• Murdering Gully, site of a massacre, replacing an REFERENCES earlier name ‘Purriyuup’. Allen, H. 2001 ‘William Blandowski’s fish: an ethnohistorical Some modern place names are totally unconnec- account near the junction of the Murray and Darling Rivers’, ted with the area that they designate and have been Histories of Old Ages: Essays in honour of Rhys Jones, A. Anderson, I. introduced in honour of distant European dignitaries. Lilley and S. O’Connor (eds), Pandanus Books, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, The Australian National University, These include names of the most important localities Canberra, pp.211–24. like Melbourne, the Murray River (there were once a Manning, G.H. 1986 The Romance of Place Names in South Australia, number of localised names for this river), and the the author, Adelaide. Goulburn River. Other examples are: • Mt Napier which replaced an original ‘Taapuuk’ Praite, R. and J.C. Tolley 1970 Place Names of South Australia, Rigby, Adelaide. • Hopkins Falls which replaced the much more expressive ‘Tangang punhard’, ‘eels bite (the Reed, A.W. 1967 The Place Names of Australia, A.H. & A.W. Reed, stones)’. Sydney. Reed, A.W. 1969 Place-Names of New South Wales: Their origins and Some modern names have arisen from nostalgia meanings, A.H. & A.W. Reed, Sydney. for the English countryside, for instance Skipton which replaced ‘Woran’ which was probably the word for ‘spotted bandicoot’. These now obsolete Aboriginal names are of great interest because they at Pila Nguru: The Spinifex People least give a glimpse of how people viewed the Scott Cane landscape. 2. The present work also includes names for Fremantle Arts Centre Press, North Fremantle, WA, natural features that are unnamed on modern maps. 2002, 260pp., ISBN 1 863 68348 8) Examples of this are the two springs on either Reviewed by David Nash School of Language Studies, The side of Lake Gnotuk. The western one is called Australian National University, and Australian Institute ‘Werrk parreeyt’, ‘backwater’ and the eastern one of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, Canberra, ‘Bonelwithinick’; the second part of this name may be
Australian Aboriginal Studies 2002/2 97 maps are generalised); and interspersed is effectively debatable proposal (pp.91–2,162) to link a myth about a catalogue for the thirty full-page colour reproduc- the encroaching ocean to the end of the Pleistocene tions of the paintings of the Spinifex Arts Project. The prehistory, whereas any modern observer can still draft of the book also inspired a drama The Career see pieces of Nullarbor cliff eroding. The discussion Highlights of the MAMU with associated teacher of cultural conservatism is unconvincing there resource materials (Anon. N.D.) (pp.161–2) but is elaborated later (pp.203ff). The This book is the sole published version of a ‘claim ‘sacred equivalent of plutonium’ startles us (as book’ from a native title claim. This genre generally intended) but Wilson Bluff is about 550km direct to has a highly restricted distribution to parties in native Cundeelee not 1500km (pp.194–5). Another exagger- title proceedings. They generally contain much useful ation is about ‘a night sky of a trillion stars that shone distillation and careful matching of historical material down upon us’ (p.30): no more than a few thousand with commissioned research in the claim area’s stars are visible but this incident is actually plausible anthropology, archaeology, history, linguistics, and when we learn that the text should read that the object sometimes music and performance. The documents was not a satellite but a comet (Cane personal are typically caught up in legal proceedings for years, communication). On surer ground is the claim that a and even the claimants have difficulty accessing them Spinifex family was ‘possibly the last hunter- for other purposes. Thus this publication is especially gatherers on earth’ (p.198), depending on definitions. welcome, not only making research available to the A good feature is the facsimile reproduction of Spinifex People and those who live with them in their key historical documents that are otherwise difficult country, but also providing a solid picture of their to get to see. This allows the reader to check the text world to interested outsiders. Another particular against the source document, and has allowed me to benefit is that native title practitioners can now study offer a couple of corrections: one expert report and it can be discussed publicly. • A page from Tindale’s 1934 journal is reproduced The local organisation of the Spinifex People is (p.69), to show the first record of ‘Spinifex’ as an well presented, showing the primacy given to ethnonym. Cane criticises Tindale’s sketch map birthplace and umbilical cord place; descent is less on the same journal page, yet it does correctly important even compared to other desert groups — it show Mamutu north-west of Ooldea, and the functions now to include children of out-marriages incorrect addition of ‘Victoria Spr.’ is