KOWANYAMA PROJECT Issue 6: December 2021 Wet Season 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: 0429 124 666
Cover: Cabbage palm in the mid-morning light at Kun manmanvm lagoon margin 2020 Opposite: A pair of finger mark cooked on the coals resting on cabbage palm ready to eat at Ngamvlthakvr Photographer: Viv Sinnamon Back cover: Boy with pelican at Trubanamen Photographer: Cyril Grant Lane Visiting group of men Mitchell River Mission 1928
A COMMUNITY MAGAZINE PRODUCED FOR THE KOWANYAMA COMMUNITY AND THEIR FRIENDS AND SUPPORTERS BNLLTMHSX RDQUHBD NE NV@MX@L@ QNIDBS VHSG ONRHSHUD RSNQHDR
Copyright © Reproduction of any of the content of this magazine may only occur with the written permission of the editor excepting use for Kowanyama Community cultural education purposes.
KOWANYAMA PROJECT NEWS
EDITOR’S NOTE
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Things have been busy this year For Kowanyama Project. This is the first and only issue of our magazine in 2021. My sincere apologies.
Significant acquisitions have been made with the donation of the 1948 Coleman Collection of lancewood spears that has sat under a Yungaburra house for 70 years and COVID has continued to delay the packing and shipping of the 1950’s Gillatt Collection originally referred on to us by Cooktown Museum staff. Thank you, Diane, we will get your mum’s collection home when the dust settles. Andrew Smith thank you for your grandfather’s amazing lancewood collection. Thanks also to Lawrie Witham Ex OIC Police at Kowanyama who is helping in our construction of a true to period uniform. Lawrie donated his personal lion clasp and rope for a Tracker’s slouch hat. We’ve had a welcome number of official visits to the museum this year that have included the Ministerial Champion, Mark Ryan MP, Minister for Police, Departmental Champion, Damien Walker (Dept Local Government, Infrastructure and Planning) and more recently Michael Healy MP and colleague, Richie Bates, Cairns. A grant of $100,000 to support the Kowanyama Project will be the result of the Champion’s visit. We have two priorities for the Kowanyama Collection. We will be forming a Steering Group for the Museum and a trust to formally hold the Kowanyama Collection soon. Our real concern is to protect the collection from cyclones. A temporary cyclone vault is being readied using existing local resources. In 2022 we will be working hard to get a cyclone vault that should increase our storage and work space by almost three times the current building, as well as being a special cyclone vault to protect our wonderful collection. We are all really proud of the Airport installation and the recent CIAF Portrait Exhibition by our women with the collaboration of RISE Enterprises, Council, Kowanyama
Please be aware that the article printed on pages 27-28 contains language that is considered offensive and is a reflection of the northern frontier of 1884. The article is a valued record of Kowanyama Collection and part of the history of this region.
Project and Tania Major assisted by Sue Bonnacorsi of Dimbulah. Other artists, Rochelle Kitchener, Esla Josiah have also been working on a school mural that has not been covered by a story this issue. Thank you, Peter Taylor and Marc Thompson for a hand when desperately needed for the airport installation. The HACC and NDIS have done some good work with Elders in ‘out bush’ activities. We honour those staff and our Elders and all the unnamed volunteers and workers who have helped in 2021. Kowanyama Project’s early vision of the transmission of cultural knowledge and practices into the future can only be accomplished with all people and service agencies working together to make it happen. We have done well this year. We wish all our readers only the best for the new year.
