KOWANYAMA PROJECT NEWS ISSUE 4 - Honouring Our Youth, May 2020 - Winter Edition

KOWANYAMA PROJECT Issue 4: May 2020

Winter edition

A special edition

KOWANYAMA PROJECT Issue 4: May 2020 Winter edition Published: Kowanyama Culture and Research Centre, Chellikee Street and Chapman Road, Kowanyama, Queensland. 4897 Printed: Lotsa Printing, Parramatta Park, Queensland 4870 Editorial: Viv Sinnamon email: Charlessinnamon2@gmail.com Phone: 0447 387 449

Cover: Nelson Brumby Jr making ironwood gum.

Ortno’ (Oriners) Culture Camp, August 2008 Opposite: Quade Murray pulling away split boomerang root Magnificent Creek.

Worrtha, January 2010 Back cover: Old Flying Fox scrub Worrtha, Photographs by Viv Sinnamon

A COMMUNITY MAGAZINE PRODUCED FOR THE KOWANYAMA COMMUNITY AND FRIENDS A community service of Kowanyama Project

Copyright © Reproduction of any of the content of this magazine may only occur with the written permission of the editor excepting use for Kowanyama cultural education purposes.

Photograph by Brenda Aidan 2018

FROM THE EDITOR

T

his issue celebrates achievements through more recent years of our community’s youth in maintaining an interest in listening to their Elders and the things they have to teach.

Many past students in culture have early families of their own and will one day be Elders who will have knowledge to pass onto their own children and grandchildren when all those who we loved as mentors in our lives are long gone.

We have on many occasions in recent times made dedications to Elders many recently passed. It is time to put into practice our acknowledgement of our youth. Those who took and are taking the time to listen to their aunties, uncles, grandmothers and grandfathers. A large part of this our fourth issue of The Kowanyama Project Magazine will celebrate those youth who continue to maintain an interest in their cultural heritage.

“Culture” is an invented word of modern times.

The Old People did not talk about ‘culture” because they lived and breathed their beliefs in their country and its people. “Culture” was their life. In bush times there was no other way.

Country was their world and sadly much has been forgotten since those days. People now live in a different world and struggle as Aboriginal people to pass on the traditional knowledge and practices of their ancestors.

Forty years ago, Kowanyama Councillors and Elders talked about the need to teach the young and it is still being said.

Kowanyama Project was established in 2003 as a community campaign to maintain the heritage of the ancestors and their children through passing on knowledge using new media like Facebook, videos and school cultural classes. Families are encouraged to teach traditional knowledge the old way, at home and in the bush while they are hunting, camping and fishing.

Culture is more than just a museum full of artefacts.

It is more than a few dilly bags and spears. It is about things that many people still do that are special to Kowanyama and the way they honour their Old People, their ancestors.

Thank you to Brenda for the wonderful photo of I and my old brother Chook. He was very proud of the boys he was able to pass some of his knowledge and skills on to. He wished he had more time to do more, but it was not to be.

It is now this generation’s turn to find ways to maintain very special knowledge and things that came from the many thousands of years of ancestors, and to make them proud.

I hope everyone enjoys this edition as we celebrate our youth in 2020 in spite of all the things like the Corona Virus that this future of ours throws at us.

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HONOURING OUR YOUNGER GENERATION IN 2020

CONTENT

Kowanyama 2014

Tonya’s big minya A story in the Australian Newspaper

7

Desperate attempt to maintain traditional knowledge and practices

8

Master Weavers of Kowanyama

10

Time is not our friend

13

Special moments in time

17

Celebrating our Youth in 2020

18

Dr Jean White First Lady Flying Doctor

20

Dr Jean White The full story

23

Past student’s arts and cultural activities

28

Queensland Police Museum

29

Goannas of the Mitchell River, NQ

30

First Contact with whitefullas Claiming and naming another people’s country

32

Contact history of the Mitchell in a nutshell

34

Capturing the history of early contact Mukarnt 2015

A collection of photographs, documents and objects

34

Maps of The Kowanyama Collection

35

Photographs of The Kowanyama Collection Our growing Archive

36

Buttons of the Empire

40

Honouring our Native American networks Inspiring us from when it began in 1988

41

Farthings and Half Pennies Puyul 1934

English money to its colonies

42

The Pastoral Era An enduring presence

43

Nugget Finch’s rawhide quart pot holder

45

Koch Yawrnh’s enduring legacy to his people A Yir Yoront Bone, stone and shell tool collection

46

Old Man Moon A story by Johnny Ma thabvlang

48

We are not alone We have much to learn from each other Laura 2015

49

Kowanyama Council applies for grant Planning a way forward for Kowanyama Project

50

A child’s first catch is a traditional milestone in a child’s life and something to be celebrated.

Page 6 Zipporah’s first catch. A nice grunter Topsy 2019

CONTINUING OUR KNOWLEDGE OF TRADITIONA FOODS

TONYA’S BIG MINYA

T

onya got a call from newspaper reporter, Paige Taylor, who wanted to write a story about a big goanna that was taken during a hunt out at Kupeyuw. The catch got an article in an April issue of The Australian.

Sand Goannas were in serious trouble after the release of a flour drum full of cane toads from Chillagoe that were released at Mitchell River Mission in the 1960’s.

Latonya Inkerman out bush with catch of the day. April 2020

Sand Goannas were in serious trouble after the release of a flour drum full of cane toads caught in Chillagoe and released at Mitchell River Mission in the 1960’s. The invader took over burrows and many animals died trying to eat cane toads that were introduced into Australia in the 1930’s thinking it would kill the sugar cane beetle and save the Cane industry. It didn’t eat the beetle and Australian native animals have worked out their own way to deal with their hungry invader.

This is good news to indigenous communities able to enjoy a goanna on the coals as a valued traditional bush food and also for sustainability of ground burrowing animals like goannas, native rats and echidna. The pest has been known to eat their small babies or the parents cannot get back to their burrow.

Read more about goannas on page 30

Many animals that ate the toad died until many birds like crows, falcons found ways to kill and eat them by flipping the toad on its back and eating out its belly. That way they avoided the poison held in sacs of the side of its head. Goannas learned to keep away from them and not eat the poisonous pest.

Other animals like the goanna got wise to their poisonous visitor and the population of goannas around began to bounce back.

Toads occupy the burrows of ground animals like the echidna, goanna and rats.

The population of toads does not seem to be as high these days which has taken the pressure off ground burrowing animals which includes the goanna.

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MAINTAINING THE HERITAGE OF OUR ANCESTORS

Desperate attempt to maintain traditional knowledge and practices.