explained (p.79) or born in hospital (p.226). The threads of by Tindale (1974:255) when he realised that ecological and social description, at times linked to there are two places named ‘Kaluru (=Koljoru)’ one another, are exemplified, with numerous case (presumably Cane’s Kulyurru ~ Kulyaru), the studies showing the interlinked mapping of personal other, irrelevant, one being Queen Victoria Spring. history and jukurrpa song lines. Modern life at Also Cane does not refer to Tindale (n.d.) which Cundeelee, Coonana and Tjuntjuntjara is also has annotations giving other names at Boundary described and illustrated with monochrome Dam (p.70, in the southeast of the Spinifex lands). photographs, including numerous excellent portraits • The Berndts’ (1942) map is reproduced (p.71) by the author. showing the only previous publication of Pila as The claim-book’s core is framed by Cane’s an ethnonym. Cane highlights part of the Berndts’ account of his involvement with the Spinifex People, label to claim it refers to ‘essentially the homeland of which we get a good gritty feel (p.26): territory identified by the Spinifex People today’ the desert journey can be bewildering and physically but ignores the final word ‘People’ of the label, demanding, rewarding and frustrating, emotionally which actually extends its reference considerably shattering and rapturously pleasing … a test of physical east into South Australia, across the north of Lake and mental endurance in monotonous and difficult Maurice, fitting with other hints in the book terrain in the company of intense and forceful people. (pp.72–3) that the eastern limit of their country is beyond the state border. Vignettes from the native title negotiations are as vivid, and throw some light on the still extraordinary Thus it is shown that Spinifex or Pila-nguru is an agreement by the Western Australian Government to ethnonym of some historical standing, despite its the determination of strong native title. general absence in the reference literature. However it Sometimes the author gets carried away with is a bit strong to say that a ‘review of historical records vivid interpretations. The most graphic is the reveals that it has been a consistent and reliable
98 Australian Aboriginal Studies 2002/2 means of identification’ (p.68). To the evidence of from the number of burnt out logs observed’, and Tindale, Elkin and Berndts could be added Hayden was allowed to name ‘Lake Ilma after my wife’. (1979:23) who opens his account of his inquiries at Donald Mackay (1935) bizarrely bestowed on Cundeelee about stone-tool use with the common prominent salt lakes names drawn from response he received ‘Old fella pinnifec [sic Spinifex] vocabulary from the southwest of WA, such as know, all dead, all died out’. However, as well as Wanna Lakes, and Waigen Lakes, and these Tindale’s own record of a variety of other ethnonyms names persist on official maps and map sheet in his interviews at a distance from the area, there are names. other records not mentioned by Cane: The author takes issue unfairly with Giles’ 1875 • Maurice’s party in 1901 travelled through the observations: ‘Giles’s uninhabited land was in fact northeast of the Spinifex homelands. Murray fully inhabited’ (p.116). However Giles’ desperate (1904:12) recorded the exclamation of an old words did not apply to the Spinifex homelands: they woman ‘Narratah, karpie illa, wontee, wontee’ — were written when his party was some 130km further clearly in the Western Desert language. They also southwest, and Giles’ route was generally south, mapped Paralilla rockhole, a feature not closer to the Nullarbor Plain, and had earlier clipped mentioned in this volume. just the southeastern corner. Giles’ camp there at • F.H. Hann’s party encountered Aborigines while Boundary Dam was an ‘agreeable place’, where one of travelling across the northern part in June 1903 his party ‘had seen two or three natives from the spot and in August 1907; ‘We saw one camp, they had at which we pitched our tents, but I saw none, and been chewing Kurrajong bark for water’. they never returned while we were in occupation of (Donaldson and Elliot 1998:362). Hann’s party their property’. (1889:Chap. 4.2) had little face-to-face contact and he records no When a claim proceeds to a hearing, oral evidence names or language. is heard from the claimants, which supersedes the • While living in far west South Australia Daisy claim-book in many ways. Since the Spinifex claim Bates (mentioned fleetingly p.168) recorded was settled without a hearing, the voices of the vocabulary, placenames and personal details Spinifex people are heard in excerpts from transcripts from people who had lived in the area of of various conversations with the author, which are Boundary Dam, whose language is called ‘Baadu mainly reminiscences rather than explanations of Wonga’ (Bates n.d.) The vocabulary shows a few cultural practices or of the paintings (three paintings differences from Vászolyi (1979), such as bunu do have accompanying explanation by the author). It ‘water’, mala ‘meat’. Bates (1944:146) says that is not stated, but some excerpts appear to be Giles’ party’s stay at Boundary Dam in 1875 translations into Standard English. In contrast with terrified a family she knew, though perhaps it was the author’s treatment of social organisation, Mason’s (1919–20) party or even Delisser’s (1865), discussion of the language is brief, and no reference or both of which encountered Aborigines in the area dictionary is cited. An obvious reference is Vászolyi in 1896 and 1865 respectively. (1979) which incorporates the Hadfields’ work with • Serventy (1961) published an account of the speakers then at Cundeelee, including some of the August 1960 return visit organised by Bob Stewart Spinifex people presented in this book; Goddard to the southwest part of the area, and notably (1992) is the best relevant published dictionary. The describes how two men walked away from the author appears to follows a mix of the three standard vehicles to rejoin for the summer the People still orthographies with which the Western Desert living in the bush. ‘You must imagine People with language is afflicted (conventions that have diverged a capital P. That is how all of us referred to the in SA, NT and WA). Spelling is usually seen as a pitifully small remnant of the tribes which called purist concern, but at a few points more care would this desert country home.’ (1961:27) have prevented some solecisms. I use here the WA • To complete the history of early records of the orthography after Vászolyi (1979). Spinifex People’s country, mention needs to be • The title of the book is pila ‘spinifex, spinifex plain made of two aerial surveys over most of the area. country’ with the suffix -nguru ‘from’ (p.68). The government geologist Woolnough (1933:67) However nguru is earlier (p.54) stated to mean quaintly observed that ‘[a]pparently there must ‘country’ (for which the word is ngurra, as in Cane be some human beings in this region, judging 2000).
Australian Aboriginal Studies 2002/2 99 • The verbal directional ngalya ‘towards’ is equated Goddard, C. 1992 Pitjantjatjara/Yankunytjatjara to English dictionary with the body-part noun ngalya ‘forehead’ (p.61), (second edn), IAD Press, Alice Springs. and in turn with the ethnonym Ngalea (of Mackay, D. 1935 Portions of South and Western Australia [map], Tindale) which is actually a distinct three-syllable Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW, MT4 809/1930–1937/1, word, Ngaliya. Sh2(4). • Tindale’s ‘Jananji’ is equated with jananji with Mason, A. 1919–20 ‘Explorations in the south east portion of imputed root jana ‘they’, but Tindale’s ortho- Western Australia’, Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society of graphic ‘j’ is equivalent to modern ‘y’ so the Australasia (South Australia) 21:102–5. proper equivalent is Yananyi and this is just Murray, W.R. 1904 ‘Explorations by RT Maurice – Fowler’s Bay to another ethnonym based on a form of the verb ‘to Rawlinson Ranges’, South Australia. Parliamentary Papers 43:3–23. go’. Serventy, V. 1961 ‘Journey through a flowering wilderness’, Walkabout 27(5):26–8. The author dismisses ‘Dreamtime’ as a ‘nauseating’ translation of Tjukurrpa (p.81), yet in the Tindale, N.B. n.d. Map H.5 — Forrest showing tribal distribution. following pages where he presents the meanings of Base map 1944, South Australian Museum Series 338/7. Tjukurrpa no mention is made of dreams, even though Tindale, N.B. 1974 Aboriginal Tribes of Australia, The Australian this is one sense of the noun tjukurrpa. The verb National University Press, Canberra. tjukurrmarra, ‘to dream’, is built on the same stem and Vászolyi, E.G. 1979 ‘Teach yourself Wangkatja: An introduction to in adjacent cultures, at least, dreams are said to be a the Western Desert language’ (Cundeelee dialect), based on notes view of the Tjukurrpa. The author also eschews the and tape recordings by Brian and Dawn Hadfield, Mt Lawley Teachers’ College, Perth. common translation ‘Dreaming’ (though it persists in his legend ‘Dreaming Tracks’ on one map, p.138). Winter, J.G. (curator) 2002 Native Title Business: Contemporary The book design is not quite up to the high quality Indigenous art: a national travelling exhibition, Keeaira Press, Southport. of the reproductions and the heavy paper. The writing shows its origin as a claim-book and could have been Woolnough, W.G. 1933 Report on Aerial Survey Operations in edited a little more or cross-references added (e.g. Australia during 1932, Government Printer, Canberra. about the Tjuntjuntjara name pp.87,198, or Smith’s Station pp.76,167). Despite the lack of an index, this volume is a fine resource with a wide potential Telling Stories: Indigenous history and memory in readership. Australia and New Zealand Bain Attwood and Fiona Magowan (editors) REFERENCES Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, NSW, 2002, xi+269pp., Anon. n.d.a Spinifex Art Project, accessed November 2002, ISBN 1 865 08554 5
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