Photograph: Lara Weiland
FROM THE EDITOR
For Brolga: Philip Yam 1959 – 2018 Oriners dedication For many years your quiet place
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KOWANYAMA PROJECT NEWS
Strengthening Museum Networks
6 RISE Arts and Culture Program
8 William H Coleman Collection A welcome acquisition
10 Air conditioning system repaired
12
YETI: Teacher Induction Kits and Historic Photo Collections
7
Continuing on where we left off in 2009
13
School on country culture and Language studies
14
Airport Installation A new public space
15
Protecting our museum collections
21
Lessons learnt from the Burnett River floods
22
Kowanyama street names
23
1884: Station attacked by blacks
27
Blind weavers Ethel Colin and Martha Josiah
29
Exciting development for Kowanyama: Sharp FX
37
Sawfish research team visits Kowanyama
16
Parrot’s story
38
Sawfish Team visit Museum
17
Looking after Elders: HACC
39
Judy Gillatt’s 1950’s Collection
18
On country: NDIS
51
Our Police Tracker slouch hat
41
Frontier surveyor era: Embley
42
Oriners Gathering
43
Kowanyama Council to purchase shields Who would have thought? Shelfo Crossing October 2021
18 19
HULLO WET SEASON
KOWANYAMA PROJECT NEWS
STRENGTHENING OUR MUSEUM NETWORKS How to keep a museum going into In September Cairns Historical Society and Regional Museum staff visited Kowanyama to see the Kowanyama Collection but more importantly to have further talks on how they might support Kowanyama’s Museum into the future.
the future is in the mind of almost all small community museums. Nearly all operate on volunteers who are mostly people who are retired, and very little funding. Networks of friends and supporters are vital to the survival of small museums.
New Chief Executive of Cairns Regional Museum, Fleur Anderson and Manager, Suzanne Gibson took the opportunity to Confirm their interest in the Junior Curator Program. The idea had been proposed at a meeting of Kowanyama Council CEO, Gary Uhlman and Mayor, Robbie Sands, Kowanyama School Principal, Fin Buckley and Viv sinnamon. It was seen as a good start to engage young people, preferably school students in museum studies as they progressed through their school years at Kowanyama and their later attendance at a college in Cairns. Students who showed an early interest in cultural studies would be encouraged to follow their interests with the help of a support network that included Colleges, museums and galleries in Cairns while they were away from home.
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KOWANYAMA PROJECT NEWS During the school holidays opportunities would be provided at Kowanyama for paid work activities at The Cultural Centre and the Kowanyama Collection, or with the local arts group. Upon graduation, students would have the opportunity to take up a position at the Cultural Centre as a Junior Trainee Curator, or museum studies at a tertiary level. “The idea is to get young people involved in the future operation of the Kowanyama Cultural Centre and Museum and to help with the governance and running of the place,” said Mayor Robbie Sands.
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Kevin Bell noted, “the Kowanyama Aboriginal Shire Council is committed to developing new job opportunities and encouraging the maintenance of Kowanyama’s nationally significant cultural heritage collections and knowledge”. Discussions are planned for talks in early 2022 in Cairns on plans for the Kowanyama Project. Future opportunities will be explored for Kowanyama. Kowanyama will work with The Cairns Regional Museum and YETI in finding the best way forward for 2022. Strong networking including a Junior Curator Program being foremost in everyone’s minds
Teacher Induction Kits and historic photo collections
ETI have been busy putting finishing touches to an induction documentary for new teachers coming to work in Kowanyama and the presentation folios of historical photographs of Mitchell River Mission for Kowanyama sourced from Cairns Historical Society Collections at the Cairns Museum.
In September Helen Travers from YETI in Cairns, Ernest Hunter and Katrina Rutherford travelled to Kowanyama to deliver the induction resource to the Kowanyama State School, and show a shorter version at a film night at the school.
Over two days copies of the photos were publicly viewed at the school and details of images of Kowanyama people and activities were verified by a very interested crowd of people.
Helen Travers SCHOOLS UP NORTH COORDINATOR YOUTH EMPOWERED TOWARDS INDEPENDENCE
In a joint collaboration between YETI, Cairns Historical Society and Cairns Museum beautifully presented folios of the photographs were formally presented to the Kowanyama State School and Kowanyama Culture and Research Centre. A digital copy of the images was provided to the Kowanyama Collection Archive at the Community Film Night. Kowanyama Mayor and colleagues also accepted three framed images relating to early air travel.
