The trip to Bawaka, a very small aboriginal community down the coast, turned out to be a highlight of our trip in Arnhem Land for many reasons.  Certainly it was different from any of our other travels.

After an early start from Nhulunbuy in our rented Hilux ute (pickup truck), we began a serious 4 WD trip on very sandy tracks through private land.  We had no idea we were on our way to a whole new world (actually it was a very old world!)

After about an hour of deep, soft, sandy, challenging driving our first little stop was along a very beautiful beach, which went on for miles…….

As we were driving further along more stunning beaches we met the three aboriginal men who would be our hosts for the weekend, Timmie, Randy and Jason.  All of a sudden the convoy stopped and Neill told us on the radio to watch closely.

The land we were on belonged to Timmie’s mother, and essentially we were going to a few holiday cottages owned by Timmie’s family. On this excursion Timmie was the boss man or chief host and we were the only people staying there.  A bit further away there was another house which appeared to be the one used by the family.  When we arrived Timmie spoke to our group and told us all to take off our watches as we were all on Yolgna (yule new) time.  He also told us the place was ‘our place’ too and we were all Australians together, and the land we were on was female land.  Randy then speared a reasonable sized fish off the beach and cooked it and the mudcrab on the fire and shared it around our group, who were all sitting around in a circle for Timmie’s welcome remarks.  The official Welcome Ceremony was scheduled for later in the day.

 

Then we had our lunch and worked out where everyone was sleeping – options ranged from a verandah, on the beach, with a roof, to sleeping on beds and mattresses inside a cabin. The back of our ute was clean so we decided to sleep in it under a 200 year old Tamarind tree.  (The seeds that grew those trees were brought by the Macassan traders.) Our sleeping mats and sleeping bags made a good base, and Keith kindly strung up a mosquito net over the back of the ute for us. He said we went from being in the Taj Mahal to the honeymoon suite!

We’ve said that swimming was off the agenda in Arnhem Land but that afternoon we were taken to Lonely Beach (via another testing 4WD track), and we were allowed to swim, albeit a bit nervously.

When we got back from the beach, our hosts had caught a large turtle but they needed help from our guys to pull it in. They drove back dragging the turtle behind the car.  I thought it was dead, but it wasn’t (yet).

As we were working on Yolgna time, there was lots of hanging around, so we played a few hands of cards with Grace before making up our bed in the ute tray in the dark.  Then suddenly we were called urgently to attend the formal ‘welcome smoking ceremony’.  We stood in a circle and Timmie welcomed us with lots of singing and chanting.  He was playing clap sticks and then there was some clapping; so I clapped.  All of a sudden Timmie stopped everything, looked at me and said “only men clap”.  After that Randy and Jason went round and smeared an ochre paste on each of our foreheads.  They also brushed each of us with special burning leaves on the side, front and back, as part of the ceremony.  There was lots of discussion about reconciliation and sharing.  Timmie was singing a song that was 50,000 years old.  It was a solemn ceremony.

Then we had a break and all cooked our own dinner ((ie steak on the bbq), before reconvening on chairs in a circle on the beach around the fire.  It was a time for stories including the Nike story and a buffalo story; plus Jason played the didgeridoo, Timmie played the clap sticks and Randy danced.  Soon he had a number of our people up learning the ‘tractor dance’.  Eventually we all went off to bed – us in our ute under the mosquito net.

Who knows what time we got up, but it was daylight.  I can’t remember a time when I went without a watch before.  Fortunately we were with such a great group of people and they all looked after us, as we didn’t have any camping stuff (ie eskie, stove etc) with us.  Between them they carried our fridge food,  boiled us water for tea and just generally helped with whatever we needed.  Lots of time for sitting around chatting before we watched the killing, preparation and cooking of the turtle interspersed with visits from and feeding of Nike.

Here I will include more detail and photos about the demise of the turtle.  If you are feeling squeamish, I suggest you skip the next 8 photos.

In spite of watching the turtle episode all morning, we had lunch and then were summoned by Timmie bangng on his clap sticks.  All sat round in a circle for a serious or solemn session where Timmie asked each of us to tell our stories about our heritage, education and contact with aboriginal people.  It was quite moving and a bit emotional for a few people. We have a great group of articulate people, including 11 year old Grace, who has an aboriginal father.  Timmie got us to each collect an object in nature, and then on that basis they determined which of the two Yolgna moieties we were; and our partner was the opposite.  So I collected a shell and was nominated to be Dhuwa which meant Dick was Yirritja.  We weren’t there long enough to really understand what that all meant.

