (probably also you know. That’s why we put everyone through the Camptostemon schultzii) harvested at a particular smoke, so no one can’t dream about the old time, the location in Talbot Bay. Rafts often became sodden olden day spirit make them silly in the head. with water after a journey and needed to be brought ashore to dry but the munjilal kalwa ‘Caring for country’ is a reciprocal relationship did not. A wooden paddle made of cypress pine between TOs and their spiritual beings. In the was used to propel the raft, but long distance case of outsiders, it requires the asking and giving journeys relied on tides and currents to carry the of permission by the appropriate TOs in order to raft. Saltwater people are proud of their detailed access a particular area and the resources in it. knowledge and particular skills that allow them to Some areas are dangerous or restricted to outsiders navigate the massive tides and often treacherous and cannot be visited, such as law grounds, certain coastal regions. For instance, Bardi people have a cultural sites, and burial grounds. A late Ngarinyin detailed knowledge and classifi cation system of elder, a member of the Wanjina Wunggurr tides that enabled them to navigate some of the community, wrote about an island off Champagney most treacherous waters in Australia by raft (Smith Island called ‘Libudbud Udman Ngirri Ngari’. 1997; Rouja 1998). This knowledge continues to This island is considered a portal to ‘Dulugun’, the assist them today. According to Daphne Wilfred, home of dead spirits for members of his community there are names for the passage ways through the (Mowaljarlai and Malnic 2001; cf. Lommel 1997 viz islands that enable her people to avoid dangerous 1952). The island is a dangerous place where people whirlpools. They also use the stars to navigate during the night. The detailed cultural knowledge should not visit (K. Oobagooma†, pers. comm.). of the tides is expressed in ‘Ilma’ the traditional There were many instances during the KIBS project song and dance practice of Bardi and Jawi people. when TOs identifi ed important cultural sites on islands that the survey team needed to avoid In the north-west Kimberley, dugout canoes have also been used for sea travel over the last few or only visit if accompanied by a TO. Sylvester hundred years. Evidence suggests that these crafts Mangolamara and Sylvia Djanghara spoke of the were initially obtained from Makassans (present importance of burial sites as well as Wanjina rock day Indonesians) by Wunambal, Gaambera and art on Bigge Island. Terry McCarthy spoke of law Kwini people, who later learned to make them grounds on Sunday Island that teams needed to themselves (Crawford 2001). Local Aboriginal avoid. Rai spirits found in both the Bardi and Jawi names for canoe (namandi, barrawar, barrawara, and the Mayala claim areas can cause trouble for barrawal, jirraarri) are similar across language strangers who visit or camp in the wrong place, or groups. Canoes are known to have been made from visit these claim areas without being introduced in a variety of native tree species including Bombax the proper way. ceiba, Nauclea orientalis, Canarium australianum, 160 T. Vigilante et al.

Melaleuca spp., Brachychiton diversifolius, Alstonia cooking. One Saturday a party of mission boys, some actinophylla and Ficus racemosa (Crawford 1982, 1983, twenty in number, went down the Forrest River to 2001; Karadada et al. 2011). Later, during the 1900s, hunt for crocodile eggs. The tide was low as they canoes were also adopted by Worrorra people at crossed a sand bank to a small island. They found a Kunmunya Mission (Love 1936), Yawijibaya at nest of crocodile eggs and at once made a fi re and had Montgomery Reef and later by Bardi, Jawi, Umiida a feast. While they were feasting the tide rose, and and Unggarrangi people around Sunday Island when they started homewards the water was already Mission, who call them barrawar (Aklif 1999; waist high. They joined hands for safety, and shouting Daphne Wilfred, pers. comm.). Canoe journeys by to keep off the crocodiles they entered the water. The Wunambal, Gaambera and Worrorra people have crocodile whose nest they had robbed, however, was been documented, including journeys of up to 50 awaiting them. She attacked the boy at the end of the km offshore to reefs such as Holothuria Reef and line, but he succeeded in beating her off. She at once Cassini and Troughton islands (Basedow 1918; went along the line and caught, by the calf of the leg, a Lommel 1997; Crawford 2001). lad named Eura. With great coolness he succeeded in In some circumstances, canoes have some getting his hand in her mouth, and caught her by the advantages over rafts; they are more manoeuvrable, tongue. She let go, but pulled the muscle of his leg out less susceptible to the infl uences of the tides and in a loop. It was a nasty wound. He also had his hand wind, less prone to water logging, can be paddled badly cut. further offshore, and can carry up to 10 people. The explorer Basedow (1925) suggests that this However, they are less stable than rafts, sometimes simple mode of water crossing was widespread fi ll with water and can capsize in rough weather across northern Australia: and tidal currents (Love 1936; Crawford 2001; The simplest type of fl oat is no doubt the log of light Daphne Wilfred, pers. comm.). timber used along the north and north-east coast. The In the Cambridge Gulf area, Aboriginal accounts straight trunk of a mangrove is selected, and from it a suggest that people did not commonly have rafts log is cut, about fi ve or six feet long, which is stripped or canoes but typically swam across estuarine of its branches. Where a river or estuary has to be channels using buoyant logs and assisted by tides, crossed, such a log is slipped into the water and the or waded across shallow sandbars at low tide. native lays his body over it, lengthwise with his legs Balanggarra elders, George Dixon and Selwin straddling it… Meehan (pers. comm.) have described how, on Senior Aboriginal men and women do not live in several occasions in their youth, they accompanied fear of crocodiles. Balanggarra elder Mary Taylor old men swimming across from Forrest River spoke of how her father and her husband would Mission to Adolphus Island to hunt flying fox speak to the crocodile in Aboriginal language and which roosted on the island in great numbers. tell it not to harm them, before swimming across They would select a dry buoyant log of any kind Cambridge Gulf or across to islands. Similarly, to aid them in their swim. This method of crossing Worrorra elder Janet Oobagooma, whose wunggurr Cambridge Gulf was commonplace. Green (2008) child spirit is the saltwater crocodile, was also has stated that there are instances in which rivers taught by her elders to speak to crocodiles and tell have been forded at low tide with the support of a them not to cause harm. Sylvester Mangolomara log on which infants and dogs have been balanced. spoke of how his grandfather taught him to speak Green (1988) provides two further accounts of to crocodiles: Forrest River people crossing tidal waters and the hazards of crocodiles. In one account a woman gave I swear at him in language, then I tell him ‘you’re not up the dog she was carrying to a crocodile to save the boss, I’m Wunambal, you’re Wunambal’. Then I herself. look him in the eye, and he duck down and take off. He listen. This country not only from him. In 1925, a woman named Ungala crossed the Forrest River to gather lily-seeds at some lagoons. When she Saltwater crocodiles are also considered food and tried to cross back to Bremlah the tide was in. She were sometimes hunted from raft or canoe (Jack † got a small log with little roots at one end, placed her Karadada , pers. comm.). paperbark parcel of lily roots and seeds on the root end, and her pup on top. Pushing the loaded log in front OCCUPATION OF ISLANDS of her, she started across. Near the middle of the river, Aboriginal occupation of islands has ranged a crocodile appeared. Ungala calmly waited until he from permanent occupation of some of the larger came up, and then gave him the pup and continued on. islands, to seasonal occupation of accessible When she reached the other side she cried for her pup. islands, to occasional visits to some of the smaller and more remote islands. Evidence for occupation Flying Fox Island was a popular place for collecting comes largely from the accounts of TOs and from crocodile eggs as well as getting the fruit bats for archaeological evidence. ABORIGINAL CONNECTIONS, VALUES AND KNOWLEDGE OF THE WESTERN AUSTRALIAN KIMBERLEY ISLANDS 161

