Celaunds.com

Tech which makes Sense

My story begins as a descendant of the original inhabitants of Australia; I am Aboriginal, with a mixture of English and Dutch heritage. During my kindergarten and elementary school years up to the age of 8, I lived with my extended family in a place called “Blackman’s Point.” Like most state towns in eastern New South Wales, this was also a place of slaughter for Aboriginal ancestors and mothers that occurred during the settlement of the coastal town of Port Macquarie in the mid-1800s. “Blackman’s Point” is called “Goolawahl”. (Pronounced gool-a-wall.) In Birripi culture.

The many rivers that flow from the mountains from the west and the Great Diving Range to our coastal sea (Pacific Ocean) mostly have Aboriginal “creation” stories tied to them. Just as the “Noongar” people of Western Australia / Northern Territory and the “Pitjanjarra” of South Australia have their “dream time” culture and beliefs. So do the Aboriginal lineages of New South Wales, Queensland, and Victoria.

Australia The aborigines of New South Wales refer to themselves as “Goori”, “Boori” or “Murri” and are related in this way unlike the European version of “Koori”. The kinship we all shared in the 1960s was strong, as I recall that our old rented cottage in “Blackmans Point” had to endure (as did we) three major floods: 1963, 1964, and 1966.

Virtually the entire city of Port Macquarie was under water at some point during those summer times when months of heavy rain caused masses of water from the mountains to flow down along the Hastings (Dhoongang) River to reach the sea alone. to be pushed inward by the enormous King Tides of the Pacific Ocean.

It was during the 1964 flood (the largest on record in Port Macquarie) that our family lost Sister Patricia, as we were both hospitalized since the onset of double pneumonia. Patricia was one year old, I was 3 years old. After the 1966 floods and until 1968, our extended families of cousins, sisters, brothers, uncles, aunts, mother, father, grandmothers, grandfathers had to abandon the old farmhouses (there were two farmhouses separated by a bridge over a tributary river), they had suffered a lot of damage while the floods were washing away and no wooden structure could have stood firm as they did when the bridge was washed away, roads were washed away, cattle, sheep, farmers’ crops and all other living things that did not have wings. Fortunately, Uncle Trevor Rumbel (he was a licensed fisherman) had two boats to save us as the Hastings River came in through the front door at 2am. The front door was raised 6 feet with wooden stairs down to the creek. (tributary)

My sister Tanya was born in 1966 and Jo-anne was born in 1968, the Vietnam War was on television and there was little room for all the children (there were 13 of us) to fit in in front of the only black and white television. place. We had many other swimming, fishing and tree climbing activities to do most of the time. After leaving Port Macquarie and the extended family, Dad, Mom, Tanya, Jo-anne and I moved further north 160 miles or so to the town of Evans Head. Yes, another important aboriginal place, from the village “Bunjalung”. Evans Head (Goanna Headland) is a “dreamtime” mythological site.

Corroboree and ceremonies were held on that promontory (bora terrain) to honor their Goanna spiritual totem, as well as to increase the supply of fish with their Bungalung tribal songs. Evans Head is today as then a fishing village with fishing trawlers and pleasure boats moored at the Fish Co-operative along the Evans Head River.

Evans Head had large clay banks (used for ceremonial body painting). After leaving in 1969, we returned up the coast to Sawtell, which is 10 miles south of Coffs Harbor (pioneer in the cedar lumber factory) with a major jetty built for ships to transport the rich cedar to England and Europe. . Starting sixth grade was in a town called “Woolgoolga” (currently population 25,000) approximately 15 miles north of Coffs Harbor (population 100,000) on the north coast of New South Wales. Woolgoolga, Sawtell and Coffs Harbor are towns located in “Gumbaynggir” or “Gumbangar” country. “Woolgoolga is a variation of the Gumbaynggir word for” Weilga “or native plum. My grandfather William” Goola “(koala) Holten (1923-2002) used to tell me that when the disputes between tribes of the” Birripi “and the neighboring” Dunghutti “(Crow people) happened that it was the Gumbaynggir who mediated the disputes. Birripi and Dunghutti have a long association with the Gumbaynggir. I also learned that the spirit birripi goanna” Booral-men-den-di “(Boeing 767 size) caused sand to be placed on top of the mountain “Yarrahapinni” (three koalas rolling down a hill – legend of Gumbaynggir) while waving its giant tail in the sandy loam to escape the attacks of the giants “Ravens” (Dhungutti). According to “Dreamtime” Birripi’s giant goanna cast fire at the giant crows (Dhungutti) and that is why all crows are black today.

During the European settlement of Port Macquarie as a penal colony in the 19th century, a great battle between the Europeans and the combined Birripi, Dhungutti and Gumbaynggir peoples fought at “Goolawahl”. The history of the battle describes how the Hastings River had been reddened with the blood of the fallen.

My mother and sister remain in Woolgoolga and my sister Tanya, my father and my grandmother have passed away there. After the Aboriginal Land Rights Act was passed in 1983, empowering Aboriginal people to claim crown land for members of their community in New South Wales, there have been many major improvements in education, employment and the self-determination of the aborigines of New South Wales.

In 1993, the High Court of Australia struck down the “terra nullius” doctrine that Australia was unoccupied when Europeans settled in Port Jackson (Sydney Harbor). Eddie Mabo, Meriam village elder, claimed common law title to his Murri Island off the North Queensland coast and asserted customary rights through the Queensland federal courts for 10 years that his people owned and occupied undefeated on their island and no Australian government had. a better title than them.

Eddie Koiki Mabo (1936-1992) passed away before the Superior Court gave the decision.

In 1997, the Native Titles Act of 1993 was virtually reduced to water with amendments enacted by the Liberal Government of Australia and then-Prime Minister Hon John Howard MP. The so-called 10-point “Wik Plan”

(Wik was the name of the tribe from the Northern Territory, Gulf of Carpentaria) who faced a plan to be granted native title, would also have to agree to allow pastoral leases to coexist with their native title claim in the Gulf of Carpentaria Australia. In addition, the common law rights of all Australian Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders claiming native title were subject to the 10-point Wik Plan.

As expected, the folks at “Wik”:

(who spoke no English or could understand a word) voted affirmatively on the proposed amendments to the Native Titles Act of 1993 to allow pastoral leases on tribal lands to coexist with native title holders and for the rest of the Aboriginal race of Australia to prove native title in federal court for each application to claim native title rights.

I was informed (without mentioning names) that due to the interpreter’s supervision (appointed by the government) at the 1997 “Wik” conference, it was sometime before the Wik representatives removed their hand from the call to vote. Apparently the interpreter had forgotten to tell them to stop voting. (tongue on cheek)

Since 1993, ten native title claims have been determined.

In 2000, 561 native title claims had been filed in Australia.

In 2000, 63 native title claims had been filed for the Northern Territory.

I have worked for the Aboriginal Lands Council and have been a member of the Aboriginal Lands Council since 1992. I was elected to the Board of Directors of the Darkinjung Local Aboriginal Lands Council in September 2009.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *