ROBER T ANDERSON, GHEEBELUM, NGUGI, MULGUMPIN HIS T O R Y LIFE AND TIMES HISTORY LIFE AND TIMES of Robert Anderson, Gheebelum, Ngugi, Mulgumpin, is a community and personal history of an Aboriginal elder of the Quandamooka area. The life experiences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander elders are varied and are many and access to their knowledge is essential to the process of continuing our traditions. HISTORY LIFE AND TIMES OF ROBERT ANDERSON GHEEBELUM, NGUGI, MULGUMPIN Community and personal history of a Ngugi Elder of Mulgumpin in Quandamooka, South East Queensland, Australia. Nations and people are largely the stories they feed themselves. If they tell themselves stories that are lies, they will suffer the future consequences of those lies. If they tell themselves stories that face their own truths, they will free their histories for future flowerings. Ben Okri, Birds of Heaven History Life and Times of Robert Anderson, Gheebelum, Ngugi, Mulgumpin First published in September, 2001 by Uniikup Productions Ltd. PO Box 3230, South Brisbane, Queensland 4101 Australia Design by Inkahoots, www.inkahoots.com.au Distributed by Uniikup Productions Ltd. © Robert V. Anderson 2001 This book is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission. Enquiries should be made to the publisher. This project has been assisted by: Community and Personal Histories Department of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Policy, Queensland Government REF: 11507.3 23/6/97 Cataloguing-in-Publication Data: National Library of Australia Peacock, Eve Christine, 1951-. History, Life and Times of Robert Anderson, Gheebelum, Ngugi, Mulgumpin. 1. Anderson, Robert, 1929- . 2. Aborigines, Australian - Politics and Government. 3. Aborigines, Australian - History. 4. Aborigines, Australian - Genealogy. 5. Aborigines, Australian - Queensland - Social Conditions. I. Anderson, Robert, 1929- . II. Title. 994.0049915 ISBN: 0-9579026-0-3 This edition has been reformatted by Inkahoots in co-operation with Robert Anderson and editing by Cathy Boyle. It includes updates of recent developments and photographs. This project has been funded by Redlands City Council RADF grant with the assistance of Elisabeth Gondwe from North Stradbroke Island Heritage Museum. Collecting the wild flowers on Mulgumpin and Minjerribah is a symbol of the continuum of family life and appreciation of the beauty of the land and flora. CONTENTS PREFACE 6 DEDICATION 13 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 16 CHAPTER 1 HISTORY Introduction 20 PART I "ALWAYS WAS ALWAYS WILL BE ..." 1 B.C. - Before Cook (a thumbnail sketch) 25 PART II BRITISH IMPERIALISM 1 Occupational Strategies 30 2 Summary - Unrelinquished Sovereignty 38 PART III OCCUPATION 1 Free Settlement 44 2 Transitions 46 3 Institutionalisation • Quarantine Station • Benevolent Institution • Myora Mission on Moongalba HISTORY • The Long Shadow of the Act 58 4 Regeneration 59 5 Cultural Heritage 66 CHAPTER 2 LIFE 67 PART I NGUGI, MULGUMPIN 1 A Family Diary 85 PART II REMINISCING 1 Tom Anderson, Ngugi, Mulgumpin 98 2 Penny Tripcony, Ngugi, Mulgumpin 115 3 Robert Anderson, Gheebelum, LIFE Ngugi, Mulgumpin 138 CHAPTER 3 TIMES PART I INDIGENOUS PEOPLE AND AUSTRALIAN SOCIETY 1 A Personal and Collective Identity 147 2 Political Activity 155 PART II INDIGENOUS SOCIETY AND THE AUSTRALIAN NATION 1 The Question of Economic Development and Self-Determination TIMES 166 2 Treaty and the Reconciliation Movement 172 PART III COMPARABLE SOCIAL JUSTICE MOVEMENTS 1 A Union Movement Perspective 191 2 Movements Toward Social Justice 221 3 Awards 245 PART IV GOORI CHRONOLOGY 268 SOURCES AND EXTRACTS 232 PHOTOGRAPHS 283 WRITER/RECORDIST DEDICATION Robert Anderson, Gheebelum, Ngugi, Mulgumpin Women have played a major part in my life. My Mother, Lydia Myee Tripcony, all my Aunties and my Grandmother, Mary Rose Tripcony, have been significant. I often reflect on the days of my boyhood, eating at the common table at the One Mile on Minjerribah when I lived with my Grandmother, where meals were served with the Grannies present, smoking their pipes and speaking softly in language. Those images constantly revisit me and are the source of my strength. During the full impact of what was happening, beginning with the colonial era - warfare, massacres, confiscation of the land, dispersal of families - somehow throughout all this they retained their capacity to endure, their elegance, serenity and dignity. In the midst of this overwhelming hardship this was remarkable and astounding. Winyeeaba Murriaba Kingal (right) with other Minjerribah Grannies. 