O’Connor (1989) has remarked on the paucity of on resources while families remained camped on shell middens and scattered artefacts on islands the adjacent peninsulas. Voyages were typically in the Buccaneer Archipelago, despite the long undertaken during neap tides each fortnight, occupation of many of the islands. She concludes in order to avoid strong currents. The voyages that Aboriginal people mostly camped on beaches targeted resources like turtle eggs on nesting where camp remains have been removed by the beaches, sea turtle and dugong on reefs, and yams infl uence of large spring tides. The exceptions are and root crops collected at the end of the wet Macleay Island and High Cliffy Island which have season. Fruit bearing trees are abundant on some signifi cant numbers of artefacts and Koolan and of the offshore islands and, along with birds and High Cliffy Island which have rock shelters with marine animals, provided a major incentive for rich deposits from human occupation. There is visiting these islands in the wet season (Blundell similar evidence on the Maret Islands and TOs talk 1975). Once the dry season arrived and the seas of ceremonial activities and large occupation camps became inaccessible, coastal groups would move on Bigge Island. Further north, Sir Graham Moore inland to join inland groups hunting kangaroos Island is also known to have a signifi cant shell with fire and collecting freshwater resources. midden (Matthew Waina, pers. comm.). The same pattern has been documented for other For some TOs their country has been focused groups (Kwini – Crawford 1982; Worrorra - Blundell on particular islands and these people have been 1975). This seasonal movement of people to utilize considered ‘island people.’ There is evidence to different rich food resources also allowed for suggest that in the past such ‘island people’ spoke intermarriage and ceremonial exchange (Blundell 1975). Traditional Owners continue to spend time distinct languages or dialects and had particular on these islands, visiting them, setting up camps, ritual and ceremonial activities that were specifi c performing ceremonies and accessing resources. to being saltwater and island people. According This ongoing use and occupation of islands has to some researchers, in the past Sunday Island been formally recognised, leading to the Bardi (O’Connor 1989), Montgomery Islands (Tindale and Jawi, Dambimangari and Uunguu native title 1974; O’Connor 1989), Champagny Island, Augustus determinations. Island, Bigge Island and Sir Graham Moore Island (Crawford 1983) sustained semi-permanent populations and were associated with particular WATER SOURCES ON ISLANDS clan groups. These larger islands have permanent The availability of fresh water, which varies water and rich resources that supported such across islands, has been one of the principal populations. For some TOs, their country has constraints on the extent to which islands can be consisted of both islands and mainland areas; used and occupied by Aboriginal people. Some for instance Bigge Island and the Maret Islands islands have permanent and reliable sources of are part of a larger single ‘country’ that extends fresh water while other islands have ephemeral onto the mainland. There has been movement water or no water at all. Augustus Island has some of people between island and mainland groups, large creek systems which fl ow part of the year with intermarriage and trade of goods and and retain permanent pools. Sir Graham Moore culture (Blundell 1975; Crawford 2001). During an Island has a freshwater pool on its north side that archaeological survey of island countries in the has waterlilies and seepage on the southern side Montgomery Islands area, Blundell was told by a (Crawford 2001). These water sources may have senior Worrorra man that the Yawijibaya, the local suffered some degradation from tidal surge and group connected to the Montgomery Islands ran a lack of fi re allowing them to be overgrown with ‘school’ for mainland Worrorra boys, teaching them vegetation (Matthew Waina, pers. comm.). Many of how to exploit the abundant marine resources of the islands have freshwater springs that are covered the area (Blundell 1975). at high tide and exposed when the tides are low. Other smaller islands could only be accessed Mr Jack Karadada† has explained how he placed seasonally, dependent on the availability of standing stones above the tide line as markers of permanent fresh water and food. Crawford these sites. (1983) has described how Wunambal and Bardi and Jawi people describe a number of types Gaambera people living on Cape Voltaire and of fresh water (Aklif 1999). Oomban are freshwater Cape Bougainville were able to seasonally access seepages that fl ow in the intertidal sands and can islands and reefs by canoe, but with some socially be dug up at low tide but are covered by the sea derived constraints as well as seasonal infl uences. at high tide. Oomban occur on most islands and Many islands lack permanent fresh water and provide drinking water to birds (Daphne Wilfred, strong south-east winds in dry season months pers. comm.). Iidarr are creeks, the majority of effectively closed the seas to canoe travel. For this which are largely ephemeral on islands but in some reason, canoe voyages were made as short raids cases can fl ow much of the year; biidin is water that 162 T. Vigilante et al. can be dug just below the surface in creeklines and used by pearl luggers into the 1920s (Basedow depressions; oongoor is rainwater that collects in 1918). Janet Oobagooma (pers. comm.), who lived on fl at rockpools; and niimid is rainwater in deeper the island as a child, said the spring used to have rock pools. A number of larger islands have ‘oola’ a hollow log acting as a pipe to make it easy for - permanent water sources (Kevin George, Angus luggers to collect water but this has now gone. and Stumpagee families, pers. comm.). Emergency water can also be obtained from the raw white meat FOOD ON ISLANDS of the giant clam. Island people identify themselves as ‘Saltwater As Crawford (1983) outlined above, in Wunambal People’ relying predominantly on rich marine and Gaambera country, many offshore islands could be reached by long voyages on canoe or raft resources like turtle, dugong, fi sh and shellfi sh to exploit marine resources on the surrounding for much of their diet, and camping close to the reefs but the islands had limited fresh water. Where sea (Crawford 1983; O’Connor 1989). However, water was not available, people survived for a few islands also hold some important terrestrial days on water carried on board inside baler shells food like edible plants, sugarbag and fl ying fox and also by obtaining moisture from marine turtle that have been seasonally harvested or taken eggs. opportunistically. The availability of fresh surface water is likely to In the past, rafts and canoes allowed men to affect the occurrence of some species on islands. hunt sea turtle and dugong on reef systems in According to Worrorra elder Victor Barunga†, the the Buccaneer Archipelago, Montgomery Reef permanent pools on Augustus Island support and around offshore islands (O’Connor 1989). aquatic species like freshwater crocodiles (Crocodylus These areas continue to be prime locations for the johnstonei) and freshwater (chelid) turtles and contemporary hunting and fi shing practices of TOs. waterlilies. Large animals like kangaroos, emus and During lalin, the turtle breeding season (October dingos are dependent on regular access to drinking to December), green turtles aggregate and mate at water. Agile wallabies (Macropus agilis) are able to certain places around Sunday Island. Jawi people survive by accessing fresh water in the intertidal have vantage points on the island where they can areas at low tide or by drinking sea water and watch the loo, tidal current, for mating turtles thrive on some islands like Adolphus and Mary (Kevin George, Angus and Stumpagee families, Island where water is not permanent. pers. comm.). Sea turtles lay their eggs on many islands, and both nesting females and their eggs Knowledge of the location of freshwater places can be harvested at this time. Marine turtles also and their names is an important component of the lay their eggs on island beaches and are important traditional knowledge of Aboriginal people. Many foods for Aboriginal people (Green 1988). Flatback freshwater places are culturally important sites turtles tend to favour inshore islands and mainland associated with the Dreaming and are a source beaches while green turtles favour offshore islands of ‘spirit babies’ that are important for conception with clearer waters (Karadada et al. 2011). (AHC 2011). Aboriginal people believe that when strangers visit these water places without being Shellfi sh like trochus, giant clam, oysters, baler accompanied and welcomed by TOs the water shell and trumpet shell are abundant on some reefs. sources can dry up. Mayala people emphasize Aboriginal people know how to use fi sh poisons that in their country some waterholes need to be made from certain plants (e.g. Tephrosea rosea) to maintained by removing mangroves, vegetation harvest fi sh in rock pools at low tide (Kenneally and sediment to restore their fl ow or to expose the et al. 1996; Karadada et al. 2011). Fish can also be water. speared by hand. A freshwater spring on the south side of Augustus Offshore islands are important nesting sites Island has a long history of use by both Aboriginal for seabirds and Aboriginal people harvest these people and various visitors. Dambimangari people eggs in season. Twin Island near One Arm Point call it Aagungarlangarlangarri in Worrorra, which has nesting terns, sooty oystercatchers, pelicans translates as ‘talking water’ in English (Aagu = and other species (Akerman 1985; Hassell and water, ngarla = talk, -ngarri = associated with) Boyle 2002). Bardi and Jawi people still visit (Love 1936; Heather Umbagai†, Janet Oobagooma, these islands to harvest seabird eggs in August- pers. comm.). A Makassan fl eet was documented September (Terry McCarthy, pers. comm.). Seabird taking water from here in 1865 (Crawford 2001). eggs, namely boobies and terns, were harvested Worrorra people revealed its location to the on the Montgomery Islands by Yawijibaya people Camden Harbour settlers under some duress in and taken as gifts to mainland people (Love 1936; the 1860s (Crawford 2001). Bishop Torres visited Blundell 1975). Wunambal and Gaambera people it on his voyage and suggested it was shown on a have also visited a number of islands during navigation chart in 1906 (Perez 1986). It was also Yirrma, the south-east wind time (approximately ABORIGINAL CONNECTIONS, VALUES AND KNOWLEDGE OF THE WESTERN AUSTRALIAN KIMBERLEY ISLANDS 163

