Rebuilding and Reclaiming: Wunambal Elders Preserve Indigenous Culture

In the western part of Australia, somewhere in the northern area of the Kimberly region, lies Mitchell Plateau, known by Wunambal traditional owners as Ngauwudu. A mesmerising gift from nature and home to the Wunambal people, this is where their indigenous culture begins and thrives. Just like any Aboriginal tribe, they have their own unique approach to life and way of living, their own traditions and beliefs. Urth Magazine explores these and the beauty of their culture, their language, their relationship with nature.

The Wunambal tribe have lived in the area for at least 70,000 years and have a spiritual connection to the land that is unfathomable to anybody who is not indigenous.

But all these are at risk of disappearing.

“If we don’t do something about this, we’re going to lose the true Aboriginal culture of this country,” shares Paula Rangi, a school tutor for the Wunambal children.

Between 1910 and 1970, thousands of Aboriginal and First Nations children were forcibly removed from their families, because of government policies. This dark part of Australia’s history is one we need to continue to acknowledge, because it is still affecting the country and its citizens.

Throughout the 1970’s Wilfred Goonack had the willpower to bring back their people to their land. He fought the Australian government and won. Native title was finally awarded in 2011, 10 years after Wilfred had passed away and he was able to take back their ancestral domain.

To understand the need for housing and education is to go back and retrace their story. For a very long time, after the Wunambal people were removed from their lands, the government allowed mining companies to take over. A mining company that was interested in Bauxite deposits brought a few traditional owners back up to Mitchell Plateau to conduct an ethnological survey.

The mining company promised the Wunambal people would be supported in their endeavours once they got a mine up and running but they had a change of heart and auctioned everything off in Derby. After Wilfred brought back some of his people to Country, there was nothing left but slabs of concrete. With their location being so remote, rebuilding is not that easy. Much less putting up schools and housing for teachers.

Without homes and schools, their elders are unable to return to teach the Wunambal bushkids their language, culture, and traditions. Without available housing and only few Wunambal people who can speak their language, they fear that if they cannot house and bring other members of their tribe back to Country, they’ll lose their identity for good.

Generations after Wilfred, the Wunambal people are still rebuilding. They did not want history to repeat itself and they knew getting educated would help them protect their ancestral domain. With education comes better self-determination and a stronger understanding of their rights. However, the government withdrew their plans for funding the school and instead enforced an education model that’s inappropriate for bush kids.

The Wunambal people have a strong connection to their land. Now that some of them are back on Country, it’s just the beginning of the great efforts to ensure their culture won’t disappear.

“I went there to teach the kids, and I’m telling you, I learned more from them than what I ever could have taught them,” shares Paula. There are eleven kids on Country and taught by their elders, they’re already well-versed in hunting for their own meat. Paula details the kids’ hunting skills saying, “they will go out and they’ll get what they call a killer, which is a wild cow,” adding that “they’ll kill it, and skin it, and chop it, and bring it back to Country. And that’s their meat.” Paula further adds that these bush kids are also skilled in fishing and hunting if not a wild cow, a wild turkey, or emu.

When Paula was still living on Country, she asked when the rangers would come to do controlled burns on the landscape. Controlled, or ‘cool’ burning is a traditional Indigenous land management practice where the landscape is intentionally cleared with fire to reduce the density and risk of uncontrollable wildfires. It’s not simply lighting up the whole place. It takes skills and knowledge.

“Oh, we burn,” Paula shares of how a 12-year-old Wunambal kid responded to her asking about the ranger, adding, “he grabs my lighter, starts lighting up country, and if the fire starts to get somewhere he didn’t want it to go, he’d grab a branch of green leaves and take the fire back to where he wanted it to be.” To say that the wisdom and proficiency of Indigenous and Aboriginal groups are inspiring is an understatement.

“I watched this kid who was 12, do a controlled burn around the house where I was living,” Paula continues, adding, “you have to see it to believe it. Their skillset is unbelievable.”

As inspiring as these stories can be, the Wunambal people are facing challenges they shouldn’t be facing. They’ve had to find their own way to make money without government support, as well as build a school and pay their teachers out of their own pockets with no government assistance. They need to keep demanding for housing. “This is why we're doing this” shares Paula. “This is why I'm doing this [sharing their story] to try and raise funds for housing, because there are family members who want to come back to Country but there's no money for housing.”

As the Wunambal people continue to take care of their land, they too, deserve to be taken care of.

Sharing their stories is one way the Wunambal people are making money to provide for their community and pay their teachers. “There are two tourist companies next door. Those companies lease the land off them because it’s their country,” shares Paula. Some members of the Wanumbal community work as tour guides for these companies and with them so connected to their land, these are not your typical tour trips. They include stories only the Wunambal people can tell so graciously.

The road ahead is still very long. So many Wanumbal elders want to return to Country but without housing, it’s next to impossible. So many children are eager to learn, but with no curriculum or teachers who can provide lessons aligned with their culture, they end up slowly forgetting who they are. For a culture and a community to survive, their cultural identity and knowledge need to be passed on and we need to pay attention and do our part, while we still have the chance. Additionally, those responsible need to be held accountable to prevent the loss of the oldest continuously living culture on the planet.

Share this story to help spread the word about the Wunambal people and their efforts to keep their culture alive. For other Urth Magazine stories, get to know 5 Indigenous environmental activists here and learn how Indigenous wisdom helps us protect the environment.