Our guys that liked fishing had lots of opportunities to cast a line and quite a few large fish were caught.  Another night and another large campfire.  At one stage we heard a large “CRUNCH”, looked behind us and saw Nike crunching on some turtle bones.  It was kind of disconcerting or nerve-wracking to be looking out for Nike all the time, day and night.

I woke to a big fog so took pictures of the ‘verandah sleepers’ as well as the fog which wiped our our view of the ocean.

Before we left Bawaka some of the guys went fishing and most of us just hung around.  One of the young women in Timmie’s family came over and chatted to us, which was more interesting for the women in our group.  She was an articulate, well-spoken university student and we enjoyed her company.

Our time in Bawaka seemed longer than the two days it actually was.  The drive out on the sandy track was as bad as the drive in.  Here’s a taste of what the driving was like.

We were almost out of the sandy track area when we came upon a car bogged in the middle of the road.  Just when we thought we had survived the weekend well, Dick unfortunately hit the bogged car when we tried to pass it.  Both cars were driveable and no one was hurt so we exchanged details and carried on.

This blog has been more detailed than most because it was quite a different experience and I wanted to convey the fullness of that, especially in terms of aboriginal lifestyle and culture.  We feel privileged to have shared that time with Timmie, Randy and Jason.

We’re just past the halfway point on our Arnhem Land adventure and now beginning our exploration of east Arnhem Land, specifically the Gove Peninsula, from our base at the Walkabout Lodge & Tavern located in the middle of Nhulunbuy.  This map shows the various trips we took during the week we were based in Nhulunbuy.

The first foray was to Cape Arnhem and as there were size issues with our van we rode with Denise and Steve in their 4WD. It was a long day with challenging sand driving as we visited one of the most remote beach areas in Australia, most of which was superbly beautiful.

With some spare time in Nhulunbuy we could catch up on chores.  A cheeky bird got into our van and left a mess on our bed so I had extra washing chores to do. The afternoon saw us visit Rainbow Beach and get in a nice beach walk before we had a session with the owner of the hotel who talked about the history of Arnhem Land and the aboriginal people who live there. He showed us the deep harbor in town and the secenic lookout tower.  Nice to get some local flavor.

The next highlight was a drive to Yirrkala to visit the Buku-Larrngay Mulka Art Centre.  It was established in 1976 and is one of the oldest and most celebrated Indigenous community controlled art centres.

We had a look at the nationally treasured Yirrkala Church Panels and learned the story of their history. Amazing to see and no photos were allowed.  The two Church Panels (each 12 feet tall and four feet wide) were painted in 1962/63 with the sacred designs of clans in the Yirrkala region. As we learned, the Yolngu society is divided into two moieties -Dhuwa and Yirritja- and so too are the Church Panels.  Since the paintings mapped Yolngu rights in land, they were the first significant “land rights” statement documenting Aboriginal custodianship of their country. These panels were the forerunners of the famous Yirrkala Bark Petition sent to Canberra in 1963.  The more aboriginal history we learn in our travels, the more I feel ashamed for what has been done to the traditional owners and the more I marvel at their continued interest in sharing their culture with non-aboriginal people.

After another lovely beach stop for lunch we visited Garanhan Beach or Wurrwurrwuy, where a unique cluster of stone arrangements or stone pictures records the trade between the Yolngu people of Arnhem Land and Macassans from Indonesia that existed for several centuries until 1907, when the SA government enforced a customs duty on traded goods.  The stone pictures illustrate praus (Indonesian boats), fireplaces (for cauldrons to boil trepang), fish traps, houses and trepang (beche-de-mer or sea cucumber).

To finish off another full-on day we were promised a swim at Goanna Lagoon. A group of young aboriginal boys and their teachers were enjoying themselves so much there, that we opted out of a swim and just watched their antics.

Returning to town, we had to pick up our rental vehicle for a weekend away where we couldn’t take our van. We were going from being the ones in the most luxurious vehicle to having no accommodation and carrying our food, crockery and clothes in two bags.  That night we all went to the Boat Club for sunset and dinner.  Missed the sunset but got dinner in the beer garden overlooking the sea.  The next three days were incredibly memorable and a big bit of cultural immersion so that will start the next blog post.