TABLE 2 Some plant foods specifi cally identifi ed by Traditional Owners as being locally important on particular islands. Table 3 provides a more comprehensive list of plant species recorded in the KIBS on islands and known to be used across these language groups generally.

Species Language names Islands Sources

Buchanania obovata ‘green plum’ Gorrol (Bardi) Long Daphne Wilfred (including fruits and roots) Kuleyi (Balanggarra) Sir Graham Moore Matthew Waina

Vitex glabrata ‘blackberry’ Kukulangi/kulangi (Balanggarra) Sir Graham Moore Matthew Waina Gulangi (Wunambal) Bigge J. Karadada

Persoonia falcata ‘bush pear’ Kandala (Balanggarra) Sir Graham Moore Matthew Waina

Mimusops elengi ‘bush jaffa’ Joongoon (Bardi) Widespread Daphne Wilfred Yangkowii (Wunambal) Long J. Karadada Walarra (Wunambal) Bigge Aklif (1999)

Flueggea virosa ‘white currant’ Goorralgar (Bardi) Widespread Aklif (1999)

Ficus leucotricha Goorrir (Bardi) Sunday Aklif (1999) Jackson Long

Ficus platypoda, Barramanbi (Wunambal) Bigge J. Karadada F. atricha Karadada et al. (2011)

Syzigium eucalyptoides Iilarr (Bardi) High Aklif (1999)

Terminalia ferdinandiana madoorr (Bardi) Sunday Monty Wilfred† ‘billygoat plum’ arrangoor (Jawi) Long Aklif (1999)

Terminalia petiolaris Marool (Bardi) Long Aklif (1999)

Aidia racemosa / Carallia brachiata Dumulinggu (Wunambal) Bigge J. Karadada Karadada et al. (2011)

Canarium australianum Long Monty Wilfred†

May to August), to harvest seabird eggs (Love 1936; depended on whether the islands could be accessed Crawford 1983). when the foods were in season and the availability Little corellas nest in rocky crevices on several of other foods. Use of different plant species also islands in the Buccaneer Archipelago including varies somewhat between Aboriginal groups. There Jawinarr (the Tryer Islands Group) and rocky are examples of islands being seasonally accessed islands near Long and Mermaid Islands. to harvest rich plant resources, particularly yams and bush fruits. In other situations plant foods have IMPORTANT PLANT FOODS ON ISLANDS been accessed opportunistically to supplement other staples. There is some evidence to suggest that plant Islands have a wide variety of edible plant resources have been managed by Aboriginal people species. A comparison of the KIBS species list with and that the distribution and abundance of some documented Aboriginal food species shows there are species is a product of this management (Hynes some 126 species, subspecies and varieties across the and Chase 1982). This management has included 24 islands in the survey (Tables 2 and 3). However, the use or exclusion of fi re, replanting of yams and prior to the introduction of motorised watercraft the deliberate or inadvertent spreading of seeds the exploitation of these plant foods would have (Vigilante 2004). 164 T. Vigilante et al. 2 Sum •6 dada et al. (2011), dada et al. (2011), gulu, HID – Hidden, •2 Kimberley Islands Biological Survey. Islands Biological Survey. Kimberley . ••••• ••• •••• ••• •17 ADO AUG BIG BOO BYM COR DAR HID KAT KIN LAC LON MAR MOS NWM SGM STA STO SUN SWO UNN UWI WAG WUL , ••1,2 • • • • •• 8 1,2,3,4 • • • • • • • • • • • 11 sher, LAC – Lachlan, LON – Long, MAR – Mary, MOS – Middle Osborn, NWM – NW Molema, SGM – Sir Graham Moore, STA – St Andrew, Andrew, – St MOS – Middle Osborn, NWM NW Molema, SGM Sir Graham Moore, STA LON – Long, MAR Mary, – Lachlan, LAC sher, ed as either fruits, roots, leaves, gum or nectar. References (Ref) to the ethnoecological literature are as follows: 1 – Kara are as follows: to the ethnoecological literature (Ref) References gum or nectar. roots, leaves, ed as either fruits, seedsseeds 2,3 nut,fruit, roots 2,3 •fruit • rootsfruit, • 1 2,5 •fruit •fruit • • • 2,5fruit • 3 3 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 5 • 7 11 10 seeds 3 • • roots seeds, roots, gum 1,2 • • • • 4

tumida subsp.