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Kowanyama Exhibition of large format portraits Cairns October 2021
Kowanyama Exhibition of large format portraits and Big basket installation Cairns October 2021
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KOWANYAMA PROJECT NEWS
RISE Kowanyama Arts and Culture Program Kowanyama artists visited Cairns in November as Cairns Indigenous Arts Fair went online following CIAF’s decision earlier to limit public events in 2021 due to COVID restrictions Australia wide. Kowanyama Cultural Centre collaborated with RISE in the inclusion of a selection of traditional shields from The Kowanyama Collection to complement three shields by local craftsmen. The aim was to provide a cultural context to the excellent large format portraits produced during the year as a collaborative project with Dimbulah artist Sue Bonacorsi. Artists were Faylene Jimmy (Kokoberrin), Noelene Cecil (Kunjen), Chrissie Aidan and Matilda Aidan (Yir Yoront) and Priscilla Major (Kokoberra). The exhibit received acclaim from visiting Member for Leichardt, Warren Ensch who commented that it was a fresh exhibit with a difference showing the old and new. While in Cairns the women visited Jute, UMI Arts, Cairns Regional Gallery and the opening of the Aurukun Exhibition at the Court House Gallery.
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KOWANYAMA PROJECT NEWS
A WELCOME ADDITION TO THE KOWANYAMA COLLECTION The William H Coleman Collection Kowanyama Cultural Centre received an unexpected call from Keith Smith about an exciting old collection of spears and wommeras that have rested under his grandfather’s house in Yungaburra for over 70 years
Wommera Collection before cleaning at Kowanyama
Keith works as a Senior Program Officer with the Atherton office of the Department of Environment and Sciences, Private Protected Areas Program. He has visited Kowanyama on two occasions this year for meetings with Rutland Plains owners and Traditional Owners about a project that will monitor nesting sea
turtles on the coast between Topsy Creek mouth and the Nassau River. Keith’s grandfather William Coleman had travelled by caravan with his family through the Gulf of Carpentaria to the Mitchell River Mission (now known as Kowanyama), west CYP between June-October 1948. The family later travelled through eastern Queensland to New South Wales, returning to Yungaburra in 1949. While at the Mitchell River Mission he gathered a collection of lancewood and wire spears and wommeras that had remained under his house in Yungaburra for over seventy years. Keith kindly offered his grandfather’s collection that included an old firestick head to Kowanyama for inclusion in Kowanyama’s Museum collection. He delivered the well packed and very fragile collection during his road trip in August. The lancewood spears were made with traditional bush binding that appear to be fig tree bark fibre most remaining very straight for their age. Thank you, Keith for a very significant
addition to the Kowanyama Collection.
William Coleman
Coleman, William Henry (1890–1984) William (Bill) Henry Coleman: born at Bathurst, NSW, on 29 March 1890; died at Gwynne Creek farm, Yungaburra, Atherton Tableland, North Qld, on 27 April 1984. Bill arrived in Cairns on the steamer SS Canberra from Sydney in August 1908. He resided on his family’s selection at ‘Chumbrumba’, Yungaburra, Atherton Tableland until 1915, helping to ‘fell the scrub’ by hand. Bill served as a machine gunner (5th Machine Gun Company) in France during WWI. He was wounded in action at Ypres, Belgium on 20 September 1917, returning to Australia on 13 March 1918. He was discharged from service on 29 May 1918 in Melbourne. Returning home, he inherited a ‘block of scrub’ on the North Johnstone
River, Malanda, from his brother Walter (killed in action in WWI). He cleared his new block by hand and later acquired another on Gwynne Creek, Yungaburra in 1923
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Bill Coleman at Gwynne Ck farm
KOWANYAMA PROJECT NEWS
Part of the Coleman Collection after a dust off and careful clean up
The Cape York Yellow wood wommera: A rare acquisition The value of the collection was clear after careful cleaning of the lancewood wommeras and spears so generously donated by William Coleman’s grandson, Keith Smith.