Aaron Davey worked with the

Cultural Centre to select core activities like spear making in which over a period of time the traditional materials were collected for students to have their own fishing spear by end of term.

Another teacher Nate Brown successfully worked with students in the gathering of resources to build a traditional bough shed in the school grounds.

The project involved both male and female students

Boys in the Cultural Class led by Aaron Davey and Elders were the first students to follow a culture class over a full two-year period in Kowanyama.

Aaron Davey the student’s teacher is now a teacher in Agricultural Sciences at Clermont a Central Western Queensland town. He loves the bush and was able to work closely with a small group of men to run classes with the boys almost every week.

Photographs were taken and published in available local news magazines and featured in Aaron’s final year at the student graduation ceremony. An exhibition of cultural objects was organized for the event to acknowledge student achievement.

The reality for classes like this depends entirely upon the school’s capacity to deliver cultural studies appropriately.

In a few short years since these courses key Elders involved have either passed or are in nursing care. Some families maintain traditional practices not depending on the school to teach their children their culture.

Others need to follow their lead knowing that a rich culture is more than spears and dilly bags and a museum full of artefacts.

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MAINTAINING THE HERITAGE OF OUR ANCESTORS

Nate Brown with the class bough shed successfully completed in the school yard 2014

Teacher Aaron Davey with students at the School Exhibition of Cultural Objects and photos of 2015 Cultural Classes

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MAINTAINING TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS

Abmbin fine weave basket by Master Weaver Doreen Yam Kowanyama Collection acquired 2018

Kowanyama has a collection of traditional basketry that spans seventy years of weaving by some of our most skilled master weavers.

Men also made fibre works in fig tree string for fish nets and fishing lines.

Old Greenwool was the last of the basket fish trap makers passing in the early 1970’s. It is said that his big traps (Lart) were so strong and fine that they could be sat on.

Now the number of women master weavers are few and the traditional skills of bag and basket making is under threat.

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Bags of some of our weavers are in major east coast museum collections. Others have been in exhibitions around Australia. The last exhibitions were held in Cairns in 2018.

A number of key Elders through the last decades have encouraged young girls and women to learn the ancient craft.

A small number of younger women and girls have committed to maintaining this tradition and master weavers are getting old and few in number. It is a traditional skill that nobody wants to lose.

Sharlene Brumby and The Late Master Weaver, Clara Yam cutting palm leaf Awin Udnum: 2013

Master Weavers of Kowanyama

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Photo by Guy Hancock

Photograph by Guy Hancock

Photograph by Viv Sinnamon Brighton College Photograph

Tillett Raymond watches Jerry Mission fix a bone barb to a spear point.

Unknown Date: Kowanyama School Culture Class

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Teddy Aidan proudly shows a Brighton College Student from Melbourne the processing of ironwood gum Worrtha 2015

TIME IS NOT OUR FRIEND Our children need to see things, to be involved in things and to do things at a very young age

“As a young fulla I used to like sitting just listening to those old people in the bush camps talking, and how they talked. Just like English we had our big words too!”.

Jerry Mission 1990’s In the old days children were surrounded by a lifestyle in the bush with family. Learning never stopped because that is the way things were done. Now life in a modern world is different and as adults we need to make an effort to teach our children and for them to be involved in cultural activities.

Sometimes we do not realise that our children and grandchildren are watching and listening to what is going on around them and they are learning things themselves without the help of adults.

Now sometimes we need to remind both ourselves and children that we do not live on forever and that these days father time is not our friend.

This is the same with speaking a language. When we are surrounded by adults all talking English and go to schools where the local language is not spoken it is hard to learn.

Nowadays English is the main spoken word and our children do not hear Kokoberra, Yir Yoront or Kunjen and Olkol. The days are gone of the camps where everyone spoke their own language and children learned from the day that they were born to hear the sounds of the language that everyone spoke. There are few speakers of any of the main original languages of Mitchell River country now.

As some know it is not easy learning from a book. The spelling sometimes confuses people when they see their written language without hearing the sounds of the word.

Elders and people of all ages are passing away and so it is urgent that we realise that truly time is short to save our languages and the cultural heritage that goes with it.

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CELEBRATING THE CHILDREN OF OUR ANCESTORS

The Late Edgar Bendigo Master Craftsman Oriners 2008

To all our Elders who have passed

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The late Warwick David Sr Master Craftsman Worrtha 2015

The Late Doreen Michael Master Weaver Kowanyama 2018

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MITCHELL RIVER COUNTRY One big story place

A great place to learn Page16

MAINTAINING TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS

Special moments in time

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CELEBRATING OUR YOUTH IN 2020

Many of these boys from 1978 have children of their own now. Some even have grandchildren.

Sadly, some of the dancers are no longer with us.

Kowanyama boys dance group Pormpuraaw 1977. Pormpuraaw community was impressed with the young dancers.

Some students take an out of school interest with a group who frequent the Cultural Centre and show an interest in adults who are craftsmen at work at home.

Bush school cultural classes were popular with boys in Aaron Davey’s two years of teaching at Kowanyama.

Bush plants botany class on the edge of town.

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OUR FUTURE ELDERS AND LEADERS Young girls have always been part of dancing both at home and travelling away to other places sometimes at their High School Colleges during NAIDOC celebrations.

Others continue to learn other skills the traditional way in the bush.

Photograph by Chedwa Whyte Oriners 2008

Getting ready for a performance at the 2011 Laura Dance Festival.

Wallaby and duck for dinner at Ortno’ (Oriners) 2008

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Dr. Jean White, Mrs Simpson, Reverend Fred McKay AIM Padre, Dr Gordon Albury (RFDS Cloncurry), Reverend John Flynn and wife Jean at a picnic at Cloncurry 1937

Dr Jean White first lady Flying Doctor.

There were always stories around Kowanyama amongst the old people about early plane crashes on the Mitchell. An American Airforce bomber had run out of fuel and made a forced landing on the Gilgai plain at Umbaladey east of Shelfo in 1944. It was the first time a road was cut to the Mitchell River for the Airforce crew to drive their trucks to the site. With the help of Alex McLeod and a team of men the plane was repaired and flown back to Charters Towers.

A second crash that was talked about came to light when Viv and Patrick Eric were mapping the old man’s clan country. An area was shown where the crash had happened at Tha lewen

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only a kilometre or so from Wul’a known as Water Place and running parallel to Perntenvm a short ridge west of Wul’a. There was little information about the crash by a “lady Flying Doctor” at the time but we now have the story.

This year photos appeared on Normanton Facebook page, Normanton and Surrounds.

