powerhouse museum sharing a wailwanstory

Sharing aWailwan

story

P O W E R H O U S E M U S E U M

EDUCATION KIT

Sharing aWailwan

story

Written by Steve Miller,Education officer, Aboriginal projects,

Powerhouse Museum

with additional material fromTamsin Donaldson, Joe Flick, Brad Steadman and Ann Stephen

Sharing aWailwan

story

a t o u r i n g e x h i b i t i o n f r o m t h e

P o w e r h o u s e M u s e u m , S y d n e y

E D U C A T I O N K I T

Published in conjunction with the exhibitionSharing a Wailwan story, a touring exhibitionfrom the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney.

Developed and produced by the Powerhouse Museum.

Written by Steve Miller, education officer, Aboriginal projects, Education andVisitor Services

Additional material Tamsin Donaldson, Joe Flick, Brad Steadman and AnnStephen, curator, Social History

Cover art direction by Rea, an artist of Wailwan/Gamilaroi descent throughher maternal grandfather, Harold Leslie.

Artwork by Catherine Dunn, Print Media

Editing and project coordination by Julie Donaldson and Kirsten Tilgals,Print Media

Desktop publishing by Anne Slam, Print Media

© 1999 Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences (Powerhouse Museum), Sydney

The Powerhouse Museum, part of the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences,also incorporating Sydney Observatory, is a NSW government culturalinstitution.

Powerhouse Museum500 Harris StreetUltimo Sydney NSW

PO Box K346 Haymarket NSW 1238

telephone (02) 9217 0213www.phm.gov.au

This document is also available on the PowerhouseMuseum website www.phm.gov.au

Important notesThe exhibition and this education kit contain photosand names of Aboriginal people who have passedaway. All material used is with the consent of Wailwanelders. To avoid causing offence or distress, teachersand exhibitors are asked to draw the attention of allother Aboriginal people to this information prior toviewing the material.

This publication is copyright. Apart from fair dealingfor the purposes of research, study, criticism orreview, or as otherwise permitted under the CopyrightAct, no part may be reproduced by any processwithout written permission. Inquiries should be madeto Print Media, Powerhouse Museum.

Use of languageWe have used spellings of Aboriginal words, includingthe name Wailwan, as they appeared in the sourceswe have used. See pages 8 and 39�41 for moreinformation.

Endorsed by the NSW Aboriginal EducationConsultative Group (AECG).

S H A R I N G A W A I LW A N S T O RY P O W E R H O U S E M U S E U M

4Contents

Introduction 4Stories behind this Wailwan story

Who this kit is for 5Syllabus links

Identifying and returning the photos 6The origin of the photographsUnravelling the mysteryWho are the Wailwan people?

Language and ceremony 8The role of ceremony

Maps 9

Telling this Wailwan story 10Controlling access

Religious beliefs of the Wailwan 12

�Reading� the photos 13Photos 1–6: ‘Aboriginal corroboree’Photos 7–13: Quambone campPhotos 14–31: Bora ground

Davey Brown 30Davey Brown’s song

How you can contribute to the story 32Where to startCollecting oral historiesWhat to rememberObserving protocolsApproval form

Activities and issues for discussion 36How to use this sectionThe transmission of cultural knowledgeThe loss of cultural knowledgeSecret and sacred materialCultural material and representation

Language 39

References 42

Acknowledgments 44

Contributors 45


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Sharing a Wailwan story provides a rareinsight into the culture of the Wailwan,Aboriginal people from central western NSW.It aims to present material in a sensitive waythat respects the wishes of the present gen-eration of Wailwan people.

This education kit accompanies the exhibitioncomprising of six graphic panels, two albumsof 31 photos and a short video of Wailwansongs. The focus of the exhibition is the photosof Aboriginal people taken in 1898 on Wailwanland, near the Macquarie River. They are onland near Quambone in central western NSW,at a camp and a bora (ceremonial) ground.

The photos were taken by a non-Indigenouscommercial photographer. They were producedand circulated widely as postcards and in bookswith the Wailwan people identified only as‘NSW Aborigines’.

During the 19th and early 20th centuries theWailwan, like other Aboriginal people, weredispossessed of their land by pastoralists,though they continued to live on its fringes.Such co-existence was never easy. In 1935 theywere finally removed from their land and takento the Brewarrina Mission.* Today their de-scendants live throughout eastern Australia.

The original glass-plate negatives, from whichthe photos were printed, became part of thePowerhouse Museum collection in 1984. In1995, the Powerhouse initiated a project of con-sultation about this cultural material withboth Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal communi-ties in the region.

Introduction

Stories behind this Wailwan story

There are two levels to this project. At facevalue it is about the cultural practices of Abo-riginal people as seen by one photographermore than 100 years ago. It is about piecingtogether the fragments of a sophisticatedculture that had been made largely invisibledue to dispossession, neglect and ignorance.

On another level it involves consulting theappropriate people about cultural material.More than just presenting an historical recordof Aboriginal cultural practice, this projectaims — through example — to show how peo-ple can recover and reclaim their history.

Issues relevant to Aboriginal cultural materialinclude:

• the proper handling of material which maybe culturally sensitive

• the handing back or repatriation of culturalmaterial to its rightful owners

• the role of community consultation inhistorical research

• oral and written histories and their roles ininterpreting and linking historical material

• the interpretation of photos and their useas an historical resource.

* The Brewarrina Mission had no church affiliation.Aboriginal people use the term ‘mission’ for all govern-ment stations and reserves.


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The kit is intended for people who have an in-terest in Indigenous Australian history andculture, particularly teachers and students. Itprovides background to the stories and issues,and explain how the project developed. It alsosuggests how you may be able to add to thehistory of Aboriginal people presented in theexhibition and how you can participate morefully in Sharing a Wailwan story.

Syllabus links

Sharing a Wailwan story relates to the NSWBoard of Studies syllabus in the following ways:

Human Society and its Environment (K–6)Change and continuity• Know about the past in order to understand

the present and hypothesise about the future.

• Learn about sites and places of significance.

• Learn about the history of Aboriginalpeoples and their contribution to society.

Cultures• Learn that culture is transmitted by shared

understanding and practices of variousgroups based on inherent birthright, lan-guage, religion and belief systems, educa-tion, moral and ethical codes, the arts, sym-bolism, customs, rituals and practices suchas rites of passage.

• Understand the diverse cultures of Australiaand their origins, including Aboriginal andTorres Strait Islander cultures and theshared Australian culture.

• Appreciate that cultures are dynamic andevolve over time.

History (Years 7–10)• Develop a sense of historical perspective and

understanding of other societies and cul-tures and gain an understanding of thepresent through the past hence develop aninterest and involvement in the contempo-rary world.

• Links to the mandatory section of the sylla-bus and the ‘historical perspective on Aus-

Who this kit is for

tralia’ focus question on the response of Abo-riginal and non-Aboriginal peoples to con-tact with each other.

Aboriginal Studies (Years 7–12)• Develop an understanding of the concept of

Aboriginality in a multicultural Australia.

• Develop a knowledge of aspects of Aborigi-nal culture, particularly the importance ofland, spirituality, kinship and family andcommunity.

• Recognise the diversity of Aboriginal cul-tures and commonality of Aboriginal expe-riences.

• Understand the broad outlines of Aborigi-nal historical experience, especially its rel-evance to Aboriginal identity.

• Develop a knowledge of the ways Aborigi-nal people view relationships between past,present and future holistically.

2-unit HSC courseFor students studying the 2 unit HSC courseit demonstrates the significance and centralrole of Aboriginal spiritual beliefs and exploresthe nature of contact and conflict between Abo-riginal and non-Aboriginal societies. It enablesthem to develop their skills in research, analy-sis and evaluation and communication.