Amongst the eighteen objects was an great example of a yellow wood wommera that are not as common as the lancewood and ironwood ones used, and historically collected on Cape York. One of the baler shell pieces attached had fallen away from the handle of the wommera and the ironwood gum had aged but was, for its age, in good solid condition. It was a treasure and one of the only examples of an old yellow wood wommera in the Kowanyama Collection. It is now a valued addition to our growing Cape York Wommera Collection of 55 pieces. Five examples from The Coleman Collection are a welcome addition to our Collections that include the Palmer and Atherton Collections.
Keith unpacks the collection at the Cultural Centre after his road trip to Kowanyama
Many examples in those two early collections represent the early contact period of the frontier days of North Queensland and Cape York Peninsula. Page 11
KOWANYAMA PROJECT NEWS
LONG AWAITED REPAIRS TO MUSEUM AIR CONDITIONING SYSTEM SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETED Ian Miles of Sic Air Townsville and Jane Woodcock, Curator at the University of Queensland Anthropology Museum were commissioned to work with the Curator of the Kowanyama Collection to do an onsite inspection and assessment of the environmental controls of the museum collection late in the dry season of 2018. Arts Queensland provided the necessary financial support for the project
A cluster fig had grown beside the Cultural Centre and roots had ruptured the ducting and stability of the temperature and humidity protecting the museum collection. Ian replaced the original split system as an immediate need with the clouds of the 201819 wet season threatening his return by road to Townsville. Recommendations were provided and Townsville suffered serious flooding of the city that wet season soon after he arrived home.
On the last day Ian briefed Council Electrician, Jared Warren and the Curator on his early recommendations for the future operation of the museum’s ducted air conditioning system. The objective for the system being to provide a stable museum environment of 25 degrees and 45 percent humidity which was considered to be acceptable for tropical conditions. A box of bees was removed by Joe Adams, another local beekeeper to allow the removal of the fig tree. The real damage to the galvanized ducting could then be seen. Since then, a roof has been constructed over the compressor cabinet, and a second growing fig tree was removed with the help of the Kowanyama Rangers. Kowanyama Aboriginal Shire Council provided resources then to replace the damaged parts before the storms of the wet season . Mark Forrest and team were contracted to dismantle and seal the ducting into the building while the stump of the tree was grubbed, ground and chemically treated to prevent regrowth. The job was successfully completed in three days with the installation of the new ducting prefabricated in Cairns assisted by Jared Warren, Council Electrician. The conditions in the museum are stabilizing at 25 degrees and between 45 and fifty percent humidity that should protect the Kowanyama Collection from mould.
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KOWANYAMA PROJECT NEWS
CONTINUING ON WHERE WE LEFT OFF IN 2009 Chedwa Whyte, known to us all here in the north as Shady worked with a Traditional Technology Project at Oriners in 2009. Olkola children worked with their Elders learning traditional crafts. The girls did a series of collection and dying of local plant fibres and weaving while the boys learned to make ironwood gum. later they did bush lessons at Kowanyama on the use of ironwood gum in spear making. The girls and boys all watched Shady downloading and manipulating the photos taken during the day for two books on their traditional technology learnings. In October this year Shady took the opportunity to revisit the 2009 work while working with YETI and The Cairns Regional Museum on their School Project.
The “students of culture”, now young adults met up to see the previews of unfinished media works on the Oriners Project. Shady is with End Credits who conduct community independent cinema in the Cairns Botanical Gardens. He had an inflatable huge format screen and held two popular film nights where he screened Stronger Women video (Tom Hearne Bush TV) and the Traditional Technologies works. The videos and images were a big hit.