Photos were posted by Craig Marsterson found while researching Gulf history in Townsville.

The photographs shown here are just two of quite a few images of interest to Kowanyama.

Craig was able to shed some light on who the “lady pilot” was and has provided us with the details with copies of published stories.

The Royal Flying Doctor Service was established in Cloncurry in 1928 with its first flying doctor. It was decided that Dr Jean White be placed at Croydon Hospital. On January 27 1939 the plane was finishing a run to Mitchell River Mission with two onboard, Dr Jean White and Pilot Doug Tennant. The plane was running very low on fuel and made a forced landing at Tha lewen, on Kokomnjen Island. As they landed the little Fox Moth biplane on a low sand rise. It capsized and was badly damaged.

Luckily Dr Jean only had a badly bruised arm and the pilot was okay.

They were five days in the bush before being found. They were lucky too that Water Place was not far away.

Read on for full story on page 23

EDITORIAL COMMENT ON THE STORY Constable McNaught was the Coen Policeman of the time and one of his trackers was Geoffrey Phillip.

It is almost certain that Geoffrey was with McNaught when they crossed to Kokomnjen Island at Kowulh yal’alh (Old Bottom Landing) for the other side at Larr lowpnhan. There was a well-used walking track through the mangroves at Peth warruwnhan to Yumanvm and the rest of the island that was still evident in the early 1980’s.

Where Tennant the Pilot found water is almost certainly Wul’a (Water Place). It is very lucky they did not arrive later when floodwaters covered the area from Min pengr thila at the Five Ways of the Main Mitchell all the way back to the camps on the main sand ridge at Pin warruwnhan and Mirtayrh.

Par luw kana luw AKA Minh thurr’n, The Late Patrick Eric Sr and his mob speared Ngar tha’ (Red sided burrowing cod) and other fish in the shallows during the height of the wet season when freshwater floods covered the lower delta plains. The eastern side of Kokomnjen Island was Patrick’s Yirrk Thangakl Wallaby Scrub Turkey Clan (Kurr kamuw) country.

There were many people at the Mission who knew that country very well. In the 1937 Mission diaries mention is made of McNaught and his involvement in apprehending Jack Bruno at the Landing. Bruno escaped from Palm Island and had made his way back to his Mitchell River home. In 1930 Cecil Horace and Willie Mitchell were crossing at the same place as McNaught at the junction on their way back from hunting in lower Magnificent Creek country. Their father, Rock Cod was taken by a crocodile right in front of them and never found. The whole area is well known for its crocodile population to the present day. Doctor Jean and Captain Tennant were very lucky to survive in many ways. It is unfortunate that a local version of McNaught’s crossing was never recorded.

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Photographs by Viv Sinnamon

Minh Worrpol, Juvenile Sea Eagles Thakuluw, Topsy Creek

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Nelson Brumby Senior dancing the Fish Hawk Kowanyama 1977

KNOWING THE SHARED HISTORY OF OUR ANCESTORS

Salome Jean White (1905 - 15 July 1974)

When Jean White graduated as a Doctor of Medicine at Melbourne University in 1929. It was a man’s world in which she found herself Australia’s first woman Flying Doctor. Young Anthropologist Ursula McConnell travelled on horseback to Aurukun around the same era in the 1930’s. Things were not easy for women like Jean White and Ursula McConnell, one in a plane and the other on horseback.

They were both strong and wilful women.

The young Doctor was posted to Normanton Hospital in 1937 and soon found herself in trouble for speaking her mind on arrangements in the Aboriginal ward there. Rev. John Flynn found her a position at Croydon where she became well liked throughout the region in those first years of the Royal Flying Doctor Service.

She had a big region to cover and although she returned to Melbourne to establish herself back in Victoria not long after the crash, she clearly loved the people and bush work, and the people loved her.

Some were worried about her flying around with her pilot Captain Doug Tennant over country where there were few roads and airports that were often very rough. The airport at Mitchell River Mission had been completed soon after 1937 providing a mail service and the new RFDS. The new strip would also become a surveillance Base in the 1940’s during World War 2 when it was upgraded to take light defence aircraft.

The Flying Doctor Service’s Doctor and the little two-winged Fox Moth ran a very busy service that often started as soon as the pilot could see the instruments in the early dawn light. It is clear from her account of the day they force landed on their way to Mitchell River Mission that she was a very special person.

A section from a book is being reprinted for readers to enjoy. That both Doctor and Pilot survived the cash and were able to be rescued in February was sheer luck on their part. At that time of year often the geese are laying in the wetlands and the Magnificent Creek could have been flooded making travel to the landing very risky if not impossible.

The Editor has printed the story as it was written and anyone who knows the country must excuse obvious errors about people and country but it is a clear and wonderful account of what happened.

Same kind of biplane that crashed in 1939

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Taken from " Flynn’s Outback Angels" Vol 1 by Ivan Rudolph, 2013 Boolarong Press. ISBN 1 875998 91 8.

Jean had collected medicine bottles from Lotus Vale Station and had visited various places on the Cape York Peninsula. It was January 27th and the sky was clear and the weather calm when the Fox Moth lifted from the airstrip at Delta Station bound for the Mitchell River Mission.

Ever alert, Captain Doug Tennant had seen an ugly storm building ahead of them, so changed direction to fly around it. This used up valuable fuel. Then powerful north west winds in the cyclone caused the storm to race back over their path. Soon their route to the Mission was cut off. He kept circling, waiting for the storm to moderate.

Now running short on fuel, he tried a desperate run into the storm to try and penetrate it but was tossed about violently by the winds.

Visibility dropped to zero. He turned the plane and strong gusts spat them out. He was most relieved to escape the maelstrom in one piece.

No fuel The engine rattled and misfired, warning Tennant that his fuel was coming to an end. “What was that Doug?” Jean called out through the intercom, trying to hide her concern.

“Check your safety belt is tight. Our fuel is nearly finished. I will have to put her down soon”.

Tennant’s eyes scoured the terrain as he spoke, looking desperately for a clearing on which to crash. The thick tree cover gave little hope. This was mangrove and swamp country, heavily wooded and sparsely populated. As their height dropped, Tennant saw the wide Mitchell River below them and noticed a sandy oasis in the expanse of water, Cocomungin Island Sic.

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Here, at least, was hope providing they could find a stretch without trees or rocks Sic. Jean felt no fear, just mild apprehension, as they glided towards the island.

Tennant put the plane down as slowly as he dared. Any slower and the engine would have stalled. The ground rushed up at them with frightening speed. The wheels ran smoothly along the sand at first, a testament to the pilot’s skill, but the rain had produced some soft patches.

Crash on sandy place The wheels caught in one of these while they were moving quickly, tipping the nose of the plane into the sand. Jean felt herself being lifted high, then turning right over and, finally crashing down. The plane had dug its nose in, somersaulted and flipped onto its back.

The Doctor found herself upside down and crushed under a weight of tangled gear: wireless equipment, medicine bottles, cases, tinned foods and potatoes. Her right arm was in great pain and she could not release her safety belt with her left hand alone.

Was Tennant badly injured, perhaps killed?

Nobody killed Her instincts were to do what she could to reach him, but her struggles only increased her pain. She was well and truly pinned down.

She stopped struggling for a few seconds to catch her breath.

In the silence she heard noises above her.

It was Tennant forcing open the cabin in order to reach her.

Next thing he was tossing out the gear that was pressing down on her.

The Mitchell in full flood where Tennant flew over the river in 1939 onto Kokomnjen Island near Minh Pengr thila at what is now known as the Five Ways (centre photo).

Once free, she was surprised how shaken she felt.

Nevertheless, she managed to ask rather breathlessly, “are you all right, Doug”?

“It will only have to last us a day or two so we needn’t make it too fancy,” Tennant observed.

“Yes, a bit battered, but otherwise fine. Your arm doesn’t look too good to me.”

Tennant removed the radio from the aeroplane and set it up by a tree. He hung the long aerial wire in the branches. It would not transmit.

“No, it’s not.” Her arm right arm hung limply. She examined it quickly using the fingers of her left hand.

Cuts and bad bruises “Can I do anything for it?”

“No thanks. It’s not broken, just crushed. It will become mobile again in a while. Here, let me give you a checkup.”

Tennant did not argue Doctor White had always impressed him with her no-nonsense approach.

He submitted to her medical examination.

When she was satisfied that he was only bruised and had no broken bones or obvious internal injuries, she inquired, “what’s our situation here?”

“That’s a good question. The plane is out of commission, quite obviously, so we’d best sit tight until the storm has blown itself out. I’ll set us up a crude shelter, then radio for help.”

Both were soaked through already and rivulets streamed down their faces and dripped from their fingertips, but the water was warm and exposure posed no immediate threat.

Jean discovered her right arm remained fairly useless as they rigged up a rough shelter using branches and a tarpaulin scavenged from the aeroplane.

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Radio not working

He turned the dial to receive.

Radio chatter came faintly through. He turned to transmit again, but that circuit was dead.

He returned to the crude shelter to discuss their position with Jean.

“The radio was damaged in the crash and I can’t repair it,” he told her grimly. “We are some distance off our intended flight path, so it will take rescuers a while to locate us, if at all.”

They would need to settle down and wait for rescuers to come, so they returned to the upended aeroplane and dug around inside.

Sardines and Potatoes They pulled out tins of sardines, a few tins of vegetables and a number of loose potatoes.

“The bright side is that we have enough food to last us several days,” Tennant observed, putting as good a spin on it as he could.

“Providing we can find us fresh water to drink, I think we should sit tight and see what transpires.

If they haven’t found us by the time our food runs low, we’ll try to walk out. I don’t fancy that because there are very big crocs in the Mitchell, some of the biggest in the world, and also tangles of creeks and mangroves and thick bush between civilization and us. Our best hope is that someone’ll find us first.”

Water is found Tennant went in search of potable water, the river being estuarine and too salty to drink.

To his delight he found good

Water Tennant went in search of potable water, the river being estuarine and too salty to drink. To his delight he found good fresh water about three kilometres from the crash site.

He also discovered the island was bigger than he had supposed, though uninhabited.

When he returned to the makeshift camp dusk had arrived and with swarms of ravenous mosquitoes. The two crash victims found themselves helpless against the hordes of stinging insects. By 11.00 pm their arms legs and faces were swollen and they were desperate.

“I can’t stand this anymore’” Jean said. “Let’s look in the plane for something to cover our heads with, even boxes of paper bags would help. I won’t last the night with all the stings I am getting.”

They ransacked the cargo by moonlight, tearing open the parcels impatiently. Doctor White let out a squeal of delight.

Dunbar mossie nets “Hey look at this,” she said holding something aloft in triumph. It tumbled down from her hands and glowed a silvery white in the moonlight like a bridal veil…mosquito netting!

The nets had been intended for Dunbar Station. “How I thanked God when I saw those nets,” she wrote later. She did not mean it flippantly.

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Wula’ (Water Place) west of Yumanvm where Pilot

They draped the nets over and around themselves the best they could and had relief from the relentless stinging for the first time in hours. Jean took grim pleasure in the angry whining of the frustrated mosquitoes as they attacked the net time and again, but without success.

“What’s that noise?” she asked Tennant later.

“Crocodiles thrashing around.”

“Are we safe here?”

“We are far enough away from the riverbank, I think,” was his laconic reply.

Blue skies and waiting Saturday and Sunday passed.

The cyclonic storm had abated and the skies were blue, but empty.

It was especially frustrating to hear the radio messages exchanged between search parties out looking for them, as they were unable to transmit their position. Tennant began to its attention. think seriously about crossing the Mitchell and walking out.

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A plane overhead Then on the Monday, a plane droned overhead. They waved their arms and shouted, but failed to attract its attention.

“Damn, I thought they would have seen our crash (site). We must organize ourselves better to signal an aeroplane, if we are lucky enough for another to come close. I’ll stack a fire to light when we hear one coming.”

“Isn’t the bush around here too wet for that.”

The next day they heard the plane before they saw it. Their frantic attempts to light the fire failed. Tennant then grabbed Jean’s hand mirror and flashed it in the sun. They both stood in a clearing and Jean waved her left arm frenetically, her right being too tender.

Note to stay put The pilot, Swaffield, saw the flashes and dropped low to investigate. They now both waved madly. The pilot waggled the wings of the plane to show he had seen them, then banked and executed a wide circle before dropping rations and a message. They were to stay where they were and a search party would be sent out at once.

Photograph by Viv Sinnamon

Doug Tennant would have found water after the crash at Tha lewvn just two kilometres from the western end of the lagoon which in the days before cattle was permanent water and key to life on the island.

The rescue attempt was held up until Constable McNaught was located. He was the man with the local knowledge Sic. needed to lead a party of men through the bush to Cocomungin Island sic. On arrival there, high tidal waters that teemed with saltwater crocodiles thwarted them. Undaunted, Constable McNaught lashed together a raft for the crossing. Two Aboriginal searchers followed behind him, each bravely paddling on logs.