colei var. The presence of edible plant species on islands, based on ethnoecological literature and the plant species recorded during presence of edible plant species on islands, based ethnoecological literature The Food uses are classifi Food Uunguu; 2 – D. Cheinmora†, pers. comm., Crawford (1982); 3 – Kenneally et al. (1996); 4 – Wheeler (1992); and, 5 – Brock (1993) and, 5 – Brock Wheeler (1992); 4 – et al. (1996); 3 – Kenneally (1982); Cheinmora†, pers. comm., Crawford Uunguu; 2 – D. – Katers, KIN Kingfi KAT Island. Wulalam WUL – Wargul, Wargul – WAG Osborn, UNN – Un-named, UWI Uwins, West – South SWO SUN – Sunday, – Storr, STO var. var. var. spp. nectar fruit, 1,2,3 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 14 marina Acacia tumida Acacia tumida Adansonia gregorii Aidia racemosa Ampelocissus acetosa Amyema Antidesma ghaesembilla marina Avicennia marina Avicennia SpeciesAcacia colei Food use Ref leiocarpum Brachychiton diversifolius Bombax ceiba TABLE 3 TABLE – Darcy/Jun Martin, COR – Coronation, DAR – Byam BYM – Boongaree, BIG – Bigge, BOO Augustus, – AUG Adolphus, – ADO Island key: ABORIGINAL CONNECTIONS, VALUES AND KNOWLEDGE OF THE WESTERN AUSTRALIAN KIMBERLEY ISLANDS 165 1 1 Sum •5 •• 2 •3 •••4 ••••6 •• •• 4 ADO AUG BIG BOO BYM COR DAR HID KAT KIN LAC LON MAR MOS NWM SGM STA STO SUN SWO UNN UWI WAG WUL 1•• seeds, roots seeds, roots 1seeds, roots 1seeds • 3seeds •••fruit • ••••••• rootsfruit, rootsfruit, 1,2,5 •••• • ••seeds 1,2,5 •••19 •seeds • 1,2,3 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 3 • 2 4 9 • 13 seeds, roots, seeds, roots, gum seeds 2seeds • • seedsseeds • • • • • • • • • • 10 fruitfruit 2fruit 2 1,5 • • • • • • • 4 3 orus tzgeraldianus australianum glabrum velutinum Brachychiton tridentatus Brachychiton viridifl Brachychiton viscidulus Brachychiton xanthophyllus Bridelia tomentosa Buchanania oblongifolia Buchanania obovata Canarium australianum Canarium australianum var. SpeciesBrachychiton fi Brachychiton incanus Food use Ref Brachychiton tubersulatus Canarium australianum var. Canarium australianum var. Capparis jacobsii Capparis umbonata Carallia brachiata 166 T. Vigilante et al. 2 1 1 1 Sum •4 •7 •4 ••2 •1 ••••• •••••••14 ••••• •••• • • • • • •11 ADO AUG BIG BOO BYM COR DAR HID KAT KIN LAC LON MAR MOS NWM SGM STA STO SUN SWO UNN UWI WAG WUL 3• 2,3 • • • • • 5 ri 3rootsfruit 3 1roots •fruit • 2 •••roots •••••roots • •••• 1,2,3 • •••seeds • • 2 ••••••• • 3 ••••• • •17 14 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 16 8 fruit • • fruit 2 • • • roots 1 • • rootsseeds 2 1rootsfruit 2,3 2 • • • • • • • • • • 9 roots 2 • orum liformis ensifolia Species Food use Ref Cartonema parvifl Cassytha fi Cayratia trifolia Celtis philippensis Cochlospermum fraseri Commelina ensifolia Corymbia polycarpa Carissa ovata Cucumis melo Crinum angustifolium Curculigo ensifolia Curculigo var. Cycas basaltica Cymbidium canaliculatum Cynanchum pedunculatum Cyperus bulbosus acacioides Dendrophthoe Curculigo ensifolia Curculigo ABORIGINAL CONNECTIONS, VALUES AND KNOWLEDGE OF THE WESTERN AUSTRALIAN KIMBERLEY ISLANDS 167 1 1 Sum •3 •1 •1 •••• •• • •• • •• •13 ADO AUG BIG BOO BYM COR DAR HID KAT KIN LAC LON MAR MOS NWM SGM STA STO SUN SWO UNN UWI WAG WUL rootsroots 1,2,3seeds 2 3 • • nectarroots 3roots 1,2,3,5 •fruit 1,2,5 • 3 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 12 5 • 12 ri 3 • ••• 1fruit ••••••••••••13 ••• ••••fruit •••• •••••10 fruit •• •• ••••fruitfruit •fruit ••fruit1,2•• 16 • 2,3fruit ••• • • • • • • • •10 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 12 8 2 fruitroots 3 2 • • • • • 5 indecora var. acacioides Species Food use Ref Eleocharis dulcis Eriosema chinense Eucalyptus miniata Dioscorea bulbifera Dioscorea transversa Dioscorea saligna Ehretia Dendrophthoe acacioides Dendrophthoe var. Exocarpos latifolius Ficus aculeata Ficus aculeata Ficus atricha Ficus brachypoda Ficus opposita Ficus platypoda Ficus subpuberula Ficus virens Flemingia involucrata 168 T. Vigilante et al. 1 2 3 4 2 ••3 •1 •• 2 fruitfruit 3 3 • • • • • fruitnectar 3 2 • • • • • • 3 3 fruitfruit 1,2,3 • 3 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 15 ri , •••• 3,5 •• ••fruit fruitfruit •••••••• 2roots 2,3,5 •17 roots 2 • 1 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 9 7 rootsroots 1,2,5roots • 1,2 • • • • 1 roots 2 • • roots 2 • • • • • • • 7 ora keartlandii pyriformis melanthesoides Gardenia pyriformis subsp. Gardenia pyriformis subsp. heliosperma Grevillea pteridifolia Grevillea brevifl Grewia Gardenia pyriformis Flueggea virosa Flueggea virosa subsp. Grewia oxyphylla Grewia retusifolia Grewia Hibiscus meraukensis Hypoxis nervosa Ipomoea abrupta Ipomoea aquatica Ipomoea costata Ipomoea graminea Ipomoea macrantha ABORIGINAL CONNECTIONS, VALUES AND KNOWLEDGE OF THE WESTERN AUSTRALIAN KIMBERLEY ISLANDS 169 1 1 Sum •2 •• 2 ••••••• • • • • 11 ADO AUG BIG BOO BYM COR DAR HID KAT KIN LAC LON MAR MOS NWM SGM STA STO SUN SWO UNN UWI WAG WUL 3••• • 4 rootsleaves 5 1,2 nectarfruit, 1,3 • • • • • • • • • 8 1 fruit, nectarfruit, 1,2,3 • • 2 roots, seedsroots, 1 •••••••• • 1,2 •••••••••••••••23 fruit 3 ••fruit ••• ••• •• ••• • •15 ri 2,3seedsfruit 2,3 • leavesfruit, •• 5roots •• seedsroots, ••• 2 ••• •••••16 • seedsroots, • 2,3 • • •fruit •seeds • • 2 1,2,3,5 • • • • • • • • • • • 3 • • 4 • 10 4 ora brasiliensis spathulata ondinea ora foetida ora hispida Livistona lorophylla Mallotus nesophilus Marsdenia viridifl SpeciesIpomoea pes-caprae subsp. Food use spathulata Lysiana Ref spathulata Lysiana subsp. Pavetta kimberleyana Mimusops elengi Morinda citrifolia Murdannia graminea Nymphaea hastifolia Nymphaea ondinea subsp. Nymphaea violacea Opilia amentacea Pandanus spiralis Passifl var. 170 T. Vigilante et al. 2 2 Sum •1 •2 •1 •••• • •• • •11 •••••••••••• •••••••• •21 ADO AUG BIG BOO BYM COR DAR HID KAT KIN LAC LON MAR MOS NWM SGM STA STO SUN SWO UNN UWI WAG WUL roots 2 • • • • • • • • 9 fruitfruit 2fruit 1leaves 2 3roots • 3 • fruit • • 1fruit •fruit 1,2,3,5 •fruit • •• 2 • 1 •• • • • •••• • •12 • • • • • • • 7 3 1 • 3 1 seedsfruit 1,2,5fruit 3 • • • • • • • • • • • • 8 2 fruitroots 1,2 1 • • fruitfruit 1,2,3,5 2 • • • • • • • • • • 9 da bleeseri Tacca maculata Tacca Planchonella arnhemica Planchonia careya Polyalthia australis Portulaca oleracea Portulaca pilosa Santalum lanceolatum Sersalisia sericea Solanum dioicum Solanum echinatum Syzygium angophoroides Syzygium eucalyptoides subsp. Sterculia quadrifi Sterculia Syzygium suborbiculare leontopetaloides Tacca Persoonia falcata Physalis angulata Species Food use Ref ABORIGINAL CONNECTIONS, VALUES AND KNOWLEDGE OF THE WESTERN AUSTRALIAN KIMBERLEY ISLANDS 171 3 1 1 1 Sum •1 •••• • •••• 12 ••••••• •• •••• •••••18 ADO AUG BIG BOO BYM COR DAR HID KAT KIN LAC LON MAR MOS NWM SGM STA STO SUN SWO UNN UWI WAG WUL gumfruit 1,2,3 1,5 • •roots • roots 1,2,4roots 2,3,4 • 1,4 • • • • • • • • • • 3 7 fruit, gumfruit, 3 gumfruit, 1fruit gumfruit, • • 1 1 3 gumfruit, 1,5fruit • •roots • •roots • •• • 1,2,4 • • 1,2,4 •• • • • • • • •fruit •••fruit ••• • • • 1,2,5 • • 11 • 1,2,5 • • • • • • • • • • • 8 • • 9 4 • • 7 • 5 tzgeraldii liformis fi angustifolia lanceolata Terminalia canescens Terminalia carpentariae Terminalia vexillata Vigna vexillata Vigna var. Terminalia ferdinandiana Terminalia fi Terminalia hadleyana Terminalia petiolaris Terminalia platyphylla Terminalia scandens Trophis lanceolata Vigna lanceolata Vigna var. lanceolata Vigna var. acuminata Vitex glabrata Vitex Species Food use Ref 172 T. Vigilante et al.

The long yam Dioscorea transversa, widely In the past, Worrorra people often congregated to known as garnmanggu in Worrorran languages or share in these plentiful island resources during the goolngarriny in Bardi and Jawi, is one of the most wet season. Mayala people recognise Long Island important staple root foods for North Kimberley as being particularly rich in fruit trees, particularly Aboriginal people (Love 1936; Crawford 1982, 2001; gorrol (Buchanania obovata), which they were Aklif 1999; Karadada et al. 2011). In some cases, mindful not to damage with fi re. islands have been visited especially to harvest this yam (Green 1988). The long tuber is dug up in the ANIMAL AND MINERAL RESOURCES dry season and roasted in hot coals. The unripe seed pod, known as mardilangg in Bardi and Jawi, According to TOs, kangaroos and wallabies can also be roasted on hot ashes and eaten in the only occur on a few islands, partly because they early dry season (Aklif 1999). This species was are dependent to some extent on fresh water (cf. recorded on 12 islands in the KIBS, but Aboriginal Blundell 1975). Euros (Macropus robustus) are known people say yams are particularly abundant on to live on one small island adjacent to Hidden Long Island in the Mayala claim area, on Bigge, Island with permanent freshwater and close to Katers and Mary Island in Wunambal Gaambera the mainland. Agile wallabies (M. agilis) have the country (Vigilante 2004; Jack Karadada†, pers. ability to survive without permanent water by comm.; Sylvester Mangolamarra, pers. comm.) drinking freshwater seepages below the tide line and Sir Graham Moore Island (Matthew Waina, (Sylvester Mangolamara, pers. comm.). They are pers. comm.), and on Lacrosse Island (Green 1988) known to occur on Mary Island, Adolphus Island in Balanggarra country. This important resource and Sir Graham Moore Island and were recorded has been carefully managed by Aboriginal people. on Mary and Adolphus by the KIBS (Sylvester They have been mindful not to burn islands before Mangolamara, Matthew Waina, pers. comm.). Rock the yams are harvested; otherwise the dry vine wallabies occur on a number of islands throughout is diffi cult to locate (Vigilante 2004). They also the region. The Monjon (Petrogale burbidgei) have replanted the apex of the yam to ensure its population on Bigge Island is well known. Nabarlek regrowth (Vigilante 2004). Some 38 other plant (Petrogale concinna), which occurs on Long Island, species with edible roots were also recorded in the is dependent on the few permanent fresh water KIBS. Some of these species, while widespread, sources on the island, and one permanent rockhole contain toxins that require special processing is particularly important for them (Daphne Wilfred, before they can be eaten, such as Dioscorea pers. comm.). They are not known to have been bulbifera, Ampelocissus acetosa, Cayratia trifolia and hunted or eaten by Aboriginal people in recent Crinum angustifolium (Crawford 1982; Karadada times. In the past, people sometimes captured them et al. 2011). Traditional Owners highlighted some and kept them as pets. There is a narrow opening at important root crops on islands including irrilm/ the northern point of the island where the wallabies aanyjoo (Glycine? sp.) on Sunday Island and Long can be captured after being chased and driven Island (Aklif 1999; Daphne Wilfred, pers. comm.), with loud noises. Elders also say that these rock niyalboon (Cyperus bulbosus) on Long Island (Aklif wallabies are known to sometimes ‘go onto the reef at 1999), wuningarr (Ipomoea abrupta) and manda low tide to eat fi sh’. One elder stated ‘we don’t burn this (unidentifi ed) on Bigge Island and other Wunambal island because of these wallabies, but old people used to † islands (Karadada et al. 2011; Jack Karadada†, pers. burn to make signals to the mainland’ (Monty Wilfred , comm.) and gunu (Dioscorea bulbifera) on Katers pers. comm.). Island (Jack Karadada†, pers. comm.). Balanggarra people used to swim across to Some islands are rich in fruit bearing trees and Adolphus Island to harvest fl ying fox from a large shrubs. The KIBS data records Celtis philippensis, colony that roosted in the mangroves (Lionell Sersalicia sericea, Grewia brevifolia, Mimusops elengi, Mitchell, pers. comm.). Flying fox colonies are also and Flueggia virosa subsp. melanthesoides on many known to roost in mangroves on other islands in islands. Other species, known to be especially the region. Sylvester Mangolamara noted large important food species (including Ficus, Buchanania, numbers of fl ying fox in the mangroves on Mary Vitex, Persoonia, Syzigium and Terminalia species), Island during the KIBS. were found to be less widespread but still occurred Sugarbag, or the honey and larval stages of on several islands. Aboriginal people visited stingless bees (Apidae), are an important staple some islands especially to harvest these plant food for Aboriginal people and are known foods in season. As noted above, Blundell (1975) to be particularly abundant on some islands, documented that mainland Worrorra people have including Coronation Island and a small island visited offshore islands especially to harvest fruits next to Augustus Island. There are several types including those of two Ficus species, several berry of sugarbag based on different species/genera trees, boabs (Adansonia gregorii), native plum tree, of bee (Apidae: Trigona melipes, T. hockingsii, T. pandanus (Pandanus spiralis) and cycads (Cycas sp.). spp.) nesting in different situations (mangroves, ABORIGINAL CONNECTIONS, VALUES AND KNOWLEDGE OF THE WESTERN AUSTRALIAN KIMBERLEY ISLANDS 173 termite mounds and tree hollows) (Akerman 1979; people to country. Smoke fi res also prevent people Karadada et al. 2011). A sugarbag called malara from being followed by ancestral spirits. This was described by Kwini people, and is found in is often achieved by placing green leaves on a the mangrove Avicennia marina on some islands small campfi re; however, in other situations large (Dolores Cheinmora, pers. comm.). sections of bush may be burnt. During recent visits Islands are also known as an important source of to the Maret Islands, talking about the Wunggurr ochres (iron oxides) and clays used for ceremonial (ancestral Snake) Wunambal elder Basil Djanghara purposes and often traded by Aboriginal people. said ‘we got to make a big fi re, big smoke on it so it’s right for everyone to go there – we got to make a big People have visited the island to collect these ochres smoke, sing out for him, we coming out for you, don’t and most particularly the highly prized ‘greasy red make trouble for us’. ochre’. The ochre is wrapped in paperbark and traded through the wurnan, the traditional trading As also described earlier, fi re is used to ‘clean system described above. Ochres of different colours up country’ that may have become overgrown or can also be found at low tide around islands across unhealthy, especially if it has not been visited or the region. The presence of ochre in the landscape burned in some years. Burning makes it easier is often connected with important Dreaming stories to walk through areas and also reduces the risk across the region. of being bitten by poisonous snakes, which are abundant on many islands (O’Connor 1989). Sylvester Mangolamara took part in the KIBS on FIRE ON ISLANDS Mary Island and commented that the island was Historically, islands were burned frequently for overgrown from too many years without fi re, and a range of reasons including, looking after country that it was diffi cult to walk through much of the (land management), hunting and smoke signals dense vegetation: ‘Nobody burned that place for a long (Vigilante 2004). Aboriginal burning on islands was long time and its really scrubby, need to burn it to clear noted by early explorers to the region (Vigilante that place to make kangaroos healthy, burn it bit by bit, 2001). After Aboriginal people moved to settlements if we make one big fi re what will happen to the animals? in the 1900s islands were no longer frequently burnt We need to let them smell that fi re and move into another and wildfi res became infrequent on islands. Fires area’. Similarly, when he suggested that Bigge Island that did occur were often intense due to fuel build- also needed to be burned in sections as spinifex up. In its use for smoke signals, people on islands had become overgrown and an uncontrolled and the mainland have used fi res to communicate wildfi re could damage bush tucker tree species: ‘Hot burn might buggerem up pinjeli [Ficus sp.], guleyi with each other. Bardi and Jawi people call these [Buchanania obovata], yowuru [Vitex acuminata], smoke signals marrj (Kevin George, pers. comm.) even waterfi g [Ficus sp.]’. Matthew Waina considerd or marrya (Aklif 1999) and usually light them that Sir Graham Moore Island needed to be burnt in particular places where they are visible and because the vegetation had become too dense and where the fires will not spread. Smoke signals overgrown, making it diffi cult to walk through. communicate messages about the location or He was also concerned that the waterhole on the movement of people, requests to visit another island had dried up and thought fi re was needed group’s country, capture of turtle and dugong or to restore it. Clayton-Green and Beard (1985) also emergencies (Kevin George, Angus and Stumpagee noted that vegetation on islands in the Admiralty families, pers. comm). Janet Oobagooma recalled Gulf had changed since the 1950s when Aboriginal the use of smoke when she lived permanently on people ceased regular visits and burning. They country as a child and young woman: ‘When we see noted the spread of vine thicket elements into smoke on the islands we would make fi re too and they savanna vegetation associations. would come here and visit’. There are recent examples There are instances where islands have been of Bardi and Jawi and Mayala people breaking deliberately left unburnt to protect a plant resource, down on islands in motor boats and lighting fi res for example near beaches, not only because smoke to signal for help. In Kalumburu it is still common repels sea turtles, but also because an unmanaged for families to light fi res along the coast to signal fi re can damage fruit trees. Daphne Wilfred and to other people where they are. Jawi people have her late brother Monty Wilfred have been cautious particular places on Sunday Island where they about fi re on Long Island because of rock wallabies have made marrj, smoke signals, and looked out and the bush fruits (particularly gorrol, Buchanania for other clansmen sending messages from other obovata), which take a long time to recover after islands. intense fi res. Wunambal Gaambera elders have Fire and smoke are often used in rituals managed food resources by protecting the yams associated with cultural responsibilities. As (Dioscorea transversa) on Mary Island from fire described earlier, smoke fi res are used to welcome (Sylvester Mangolamara, pers. comm.). 174 T. Vigilante et al.

FUTURE MANAGEMENT OF ISLANDS BY TOs, who are then required to respond to new TRADITIONAL OWNERS changes affecting their country. TO groups have all been undertaking planning, Unmanaged access by the expedition cruise both within their own cultural frameworks as industry and by independent travellers impacts on well as negotiating with government agencies the cultural values by disturbing ancestral spirits for at least the last 30 years to ensure long which causes concern and spiritual harm to TOs term beneficial natural and cultural resource (Scherrer et al. 2008, 2011; Smith et al. 2009; North management and implementation plans (see Kimberley Saltwater Country Steering Committee Johnston and Tann 1991; WGAC 2010). Signifi cant 2010; Scherrer and Doohan 2011). Well known rock threats to country have been identifi ed, including art sites at Bigge Island and Jar Island have become major tourism icons without any consultation with some that are distinct from those identifi ed by TOs. As well as causing cultural harm and trespass the non-indigenous community. Management against native title rights, high visitation rates solutions also often involve solutions that are often results in damage, including deliberate harm unique to Indigenous people. For example, in the such as graffi ti, interference with human remains North Kimberley Saltwater Country Plan, TOs and the theft of artefacts, as well as increasing identifi ed IPAs and Aboriginal Ranger Programs quarantine risks to biodiversity. Currently, TOs as useful mechanisms for managing country. The receive little or no benefit from these tourism Wunambal Gaambera Aboriginal Corporation enterprises, and as such, would prefer these areas completed the Wunambal Gaambera Healthy be left undisturbed. Country Plan using the participatory planning tool ‘Conservation Action Planning’ (WGAC 2010). This There is potential for feral animals to become plan identifi es ‘cultural sites on islands’ as one of established on islands if there are no appropriate the 10 major targets to manage. Dambimangari, quarantine procedures in place. In particular Balanggarra and Bardi Jawi TOs are also currently Cane Toads, house geckos and feral cats could undertaking Conservation Action Planning and impact on island fauna populations. Weeds have will have fi nalised cultural and natural resource become established on some islands including management plans by the end of 2012. large infestations of various species around the abandoned township site on Koolan Island. THREATS TO AND MANAGEMENT OF INDIGENOUS Stinking passionfruit (Passifl ora foetida) has become NATURAL AND CULTURAL VALUES ON ISLANDS established on some islands. Kapok Bush, Calotropis procera has become established on Adolphus A range of threats, identified by TOs, are Island and Lacrosse Island in Cambridge Gulf impacting, or have the potential to impact, islands and is spreading west along the coast. It has also and their natural and cultural values. There are been recorded on some islands in the Bonaparte some differences in the threats identifi ed by TOs Archipelago (Neil Waina, pers. comm.). Visits by compared to those identifi ed by the mainstream Indonesian fi shermen and related marine debris conservation movement or documented in State pose quarantine risks. Fishermen sometimes Government planning documents (Cawardine et al. carry livestock, cats and other pest animals on 2011; Government of Western Australia 2011). board their boats. They may also unknowingly The Saltwater Country Project identifi ed lack of carry animal and plant diseases. Additionally, engagement with TOs as a threat to Indigenous unmonitored visitors also present quarantine risks values. There is a mixed history of Indigenous through the spread of weeds, disease and feral participation in research in the region. Many animals such as Cane Toad and cats. biological surveys have taken place in the past Iron ore mining on Cockatoo and Koolan islands without any, or any meaningful, involvement has brought about signifi cant and lasting physical of TOs. Moreover, the fi ndings of these surveys changes to large parts of these islands and has also have underpinned the declaration of national impacted on Aboriginal cultural values. Another parks and reserves, which have subsequently led mine is also being developed on the adjacent to the extinguishment of native title rights in the Irvine Island. The native title process provides process, or additionally have had a detrimental the right for native title groups to negotiate impact on cultural values and the interests with mining companies. Such negotiations of TOs. The declaration of North Kimberley often result in social and economic benefi ts like conservation reserves in 2000 without consultation employment and compensation that is invested in with native title groups is an example of a poor community development projects that support the engagement process that had a negative impact on establishment of governance structures for native cultural values and native title rights and interests title groups. (Crawford 2001). Moreover, policy and legislative Fire has been largely unmanaged on many changes often happen without consultation with remote islands since the 1950s by which time most ABORIGINAL CONNECTIONS, VALUES AND KNOWLEDGE OF THE WESTERN AUSTRALIAN KIMBERLEY ISLANDS 175

