These notes serve two purposes. The first is to help readers to find further information about key concepts raised in the text. The second is to recognise previous research and knowledge, and to highlight connections between this book and other published works. See our Bawaka Collective website, www.bawakacollective.com, for a full version of these notes and a range of other materials and resources supporting and elaborating on this book.
Key texts which cover a range of topics discussed in more detail below include:
Keen, I. (1994). Knowledge and Secrecy in an Aboriginal Religion. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Morphy, H. (1991). Ancestral Connections: Art and an Aboriginal system of knowledge. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Watson, H., with the Yolngu Community at Yirrkala, & Chambers, D.W. (1989). Singing the Land, Signing the Land: A portfolio of exhibits. Geelong, Vic.: Deakin University Press.
Williams, N.M. (1986). The Yolngu and Their Land: A system of land tenure and the fight for its recognition. Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies.
DJALKIRI
The term ‘songline’ was arguably popularised among non-Indigenous people through a 1987 novel entitled The Songlines by British author Bruce Chatwin. Along with such terms as ‘Dreaming’, ‘Dreamtime’ and ‘song cycle’, songline is now widely used to describe foundational Aboriginal Australian stories, songs, knowledges, and connections with Country. The term ‘songlines’ or ‘songspirals’ does not have a direct translation in Yolŋu matha. We use the term songspirals to recognise Yolŋu understandings of ongoing co-becoming and interweaving through song. Yolŋu songlines have been studied by non-Indigenous anthropologists and ethnographers for many years, and information about songlines has been recorded in many books and articles. For example, see:
Berndt, R.M. (1976). Love Songs of Arnhem Land. Melbourne: Thomas Nelson.
Berndt, R.M., & Berndt, C.H. (1954). Arnhem Land: Its history and its people. Melbourne: F.W. Cheshire.
Hinkson, M., & Beckett, J. (2008). An Appreciation of Difference: WEH Stanner and Aboriginal Australia. Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press.
Keen, I. (2011). ‘The language of property: analyses of Yolngu relations to country’, in Y. Musharbash & M. Barber (eds), Ethnography and the Production of Anthropological Knowledge: Essays in honour of Nicolas Peterson (pp. 101–20). Canberra: Australian National University Press.
Indigenous communities around Australia have also helped non-Indigenous researchers to learn about songlines and their implications for various fields and topics. See the following publications for further information:
Bradley, J., with Yanyuwa families (2010). Singing Saltwater Country: Journey to the songlines of Carpentaria. Sydney: Allen & Unwin.
Ellis, C.J., & Barwick, L.M. (1987). ‘Musical syntax and the problem of meaning in a central Australian songline’, Musicology Australia, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 41–57.
Fuller, R.S., Trudgett, M., Norris, R.P., & Anderson, M.G. (2017). ‘Star maps and travelling to ceremonies: the Euahlayi people and their use of the night sky’, Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage, vol. 17, no. 2, pp. 149–60.
Information about songspirals from around Australia has also been shared in films, exhibitions and online lectures such as the following:
Guyula, Y. (2015). ‘Manikay (songline) and Milkarri’, Yolngu Studies, Charles Darwin University. Retrieved from https://livestream.com/accounts/2047566/events/1840804/videos/88483496 on 22 November 2018.
National Indigenous Television (2016). Learn Indigenous Australian creation stories—‘Songlines on Screen’ multimedia features. Retrieved from www.sbs.com.au/nitv/songlines-on-screen/article/2016/05/25/learn-indigenous-australian-creation-stories-songlines-screen-multimedia-features on 22 November 2018.
National Museum of Australia (2018). Songlines: Tracking the Seven Sisters. Retrieved from www.nma.gov.au/exhibitions/songlines on 22 November 2018.
Research into songlines has sometimes been controversial, and it is important that knowledge about songlines is shared by the right people and with the right permissions. There are also important ethical issues that must be considered when recording, digitally archiving, and watching communities singing their songlines. These are discussed further in the following:
Christie, M. (2005). ‘Aboriginal knowledge traditions in digital environments’, Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, vol. 34, pp. 61–6.
Magowan, F. (2007). ‘Honouring stories: performing, recording and archiving Yolngu cultural heritage’, in U. Kockel & M.N. Craith (eds), Cultural Heritages as Reflexive Traditions (pp. 55–74). London: Palgrave Macmillan UK.
Morrison, G. (2017). ‘In the footsteps of the Ancestors: oral fixations and ethical walking on the last great songline’, in S. Strange & J. Webb (eds), Creative Manoeuvres: Writing, making, being (pp. 33–52). Melbourne: Melbourne University Publishing.
Not much research has been done into milkarri, perhaps in part because many anthropologists and ethnographers working in this field have been men. One notable exception is the research of Fiona Magowan, who worked with Yolŋu women in Galiwin’ku to learn about milkarri. Because it is difficult to describe milkarri in words alone, it is important to see and hear milkarri to gain a fuller understanding. Audio and visual footage of the songspirals presented in this book can be found on our Bawaka Collective website and further information found in:
Aboriginal Resources and Development Services (ARDS) (2016). Bulunu Milkarri: A story of sky, sea and spirit.
Magowan, F. (2001). ‘Shadows of song: exploring research and performance strategies in Yolngu women’s crying-songs’, Oceania, vol. 72, no. 2, pp. 89–104.
Magowan, F. (2007). Melodies of Mourning: Music and emotion in Northern Australia. Crawley, WA: University of Western Australia Press.
Magowan, F. (2013). ‘Performing emotion, embodying Country in Australian Aboriginal ritual’, in L. Wrazen (ed.), Performing Gender, Place and Emotion in Music: Global perspectives (pp. 63–82). Rochester: Boydell & Brewer Australia Press.
The concept of Country is explored in the following:
Bawaka Country, Suchet-Pearson, S., Wright, S., Lloyd, K., & Burarrwanga, L. (2013). ‘Caring as Country: towards an ontology of co-becoming in natural resource management’, Asia Pacific Viewpoint, vol. 54, no. 2, pp. 185–97.
Bawaka Country, Wright, S., Suchet-Pearson, S., Lloyd, K., Burarrwanga, L., Ganambarr, R., Ganambarr-Stubbs, M., Ganambarr, B., & Maymuru, D. (2015). ‘Working with and learning from Country: decentring human author-ity’, Cultural Geographies, vol. 22, no. 2, pp. 269–83.
Bawaka Country, Wright, S., Suchet-Pearson, S., Lloyd, K., Burarrwanga, L., Ganambarr, R., Ganambarr-Stubbs, M., Ganambarr, B., Maymuru, D., & Sweeney, J. (2016). ‘Co-becoming Bawaka: towards a relational understanding of place/space’, Progress in Human Geography, vol. 40, no. 4, pp. 455–75.
Rose, D.B. (1996). Nourishing Terrains: Australian Aboriginal views of landscape and wilderness. Canberra: Australian Heritage Commission.
Rose, D.B., Daiyi, N., & D’Amico, S. (2011). Country of the Heart: An Australian Indigenous homeland. Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press.
The phrase ‘more-than-human’ refers to a way of thinking about the world that ‘spans the human–non-human divide’ and focuses on relationships between humans and non-humans (Greenhough, 2014, p. 95). The following explore this idea in detail:
Gibson, K., Rose, D.B., & Fincher, R. (eds) (2015). Manifesto for Living in the Anthropocene. New York: punctum books.
Greenhough, B. (2014). ‘More-than-human geographies’, in R. Lee, N. Castree, R. Kitchin, V.A. Lawson, A. Paasi, C. Philo, S.A. Radcliffe, S.M. Roberts, & C.W.J. Withers (eds), The SAGE Handbook of Human Geography (pp. 94–119). Los Angeles: SAGE.
Head, L. (2016). Hope and Grief in the Anthropocene: Re-conceptualising human–nature relations. London: Routledge.
Tsing, A. (2013). ‘More-than-human sociality: a call for critical description’, in K. Hastrup (ed.), Anthropology and Nature (pp. 27–42). New York: Routledge.
Whatmore, S. (2002). Hybrid Geographies: Natures, cultures, spaces. London: Thousand Oaks, California: SAGE.
Wright, S. (2015). ‘More-than-human, emergent belongings: a weak theory approach’, Progress in Human Geography, vol. 39, no. 4, pp. 391–411.
The implications of a ‘more-than-human’ approach for research and methodological approaches have been explored in the following:
Bawaka Country, Lloyd, K., Wright, S., Suchet-Pearson, S., Burarrwanga, L., Ganambarr-Stubbs, M., Ganambarr, B., Maymuru, D., & Hodge, P. (2018). ‘Meeting across ontologies: grappling with an ethics of care in our human–more-than-human collaborative work’, in J. Haladay & S. Hicks (eds), Unsustainable Environments (pp. 219–45). East Lansing: Michigan State University Press.
Johnson, J.T., & Larsen, S.C. (2017). Being Together in Place: Indigenous coexistence in a more than human world. Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press.
Panelli, R. (2010). ‘More-than-human social geographies: posthuman and other possibilities’, Progress in Human Geography, vol. 34, no. 1, pp. 79–87.
Co-becoming is an idea the Bawaka Collective has explored in our work; see above and in the following:
Bawaka Country, Burarrwanga, L., Ganambarr, R., Ganambarr-Stubbs, M., Ganambarr, B., Maymuru, D., Wright, S., Suchet-Pearson, S., Lloyd, K., & Sweeney, J. (2016). ‘Co-becoming time/s: time/s-as-telling-as-time/s’, in J. Thorpe, S. Rutherford, and L. Sandberg (eds), Methodological Challenges in Nature–Culture and Environmental History Research (pp. 81–92). New York: Routledge.
PART 1: Wuymirri
CHAPTER 1: MUM
Search our Bawaka Collective website for recordings of milkarri for the Whale Songspiral and other songspirals. In addition, see the following texts for further information about the Whale Songspiral:
Cawte, J. (1973). The University of the Warrimirri: Art, medicine and religion in Arnhem Land. Sydney: NSW University Press.
McIntosh, I. (1994). The Whale and the Cross: Conversations with David Burrumarra MBE. Darwin: Historical Society of the Northern Territory.
McIntosh, I. (2000). ‘Aboriginal reconciliation and the Dreaming: Warramiri Yolngu and the quest for equality’, Cultural Survival Studies in Ethnicity and Change, series editors David MayburyLewis and Theodore Mcdonald. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
McIntosh, I. (2015). Between Two Worlds: Essays in honour of the visionary Aboriginal Elder, David Burrumarra. Indianapolis: Dog Ear Publishing.
Shepherdson, E. (1981). Half a Century in Arnhem Land. One Tree Hill, SA: Ella and Harold Shepherdson.
The Bawaka Collective has identified key ideas about intercultural communication between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples, drawing on our experience of working together. See our Intercultural Communication Handbook on the Bawaka Collective website. There has also been considerable work that explores Yolŋu communication styles, cross-cultural and intercultural communication. See:
Boyukarrpi, G., Gayura, J., Madawirr, P., Nunggalurr, H., & Waykingin, M. (1994). ‘Yolngu ways of communicating’, Ngoonjook, vol. 10, pp. 21–7.
Magowan, F. (2018). ‘Song as gift and capital: intercultural processes of indigenisation and spiritual transvaluation in Yolngu Christian music’, in M. Ingalls, M. Reigersberg and Z. Sherinian (eds), Making Congregational Music Local in Christian Communities Worldwide (pp. 97–116). London: Routledge.
Morphy, F. (2007). ‘The language of governance in a cross-cultural cultural context: what can and can’t be translated’, Ngiya: Talk the Law, vol. 1, pp. 93–102.
CHAPTER 2: COUNTRY
Much research with Yolŋu and other Indigenous peoples highlights that water is considered part of Country and that relationships with water are crucial. This point has been especially salient to challenging Western notions of property, ownership and rights in relation to various bodies of water. For further information, see:
Buku-Larrngay Mulka Centre (1999). Saltwater: Yirrkala bark paintings of sea country. Recognising indigenous sea rights. Buku-Larrngay Mulka Centre in association with Jennifer Isaacs Publishing.
Jackson, S., & Barber, M. (2013). ‘Recognition of indigenous water values in Australia’s Northern Territory: current progress and ongoing challenges for social justice in water planning’, Planning Theory & Practice, vol. 14, no. 4, pp. 435–54.
Jackson, S.E. (1995). ‘The water is not empty: cross-cultural issues in conceptualising sea space’, Australian Geographer, vol. 26, no. 1, pp. 87–96.
Rose, D.B. (2005). ‘An indigenous philosophical ecology: situating the human’, Australian Journal of Anthropology, vol. 16, no. 3, pp. 294–305.
Rose, D.B. (2014). ‘Arts of flow: poetics of “fit” in Aboriginal Australia’, Dialectical Anthropology, vol. 38, pp. 431–45.
Weir, J. (2009). Murray River Country: An ecological dialogue with traditional owners. Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press.
Wilson, N.J., & Inkster, J. (2018). ‘Respecting water: Indigenous water governance, ontologies, and the politics of kinship on the ground’, Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space, vol. 1, no. 4.
In Yolŋu Law everything in the world is divided into two complementary moieties, Yirritja and Dhuwa. They are understood by anthropologists as a way of ordering or organising the world. The two moieties are also explained in the following:
Hutcherson, G. (1998). Gong-wapitja: Women and art from Yirrkala, northeast Arnhem Land. Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press.
Yolŋu Sea Country (2008). Living Knowledge: Indigenous knowledge in science education. Retrieved from http://livingknowledge.anu.edu.au/learningsites/seacountry/index.htm on 22 November 2018.
The Bawaka Collective explored weaving both as a cultural activity and as a metaphor for our developing relationships and connections in our first book and in a journal article:
Burarrwanga, L., Ganambarr, R., Ganambarr-Stubbs, M., Ganambarr, B., Maymuru, D., Wright, S., Suchet-Pearson, S., & Lloyd, K. (2008). Weaving Lives Together at Bawaka: North East Arnhem Land. Callaghan, NSW: Centre for Urban and Regional Studies, University of Newcastle.
Lloyd, K., Wright, S., Suchet-Pearson, S., Burarrwanga, L., & Hodge, P. (2012). ‘Weaving lives together: collaborative fieldwork in North East Arnhem Land, Australia’, Annales de Geographie, vol. 121, no. 687–8, pp. 513–24.
The Garma Festival is held annually and is organised by the Yothu Yindi Foundation. The festival includes workshops and forums, songs, art, and music, and is a widely recognised Indigenous event in Australia. Further information about the festival, and the Gapan Gallery, can be found by searching online for the Garma Festival.
CHAPTER 3: MAPPING
Diverse ways of mapping and understanding place and space have been explored in a number of publications:
Magowan, F. (2001). ‘Syncretism or synchronicity? Remapping the Yolngu feel of place’, The Australian Journal of Anthropology, vol. 12, no. 3, pp. 275–90.
Tamisari, F. (1998). ‘Body, vision and movement: in the footprints of the ancestors’, Oceania, vol. 68, pp. 249–70.
Turnbull, D., & Watson-Verran, H. (1989). ‘Aboriginal-Australian maps’, in Maps Are Territories, Science Is an Atlas: A portfolio of exhibits. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Retrieved from http://territories.indigenousknowledge.org/exhibit-5.html on 22 November 2018.
The mission at Yirrkala was established in November 1935 in response to conflicts and tensions between Aboriginal people and settlers. See:
Dewar, M. (1995). The Black War in Arnhem Land: Missionaries and the Yolngu 1908–1940. Brinkin, NT: Australian National University, North Australia Research Unit (NARU).
By the 1970s, many Yolŋu lived at mission settlements like Yirrkala for most of the year. In 1972–73, as part of a strong political homelands movement, many Yolŋu began to move to ‘homelands’ or ‘outstations’ on their own clan territories or Country. See:
Kearney, A. (2016). ‘Intimacy and distance: Indigenous relationships to Country in northern Australia’, Ethnos, pp. 1–20.
CHAPTER 4: BECOMING TOGETHER
In 2014, the state government in Western Australia announced plans to close 100–150 remote Aboriginal homeland communities on the basis that they were too expensive to maintain. Similar policies and issues were also identified in the Northern Territory. In an interview with John Pilger, the prime minister at the time, Tony Abbott, stated that ‘it’s not the job of the taxpayers to subsidise lifestyle choices’. This was met with outrage, which highlighted that homeland communities are not a mere ‘lifestyle choice’ and that closing these communities would create problems and be culturally damaging.
Pilger, J. (2015). ‘Evicting Indigenous Australians from their homelands is a declaration of war’, The Guardian, 22 April 2015.
CHAPTER 5: HARMONISING
The following publications document the extent of Yolŋu participation in military activity and various impacts of the Second World War on Yolŋu in North East Arnhem Land:
Berndt, R.M. (1962). An Adjustment Movement in Arnhem Land, Northern Territory of Australia. Paris: Mouton & Co.
Riseman, N. (2008). ‘Colonising Yolngu defence: Arnhem Land in the Second World War and transnational uses of indigenous people in the Second World War’, PhD thesis, The University of Melbourne.
Thomson, D.F. (2005). Donald Thomson in Arnhem Land (compiled and introduced by Nicholas Peterson). Carlton, Vic.: The Miegunyah Press.
Narritjin Maymuru shared his story about the sinking of the boat Patricia Cam and helping the survivors on the Wessel Islands in:
Long, J. (1992). ‘The sinking of the Patricia Cam: Narritjin’s story’, Aboriginal History, vol. 16, no. 1, pp. 81–4.
The term ‘stolen generations’ refers to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children who were legally removed from their families by staff working for government agencies and church missions from approximately 1905 until the 1970s. See:
National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families (Australia), Wilson, R.D., & Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (1997). Bringing Them Home: Report of the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families. Sydney: Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission.
Roy Dadayŋa Marika is known as the father of the land rights movement. His contributions are described in the following:
Dunlop, I. (director) (1983). In Memory of Mawalan (video). National Film and Sound Archive of Australia.
Dunlop, I. (director) (1995). Pain for this Land (video). National Film and Sound Archive of Australia.
Dunlop, I. (director) (1996). Singing in the Rain—Yirrkala in 1974 (video). National Film and Sound Archive of Australia.
Marika, B. (2017). Desperate Measures: Roy Marika the father of land rights (video). Melbourne: Informit.
Marika, W. (1995). Wandjuk Marika: Life story (as told to Jennifer Isaacs). St Lucia, Qld: University of Queensland Press.
Part 2: Wukun
CHAPTER 2: SINGING THE CLOUDS
Gurrutu is a system of kinship that underlies and creates the Yolŋu world. See:
Christie, M., & Greatorex, J. (2004). ‘Yolngu life in the Northern Territory of Australia: the significance of community and social capital’, Asia Pacific Journal of Public Administration, vol. 26, no. 1, pp. 55–69.
Djambutj, N. (1994). ‘Connections through the east wind and morning star’, Ngoonjook, no. 10, pp. 30–7.
The relationship between gurrutu and mathematics has been explored by the Bawaka Collective and others through the concept of Yolŋu mathematics:
Bawaka Collective (producer) (2017). Knowledge on the Land: Two-ways learning through Yolŋu mathematics. Retrieved from www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyaOzZmAAl4 on 20 November 2018.
Burarrwanga, L., Ganambarr, R., Ganambarr-Stubbs, M., Ganambarr, B., Maymuru, D., Wright, S., Suchet-Pearson, S., & Lloyd, K. (2013). Welcome to My Country. Sydney: Allen & Unwin.
Cooke, M., & Batchelor College. (1991). Seeing Yolngu, Seeing Mathematics. Batchelor, NT: Batchelor College.
CHAPTER 4: THUNDERCLOUD
The relationships between Macassans and Yolŋu are discussed in a number of publications that highlight the extended period of cultural connection and exchange:
Bilous, R.H. (2015). ‘All mucked up: sharing stories of Yolŋu–Macassan cultural heritage at Bawaka, north-east Arnhem Land’, International Journal of Heritage Studies, vol. 21, no. 9, pp. 905–18.
Bilous, R.H. (2015). ‘Making connections: hearing and sharing Macassan–Yolŋu stories’, Asia Pacific Viewpoint, vol. 56, no. 3, pp. 365–79.
Clark, M., & May, S.K. (2013). Macassan History and Heritage: Journeys, encounters and influences. Canberra: Australian National University Press.
Lloyd, K., Suchet-Pearson, S., Wright, S., & Burarrwanga, L. (2010). ‘Stories of crossings and connections from Bawaka, North East Arnhem Land, Australia’, Social and Cultural Geography, vol. 11, no. 7, pp. 702–17.
McIntosh, I.S. (2006). ‘A treaty with the Macassans? Burrumarra and the Dholtji ideal’, The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology, vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 153–72.
Palmer, L. (2007). ‘Negotiating the ritual and social order through spectacle: the (re)production of Macassan/Yolngu histories’, Anthropological Forum, vol. 17, no. 1, pp. 1–20.
Responsibilities that come with and are inspired by adoption in Yolŋu, and other Indigenous systems, are explored in:
Bawaka Country, Suchet-Pearson, S., Wright, S., Lloyd, K., Tofa, M., Sweeney, J., Burarrwanga, L., Ganambarr, R., Ganambarr-Stubbs, M., Ganambarr, B., & Maymuru, D. (2018). ‘Goŋ Gurtha: Enacting response-abilities as situated co-becoming’, Environment and Planning D: Society and Space. doi:10.1177/0263775818799749.
Rose, D.B. (1999). ‘Indigenous ecologies and an ethic of connection’, in N. Low (ed.), Global Ethics and Environment (pp. 1–13). London: Routledge.
TallBear, K. (2014). ‘Standing with and speaking as faith: a feminist-indigenous approach to inquiry’, Journal of Research Practice, vol. 10, no. 2, p. 17.
Bawaka Cultural Enterprises and Lirrwi Tourism are Indigenous-run tourism ventures based in Bawaka and Yirrkala, respectively. Further information about their tours can be found by searching on their names online.
For further information about tourism, intercultural communication, and opportunities for personal transformation in Bawaka and Yirrkala, see the Intercultural Communication Handbook on our website as well as:
Bawaka Country, Wright, S., Lloyd, K., Suchet-Pearson, S., Burarrwanga, L., Ganambarr, R., Ganambarr, M., Ganambarr, B., Maymuru, D., & Tofa, M. (2017). ‘Meaningful tourist transformations with Country at Bawaka, North East Arnhem Land, northern Australia’, Tourist Studies, vol. 17, no. 4, pp. 443–67.
Lirrwi Yolngu Tourism Aboriginal Corporation, & Morse, J. (2012). Yolngu Cultural Tourism Masterplan: A new way forward for Arnhem Land. Nhulunbuy, NT: Lirrwi Yolngu Tourism Aboriginal Corporation.
Lloyd, K., Suchet-Pearson, S., Wright, S., Tofa, M., Rowland, C., Burarrwanga, L., Ganambarr, R., Ganambarr, M., Ganambarr, B., & Maymuru, D. (2015). ‘Transforming tourists and “culturalising commerce”: Indigenous tourism at Bawaka in northern Australia’, International Indigenous Policy Journal, vol. 6, no. 4.
Wright, S., Suchet-Pearson, S., Lloyd, K., Burarrwanga, L., & Burarrwanga, D. (2009). ‘“That means the fish are fat”: sharing experiences of animals through Indigenous-owned tourism’, Current Issues in Tourism, vol. 12, no. 5–6, pp. 505–27.
Part 3: Guwak
CHAPTER 1: BEING A MESSENGER
Narritjin Maymuru worked extensively with the anthropologist Howard Morphy and with filmmaker Ian Dunlop. His art, work and stories are recorded in several publications and films, including:
Dunlop, I. (producer) (2018). At the Canoe Camp. National Film and Sound Archive of Australia.
Dunlop, I. (director) (2018). Narritjin at Djarrakpi (video). National Film and Sound Archive of Australia.
Morphy, H. (2005). The Art of Narritjin Maymuru. Canberra: ANU E Press.
CHAPTER 3: THIS IS POLITICAL
The impacts of government intervention on Yolŋu lives have been discussed in many publications. Of particular note is the Northern Territory National Emergency Response of 2007, commonly referred to as ‘the intervention’, which was arguably prompted by a 2007 Commonwealth Government report entitled Little Children Are Sacred. The intervention was very controversial and was criticised for the lack of consultation with Indigenous communities and for the suspension of the Racial Discrimination Act. Following a change in government, the intervention was replaced in 2010 with a similar policy called Stronger Futures. See:
Churcher, M. (2018). ‘Reimagining the Northern Territory Intervention: institutional and cultural interventions into the Anglo-Australian imaginary’, Australian Journal of Social Issues, vol. 53, no. 1, pp. 56–70.
Howitt, R. (2012). ‘Sustainable Indigenous futures in remote Indigenous areas: relationships, processes and failed state approaches’, GeoJournal, vol. 77, no. 6, pp. 817–28.
Keenan, S. (2013). ‘Property as governance: time, space and belonging in Australia’s Northern Territory intervention’, Modern Law Review, vol. 76, no. 3, pp. 464–93.
Macoun, A. (2011). ‘Aboriginality and the Northern Territory intervention’, Australian Journal of Political Science, vol. 46, no. 3, pp. 519–34.
Morphy, F., & Morphy, H. (2013). ‘Anthropological theory and government policy in Australia’s Northern Territory: the hegemony of the “mainstream”’, American Anthropologist, vol. 115, no. 2, pp. 174–87.
Yunupingu, G. (2009). ‘Tradition, truth & tomorrow’, The Monthly, December 2008—January 2009, pp. 32–40.
Mining has been a source of much pain and prompted the Bark Petitions and other land rights activism in Yirrkala. Further information about the mine and its impacts can be found in:
Scambary, B. (2013). My Country, Mine Country: Indigenous people, mining and development contestation in remote Australia. Retrieved from Canberra: http://epress.anu.edu.au/titles/centre-for-aboriginal-economic-policy-research-caepr/my-country-mine-country on 20 November 2018.
In 1963, a lease for mining on Gove Peninsula was announced, without any consultation with Yolŋu people. Rirratjiŋu clan leaders sent the Bark Petitions to the Commonwealth Government stating that their land rights must be respected. The Bark Petitions contained bark paintings of clan ‘symbols of ownership, of knowledge and rights’ with a typed document, and was sent in 1963 (Marika, 1995, p. 100). An inquiry was conducted into the issue. Although the mine went ahead, the petitions eventually led to the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act being passed in 1976, and legal recognition of Aboriginal land rights and the establishment of land councils in the Northern Territory. Further information about the Bark Petitions and the land rights movement, particularly around Yirrkala, is provided in:
Marika, W., as told to Isaacs, J. (1995). Wandjuk Marika: Life story. St Lucia, Qld: University of Queensland Press.
Morphy, H. (1983). ‘“Now you understand”: an analysis of the way Yolngu have used sacred knowledge to retain their autonomy’, in N. Peterson & M. Langton (eds), Aborigines, Land and Land Rights (pp. 110–33). Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies.
Wells, E. (1982). Reward and Punishment in Arnhem Land, 1962–1963. Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies.
The absence of visible agricultural activity has been used to justify terra nullius. See:
Gammage, W. (2011). The Biggest Estate on Earth: How Aborigines made Australia. Sydney: Allen & Unwin.
Pascoe, B. (2013). Dark Emu: Black seeds—agriculture or accident? Broome: Magabala Books.
CHAPTER 4: THE SPIRITS ARE IN EVERYTHING
Anthropologists and ethnographers have recorded much information about Yolŋu spirituality and love, and the Bawaka Collective has explored the idea of märr and love. See:
Bawaka Country, Wright, S., Suchet-Pearson, S., Lloyd, K., Burarrwanga, L., Ganambarr, R., Ganambarr-Stubbs, M., Ganambarr, B., Maymuru, D., & Graham, M. (2018). ‘Everything is love: mobilising knowledges, identities and places as Bawaka’, in M. Palomino-Schalscha & N. Gombay (eds), The Politics of Indigenous Spaces. London: Routledge.
Berndt, R.M. (1976). Love Songs of Arnhem Land. Australia: Thomas Nelson.
Morphy, H. (1994). ‘From dull to brilliant: the aesthetics of spiritual power among the Yolngu’. Man, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 21–40.
CHAPTER 5: LIVING IN TODAY’S WORLD
Yothu Yindi, Gurrumul and East Journey are well-known examples of contemporary music that draw on Western, international and Yolŋu influences, and share messages about culture, rights and respect. Do check out their music by searching for them on the internet. The following publications discuss Indigenous music as an example of living in two worlds, as a mode of intergenerational knowledge sharing, and as a vehicle for intercultural communication.
Bracknell, C. (2015). ‘“Say you’re a Nyungarmusicologist”: Indigenous research and endangered song’, Musicology Australia, vol. 37, no. 2, pp. 199–217.
Corn, A. (2010). ‘Land, song, constitution: exploring expressions of ancestral agency, intercultural diplomacy and family legacy in the music of Yothu Yindi with Mandawuy Yunupiŋu’, Popular Music, vol. 29, no. 1, pp. 81–102.
Corn, A. (2014). ‘Agent of bicultural balance: Ganma, Yothu Yindi and the legacy of Yunupiŋu’, Journal of World Popular Music, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 12–45.
Neuenfeldt, K.W.M. (1993). ‘Yothu Yindi and Ganma: the cultural transposition of Aboriginal agenda through metaphor and music’, Journal of Australian Studies, vol. 17, no. 38, pp. 1–11.
Part 4: Wititj
CHAPTER 1: SETTLING OF THE SERPENT
Yolŋu ideas about boundaries and territory are explored further in:
Williams, N.M. (1982). ‘A boundary is to cross: observations on Yolngu boundaries and permission’, in N.M. Williams & E.S. Hunn (eds), Resource Managers: North American and Australian hunter-gatherers (pp. 131–53). Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press.
Williams, N.M. (1983). ‘Yolngu concepts of land ownership’, in N. Peterson & M. Langton (eds), Aborigines, Land and Land Rights (pp. 94–109). Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies.
Laklak’s story is described in detail in our second book:
Burarrwanga, L., Ganambarr, R., Ganambarr-Stubbs, M., Ganambarr, B., Maymuru, D., Wright, S., Suchet-Pearson, S., & Lloyd, K. (2013). Welcome to My Country. Sydney: Allen & Unwin.
The protocols and order for sharing knowledge in Yolŋu culture are discussed in a number of publications. Of particular note is the way this contrasts with imperial research agendas that assume the right to know and to discover. For further information, see:
Brigg, M. (2016). ‘Engaging indigenous knowledges: from sovereign to relational knowers’, Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, vol. 45, no. 2, pp. 152–8.
Bawaka Country including Wright, S., Suchet-Pearson, S., Lloyd, K., Burarrwanga, L., Ganambarr, R., Ganambarr-Stubbs, M., Ganambarr, B., & Maymuru, D. (2016). ‘The politics of ontology and ontological politics’, Dialogues in Human Geography, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 23–7.
See our Bawaka Collective website for more information about our first and second books.
CHAPTER 3: WAPITJA
The story of the Djan’kawu Sisters and their journey has been discussed in numerous publications, including:
Dunlop, I. (director) (1983). In Memory of Mawalan (video). National Film and Sound Archive of Australia.
Hutcherson, G. (1998). Gong-wapitja: Women and art from Yirrkala, northeast Arnhem Land. Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press.
Wells, A.E. (1971). This Their Dreaming: Legends of the panels of Aboriginal art in the Yirrkala church. St Lucia, Qld: University of Queensland Press.