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KOWANYAMA PROJECT NEWS
KOWANYAMA STATE SCHOOL On country cultural and language studies
Kowanyama has kick started a program that includes language classes delivered by Elders and family at the school, with bush cultural excursions. Language classes followed discussions held last year on the best way forward in addressing the challenges in teaching the three key traditional languages of Kowanyama, Kunjen, Kokoberra and Yir Yoront. One class recently visited the bush paint site that was exposed on bottom Sandy Creek. Students learned how to gather the best white and red ochre ready for NAIDOC celebrations in September. Willie Banjo of Thilpiy Homeland and School Bus Driver and Priscilla Major Kokoberra Elder accompanied the young students. Priscilla is one of the Language Teachers
Maintaining the cultural heritage of ancestors and their children Photographs courtesy of Kowanyama State School
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A new public space
“We’ve wanted to do something like this for a while. Somewhere visitors and travellers can feel comfortable and enjoy a taste of Kowanyama cultural and historical heritage. It took us awhile to get the new airport. We have that now and it is time to take it the next step…to a really good and interesting place to be,” said David Durst, Airport Manager who worked hard to replace the old facilities, proud of his new work place. Plans are afoot to instal a life size full colour replica of the old Bush Pilots sign. Anyone who travelled the Cape and Gulf from the old Bushies terminal at Aeroglen in Cairns will remember the schedule board when flights were DC3’s, Cessna 402’s with no GPS in those days. Station runs were in little Cessna 210’s. At times flights returned to Cairns with passengers disappointed that the plane could not land with zero visibility at Kowanyama.
There was no GPS or beacon then to guide the aircraft through low, often thick cloud. All the airstrips were dirt so many were closed for periods of time and communities were isolated from mail and other services. People in the bush did not travel like they can now. Installation of a copy of the iconic Bushies sign is a collaboration between Kowanyama Aboriginal Council, Airport, Cairns Museum and Kowanyama Project and volunteers.
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KOWANYAMA PROJECT NEWS
Wvrrengvn Kokoberra Owvnongk Kunjen Wurriyvm Yir Yoront Wvrrengvn
AKA Cecil Rutland (Deceased)
SAWFISH RESEARCH TEAM VISIT KOWANYAMA Dr. Barbara Wueringer of Sharks and Rays Australia and her team visited Kowanyama in June. The group including Leonardo Guida, Australian Marine Conservation Society, Veronika Biskis, University of the Sunshine Coast and Chelsea Smith, Northern Gulf NRM and Lawrence Chlebeck, Marine Biologist of Humane Society International visited Mitchell River delta waters surveying fresh and saltwater sawfish. Barbara took a small sample of cartilage from a large sawfish rostrum donated by Dave Spencer in the early 1980’s that is now held as part of the Kowanyama Collection. The scientists were hosted by traditional owner Raybin Greenwool for a 2 day survey at Wanyaw on Surprise Creek assisted by Ranger, Anzac Frank. Both men had been in wet season flooded delta work with scientists in the same area during two seasons of Tropical Rivers and Coastal Knowledge Program finfish surveys
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Photograph: Chelsea Smith
KOWANYAMA PROJECT NEWS
Sawfish Team visit the Kowanyama Collection
Photograph: Chelsea Smith
Dr Barbara Wueringa and her team took a tour through the Kowanyama Museum and collection before leaving for the east coast and described it as a totally unforgettable experience. Barbara said, “it was the absolute highlight of our visit”.
Traditional Owner Rangers on country Seeing the mighty Mitchell in flood
Anzac Frank is a Yir Yoront Rough backed Stingre Clan with country at Kutarvm on the lower delta. Raybin Greenwool is a Kin Kopol freshwater flood Clan man whose country is Wanyaw along the Surprise Creek, an anabranch of the Main Mitchell. They became familiar with river and fisheries survey techniques during work with Tropical Rivers scientists. It was a rare opportunity to be on country at a time when much of the delta was flooded and inaccessible from Kowanyama.
Photograph: TRaCK Anzac Frank and Raybin Greenwool with marine biologists during a March 2009 fisheries survey during the Tropical Rivers and Coastal Knowledge Program.
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KOWANYAMA PROJECT NEWS
THE JUDITH GILLATT 1950’S COLLECTION Having patience with COVID
Judith Gillatt nee Tredinnik was Mitchell River Mission’s visiting Dentist in the 1950’s. During her stay the Superintendent of the Mission, Wilfie Carrington gathered a collection of artefacts which Judith took home to Victoria.
Visiting Dentist Judith Tredinnik. A visit to the dentist at the Mitchell River Mission then was a little different to now with all the modern equipment.
Diana her daughter who lives in South Australia was referred to Kowanyama in March 2019 by Beverley at the James Cook Museum in Cooktown when Diana offered to donate her ailing mother’s collection located in Port Fairy, Victoria 290 kilometres from Melbourne. The Black Summer bushfires of NSW 0f 2019 and the onset of COVID restrictions on travel have delayed efforts to pack and transport this valuable collection of baskets, spears, wommeras and firesticks back to its country of origin. Judith Gillatt visited Kowanyama during the days of her earlier good health and met with Viv Sinnamon to talk about the photographs she had given for Kowanyama’s growing collection. Judith also wrote her recollections of her visits to the north and a collection of photos were placed in The Kowanyama Collection. Judith was a contemporary of Margaret Warman a Nursing Sister at Mitchell River at the time. A copy of Margaret’s photo Collection is also held at Kowanyama. William Yam corkwood ochred shield 2020
KOWANYAMA COUNCIL TO PURCHASE SHIELDS A commitment has been made by the Kowanyama Aboriginal Shire Council to acquire two shields produced by Olkola craftsmen, William Yam and Craig Goggleye. Three shields were produced by Kowanyama shield makers that included one smaller plain ochred shield by Yir Yoront craftsman, Dennis Michael for inclusion in the CIAF Exhibition with contemporary artworks. The shields joined a selection of early museum shields from the Kowanyama Collection for CIAF 2022 with the portrait exhibition, sponsored by RISE. Robbie Sands, Mayor, noted that it was a significant purchase having secured the craftsmen’s first works that were excellent examples of traditional ochred shields.
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KOWANYAMA PROJECT NEWS
Shelfo Crossing
October 2021
Photograph: Naomi Sinnamon
WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT!! River levels at Iygow (Shelfo) have stayed high until late in this season. This 4m saltwater crocodile was photographed just up from the road crossing where everyone has often swum in the past. While river levels are high some crocs will be moving back into the deep lagoons above and below the crossing at the Alice Junction. People should be aware and be careful where they swim even in the clear water.
During this wet season none of the popular swimming places in the Magnificent Creek are considered safe Page 19
KOWANYAMA PROJECT NEWS
This skull of a young beast was found on the sand in June 2015 at Mu’anvm on the South Mitchell River by teacher, Aaron Davey while taking his dog for a walk. Aaron knew it was the home of a large saltwater crocodile and that crocs like dogs so he kept an eye out and his dog away from the water. This is evidence of the power of a croc that had taken the animal by the nose and on second bite put its two large front teeth into the beast’s brain. A swimming child has no chance in the water with a salt water crocodile. True story !!
Blue Tongue has a Kokoberra story place at Red Lily Lagoon, an increase ceremony site, Minh pa’ar thila in Yirrk Thangakl country at Wernh wirrchir and in Kunjen country Inh ithun was the wife of Ednbal olonbong, Green Frog with many stories between the Alice River and Main Mitchell River. There seems to have been an increase in blue tongue lizards in recent times with quite a few being seen along roads and in the bush. A number have been seen as road kills.