Visual Arts (K–6)• Develop an understanding and appreciation

of images and objects of the past and present.Related objective: enable them to becomeaware of the way place, time, material andculture affect the meaning of images andobjects.

Visual Arts (Years 7–10)• Understand the diverse nature of the visual

arts and the ways in which images and ob-jects are identified, created, categorised, in-terpreted, valued and made use of by indi-viduals, societies and cultures.

• Appreciate the meanings of works withinhistorical contexts and determine their placeand relationship to other works.


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The origin of the photos

By the end of the 19th century, images of‘exotic’ scenes featuring Indigenous people werea very popular form of mass culture. As the co-lonial frontier advanced such photos came torepresent an Australia that seemed remote andforeign to most city dwellers.

The Wailwan photos were taken by a success-ful Sydney commercial photographer, CharlesKerry. Unlike many other Aboriginal subjects,the people were not taken in a studio but pho-tographed on their own land. Kerry’s studioturned the photos into prints and postcardswhich were sold throughout Australia and re-produced in popular books and anthropologi-cal texts. In 1917 Kerry sold his business toTyrrell’s Bookshop, which continued for dec-ades to sell the prints and cards.

The glass-plate negatives of the photos wereinscribed with Kerry’s one-line captions, whichwere often inaccurate. The photos becameknown as generic depictions of ‘NSW Aborigi-nes’, losing the significance of their origins andrelationships to sites.

In the 1970s, Australian Consolidated Press(ACP) bought the photos along with about 6500glass-plate negatives, collectively known as theTyrrell Collection. They later presented a se-lection of prints to six major institutionsaround Australia. In 1985, the entire collec-tion of original negatives was presented to thePowerhouse Museum.

Unravelling the mystery

By the time the Powerhouse Museum hadKerry’s photographic collection in its care, thecultural significance of these 31 photos and theirAboriginal subjects had been completely lost.However, Powerhouse curator Ann Stephenidentified these particular images as a coherentgroup and, by using historic accounts, tracedthe people in the photos to Wailwan land.

The next step was to locate the descendantsof these people — a difficult process as the

Identifying and returning the photos

Wailwan people had been moved out of theQuambone area onto Brewarrina Mission bythe government and now live within a widearea of eastern Australia.

In 1995 to assist this community consultation,the Powerhouse employed Joe Flick, aYuwaalaraay man whose country borders Wail-wan land. He started consultations with knownWailwan descendants.

‘When I began taking the photos out and show-ing them to some Aboriginal people they werejust so surprised that anything like that hap-pened in their country,’ he said, indicating howseparated the people had become from theirancestors’ culture. ‘Charles Kerry probablywasn’t sure what he was seeing when he waslooking through the lens, yet through thepower of the photos and through the spirit ofthe Wailwan people they return to show uswhat their country meant to them.’

The descendants’ request was that the subjectsof the photos be recognised as Wailwan. Noneof the descendants expressed any desire to cen-sor or withdraw the photos from general view-ing. It is clear from Kerry’s records that he hadbeen instructed not to photograph some as-pects of the ceremony and even asked to leavethe ceremonial ground at particular times. Inthis way, the most secret and sacred materialwas kept within the community.

Thus material that had been labelled with thevague term ‘NSW Aborigines’ had been re-claimed by their descendants, the present gen-eration of Wailwan people.

Who are the Wailwan people?

A lot of work has been done to identify theWailwan people in Charles Kerry’s photos andto reinstate the lost significance of this rarecultural record.

Aboriginal elders provide significant insightsinto history. One of the few archival resourcesavailable on Wailwan culture are the sound


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recordings of the elders held by the Austral-ian Institute for Aboriginal and Torres StraitIslander Studies (AIATSIS). Among these is arecording of Davey Brown, a Wailwan mansinging in his own language.

Davey Brown is the most direct link uncoveredso far to the people in the photos. He was bornat Sandy Camp station, close to Quambone,around 1870 and he was probably presentwhen Kerry took the photos in 1898. He diedin 1976 at Coonamble, but consultant Joe Flickand Powerhouse curator Ann Stephen wereeventually able to locate his great niece,Thelma Leonard (nee Walsh). ‘Davey Brown’,she recalled, ‘Nothing could stop him … Hewas one of the oldest at Quambone. He knewthe language and could sing.’

Many other people have been interviewed. Oneelderly landowner remembered ‘a camp atRingorah where King Billie resided with DaveyBrown, Freddie Brown, Nattie Brown, FrankieBooka, ‘Crooked Toe Jackie’, Peter Bob Flood,Hector Lee, Jimmy Cooper’.

Names recur in conversation with Aboriginalelders. Robert ‘Tracker’ Robinson at Coonamble,for example, ‘worked out at Quambone for 16years from 1952 to 1968 along with Jimmy

Cooper, Jack Murray, Fred and Hector andJohnny Lee and Frank Gordon’.

More recently Brad Steadman from theBrewarrina Aboriginal Cultural Museum, onthe basis of his research on Brewarrina, hasidentified another elder in the ceremony, SteveShaw.

Steve Shaw came from Bobby Mountain Camp,east of Cobar, where people spoke Ngiyampaathe Wangaaypuwan way (as opposed to theWailwan way). They were drylanders, knownas Karulkiyalu ‘people from the stone country’(karul means ‘stone’ and kiyalu ‘person from’).One source says that Steve Shaw’s peoplecalled themselves Gunda-Ah-Myro, whichmeans ‘men who stay outback and don’t visitrivers’.

The process of consultation has been docu-mented for the project by the distinguishedphotographer Mervyn Bishop. It is hoped thatfurther information will be contributed by peo-ple as the exhibition tours NSW and moreparts of the puzzle may be pieced together.

The cover of this education folder, based on theWailwan photos, has been art-directed by Rea,an artist of Wailwan/Gamilaroi descent.

During the fieldwork, discus-sions with elders were held in1997 at the Coonamble LandCouncil. Mervyn Bishop standson the left of Coonamble elders:(left to right) Robert ‘Tracker’Robinson, William Jackson,Eric Fernando, and Power-house curator, Ann Stephen.Seated: (left to right) JeanHamilton (nee Leonard), JanArrowsmith, Jean Jackson (neeMcBride) Thelma Leonard (neeWelsh) great-niece of DaveyBrown, Agnes Murray (neeDixon). Photo: Joe Flick.


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Over 600 names for different groups of Abo-riginal and Torres Strait Islander people havesurvived colonisation. Most of these nameswere used to name their language as well.

Some of these languages were very similar,with neighbours finding it very easy to under-stand each other and to learn the differences(examples from Europe of the level of differ-ence would be Spanish and Italian, or Swed-ish and Norwegian). Some were very differentindeed from one another. Perhaps 250 sets ofthem were as different as Italian from German,or even more different. Either way, it was andis common for people to be fluent in several,and then to speak English as well.

Many languages were lost as a result of colo-nisation when Aboriginal people were sepa-rated, regrouped and often only allowed to useEnglish. Today, though various words and ex-pressions are used, less than 100 languagessurvive intact in common usage.

The role of ceremony

Aboriginal ceremony is important businessthat passes on cultural knowledge and rein-forces a connection to the land through dances,songs and images. Young Aboriginal peopleundergo various degrees of learning the law/lore of their clan and nation through specialceremonies such as the one shown in some ofthese photos. Some ceremonies involve only

Language and ceremony

one section of the community — such as Men’sBusiness and Women’s Business. Each hasrituals and information that are withheld fromothers, because of their secret nature and sa-cred symbolism. While these images depict amale ritual, young females have their ownWomen’s Business ceremonies. Such teachingand learning is a lifelong process, handing onknowledge from one generation to the next.The status of an elder signifies a person whois respected for their knowledge and wisdom.

Ceremony remains strong in many remotecommunities today but there are also manyAboriginal people who do not take part inceremony, although they still claim a strongconnection to the land — a central concept ofceremony.

We are extremely fortunate that the Wailwanpeople allowed their men’s ceremonial groundto be photographed and that their descendantsagreed to its inclusion in this exhibition. TheAboriginal people in these photos lived in twoworlds. They were stockworkers for thepastoralists for much of the year who also tookpart in lengthy ceremonies as their tribal law/lore dictated. However, in the 1930s when theywere moved off their land and onto BrewarrinaMission, these connections to their own coun-try, language and ceremonial life were discour-aged. Such actions broke the links that thesepeople had with their rich heritage.


10Maps

Quambone area

Map of NSW with language names and places referred to in the text


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Photos such as those by Charles Kerry mayseem like a window to the past through whichwe can see people as they were and observetheir way of life. But these Wailwan photosrecord a lifestyle that no longer exists andabout which only a limited amount is known,so they can be difficult to interpret accurately.The reasons for this are complex (see ‘Activi-ties’ and ‘Issues for discussion’).

We can tell from the photos that the peoplewere Aboriginal stockworkers and theirfamilies from central western NSW. Some oftheir stock equipment can be seen leaning upagainst their makeshift structures in the campshots. Like many other Aboriginal people theyworked for the white pastoralists who ‘owned’the land, in this case the Quambone stationon the Macquarie River. Before Europeanoccupation in the mid 1800s, this land had beenWailwan country and was where theirceremonies had always taken place.

While the Aboriginal people had gathered toparticipate in a Wailwan ceremony, not all wereWailwan. A number of neighbouring nationstook part, including Wiradjuri and Gamilaraaypeople.

Most written accounts of such ceremoniesare from non-Indigenous sources such asCharles Kerry and R H Mathews. There arealso accounts of related ceremony by LilyHampton and Liza Kennedy — speakers ofWangaaypuwan, the language closest to Wail-wan (see page 41).

Mathews was a surveyor with a great interestin recording Aboriginal sites and culture. Hevisited Wailwan land and wrote of two gather-ings: one in 1893 (published in 1896) and an-other in 1898 (published in 1901). He estimatesthe gathering in 1898 involved more than 200people. ‘They came from Gulargambone,Coonamble, Trangie, Dandaloo, Dubbo,Brewarrina and Conkapeak,’ he records. ‘Fromthe time the local mob selected the site andcommenced preparing the ground until the lastcontingent arrived, was more than three

Telling this Wailwan Story

months. At this gathering nine youths wereadmitted to the status of membership in theirrespective tribes.’

Charles Kerry was a commercial photographerlooking for photographic views that he couldsell. He was probably inspired to investigatethe gathering at Quambone in 1898 byMathews’ earlier report and a tip-off from po-lice who had reported ‘the gathering of Abo-rigines at the Bulgregar Creek (now known asBulgeraga) for the purpose of holding a Bora’(Aborigines Protection Board minutes, 5 May1898, Archives Authority, NSW). When Kerryarrived in June 1898 only 30 people were leftand his photos reveal only four youths.

The owner of the Quambone station, F W Hill,provided the introduction for Kerry to gainpermission to photograph. Kerry described thearrangement this way: ‘Many of the nativeswere in his [Hill’s] employ and all were underheavy obligations to him for protection andkindness extending over many years. He wasprobably the only white man who could haveboth gained entrance to the Bora ground andintroduced a friend’.

Controlling access

Despite the disruption to Wailwan culturaltraditions caused by European settlement, cer-tain major ceremonies, such as the initiationof young men, remained a serious and impor-tant business. The Wailwan ceremonial menagreed to allow Kerry to photograph some butnot all of the ceremony which had always beensecret. We know this because Kerry laterwrote: ‘Enormous difficulties had to be over-come to break down the prejudice against al-lowing a white man to see this secret ceremony,and even when successful in gaining admit-tance to the scene of the operations we [Kerryand probably station owner F W Hill] were fre-quently requested, sometimes ordered, to leaveagain’.

Kerry describes the bora ground, about 400metres from the main camp, as a compact space


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about 35 metres long and 13 metres wide sur-rounded by a bush fence about three metreshigh.

‘Two narrow circled passages, also protectedby packed bushwood, were the entrance andexit,’ Kerry wrote in his report to the RoyalSociety of Queensland in 1901. ‘These wereguarded day and night by warriors.’

Kerry’s report makes it clear that although theWailwan had agreed to be photographed, theymaintained strict control over what could berecorded. Kerry’s account reveals his confu-sion: ‘the warriors went though certain march-ing and posturing, which in many instancesseemed to have no connection with the deviceround which they were grouped’.

At times Kerry appears quite frustrated by hisexclusion: ‘Such information as I could gleanfrom an interpreter present, also appeared tohave very little bearing on the ceremony, andthe final impression I gathered was that I wasbeing wilfully misled, or else the ceremony it-self was almost meaningless.’

If Kerry couldn’t see meaning in the ceremony,it should be remembered that he was not onlyEuropean and an outsider, but also not trainedin observing such rituals, like an anthropolo-gist. We can feel reasonably sure that accessto their cultural knowledge was being strictlycontrolled by the Wailwan.


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Indigenous peoples’ beliefs were discredited byChristian colonists as myth and superstition.In fact (and as documented by R H Mathews)the Wailwan shared with other Aboriginalpeople of the region a common belief in asupreme creator, Baiamai, who cared for theirspirits when they died.

In his documentation of the ceremony,Mathews describes a representation ofBaiamai which can be seen in the photos ofthe bora ground: ‘a horizontal representationof Baiamai, eight feet six inches [about 2.5 m]long and five feet ten inches [1.8 m] across thechest, was formed by heaping up the looseearth into human shape’.

Also central to the initiation ceremonies repre-sented in Kerry’s photos is the figure ofDaramulan, meaning ‘one-legged’. Daramulanwas given responsibility by Baiamai for initiat-

Religious beliefs of the Wailwan people

ing young men but when it was discovered thathe was killing and eating them, he lost this sa-cred duty. Baiamai then instructed the men ofthe tribe to carry out the initiation, though thepresence of Daramulan was still maintained inthe ceremony by a single rod or limb.

We know from the descriptions by Mathews andKerry that as well as people who physicallyguarded either end of the bora ground, therewere also spiritual guardians represented.

Through a series of representations theWailwan people created a connection to theland where the ceremony took place. Therewere human forms as well as an enormoussnake-like figure known as Wahwee andseveral depictions of animals including an emuand a kangaroo cut from the ground. Carvedtrees surrounded the ceremonial area.

The Wailwan elder known as King Billie stands at the feet of the ground figure of Baiamai, built up from clay in themen’s ceremonial ground.


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There is some uncertainty about the sequenceof events depicted in the photos. The museumhas grouped the photos according to certainrecurring features.

There are three distinct places that Kerry pho-tographed (the order in each site however isunclear):

1. Aboriginal corroboree — six photos la-belled ‘Aboriginal corroboree’ by Kerrywhich show 24 men ritually adorned for aceremony on open ground next to thecamp.

2. The camp — seven photos taken at thecamp, including the infamous blankethandout.

3. Aboriginal ceremony and bora — 18photos labelled by Kerry as ‘Aboriginal

�Reading� the photos

ceremony and bora’ which were photo-graphed in the men’s ceremonial en-closure. This is the most frequentlyreproduced group.

The photos are displayed in these groups onthe following pages as they appear in theexhibition albums along with captionsprovided by Powerhouse curator Ann Stephen.

Photos 1–6: ‘Aboriginal corroboree’

The first sequence of six photos was labelled byKerry’s studio as an ‘Aboriginal corroboree’. Itshows men and boys performing on a largecleared area of ground at the Wailwan campnear the lower Macquarie River. The elabo-rately painted body designs indicate their cul-ture is strong despite the occupation of theirlands by European pastoralists.

Photo 1


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Photo 2The men dance with long wooden spears, shields andboomerangs, which sometimes double as clapsticks.

Photo 3These dances do not appear to be secret as they areperformed out in the open in front of the camp whichcan be seen in the background in some shots.

Photo 4They wear headbands, feathers and woven belts; oneman has kept on his riding boots.



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Photo 6This photo follows directly from the previous action. In this sequence we can see the two elders,King Billie and Steve Shaw, bending over the young man.


Photo 5This photo labelled ‘Drafting sheep’ shows a dance that incorporates an aspect of stockwork.You can see that some of the glass-plate negatives have broken and been taped back together.


17�Reading� the photos

Photo 7‘Billie, King of the Macquarie’, known only by the colonial titleon his breastplate, would have played a leading role in theceremonial life of his community. He stands beside his com-panion painted up for a men’s dance with spear and shield. Asaddle, boots and cooking equipment are stored on the roof.Their Wailwan names are not included in the caption writtenon the cracked glass-plate negative for Kerry’s postcard trade.

Photos 7–13: Quambone camp

Only recently have the links between the sa-cred and the everyday worlds depicted in theWailwan photos re-emerged. From the outsetKerry separated his photos of the men’s ceremo-nies from the family groups and sold them asdifferent postcard series. It only became appar-ent that they were the same people when indi-viduals from this sequence of Wailwan campimages were recognised in the bora ground pho-tos. When considered together, the 31 photostestify to the maintenance of ceremonial cul-ture under occupation.

The material conditions in the camp are im-poverished by European standards — thegoondies or miamias (shelters) are covered inhessian wool bags and sheets of bark — yetthe people worked in the pastoral economy —you can see their stockwork equipment cloth-ing and cattle dogs. Most Aboriginal peoplewere ‘paid’ in rations not wages.


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Photo 8In this camp group there is a mix of Aboriginal andEuropean objects — a traditional woven string baglies beside the straw hats, wooden spears and shieldslean on a tree alongside a bridle and saddle. Oneelder wears a breastplate ‘Jacky King of Buckiinguy’,bearing the name of another pastoral station, just westof Quambone, which was also on Wailwan land.

Photo 9Steve Shaw, a ‘stone country’ man from the areaaround Cobar, is the only other person so far identi-fied in these photos. He was visiting the Wailwan,with whom he shared cultural knowledge, to partici-pate in important ceremonial business. Two decadeslater he was moved to the Brewarrina Mission whereJimmy Barker recalled, ‘he was known as Old Bugi.He was a Ngemba man and was recognised as awitch doctor’. Bugi, pronounced like ‘buggy’ in ‘horseand buggy’, is an abbreviation of pangkapa meaning‘white’ or ‘grey’ in the phrase wala pangkapa or ‘headof grey hair’.

Photo 10In the Wailwan camp there were six goondies (shel-ters) grouped in a rough circle, built by each familygroup. They vary in detail — some like King Billie’s(photo 7) have bush-made beds and chairs, thoughmostly people slept on the ground with a fire made atthe entrance of each goondie.



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Photo 11We do not know the names of any of these Wailwanwomen or children as Kerry and Mathews concen-trated on the men’s ceremony. Women had their ownceremonies and were intimately involved in handingon knowledge to their children.

Photo 12These Wailwan children would have been the last gen-eration to speak Ngemba/Ngiyampaa as their first lan-guage. Two of the older boys still have signs of cer-emonial paint on their bodies. Twenty-five years laterthey too were moved off their land and taken toBrewarrina Mission.

Photo 13Kerry has carefully staged this scene of a blanket hand-out. The men, whose faces are still painted from theperformance, stand back behind the women and chil-dren who can be recognised from the other Wailwancamp photos.

The image — with the blanket propped up so that its‘NSW Aborigines’ stamp is visible — has come to rep-resent the ‘handout mentality’ imposed on Indigenouspeople by colonisation. Those who worked in the pas-toral industry were frequently ‘paid’ only in rations andlocal police and pastoralists exercised great power intheir role of ‘supervising’ the Aborigines ProtectionBoard rations.

But when this photo is considered along with the otherWailwan photos and written records, the complexityof the situation becomes evident. The people no longerappear as hapless victims of history but are known tobe skilled in negotiating their way between two verydifferent societies.



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Photo 14


Photos 14–31: Bora ground

The following sequence shows the Wailwanmen’s enclosed bora ground some distance fromthe camp in the Macquarie Marshes. The sa-cred meanings of the ground designs and treecarvings were known only to initiated elders.R H Mathews wrote two accounts of Wailwanceremony (see page 42). Despite his limitedknowledge, he observed certain protocols, not-ing that ‘there are dances as well as songswhich it is unlawful to teach anywhere thanat the ceremonies and are only seen and heardthere’. He described ‘the great number of char-acters (yammunyamun) cut upon the surfaceof the ground (that) at once attracts the noticeof the visitor’ and ‘the figure of a man and awoman, a little less than life-size, lying sideby side with their genital organs conspicuouslydisplayed’.


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Photo 15Charles Kerry photographed the bora ground, though he was permitted access to only certain parts of the ceremony and appearsto have been confused by what he saw. For example, his caption ‘The sick warrior’ is irrelevant to this scene of a boy shielded byhis guardian.



22�Reading� the photos

Photo 16Tree carvings can be seen in several ofthe photos. Mathews wrote: ‘I countedfifty-nine trees marked with the toma-hawk … Most of them were merelystripes, straight or spiral of a very sim-ple design, but some were … represen-tations of … fish, a snake, a turtle andthe sun and moon.’ Some of the grounddesigns incorporate images from post-European contact such as this bull, indi-cating the vitality and adaptability of theWailwan culture

Photo 17The elders known as ‘King Billie of theMacquarie’ and Steve Shaw stand in thecentre of the men who have their spearsaimed at a representation of Kurrea, acrocodile. Mathews listed the extensivedesigns carved out of the hard clayacross the ceremonial ground: ‘a fish, anemu, a bullock, some birds’ nests, adeath adder, a pig and other things. Aneagle hawk’s eyrie was represented inone of the trees.’


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Photos 18 and 19Mathews notes ‘dis-persed along the path …two or three dozen repre-sentations of birds’ nests,fastened to saplings andto the lopped off scrubtrees’. The crouching manis holding up two egg-shaped stones. In front ofhim are a series of theground ‘nests’.


Photo 19


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Photo 20The meanings of the abstract ground designs were not told to Mathews. At times the three or four parallel lines cut deep into thehard clay form interlocking paths of geometric forms — diamonds, squares, rhomboids. Elsewhere they curve into a series ofundulating designs. ‘King Billie’ and Steve Shaw stand in the centre of one of these ‘paths’ which extends beyond them. Thepainted designs on the men’s bodies correspond with the ground drawings representing their relation to the land.



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Photo 22This ‘bora tree’ may be the onedescribed by Mathews. He wroteof ‘a belar tree, containing an imi-tation of an eagle-hawk’s nest,about 22 feet [almost 7 metres]from the ground … extendingfrom the foot of the tree contain-ing the eagle’s nest … was a rep-resentation of the wahwee, afabulous monster resembling asnake. It lived in a largewaterhole and used to kill and eatsome of Baiamai’s people. Theywere unable to kill it. This carv-ing in the soil was 59 feet [18 m]long and 12 inches [30 cm] wide.Its tail was represented twistedround a belar sapling’. The spi-ral on the tree is an extension ofthe ground design. The othercarvings appear to be emutracks.

Photo 21The emu is an important figurein the cultures of the region. Theoutline of its shape is traced inthe Milky Way. Its body is thedarkness between the stars anddepending on the time of year theemu appears seated, when nest-ing and stands when the eggshave hatched.



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Photo 23The Wailwan developed ground designs of great complexity and richness by cutting lines into the clay. As this long view shows,they covered extensive ceremonial grounds.



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Photo 24

Photo 25

Photos 24–30Mathews wrote that people had gathered on the Wailwan land for ‘the purpose of holding a burbung at which a number of boyswere initiated’. He described the preparation for the ceremony: ‘Each boy’s sister sat behind him and near her was her husband,who acted as the boy’s guardian throughout the ceremonies. These two then painted him all over with red ochre and grease,making a few marks of pipe clay on the chest and putting soft swan feathers in his hair. Each boy was then invested with a girdle[belt] to which was attached four kilts, one in front, one at each side, and one behind. Two forehead bands, a wide and a narrowone completed the dress.’ It is not clear whether Kerry’s photos record the ceremony or whether the Wailwan are simply posing forthe benefit of the photographer. This sequence appears to follow some of Mathews’ account which describes a blanket being‘thrown over the head of each of the novices in such a way that he could only see the ground at his feet … ’



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Photo 26The use of blankets to shield the boys indicates that access to the designs was closely guarded and knowledge of their meaningswas revealed in stages. The Wailwan, for their own reasons, permitted Kerry some access to their bora grounds.



29

Photo 28


Photo 27 and 28Mathews records that at the gathering ‘nineyouths were admitted to the status of member-ship in their respective tribes’. By the time Kerryarrived in June to photograph the bora ground,the three-month ceremony was nearing its endand only four youths were there.


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Photos 29 and 30‘Several native weapons such as boomerangs andnulla nullas were stuck in the sides of these mounds.On each side of the track which passed about mid-way between the two outer heaps was a rustic seat,formed by digging up a sapling by the roots and chop-ping the upper part of the stem off and inserting it inthe ground with the roots upward. These seats(woongoweera) were about two feet high and werestained with human blood in the following manner. Anumber of men wounded their gums, or the flesh un-der their tongues, by means of sharp pointed piecesof bone, or steel needles got from the white people.’

Photo 30

Photo 31While the other ground carvings were made by cut-ting into and removing the hard clay, the figure ofBaiamai the creator was built-up above ground.Mathews wrote of ‘a colossal horizontal representa-tion of Baiamai … formed by heaping up the looseearth into a human shape. The chest which was thehighest part of the body, was about a foot and a half[0.5 m] above the level of the surrounding ground …near him was a boomerang and other weapons cut inthe soil’. Although the creator assumed a human form,there are no features.

Mathews’ account says that Baiamai had been hunt-ing an emu: ‘He then speared it with his long spear,mun’nian, and it ran away some distance before itfell. Baiamai ran after it and tripped over a log and fellin the position delineated on the ground’. The Wail-wan would have given Mathews the knowledge theythought appropriate, without necessarily revealing asacred meaning.



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Oral traditions are a crucial part of Aborigi-nal culture and one of the main means of trans-mitting knowledge. It is fitting, therefore, thata sound recording of Davey Brown provided avital link between the Wailwan people of thepast and the present.

Davey Brown was born at Sandy Camp sta-tion, west of Quambone, in about 1870. Hisfather was a significant elder in the commu-nity. When Davey Brown was over 100 yearsof age, he appeared in a 1974 cover story inNew dawn, the NSW Government publicationfor Aboriginal people. ‘I remember going hunt-ing with the men of the tribe,’ he said in thearticle, ‘but I never learned to throw a spearor track animals. As soon as I was old enoughI went to work on the station and I only wentback to the tribe at weekends. When my tribewent walkabout I stayed on the station.’ Henever went to school.

Davey Brown had been recorded previously atCoonamble in 1970, singing in Wailwan. Thetape was made by a music educator and is heldin the sound collection of the Australian Insti-

Davey Brown

tute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait IslanderStudies (AIATSIS) in Canberra. Along with theNew dawn article, it was used by the Power-house Museum in the process of finding andmaking contact with the present generationof Wailwan, the descendants of the people inthe photos.

Davey Brown’s song

Ngiyampaa linguist Tamsin Donaldson, whomet Davey Brown in 1977 when he added morewords to her Wailwan vocabulary, has providedthis account of his recording:

Davey Brown made the recording that formsthe soundtrack of the video in 1970. He is notsinging about anything to do with ceremonybut about aspects of working life on the sta-tions as it was at the time of Kerry’s photos. Inthe recording, he explains to travelling songcollector John Gordon that he is singing aboutthe old days on Wingadee Station, just north-east of Quambone.

He explains, ‘No motor cars then, but horse-drawn caravans and wagons and bullock draysfor transporting wool and taking grain sackstowards Mudgee and all around’. Davey Brownsings about scraping bullock hides, taking thehair off so you can make whips, a halter or aleg rope.

Short solo performances of old songs ‘inlanguage’, like Davey Brown’s for John Gordon,are not necessarily short because the song isincompletely remembered. Can you hearDavey Brown saying ‘That’s all!’ when he firstfinishes singing, and later saying ‘I canremember that!’? These short demonstrationsolos usually run through the basic shape ofthe song and give all its words, simplyproviding everything that needs to be knownabout the song to build a longer performance,which might have many participants,including dancers.

Wailwan belongs to the ‘No-with’ group oflanguages (see pages 39 and 40). In the music-

New Dawn magazine courtesy James Wilson-Miller.


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making of the speakers of these languages,songs about the impressions made by everydayevents and experiences were typically madein two sections. In the days when these songswere danced to, the lead singer would create a

suitably long performance by singing cues asto which section would be repeated next.Others joined in, with men beatingboomerangs tip to tip (see photo 5) and womenbeating possum skin or rag pillows.


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Because of their dispossession, we may neverhave a complete picture of the Wailwan andtheir history. Their story is incomplete — afew photos, some written reports and oral his-tories, a smattering of words and recollectionsprovide clues to this part of Australia’s past.And there are many other unfinished storieslike theirs. One of the aims of this project is tolearn about the Wailwan and to inspire othersto re-examine the past. Then we will be shar-ing the Wailwan story.

Where to start

You could trace other aspects of the Wailwanstory or search for a different story in yourarea. The information or objects might be inyour own family or in local records.

• Ask around. People can be valuable sourcesof information. For example, there may beWailwan people or descendants of other Abo-riginal stockworkers of the time that are liv-ing in your district.

• Newspaper offices, shire councils and librar-ies can be sources of documents and reportsalthough access may be restricted.

• If you are lucky enough to stumble acrossan old photo or object that might be signifi-cant, consult your local Aboriginal land coun-cil representative or check with the NationalParks and Wildlife Service to see if there isa local Aboriginal liaison officer.

• Land councils can also help with informa-tion on the Aboriginal history of an area.

Collecting oral histories

One of the most common and useful ways ofgathering information is through people talk-ing about their own life and family. This isknown as oral history. The following advicemay help you in the collection process:

• Record the person talking on audio or videotape. Ask their permission before you start

How you can contribute to the story

and make sure they know the purpose forwhich the recording will be used.

• Contact the person first by telephone or let-ter then send a written document as well,outlining your project and including permis-sion forms (an example of the Powerhousepermission letter is included in this section).

• Organise a date and a time for the interview.The person’s own home may be the mostsuitable location and the most comfortablefor them.

• Be prepared. Research the person and theirlife beforehand as much as you can. Famil-iarise yourself with the wider historical con-text eg the government policies of the day— your local newspaper, history associationor library can be good sources.

• Remember the person’s time, and yours, maybe limited so stick to any agreed time limit.

• Make a list of questions but be flexible. Ifthe person says something unexpected andinteresting, following that subject through.

• Ask questions that require a detailedresponse or description. “What was it like?”or “Why did you do that?” are better thanquestions that can be answered with yesor no.

• Ask to see photos, newspaper clippings orother relevant material.

• Always be polite and respectful. Do not pushthe person if it is clear they do not want totalk about a subject or change their mindsabout something they have said. The per-son is the source of the information andshould be treated as an equal partner in howit will be presented and accessed.

For more information on how to conduct yourresearch sensitively, see the sections followingon ‘What to remember ’ and ‘Observingprotocols’.


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What to remember

If you want to help uncover more of Austral-ia’s wealth of Indigenous history there aresome fundamental principles to observe:

RESPECT: The person who is the source of theinformation or material has the right to de-cide what to pass on, just as the Wailwan choseto do with some of their cultural knowledge.Always be clear and honest about your inten-tions for seeking them out and involve themfully in the whole process so they can see howtheir knowledge or material will be used.

PERMISSION: Always ensure you have thewritten permission of anyone you involve inyour project and that this fully explains whatthey are being involved in. A sample permis-sion form is included in this section.

ACCURACY: While everyone has their owninterpretation of events, you must be faithfulto the person who is giving you information.They are the custodian of the knowledge theyare passing on to you and your responsibilityis to report it accurately.

Observing protocols

Protocols are ways of behaving that vary fromcommunity to community. Indigenous Austral-ian communities are diverse and so no single

set of protocols is relevant to all situations.However, many people are bi-culturally awareand can give advice on appropriate behaviour.

Further information on Indigenous Australianprotocol can be found in section 7.4 of MuseumMethods, a practical handbook produced byMuseums Australia, telephone (02) 9217 0133.

Advice includes:• Introductory protocols are important so be

prepared to spend some time sharing per-sonal background information.

• Direct eye contact can be offensive in someAboriginal communities.

• Aboriginal people often talk cautiously andindirectly to express disagreement

• There are different types of knowledge, forexample spiritual knowledge and scientificknowledge, and these may conflict.

• Be patient when asking questions or tryapproaching the subject indirectly.

• Do not press a point of view which may of-fend.

• Look, listen and learn.


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Approval form

If you are researching oral histories for this project, you should give a blank copy of the agree-ment on the following page to the person being interviewed for them to sign before the interview,so they are informed about the nature of the interview and use of material gathered.

A signed copy of this agreement should be forwarded with the relevant material (a tape and ifpossible a transcript and photo/s) to the Powerhouse Museum.

For further details, please contact:

Education officer, Aboriginal projectsPowerhouse Museum

Street address: 500 Harris Street Ultimo SydneyPostal address: PO Box K346 Haymarket 1238

Telephone: (02) 9217 0509Fax: (02) 9217 0441

Email: [email protected]

or contact the Powerhouse Research LibrarianTelephone: (02) 9217 0258

Researchers for other oral history projects may like to use this agreement as a model for draftingsimilar documents.


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a project of the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney

If you wish to assist in this project, please read the agreement on the reverse side of this pagecarefully. It acknowledges your willing participation and gives permission for the use of informa-tion and materials you provide.

Participation AgreementInterviewer’s name

Interview date

Interview time

Interview place

For the purpose of this agreement, ‘the author’ is defined as the person providing the informa-tion ie you.

I agree that the information I have supplied for the Sharing a Wailwan story project is true andcorrect to the best of my knowledge and may be used in the following way(s):

1. For use as part of the Sharing a Wailwan story project at the Powerhouse Museum includingfuture publishing by the museum. YES/NO

2. A final edition of any text, audio or video recording to be viewed and approved by the author.Final transcript of any recording to be read and approved by the author. YES/NO

3. For use in any appropriate accompanying publicity or media coverage of the exhibition andpublications. YES/NO

4. For archival storage in the Powerhouse Museum library where it can be accessed by thegeneral public for research purposes. YES/NO

It is understood that all agreed use is strictly not for profit. Any further use of the material willneed the consent of the author.

AUTHOR’S NAME

AUTHOR’S SIGNATURE

AUTHOR’S CONTACT DETAILS

Address

Phone

Sharing a Wailwan story


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How to use this section

This section is intended for teachers and othersleading group discussions. The activities andquestions suggested here are aimed generallyat Years 5–8. Some of the questions, however,are also suitable for older groups as theintention is to generate a discussion of theissues.

Although some of the specific questions can beanswered with information from these notes,many of the questions have no simple right orwrong answer and additional research is en-couraged. It is also important to be aware ofthe historical framework surrounding theWailwan story. See ‘Further reading’ on page000 as a starting point.

The transmission of culturalknowledge

Since colonisation, Indigenous communitiesaround the world have been scrutinised. Peo-ple called anthropologists, who study the ori-gins of human society, have tended to studycultures foreign to their own. Their lecturesand papers, which record their “findings”, havesometimes spread inaccurate and misleadinginformation. These documents along with cul-turally sensitive material including humanremains have been collected, stored and dis-played by museums.

In more recent times, there has been a greaterrecognition of the need to show respect to theowners of cultural material and somemuseums now seek to consult descendantsabout appropriate uses. In some cases,descendants have traced and sought the returnof this material.

� Do you think the Wailwan people could haveknown what would happen to the photosthat were taken of them?

� Do you think they knew Kerry was takingtheir photos to make money? Does this makea difference?

Activities and issues for discussion

� What advantages might the Wailwan haveseen in allowing Kerry access?

� Do you think the Wailwan people shouldhave allowed Kerry to photograph them?

� In photo 13, were the blankets actually be-ing offered to the Wailwan as a form of pay-ment? Do you think rations such as blan-kets would be a sufficient form of payment?

� When the Wailwan photos were sold as post-cards, the only information that accompa-nied them was the short inscription writtenby Kerry that you can see on the prints. Ifthese pictures were distributed on theInternet today, do you think these single-lineinscriptions would be enough or would youwant more information and, if so, what kind?

� Photographic terms include words like shot,taken, captured. What is there about pho-tography that might link it to theft or vio-lence?

ActivityThink of some symbols that are part of every-day life in your community, for example, traf-fic signs. What are their meanings? Try to rec-reate them using paints or coloured pencils.What other types of symbols are there eg reli-gious symbols such as the crucifix and the Starof David? What can you find out about theirorigins and meanings?

The loss of cultural knowledge

A brief eye-witness report of the removal ofpeople from Quambone by the Aborigines Pro-tection Board of NSW in 1934 is recorded bythe historian, Heather Goodall. She writes: ‘thegroup of around twenty Wailwan Murris* therebecame the first people to be ‘concentrated’ onBrewarrina station … Jimmie Barker, then

*A collective name for the Aboriginal people from a largearea of northeastern Australia, including Queenslandand parts of northern NSW (from mari, the word for‘person’ in Gamilaraay and some other languages of theregion). The Wailwan version is Mayi, meaning ‘person’.


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handyman at Brewarrina, was ordered to drivethe manager to Quambone in the station’slorry. There the manager and the local policecoerced the Wailwan to move … Crouched onthe back of the truck, the women and childrenhad pulled blankets over their heads and weremoaning and wailing in distress.’

After the Wailwan were moved to theBrewarrina Mission, the authorities discour-aged them from continuing their cultural prac-tices, using their languages or returning totheir ceremonial sites. Over time, the Wailwanwere dispersed across a wide area of NSW andthe Brewarrina Mission eventually closed in1966. Today, nobody speaks the Wailwanlanguage ‘right through, all day, everyday’,though a few words survive in their everydaylanguage.

• Why did the Wailwan people have to go tothe Brewarrina Mission?

• Do you think the Wailwan would have movedto this area anyway over time if they hadbeen given a choice? Consider reasons forstaying or moving.

• The government of that time believed it wasin the interests of Aboriginal people to re-move them from their land. Why do youthink the government thought this? Whatresult do you think this had for the Wail-wan people and the government?

• After being removed, the Wailwan were dis-couraged from continuing their culturalpractices and language. Why do you thinkthe government did this? What result do youthink this had for the Wailwan people andthe government?

• Do you think the Wailwan should have beenallowed to return to their sacred ceremonialsites after being moved to Brewarrina?

• Some of these Wailwan sites are now part ofa national park. Do you know what rightsto these sites the descendants have today?

What if the sites are still on private landowned by farmers? What rights do you thinkthe descendants should have?

• How would you feel if you were told you couldnever again take part in an important cul-tural activity such as a birthday celebration,Passover or Christmas?

ActivityWrite a story about loss or disruption in yourlife — maybe you moved to a new area or aclose friend moved away. How did you feel andwhat did you do to feel better?

Secret and sacred material

The ceremony depicted in the photos involvesa boy’s initiation. Kerry was allowed to photo-graph only parts of it — sometimes he wasasked to leave and sometimes he was ordered.Its sacredness made it secret.

The boys’ heads are covered as part of the proc-ess of coming into a new existence, of becom-ing men of high degree. As a result of theknowledge they receive the boys will developa new view of the world, particularly theircountry and their relationship to it. This is thebeginning of a lifelong learning process.

• Why are only men present at the ceremony?

• Why was Kerry ordered to leave the ceremo-nial grounds?

• Why do you think the Wailwan let Kerryview and photograph certain parts of the cer-emony but not others?

• Today, famous people such as film stars canobtain ‘final approval’ on any photos takenof them. Do you think Kerry could have suc-cessfully offered final approval to the Wail-wan people to let him photograph the wholeceremony? Has technology made this proc-ess easier or harder?


39

ActivityMoving from primary to high school is a modernday ‘rite of passage’. Create a symbol for your-self that will express/has expressed this changefor you. Try drawing or painting your design ontopart of your body such as your forearm.

Cultural material andrepresentation

As well as touring in this exhibition, the Wail-wan photos are on permanent display atQuambone Public School, near the site of theoriginal ceremony.

These days, museums such as the Powerhouseare attempting to ensure that the appropriatepeople are consulted about cultural material,particularly when Indigenous people are in-volved, and that the material is shared sensi-tively with the wider community.

• Do you think that the present generation ofWailwan are the people who should decidehow the photos may be used?

• The series of postcards originally producedby Kerry’s studio and described only as NSWAborigines had disappeared from circulationby the middle of this century. Do you thinkyou should still be able to buy postcards likethis? Do you think postcards would beenough to keep the Wailwan traditions alive?

• A recording of Davey Brown, a Wailwanman, is part of Sharing a Wailwan story. Doyou think that recording people or writingdown what they say is different from takingtheir photo? If so, how?

• What different type of information can youget from different sources eg photos, diaries,oral histories, newspaper reports, encyclo-pedias, the Internet?

• Do you think the present generation of Wail-wan have benefited from seeing the photos?Have you? In what ways?

• What can be done to increase our knowledgeof the Wailwan way of life?

Activity(a) Research and study the many different

ways that Aboriginal people are now pre-senting material about themselves eg art,music, books and films. Choose one ofthese areas and review one or severalworks, paying particular attention to theAboriginal perspectives presented.

(b) Try to find images representing Aborigi-nal people and culture from differentsources at different times eg early thiscentury, the 1930s, the 1950s, the 1970s,this year. What changes can you see?


40Language by Tamsin Donaldson

Speakers of English are used to languagenames that just link the language to the coun-try eg English and England, Japanese andJapan. But in many parts of the world thereare language names that mean something inthe language concerned. This is particularlycommon where there are groups of neighbour-ing languages that are quite like each other inmany ways, with lots of words sounding thesame or almost the same. So that everyone cantell them apart, the name of each language inthe group may be based on an everyday wordthat happens to be different in each language.

For example, there are two quite similar lan-guages from the south of France called Langued’oc (language of oc) and Langue d’oil (languageof oil). Each of the names contains an every-day word that is different in each language:the word for ‘yes’ is oc in Langue d’oc and oilin Langue d’oil.

In Papuaniugini, there are two similar neigh-bouring languages called Tungak and Tigak.In each case, the language name means ‘mybrother’.

There are lots of groups of languages likethis in Australia. In Western Desert lan-guage names such as Pitjatjantjara andYankuntjatjara, the first part means ‘go’ andthe second part means ‘with’. The group of Vic-torian language names that includesWembawemba, Yitayita and YortaYorta allmean ‘no no’, doubling up the word for ‘no’ inthe language concerned. The first part of thename Wailwan is wayil, which means ‘no’.

Wailwan group

The home country of the group of languages towhich Wailwan belongs runs all the way fromthe north to the south of NSW, from theBarwon River to the Murray at Albury, andwest of the Great Dividing Range towards theDarling River.

All of them have names that mean the samething as Wailwan does: ‘no’ (wayil) for the first

part, and ‘with’ for the end part. In AustralianAboriginal languages, the way to say ‘with’ or‘having’ is to put an ending (suffix) on the wordrather than putting a separate word such as‘with’ at the front.

All the languages in this group are similar invarious ways, but they all have different wordsfor ‘no’. The names make use of this difference:see table, p 41.

The table lists all the language names mean-ing ‘no-with’ that are mentioned in Sharing aWailwan story and also, for a few of the names,shows some of the different spellings from dif-ferent sources. Wiradjuri, for example, hasbeen spelt at least 60 different ways over theyears!

Systematic spelling

Aboriginal sounds can be quite different toEnglish sounds yet most spellings have tradi-tionally been made by using English spellingconventions in an ad hoc way. Some of the writ-ers were not able to hear the sounds clearly inthe first place! That is why there are so manydifferent spellings. Most of them do not leadto satisfactory pronunciations when they areread aloud, or else they lead to a new Angli-cised standard of pronunciation (as is the casewith the spelling ‘Wiradjuri’).

However, some of the languages now havespelling systems of their own. These have theirown conventions for using the letters of thealphabet to represent the sounds that do notoccur in English. Once you know the rules forpronouncing the letters, you know how to pro-nounce words written in this way when youread them aloud. This is known as systematicspelling. In the table, names and other wordswith systematic spelling appear in bold.

Word-world

The table on page 41 also shows that twoof the ‘no-with’ languages (Wailwan andWangaaypuwan) have the same alternativename (Ngiyampaa). The first part of this name,


41

ngiya, means ‘word, talk, law’ in both lan-guages. The ending means something like‘world’ or ‘domain’ in both languages. So thisname can be translated as meaning ‘word-world’ or ‘language’.

The sound represented by p in Ngiyampaa hassome features of p and some of b in English.Wailwan people often prefer to use the spell-ing Ngemba because their pronunciation ofthis sound in this word is more like the Eng-lish b than the Wangaaypuwan people’s is, andbecause they run iya together to sound like theEnglish e.

All the names in the table can be used for bothlanguage and people.

Pronunciation of systematic spelling

b and p represent the same sound, and soundlike p in English spit

d and t represent the same sound, and soundlike t in English sting

g and k represent the same sound, and soundlike k in English skin

a is like in English gut

aa is longer, like art

i is like in English bit

ii is longer, like eat

u is like in English put

uu is longer, like moon

h means put your tongue between your teethwhen you say the preceding sound

r is like in English Mary or marry

rr is always rolled

all other letters and sounds are like inEnglish

Aboriginal words

There are many words in Australian Englishthat have come from Aboriginal languages.Some used in these notes, including bora, belarand goondie, have come from languages of the‘no-with’ group. They are written as they arespelt in Australian English dictionaries.

Burbung is the only word given in the oldsources in italics that is still in use and thatcan be given a systematic spelling (burrbang),which is the Wiradjuri word for bora.

Below are names for the spirit beings men-tioned in the education notes with systematicspellings to fit the Aboriginal sound systems.

Source spelling Systematic spelling

Baiamai BaayamayPaayamay

Daramulan DharramulanThurramulan

Wahwee Waaway

Kurrea GariyaKariya


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The Wailwan and their neighbours: names for language and peoples

Name (‘no-with’) Alternative Word for ‘no’ Other name Alternative Word for ‘word’spelling (‘word-world’) spelling

Wayilwan Wailwan wayil Ngiyampaa Ngemba ngiyaNgiyambaa

Wangaaypuwan Wongaibon wangaay Ngiyampaa Ngemba ngiyaWangaaybuwan Ngiyambaa

Wiradjuri wirraay

Gamilaraay Kamilaroi gamilGamilaroi

Yuwaalaraay waal

Key: bold words indicate systematic spellings


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Further reading

A plain English guide to previous possessions,new obligations: policies for museums inAustralia and Aboriginal and Torres StraitIslander peoples, Museums Australia,Melbourne, 1996.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander protocolsfor libraries, archives and information services,Deakin, Australian Library and InformationResource Network.

The Australian Abo Call, an early Aboriginal-run and controlled newspaper edited by JackPatten for the Aborigines Progressive Associa-tion, 1938.

Ronald M Berndt, Australian Aboriginalreligion, Institute of Religious Iconography,State University Groningen, Netherlands,1974.

Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation, Address-ing the key issues for reconciliation, AGPS,Canberra, 1993.

Tamsin Donaldson, ‘Ngiyambaa’ in MacquarieAboriginal words: a dictionary of words fromAustralian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Is-lander languages, Nicholas Thieberger andWilliam McGregor (general eds), The Mac-quarie Library, Sydney, 1994.

Tamsin Donaldson, Ngiyambaa: the languageof Wangaaybuwan, Cambridge UniversityPress, Cambridge, 1980.

Tamsin Donaldson, Ngiyampaa wordworld I:thipingku yuwi, maka ngiya, names of birdsand other words, Australian Institute of Abo-riginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies,Canberra, 1997.

Tamsin Donaldson, Margaret Clunies-Rossand Stephen Wild (eds), ‘Songs of AboriginalAustralia’ in Oceania, Australian Institute ofAboriginal Studies, 1987.

References

Louise Douglas, Alan Roberts and RuthThompson, Oral history: a handbook. Allen &Unwin, Sydney, 1988.

A P Elkin, ‘R H Mathews: his contribution toAboriginal studies’ in Oceania, University ofSydney, Vol XLVI No I, September 1975.

Heather Goodall, Invasion to embassy: land inAboriginal politics in New South Wales, 1770-1972, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 1996.

Charles Kerry, ‘Exhibits’ in Journal and pro-ceedings of the Royal Society of NSW, VolXXXIII, 1899.

R H Mathews, ‘The burbung of the Wiradthuritribes’ in Journal of the Anthropological Insti-tute, Vol XXV, London, 1896.

R H Mathews, ‘The burbung of the Wiradthuritribes’ in Proceedings of the Royal Society ofQueensland, Vol XVI, H Pole & Co, Brisbane,1901.

Janet Mathews, The two worlds of JimmyBarker, Australian Institute of AboriginalStudies, Canberra, 1977.

Tracey Moffat in In dreams. Mervyn Bishop:30 years of photography 1960–1990, Austral-ian Centre for Photography, Sydney, 1991.

Ian McDonald, Protecting Indigenous intellec-tual property, Australian Copyright Council,1997.

Taking the time: museums and galleries, cul-tural protocols and communities. A resourceguide, Museums Australia (Queensland), 1998.

Museum methods manual, Museums Australia(NSW), 1994.

See next page for useful websites.


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Useful websites

Aboriginal History Journal — index of arti-cles from 1977–1990ftp://coombs.anu.edu.au/coombspapers/coombsarchives/aboriginal-history-jrnl/

Australian history on the Internet — a Na-tional Library of Australia site with links toAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander historysourceswww.nla.gov.au/oz/hitsite/html#ab

Australian Institute of Aboriginal and TorresStrait Islander Studieswww.aiatsis.gov.au

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commis-sion library and index of publications (avail-able for interlibrary loan) — includes links toother librarieswww.atsic.gov.au/library/library.htm

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Protocolsfor Libraries, Archives and Information Serv-ices — the online version of this publication(see Further Reading)www.ntu.edu.au/library/protocol.html

Aboriginal tribes and words — Ngiyampaa sec-tion by Tamsin Donaldsonwww.praisecor.dynamite.com.au/macqrie1.htm#Top

Council for Aboriginal Reconciliationhttp://www.austlii.edu.au/car/

‘Frontier’ — website companion to the ABC-TV documentary and CD-ROMwww.abc.net.au/frontier

National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islandereducation website — contains culturally-ap-propriate interactive education materialswww.natsiew.nexus.edu.au/intropage.html

Retake: contemporary Aboriginal and TorresStrait Islander photography — a survey thatincludes the work of Rea and Mervyn Bishopwww.nga.gov.au/Retake/IntroFrameset.hml


45

The Powerhouse Museum acknowledgesthe assistance of the following people inthe project:

Joe Flick, adviser on fieldworkMervyn Bishop, photographer on fieldworkTamsin Donaldson, for information on lan-guage and spelling conventionsEvelyn Crawford, Heather Goodall, JudithFlett, Graeme Mooney, Djon Mundine, JamesWilson-Miller for general advice

Aboriginal families:Gordon family, Welsh family and NickMcEwan, Lewis Burns of Dubbo.

AIATSIS:Grace Koch (archives manager, audiovisualcollection)

Brewarrina Aboriginal Cultural Museum:Brad Steadman, adviser on Brewarrina his-tory and culture.

Coonamble Lands Council and Aboriginalelders:William Jackson, Eric Fernando, Robert‘Tracker ’ Robinson, Jean Hamilton (neeLeonard), Jean Jackson (nee McBride) AgnesMurray (nee Dixon), Thelma Leonard (neeWelsh), Merle Latham, Jan Arrowsmith.

Quambone district residents:Doug Moppett MLC, Helen Moppett, DougallBucknell, Wal McKenzie, Elwyn Andrews,Joan McKenzie, Geoff Keating, Doug Fulton.

Quambone Public School:Craig Renneberg, Sally Renneberg.

Freight sponsor

Acknowledgments


46Contributors

Tamsin Donaldson is a linguist ofNgiyampaa language who since the 1970s hasworked with many different communitiesthroughout western NSW to assist them tomaintain their language.

Joe Flick is a Yuwaalaraay man who for manyyears has worked for better cultural relationsfor his people.

Steve Miller is of Wiradjuri descent and hasworked as a journalist, broadcaster andIndigenous arts consultant. As well as beingthe Education Officer for Aboriginal Projectsat the Powerhouse Museum, he also lecturesat the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS)on the subject of Aboriginal People and theMedia.

Brad Steadman lives at Brewarrina andworks at the Brewarrina Aboriginal CulturalMuseum and has a deep interest in the historyculture and language of his people.

Ann Stephen has worked as a curator ofSocial History at the Powerhouse museumsince 1983. She previously worked on theexhibition and book, Pirating the Pacific:images of trade, travel and tourism,Powerhouse Publishing, 1993, also based onthe idea of returning historic photos from theTyrrell Collection.

powerhouse museum sharing a wailwanstory

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