CHAPTER 4: WOMEN’S KNOWLEDGE AND WISDOM
For many years, universities have been sites where colonial knowledge is acquired and reproduced, and where Indigenous knowledges have been treated as artefacts, exotic curiosities, or absent. In recent years, scholars have explored ways of recognising Indigenous knowledges in universities, and of decolonising or indigenising universities, particularly in terms of research and teaching practice. See:
Christie, M. (2006). ‘Transdisciplinary research and Aboriginal knowledge’, The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, vol. 35, pp. 78–98.
Hunt, S. (2014). ‘Ontologies of Indigeneity: the politics of embodying a concept’, Cultural Geographies, vol. 21, no. 1, pp. 27–32.
Marika-Munungiritj, R., White, L., & Ngurruwutthun, D. (1992). ‘Always together, yaka gana: participatory research at Yirrkala, as part of the development of a Yolngu education’, Convergence, vol. 25, no. 1, pp. 23–39.
Nakata, M. (2013). ‘The rights and blights of the politics in Indigenous higher education’, Anthropological Forum, vol. 23, no. 3, pp. 289–303.
Tuck, E., & Yang, K.W. (2012). ‘Decolonization is not a metaphor’, Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 1–40.
Wright, S. (2018). ‘When dialogue means refusal’, Dialogues in Human Geography, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 128–32.
Further information about the Dhimurru Rangers can be found on the Dhimurru Aboriginal Corporation website and in the following:
Dhimurru Land Management Aboriginal Corporation, & Wearne, G. (2006). Yolŋuwu monuk gapu wäna sea country plan: A Yolŋu vision and plan for sea country management in North-east Arnhem land, Northern Territory. Dhimurru Land Management Aboriginal Corporation.
Hoffmann, B.D., Roeger, S., Wise, P., Dermer, J., Yunupingu, B., Lacey, D., Yunupingu, D., Marika, B., Marika, M., & Panton, B. (2012). ‘Achieving highly successful multiple agency collaborations in a cross-cultural environment: experiences and lessons from Dhimurru Aboriginal Corporation and partners’, Ecological Management & Restoration, vol. 13, no. 1, pp. 42–50.
Marika, R. (1999). ‘The 1998 Wentworth lecture’, Australian Aboriginal Studies, vol. 1, pp. 3–9.
Muller, S. (2014). ‘Co-motion: making space to care for country’, Geoforum, vol. 54, pp. 132–41.
Yunupingu, D., & Muller, S. (2009). ‘Cross-cultural challenges for Indigenous sea country management in Australia’, Australasian Journal of Environmental Management, vol. 16, no. 3, pp. 158–67.
Part 5: Goŋ-gurtha
CHAPTER 1: KEEPERS OF THE FLAME
Yolŋu leaders and activists, and other Indigenous scholars and activists, have used the idea of ‘living in two worlds’ to describe being Indigenous in contemporary Australia. See:
Burin, M. (2017). ‘Walking in two worlds’. Retrieved from www.abc.net.au/news/2017-04-07/the-junior-ranger/8378336 on 20 November 2018.
Yunupingu, G. (2016). ‘Rom Watangu’, The Monthly. Retrieved from www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2016/july/1467295200/galarrwuy-yunupingu/rom-watangu on 21 November 2018.
CHAPTER 3: THE FIRE ON THE HORIZON
Much Western scholarship privileges a teleological conception of time and history. The readings below explore nonlinear conceptualisations of time with Yolŋu and other Indigenous peoples.
Keen, I. (2006). ‘Ancestors, magic, and exchange in Yolngu doctrines: extensions of the person in time and space’, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, vol. 12, pp. 515–30.
Natcher, D.C., Huntington, O., Huntington, H., Chapin III, F.S., Trainor, S.F., & DeWilde, L. (2007). ‘Notions of time and sentence: methodological considerations for Arctic climate change research’, Arctic Anthropology, vol. 44, no. 2, pp. 113–26.
Perkins, M. (1998). ‘Timeless cultures: the “Dreamtime” as colonial discourse’, Time & Society, vol. 7, no. 3, pp. 335–51.
Porr, M., & Bell, H.R. (2011). ‘“Rock-art”, “animism” and two-way thinking: towards a complementary epistemology in the understanding of material culture and “rock-art” of hunting and gathering people’, Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, vol. 19, no. 1, pp. 161–205.
Reid, J. (1979). ‘A time to live, a time to grieve: patterns and processes of mourning among the Yolngu of Australia’, Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry, vol. 3, no. 4, pp. 319–46.
Rose, D.B. (2000). ‘To dance with time: a Victoria River Aboriginal study’, Australian Journal of Anthropology, vol. 1, no. 2, pp. 287–96.
CHAPTER 5: CONNECTING GENERATIONS
Siena Stubbs’s book is available for purchase:
Stubbs, S. (2018). Our Birds: Ŋilimurruŋgu wäyin malanynha. Broome: Magabala Books.