TOs had moved off country. Wildfi res are now cruise industry and independent tourists in boats infrequent but when they do occur they are often and yachts is a concern to TOs. The Wunambal high in intensity. Gaambera Aboriginal Corporation has also developed the Uunguu Visitor Pass. Other groups CULTURALLY APPROPRIATE MANAGEMENT are likely to establish similar passes. In a number ARRANGEMENTS of areas TOs are seeking to establish tourism enterprises as a way of benefi tting from tourist Important management strategies identifi ed for visitation as well as managing tourism impacts on North Kimberley islands include community led their country. Indigenous rangers, IPAs, cultural and conservation Many TOs would like to return to their partnerships, visitor management including the traditional country and establish outstations/ introduction of a visitor pass, tourism enterprises homelands. As elder Daphne Wilfred lamented: and community living areas. Many native title ‘The islands should be looked after, but there is ‘no groups are developing a matrix of management boat [we are] only looking at them from long way options underpinned by partnerships to assist from One Arm Point”. In the 1980s and 1990s, the with the incremental implementation of long term Commonwealth Government provided signifi cant visions for management of country. funding to support this movement back to Kimberley Aboriginal people have identified country. However, in recent years this funding the indigenous ranger model as a way to manage has largely ceased. As a result, TOs are now country as well as to create employment. Bardi-Jawi considering new ways of getting back to country Rangers were the fi rst full-time ranger group to like coupling outstations with an enterprise to become established in the region (re-establishing support remote livelihoods. Emerging markets after an earlier attempt in the 1990s). They were in carbon and payment for ecosystem services soon followed by a number of other groups provide new opportunities for TOs to sustainably with funding from the Australian Government’s live on country. More than likely the future of Working on Country Program, including the Indigenous management of islands will involve Uunguu Ranger group. Rangers patrol and look a combination of payments for environmental after their country under guidance from cultural services coupled with investment from government advisors and with support from their prescribed programs and partnerships with non-government body corporate, Aboriginal corporation or native organizations. Mining, aquaculture and tourism title working group. are other alternatives. As this KIBS project has Most native title groups in the KIBS project area shown, biological surveys also present an emerging are exploring the creation of IPAs as a means of opportunity for people to get back on country. gaining greater protection and recognition for country (through the National Reserve System) CONCLUSIONS and securing funding for management. In 2011, the Wunambal Gaambera Aboriginal Corporation The KIBS project provides an important declared stage I of the Uunguu Indigenous precedent for how strategic regional research Protected Area. Stage II will include offshore can be undertaken in partnership with TOs. islands and further mainland areas and stage The benefi ts of this approach include a shared III will include seas and the intertidal zone. vision, employment and participation of TOs Bardi and Jawi, Dambimangari and Balanggarra and knowledge exchange. It is important for native title groups are also close to declaring researchers to recognise that TOs must be consulted IPAs in 2013. Other partnership and stewardship regarding access to country, in order to respect their opportunities are emerging with the Western ownership and to take into account their cultural Australian Government under the Kimberley values and their customary rights to country. Science and Conservation Strategy and with non- Islands are integral components of complex cultural government organisations such as The Nature landscapes and seascapes believed to be inhabited Conservancy, PEW Environment Group and by ancestral beings and deceased ancestors. As Bush Heritage Australia. Once ratified, recent such, they include many important sacred and amendments to the CALM Act (1984) will enable other significant sites. Researchers, like other more flexible joint management arrangements visitors, should be introduced to country in the with TOs and allow State laws to be applied to ‘right way’ (i.e. according to law and culture) and indigenous held lands (Conservation Legislation accompanied by the appropriate TOs to ensure Amendment Bill 2010, extract from Hansard 6 a safe passage through country. Jawi families, April 2011). connected to Sunday Island, were apprehensive As indicated above, the high levels of about the KIBS saying they preferred that the island uncontrolled access to islands by the expedition be left alone and not disturbed; however, they were 176 T. Vigilante et al. satisfi ed that their permission was sought for the property rights of TOs are fundamental to the survey and that Bardi-Jawi rangers were supporting future success of research surveys in the Kimberley the research. Bardi-Jawi ranger Terry McCarthy region of Western Australia. When undertaken in described his role on the survey saying: ‘I was the partnership, such agreements can lead to long term guide, so they went to the right places’. mutual benefi ts for all parties. Traditional Owners have Native Title rights and interests that extend beyond those of other ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS stakeholders. Many native title groups in the The authors would like to acknowledge the North Kimberley hold exclusive possession native support of DEC in their commitment to culturally title, which means they hold the primary land appropriate engagement of TOs in the Kimberley management interest and veto powers over Islands Biological Survey. This project provided the access to country. As identified through the opportunity to showcase the mutual benefi ts that Saltwater Country Project, a lack of consultation can be achieved when working in partnership. Most and culturally appropriate engagement poses a importantly the authors would like to acknowledge signifi cant threat to the cultural values of islands. the continuous commitment of TOs in their cultural To redress this, TOs are seeking determinations leadership and stewardship of Kimberley country: of native title, declaring IPAs, and increasing their mainland, sea, waters and islands. Please note that own capacity to undertake management actions some Aboriginal people named in this document through initiatives like the Australian Government are now deceased as indicated by the ‘†’ symbol Working on Country ranger program. next to their name. Care should be taken in the use It is important for research agencies to collaborate of these names among Indigenous relatives and with TOs in the design and conduct of fi eld work communities. associated with on-ground surveys. 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APPENDIX 1 Traditional Owner participation in the surveys. Altogether, some 50 TOs from fi ve Native Title claim groups participated in the fi eld component of the survey over a 4-year period (Note † indicates person is now deceased).