Croc at crossing When part way across, Constable McNaught heard a yelling behind him.

He swiveled to see a long dark shape gliding through the water towards the two Aborigines! He yelled out to them to change direction. The crocodile swirled around and headed towards McNaught instead. Knowing an attack on the raft would tip him into the water, he raced back furiously towards the bank again.

The crocodile hesitated when the water became very shallow. McNaught leapt off and dragged the raft up to the land. When he had caught his breath sufficiently, he radioed a message to search headquarters to send out more men and equipment.

All Australia celebrated their safe return.

Doctor Laver after discussions with an exhausted Jean, wrote an interesting report to AIM Headquarters. Among other things, he recommended the single engine Fox Moth be replaced by a twin-engine Dragon. He was also critical of the particular wireless used, which he stated had a reputation for unreliability, quoting no less authority than Fergus McMaster. “It often required coaxing to make it work properly and is too delicate to survive a crash. A more rugged expensive and less temperamental set should be used.” Flynn moved at once on both these suggestions.

The following day a second party arrived that included Flying Doctor, John Laver along with Fergus McMaster and others. Protected by guns, they and McNaught made the crossing at low tide when attack by crocodiles was far less likely.

Jean and Doug saw their rescuers at 8.30 am on February 1st, a full five days since their crash.

After brief greetings and inquiries, Doctor Laver insisted on examining both Doug and Jean. He immobilised Jean’s bruised arm in a plaster cast o that she would be able to walk out without too much pain. She told him sheepishly, “we’ve been too busy for me to notice it much until now.” The party then turned back toward the river, needing to cross before the tide rose again.

During the late 1930’s and 1940’s The Late Geoffrey Phillip, a Yir Yoront man and older brother to Jerry Mission worked as a tracker with Policeman McNaught who was based in Coen.

Ex Police Tracker The Late Geoffrey Phillip 1930-40’s

We are almost certain that he would have been with McNaught when the rescue party went out to the crash site at Tha lewen and would have known the traditional walking pad through the mangroves at Larr lowpnhan to Yumanvm.

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Photographs by Viv Sinnamon

The crossing at Larr Lowpnhnan where Rock Cod a Yir Yoront man was taken by a crocodile in 1930 and the crossing used to get to the crash site at Tha lewen.

Mural by Art Teacher Rachel Morgan with students 2008

Past Student Culture and Arts Activities.

Maintaining traditional knowledge, language and practice is a primary responsibility of families and community but the School’s curriculum should reflect Aboriginal Community needs and a duty to include cultural studies.

Community members and RAATSIC recently developed appropriate materials for teachers, and there is talk again of the inclusion of language classes. Covid 19 has clearly impacted the school this year but there is an urgency to the issue of cultural studies that has been subject to longer term challenges.

In the past cultural activities at the school have been heavily dependent upon teachers with both the interest and capacity to organise and implement class activities either in class or in the bush.

Office collaborated in production of the Savannah Poster.

A digital version of the poster is now available from Kowanyama Archive for copying for future teaching purposes at Kowanyama.

Experience has shown that often for some reason Art Teachers often seem to manage classes with community members and Elders quite well. They have left legacies which were often permanent in the form of installations or teaching resources. Examples being a P CAP funded illustrated bush foods book by Alison Kindt, the rainbow and flying fox mural under the school by Rachel Morgan and students and The Late Marie Edmiston’s basket classes. All were labours of love with student and community participation.

Two indigenous school staff spent countless hours sourcing, sorting and logging a special Kowanyama section in the library. This no longer exists as a discrete collection. In 2017 a significant collection of stories illustrated by the author, The Late Grace Dick (past Teacher’s Aide), was salvaged from the dump. It was copied and Grace got a copy before she passed, commenting that she had not seen a copy for more than fifteen years.

In the early eighties Kowanyama School Principal, Ray Armit assisted in the development a Board registered subject for Higher School students called The River. One of the key objectives of the course was the ongoing accumulation of teaching materials in recorded interviews, art works and cultural information for future classes. The course continued with the interest of both Principal and Allison Kindt. Upon transfer of Ray and the departure of Allison cultural studies ceased. The course experienced difficulties with liability issues relating to bush classes and the perceived dangers of student’s use of spears, lighting fires, ground ovens etc.

In the following years boxes of Allison Kindt’s valuable class materials were rescued from a trip to the dump by a concerned teacher and lodged with the Land Office.

A teacher from the early seventies, Neville Simpson, remarked recently that under Principal Ian Bonney the school had successfully included cultural studies as a matter of course. Neville was the author of a series of excellent large format posters on the seasonal use of traditional resources. Community members and the Kowanyama Land and Natural Resources Management

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Positive recent efforts by teachers, Nate Brown and Aaron Davey show it can be done. Their efforts have been described in a number of issues of Kowanyama News.

Achieving literacy and numeracy objectives shouldn’t be a barrier to creative development of culturally appropriate curriculum, rather than just a series of “interesting activities” to occupy student time.

A challenge facing the school is continuity of staff and the capacity of (2014-15) the community to give sustained direction on curriculum structure that reflects Kowanyama’s cultural and social needs and survives the numerous future school staff changes.

There are exciting future opportunities for future creative teaching for both the school and community.

This article is written in good faith. It is hoped it can help in planning a way forward. This is not a personal attack on teaching staff and honours the good work of past and current Kowanyama State School staff. Editor’s note

QUEENSLAND POLICE MUSEUM Roma Street, Brisbane Khaki uniforms were adopted in 1896 to replace the old blue uniform. Officers of the Native Mounted Police in North Queensland wore the later uniform which was similar to the uniform worn by Australians in the Boer War in Africa supporting the British.

A Queensland Police belt and buttons have been bought from a Paddington Antiques Emporium. Viv Sinnamon was in Brisbane completing work with Alex Shaw at Wooloongabba Art Gallery on Algngga orrngan the book on the Olkola Messmate Humpy.

There has been a search to find objects from the time when Police Trackers replaced Mounted Native Police. Native Police uniform and a trackers khaki uniform are being reproduced for the Kowanyama Collection .

Geoffrey Phillip was a tracker working with Constable McNaught who was stationed at Coen and spent a lot of time over around Edward River and the Coleman River on patrol.

Viv visited the Police Museum in Brisbane to check the date of the belt. There is a large display of early Aboriginal Police uniforms and equipment and it has been visited twice now. Lisa Jones the Curator of the Police Museum was able to compare the belt’s buckle with another in their collection.

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Photograph by Gary Drewien

MAINTAINING THE HERITAGE OF OUR ANCESTORS

Water Goanna Varanus mertensis Yir Yoront: Minh thangr Kokoberra: Min guriny Kunjen: Inh

Roadside culvert watercourse into PvnbeR wvtaR

Photograph by Jeff Shellberg

Sand Goanna Varanus panoptes Yir Yoront: Minh ngarrchuw Kokoberra: Min ngurrchem Uw Oykangand: Inh ogondel Uw Olkol: Inh akondel

Topsy Creek Dune woodland

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Tree Goanna (Wanguw) Varanus mertensis Yir Yoront: Minh lirriy Kokoberra: Min ngurrchem

GOANNAS OF THE MITCHELL RIVER

Uw Oykangand: Inh achimb Uw Olkol: Inh ajimb

Roadside east of Umbaladey

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FIRST CONTACT WITH WHITEFULLAS Claiming and naming another people’s country The oldest recorded contact between the New World and the original residents of the Mitchell River Delta happened in the 1600’s. The Dutch visited the region during their early exploration of New Holland (Now known as Australia) 170 years before Captain Cook arrived.

Jan Carstenzoon in his vessel the Arnhem visited the Mitchell River in 1623 where he captured two men possibly from near the Mitchell River.

They died later on the way back to Batavia. The only remaining traces of their visit were some names given to some places on the Gulf coast.

The Mitchell River was called the Vereneeschde Revier on the 4th of May 1623 by Carstenszoon. The Nassau Revier was named out of respect to Maurice of Nassau.

Maurits van Oranje; 14 November 1567 – 23 April 1625) was sovereign Prince of Orange from 1618, on the death of his eldest half brother, Philip William, Prince of Orange, (1554–1618).

Maurice was stadtholder of the United Provinces of the Netherlands (except in the province of Friesland) from earliest 1585 until his death in 1625. The Staaten River was named Staaten Revier after the Staaten Generaal (The Dutch Parliament). Both rivers kept their original Dutch Names from an earlier visit. Another was the Golf van Carpentier now known as the Gulf of

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Carpentaria named by Carstenszoon in honour of Pieter de Carpentier, the Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies in what is now known as Indonesia.

Present day Cape York was known to the Dutch as Carpentier after the same person.

Other places in Australia named by the Dutch were renamed by other European explorers centuries later including the Englishman, Matthew Flinders who sailed around Australia including the Gulf region in 1802-03 and

Frenchman, Nicolas Baudin in his boat, le Geographe.

In 1802 England and France were at war and in a race to discover and claim foreign lands for themselves.

Both Flinders and Baudin are recorded as having had respect for indigenous people in their exploration in Australian waters.

Flinders lost a crew member at Blue Mud Bay and an Aboriginal man was shot in late January 1802 (Scott, Chapter 18 2004).

Baudin was unusual for his time when he gave his view on indigenous rights in a private letter to Governor King of NSW when he left Port Jackson (Sydney) in 1802. The French Government may not have had the same idea as their explorer Nicolas Baudin especially with France and England at war.

“To my way of thinking, I have never been able to conceive that there was justice or even fairness on the part of Europeans in seizing, in the name of their governments, a land seen for the first time, when it was inhabited by men who have not always deserved the title of savages, or cannibals, that has been freely given them; … it would be infinitely more glorious for your nation, as for mine, to mould for society the inhabitants of its own country, over whom it has rights, rather than wishing to occupy itself with the improvement of those who are far removed from it, by beginning with seizing the soil which belongs to them and which saw their birth.” [HRNSW, vol. V].

Flinders would later become known for the number of names he gave the features of the country that he visited during his voyages in Australian waters (Scott Chapter 18 2004). France and England were eager to attach their names to someone else’s lands and country as were the Dutch of the 1600’s.

on the Main Mitchell River to the north.

Exploring nations were unaware, or did not care, that the country that they ‘found’ carried many thousands of named sites and places given by the original indigenous people of the Mitchell River Delta.

Pinarinch being the Nassau, Marrpaw the Topsy Creek, Yengkr and Wurrpa on the South Mitchell and Kun’mul

A small iron cannon found at Nar near Wurrpa was “discovered” and removed by a pioneering pastoralist of Lochnigar Station in 1919 and was sent to the Queensland Museum. The cannon is now held at Kowanyama and remains the only tangible evidence of early exploration. The cast iron deck signal gun had

The cannon is not Dutch and looks like it might be an English cannon of the early 1800’s been cared for by local clansmen as an object used in Frigate bird increase ceremonies before its “discovery” by the grazier.

Being iron, the gun is almost certainly from a later period than the Dutch exploration of the Gulf of Carpentaria when cannons were bronze.

(Pers com Ben Cropp 2014)

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CONTACT HISTORY OF THE MITCHELL IN A NUTSHELL Except for a brief visit by the Dutch kidnapping two men from the beach somewhere on a beach of the delta during a search for water and Matthew Flinders on his voyage in the Gulf in early 1803 contacts with the outside world came late to Northern Queensland. In 1829 explorer Ludwig Leichardt had a number of his men speared and Gilbert his scientist died for meddling with women near

A PHOTO ARCHIVE OF GREAT SIGNIFICANCE TO OUR HISTORY

Killarney Waterhole on present day Rutland Plains.

The Jardine Brothers in 1864 took cattle to Somerset and had their fight on the Mitchell with a large group of men and over thirty local men died.

In 1884 Normanton was established as a steam ship port to supply the new found Croydon Goldfields and the new Gulf region cattle stations as far south as Cloncurry.

Dunbar run was taken up and soon after the Bowman brothers took leases on Rutland Plains. A Native Mounted Police camp was established at Cairo Lagoon to assist the newcomers in establishing their properties. The spearing and shooting began. Ending in the spearing of Frank Bowman in in 1910 near Trubanamen Mission that opened just five years before.

Capturing the history of early contact A collection of photographs documents and objects Kowanyama Collection has continued to obtain valuable photographs of early European settlement of the region that impacted the ancestors of The Kowanyama People and their near neighbours. It also continues to locate and acquire more recent collections of photographs taken by Mission staff.