6 | PREFACE ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Robert Anderson, Gheebelum, Ngugi, Mulgumpin Ngugi, Mulgumpin The vision of my country, the way I view or see my country, the way I talk or sing up my country, the way I talk of the stories of my country and talk about my Elders and Ancestors, this is my cultural heritage. The way I call their names as I walk the sacred places of my country and the way I remember their brave deeds on my land is my cultural heritage. My spiritual connection with the land is my cultural heritage. All these things are a part of my cultural heritage. To walk my country, to gather the shell fish from the ocean beaches and the bay side beaches, is part of my cultural heritage. To see the changing nature of the flora with the seasons, to gather the wild flowers and to eat the berries and fruits of my country, reminds me of my mother and her connection to this my cultural heritage. To observe the birds, their migratory flight patterns, and nesting habitats, to understand how their presence fertilises, pollinates and regenerates the plant growth; how they herald the arrival of the deep-sea mullet, the whales and other sea inhabitants, for seasonal sustenance. This is the cultural heritage of my country. To be with my family and community people walking the country together, making that strong spiritual connection with the land is my cultural heritage. To continue to walk the bora ground and practice my cultural rights and responsibilities, as well as acknowledge the importance of this continuation on my country, is my cultural heritage. If we do not have access to our land, we are denied the right to maintain our practices that protect, preserve and nurture our land and our cultural heritage. PREFACE | 7 Above: “Lightning’s Playground” Mulgumpin (Aerial photographs reproduced with the permission of Deptartment of Natural Resources and Mines Qld.) 8 | PREFACE In my country, like all of you, there is a story of Creation of Life. Mine is as important to me as yours is to you. So let me tell you my story as handed down to me from my Uncle Paul Tripcony. Australian Aboriginal Legend of the Lightning’s Playground, Creation Story Situated on Mulgumpin1, Moreton Island, are two Sandhills. The Big Sandhill was known to the Aboriginal tribe who called themselves Ngugi2 as Gheebelum3 and the Little Sandhill was named Coonungai4. When both Sandhills were mentioned together the two names signified the Legend known as “The Lightning’s Playground.” The origin of this Legend was the profound veneration accorded to their Ancestral Land and the gift of Poetic Fancy that inspired the Aboriginal race in appreciation of the Beauty of their Dreamtime legends. Australia has experienced during the course of her history many bitter drought seasons which are associated with dry electric storms and devastating heat waves. During this period, heavy banks of cloud are formed, reverberating peals of thunder are heard as though to rend the firmament asunder. Nature is mobilising her resources in accordance with Her Laws so that she may bestow her Bounties and impose her Disciplines and from the powerful vortex of this elemental force of nature are discharged and hurled the destructive and shattering detonation of the concentrated fury, a combination of creative and destroying faculties of Life, Death and Regeneration. In Preparation for the transformation about to be disclosed and presented to our experience Sea laden breezes, wafted from the 1 Also known as Moolgumpin or Moorgumpin 2 Also Nooghies 3 Also Gheebellum or Jebellum 4 Also Coonoongai PREFACE | 9 Above: Original version of the Legend of the Lightning’s Playground in the hand of Paul Ambrose Tripcony born on Moongalba in 1901. 10 | HISTORYPREFACE Above: Original version of the Legend of the Lightning's Playground indicating Uncle Paul Tripcony's emphasis of phrase. PREFACEHISTORY | 11 Pacific and Moreton Bay, deposit their rich burden of moisture on Coonungai and on Gheebelum and having received the gift of morning dew they attained their highest aspirations. Copious seasonable rains promised an assured supply of Life giving water and underground subterranean springs welling to the surface showed to His glance the pathway to the Lightning’s Playground. When the storm clouds converged around the Brisbane district and extended the area of their activity to Moreton Bay from the centre of the Tempest, there is precipitated a volley of Fireball Projectiles associated with a detonating report and with Cosmic energy, directs its course to the crest of Gheebelum, impelled on its course from the point of discharge and the velocity attained by the mass of Creative substance embodied in the propulsion and dissemination of the powerful forces contained in Liberated Light. This revelation of the potency of the Translucent Luminary presented by Nature’s gifts, evokes the re-enactment of the Drama of the Eternal Dreamtime when children were conceived by the Father in his mind during a Lightning Sacramental Fire flash, whence they were enclosed in the Mother’s body to complete the Life Cycle. The Shining Mirror like surface of Gheebelum attracts the affections and attentions of the evolving Majestic Celestial Incandescent Creator of Light and Life and in her Loveliness presents her bosom in Sublime Passion to his embrace.