Survey Islands Traditional Owners Claim

Dry season 2007 Bigge Sylvia Djanghara Uunguu

Boongaree Dorothy Djanghara

Warren Djanghara Katers Jeremy Kowan Middle Osborn Neil Waina

Derek Charles South West Osborn Damien Lawford Sir Graham Moore Charlie Bundamurra Balanggarra

Damien Lawford Wet season 2008 Various islands in the Jason Adams Uunguu Uunguu native title area plus (+ Balanggarra for SGM) Sir Graham Moore in the Alphonse Fredericks Balanggarra area Jeremy Kowan

Shane Undalgamen April 2008 recon. fl ight Various islands Peter Pedersen Dambimangari Dry season 2008 Coronation 1 John Jangoot Uunguu

Maitland Ngerdu Coronation 2 Craig Rastus

Pedro Palacios St Andrew Sonnette Ozies Dambimangari Jeanine Numendumah Augustus 1 Edmund Lee Ngerdu Jnr Dambimangari

Thorvald Ozies Augustus 2 Elvina Oobagooma

Deidre Mungulu Uwins Victor Barunga†

Wayne Oobagooma Byam Martin Alfred Umbagai

Duane Ngerdu Jungulu/Darcy 1 Kirk Woolagoodja

Brett Oobagooma† Jungulu/Darcy 2 Anita Umbagai

Jacqueline Mungulu

Adolphus Lionel Mitchell Balanggarra

Kevin Morgan ABORIGINAL CONNECTIONS, VALUES AND KNOWLEDGE OF THE WESTERN AUSTRALIAN KIMBERLEY ISLANDS 181

Survey Islands Traditional Owners Claim

Wet season 2009 Islands in the Dambimangari Alfred Umbagai Dambimangari / Uunguu and Uunguu native title areas Tristan Burgu

Adolphus Lionel Mitchell Balanggarra

2008 recon. fl ight Aubrey Tigan Mayala Sandy Isaac Bardi and Jawi

Dry season 2009 NW Molema (Talbot Bay) Thorvald Ozies Dambimangari Sonnette Ozies

Wulalam Alfred Umbagai Anita Umbagai

Kingfi sher Wayne Oobagooma Pedro Palacios

Storr Jordan Barunga Craig Rastus

Un-named (near Storr) John Jangoot Edmund Lee Ngerdu Jnr

Hidden Mitchell Tigan Mayala Aubrey Tigan Jahni Isaac

Long Sandy Isaac Jahni Isaac Kalvin Hudson

Lachlan Aaron Mungulu

Sunday Nathan Sampi (BJ Ranger) Bardi and Jawi Terry McCarthy (BJ Ranger) Herman Ishmail – Traditional Owner

Wet season 2010 NW Molema Craig Rastus Dambimangari Wulalam Ian Heally Kingfi sher Storr Un-named (near Storr)

Hidden Lionel Cox Mayala Lachlan Craig Isaac Long

Sunday Trevor Sampi (BJ Ranger) Bardi and Jawi Terry McCarthy (BJ Ranger) Herman Ishmail – Traditional Owner

Dry season 2010 Mary Sylvester Mangolamara Uunguu

Wargul Wargul Desmond Williams Bruce Oxtoby