New phones have become cameras and some very good photos are appearing on Facebook postings and as the Kowanyama Photo Archive grows it will be important to continue to collect our present-day images of family and places. This then will become the mirror into the past for future generations when these generations are Kowanyama Collection is growing gone. As Arbie Flower once said, a way of “looking back with the addition of objects, from the future.”

photographs,

maps

and

Friends and followers of our Kowanyama Project page documents that have been selected have been generous in their assistance with some to cover the Native Police times, amazing photographs and news clippings from the Cattle Station times, Mission time, distant past. Thank you, Vernon AhKee for the addition Government time, through to the photo and information about the story of Cumjum from time when Aboriginal management Lochnigar and Mentana 1894. Thanks too to Craig of the old Mitchell River Reserve Marsterson of Townsville who has more recently sent the photos and story of Dr. Jean White and her crash Lands begin with the handover of near the Landing in 1939 as well as other early historical Deeds of Grant in Trust Title and information on Dunbar and the AIM Hospital, and the the times of Native Title. first plane to land on the newly made airstrip at Mitchell River in 1939. Our Photo Collections now include Ruth Wall 1940’s Collection, Judy TredInnik 1950’s Collection and Father Michael Martins wonderful collection of colour images of Mitchell River Mission before and after Cyclone Dora of the wet of 1964/65. The Kowanyama Archive adds significant strength to Kowanyama’s history.

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Maps of the Kowanyama Collection Archive

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KNOWING THE HISTORY OF OUR ANCESTORS

Frank Macarthur Bowman of Rutland Plains fatally speared by Jimmy Inkerman near Trubanamen Mission in 1910. Frank Bowman and his brother Archie took up Rutland Plains Holding in the late 1800’s.

Photographed by a Croydon Photographer Source State Library of Queensland

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Norman Junior and Frances George playing with reed toy spears at Puyul.

Photograph by R.L. Sharp 1933-34

Cumjam at Mentana captured by Jack Alford at Lochnigar after the fatal spearing of Ferguson and a stockman at Mentana Station and taken by Police to Croydon for arraignment to Normanton for trial. Outcome unknown Photographer unknown 1894

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FROM OUR KOWANYAMA COLLECTION PHOTOGRAPHIC ARCHIVE

The first aircraft lands on the new strip in 1939 after Alex McLeod in Mission diaries records assistance from the Hughes from Koolatah and the Campbells of Rutland with design and clearing of the new strip in 1937.

American bomber crash lands at Umbaladey Gilgai plain 1944

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Some of these images will be featured in the planned installations in the new Kowanyama Airport Terminal that will include historic photographs and cultural objects.

Kowanyama Wartime Airstrip 1943

Rev R H Matthews Wedding at Trubanamen 27th October 1915

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BUTTONS OF THE EMPIRE

Queen Victoria was the Queen of England 1837-1901 and the British Empire when wars were being fought by the British in the Maori Wars, Zulu Wars, Boer War, Canada and in India. She became Empress of India in 1876 until her death in 1901 Much of the early uniforms and weapons and were made in England and were sent to colonial offices for distribution to both military and Police.

Examples of Victoria Regent buttons acquired for the Kowanyama Collection have been found by Archaeologist’s research of old Native Police camps in Queensland over the last few years.

Incredible how a simple button can amass such a story 120 years and more later!!

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Photograph by Viv Sinnamon

Honouring our Pacific North West Native American Network Raven’s mask carved and gifted by The Late Dale James.

Lummi Reservation, State of Washington. USA In the Fall of 1989 Dale was the brother of Jewell James, first Native American visitor to Kowanyama in 1989

The Late Patrick Eric introduces Kowanyama’s first Native American visitor to country. Lummi tribal member, Jewell Praying Wolf James of Washington State.

Kowulh yal’alh: 1991

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MAINTAINING THE HERITAGE OF OUR ANCESTORS

Farthings and Half Pennies English money for the colonies

1885 Queen Victoria United Kingdom One Half Penny and farthing A farthing is one half of a Half penny.

The significance of the year 1885 is that this was the year the Cairo Lagoon Native Police Camp was established on the Mitchell River near present day Highbury Station

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The Pastoral Era An enduring presence

MAINTAINING THE HERITAGE OF OUR ANCESTORS

Stockman’s saddle bag purchased Wondai Traders Acquired 2018

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MAINTAINING THE HERITAGE OF OUR ANCESTORS

Joseph Major’s leather watch pouch Donated by Priscilla Major 2014

Small horse Collar and hames.

Collar donated by Arthur White 1980’s before his passing.

From the old saddlery. Renovated by travelling Saddler the late Kevin Jones.

Matching set of hames found at the old Rutland Plains Dump 1982.

Donated by Viv Sinnamon

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MAINTAINING THE HERITAGE OF OUR ANCESTORS

Nugget Finch’s Raw Hide Quart Pot holder

Raw hide quart pot cover Made: The Late Nugget Finch of Sefton Salvaged from station following his departure About 1996 Donated by Viv Sinnamon

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Koch Yawrnh’s enduring Legacy to his People A Yir Yoront Bone, Stone and Shell Tool Collection Of Significance

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Purpn the Emu femur wood working gouge Koch Yawrnh (Jerry Mission) Yir Yoront: Nawr Warr’a Grass Clan man Kowanyama Collection Acquired 1980’s

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OLD MAN MOON A Kokoberra Story

By Johnny Ma thabvlang 6th July 1975

Old moon was asleep and was dreaming with a full belly.

He burped as he was dreaming. She was sure he had killed her two children.

Two uncles came with two brothers of the children and asked, “where is the ol’ man”. They were told, “over there in the middle of the big grass!”.

They decided to burn the grass and Moon found himself trapped in the middle of a big grass fire. Moon ran around with his load and found a small waterhole and jumped in.

The old man’s back was sticking out of the water and it got burnt along with all his spears and all of the wallabies and kangaroos and emu that he had speared that day.

ne day the moon was at a waterhole

All this time the smart sparrow hawk was flying overhead away from the grass fire. Moon heard Woodpecker calling, “Chok! Chok, Chok! You go into the sky and become the moon now!”

bogeying for mussel shell.

He found two children (Mussels) and tramping with his feet he drowned them.

Later Moon looked down from the sky and saw Woodpecker working on a tree, Chok! Chok! “Oh, you there chopping sugarbag little bird”, called Moon.

O

He got some kominchevl, sand paper leaves and scratched them white clean and bruised them all over. He warmed them in the fire burning all their hair off. He broke their arms, legs and hips as is done when cooking wallabies.

Moon made a kub murri, covered them up and cooked them well. When they were cooked Moon ate the two mussel boys “fingers and all” and took away the kub murri place, “paper bark and all,” so no one would know what he had done.

By ‘n by the mother of the two children became worried for her boys. She went looking with her husband following her sons foot tracks to the waterhole.

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When we see the moon in the sky, we remember that Moon lost a part of his back where the fire burnt him when his back was sticking out of the water in the grassfire.

We are not alone We have much to learn from each other see the There is an ever-growing number of Indigenous communities in Australia that have valued added to their Arts Centres with the addition of a strong move to maintain their traditional knowledge systems and practices.

Kowanyama is not alone in its own journey to find a way to maintain the cultural and historical knowledge of its ancestors. Some now already have their own museums using new media. Ramingining who everyone will know for the film Ten Canoes. Yirrkala dancers danced at the at the big 1977 Dance Festival held at Kowanyama in 1977 and a visit by Dhimurru Rangers in the 1980’s are two communities very active in Arnhem Land.

Kowanyama Project started a lot later and shares the same objectives as our northern countrymen. Check out their Facebook and websites for more information. A pair of Ramingining wommeras were bought from Roy Burnyila at a Darwin international Indigenous Conference for The Kowanyama Collection. Staff of the Kowanyama Land and Natural Resources Management Office attended the conference and visited Roy at the Ramingining stall there.

Ramingining Arts Centre https://bulabula.com.au/ Bula’bula Arts Aboriginal Corporation ‘the cultural heart of Ramingining community’, established in 1989 is situated in the remote community of Ramingining in North East Arnhem Land surrounded by the Arafura wetlands, which has been placed on the Australian National Heritage list and is managed using traditional land management practices. Bula’bula Arts is an Aboriginal owned and governed, not for profit organisation with its core objective being to preserve and foster Yolngu culture.

Indigenous communities throughout Australia share the same passion for finding new ways to maintain the cultural heritage of ancestors alive and relevant to their future generations

Ramingining community and its surrounding outstations are home to a population varying between 700-1200 people depending on season and ceremony.

Buku-larrŋgay mulka centre Yirrkala Mulka Project https://yirrkala.com/# Mulka Project was established in 2007 in Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Art Centre, Yirrkala, Australia.

The name ‘Mulka’ means a sacred but public ceremony, and, to hold or protect.

"Our mission is to sustain and protect Yolŋu cultural knowledge in Northeast Arnhem Land under the leadership of community elders. The Mulka production house, recording studio, digital learning centre and cultural archive are managed by Yolŋu law and governance."

"Our facilities are a unique media training ground for future Indigenous leaders. We produce and repatriate audio-visual cultural resources and disseminate them throughout the Yolŋu community.

We provide industry standard workplace training, create income streams for Homeland communities, whilst employing cultural advisors, film makers, translators, camera operators, editors, artists and scholars.

"At the core of The Mulka Project resides a growing, living archive of Yolŋu knowledge, ceremony, and cultural history. The word, dance, song and law of elders past return to the minds and hearts of our people and repeat on through the generations.

We have much to learn from each other through networking with others and learning from their experiences Page 49

Old Butcher Shop on Chapman Road in the 1960’s Now the site of the Culture and Research Centre

KOWANYAMA COUNCIL APPLIES FOR GRANT Planning a way forward for Kowanyama Project Kowanyama Project has some good news for readers.

The campaign to raise the money for a new and bigger Cultural Centre which stalled following financial difficulties of Council almost a decade ago has continued over the years of recovery of the Council position. Kowanyama Project facilitated a series of cultural events and activities and has been busy in the meantime keeping the dream alive.

Serious discussions on the future development and operation of a new Centre are planned for 2020, once Covid 19 has run its course in Australia and things get back to normal.

Council has applied for a State Government grant to cover the costs of developing a firm direction in developing the new centre. Hopefully it will be the end of more than twenty years of community talk and planning and everyone can get down to the business of finding the money needed to build a home for the Kowanyama Museum Collection and a place where people can visit and enjoy.

It will be a place that helps in the maintenance of Culture and history of Kowanyama and the Mitchell River region.

Phase one: In the factory Feb 2009

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Many people have said, “Is this thing ever going to happen? When are we going to see the new Cultural and museum Centre everyone talks about”?

Hopefully now things are on the way and Kowanyama will see something to be truly proud of in the near future.

The grant application round ended at the end of April. Now it is a waiting game to see how we go.

Kowanyama has had two Premiers, two Governors and at least six MP’s. More recent visits of prominent guests have been very impressed with the significance and size of Kowanyama’s Museum Collection.

There was a question in some people’s minds in Government of the value of the project.

Kowanyama’s response is that it was money well spent in securing a vital collection for Cape York. The State and the people got their money’s worth.

Building is on site May 2009

Minister Kate Jones visits Oct 2009

moon in Two decades of community planning 2002 to 2020 In 2007 when the Queensland Government was planning celebrations for Queensland’s 150th anniversary as a State they were looking for iconic projects for Queensland.

The idea after some thought was to break project into two parts.

Phase one would be a building that provided safe space for the Kowanyama Collection at risk from bugs and the weather in the Kowanyama Land Office, and accommodation for a person working on the museum collection. Award winning Architect, Dale Evans Jones in Sydney was commissioned to do plans for the future bigger centre, visiting Kowanyama several times with his technical staff.

Phase two is planned to be construction of a “state of the art” centre on a site chosen on Cabbage Island. In the end the site was thought to be a problem with flooding and potential environmental damage to Magnificent creek which is already under stress. A search is on for a site for the future building that is safe from possible future higher levels of wet season flooding expected over the coming decades as a result of changing weather patterns. Suitable land is scarce in the town area

Kowanyama Aboriginal Council applied for a grant to build cultural centre and In 2010 Kowanyama Project Campaign was established with the help won it to house an iconic collection. of Bush TV. Kowanyama Project Facebook Page and a web site were We all thought foolishly at the time developed to promote the Project. The Kowanyama Facebook page that the grant monies would cover the scored 2000 likes over a fairly short time. costs. Kowanyama builds houses for $600,000 due to remoteness and cost of transport of materials etc.

OUR DREAM

When Kowanyama got the State’s largest grant for a community organisation, we realised it was not enough to achieve the dream of the size and kind of centre needed to house its Museum Collection. It had to be a place to display the richness of Kowanyama heritage to others that made us proud.

The campaign was underway with an early draft of a campaign strategy drawn up for circulation and comment but soon after Kowanyama Aboriginal Shire Council experienced serious financial difficulties and the fund raiser went on hold. The target was six to seven million dollars at the time to build Kowanyama’s Culture and Research Centre and realise the dream, but it wasn’t the time to be asking Government or philanthropists for that sort of money.

Premier Anna Bligh December 2009

Kowanyama Project has two objectives now: The first to raise the money to operate the centre of phase one. The second objective is to restart the fundraising campaign for the building of the new centre as phase two of Kowanyama Project now that Council is in a better position to support what will be another major infrastructure project for Kowanyama

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Photograph by Viv Sinnamon

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