Blue Tongue Lizard Tiliqua scincoides Minh Pa’ar (Yir Yoront)
Mim Pangkew (Kokoberra)
Inh ithun (Kunjen)
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KOWANYAMA PROJECT NEWS
Over the last half of this year there has been a lot of thought about the protection of the Kowanyama Collection during the Cyclone Season. The question was asked last year by a
with the impact upon Mitchell River Mission by Cyclone Dora during the 1964 wet season. It is not a matter of if a cyclone will strike Kowanyama again but when.
Storm events seem to be becoming stronger so plans are being made to find support to build a cyclone vault to increase museum storage space, and to protect what is becoming a growing and nationally significant collection of great value to our future generations and Cape York. visiting member of the Cairns State emergency Services was, “do you have an emergency management plan for your museum.”
A well anchored shipping container has been located and plans will be in place for when a cyclone is in the area this wet.
This year a review of available resources has been done for a temporary safe place for the storage of museum objects if a cyclone threatens Kowanyama. Lessons were learnt
A location was assessed for potential debris and tree damage, high wind impacts distance from the Cultural Centre and accessibility in bad weather.
The Bureau of Meteorology cyclone outlook.
Average to slightly above average number of tropical cyclones likely for Australia in 2021–22 The Northern region outlook suggests a near-average number of tropical cyclones with a 57% chance of more tropical cyclones than average and a 43% chance of fewer tropical cyclones than average. Typically, the Northern region experiences between 2 and 3 cyclones. About three-quarters of the tropical cyclones in the Northern region impact coastal regions. Outlook accuracy for this region is very low. Australian tropical cyclone season outlook (bom.gov.au)
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The entire Gayndah Museum Collection of horse drawn vehicles and harness ware were covered in the flood
LESSONS LEARNT: FROM THE BURNETT RIVER FLOOD IMPACTS UPON GAYNDAH & BUNDABERG Gayndah’s museum, one of the oldest towns in Queensland went under water and much was lost. It is a credit to the volunteers and Regional Museum support team that helped in the massive clean up.
In towns on the flooded Burnett River like Bundaberg and Gayndah in 2010 whole family histories and houses were lost to the flood waters that covered large areas of both towns. In the family home of the Kowanyama Project Curator some valuable documents and photographs were lost when the waters rose to the roof of the old building. Fortunately, a lot of precious historic documents and cultural objects were saved and later transported to Kowanyama. Northern cyclones and floods are the greatest threat to cultural heritage collections
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KOWANYAMA PROJECT NEWS NEWS
Kowanyama street names
Published as a resource for the Kowanyama State School Language Program.
The school started a language program with the help of a group of active women at the school last term. Some have asked about the meaning of our street names that replaced the ones given following the Government takeover of the Mitchell River Mission in 1967. A new set of names were decided upon by Kowanyama Aboriginal Council after the takeover of administration of Kowanyama from the Government in 1987. Elder Councillors believed that as an Aboriginal community, street names should reflect that. Many of the names given then and later, as the township grew, were local language names for future generations honouring the languages of ancestors.
GLOSSARY OF STREET NAMES Chapman St.
Joseph Chapman was a well known Mission Superintendent. He helped in the move from the old Mitchell River Mission site at Trubanamen to the new Mitchell River Mission site in 1912. Kowanyama became the official name in 1967 following the Mission takeover by the State Government in 1967. Alex McLeod became the new Superintendent when Chapman left to found Edward River Mission in 1939, Chapman returned and died at the Mitchell River Mission in 1963
Chellikee St.
Pa chelikiy is the Kokoberra word for a traditional doctor
Currington St.
Wilfred Currington was the Superintendent for Mitchell River Mission from 1942 to 1962
Gilbert White St.
The early Bishop of Carpentaria who selected the site for the Mitchell River Mission at Trubanamen after making two earlier trips by horse to the region
Inaruwel St.
Inh aruwel is the Kunjen word for crow
Inatawngk St.
Inh atawngk is the Kunjen word for Plains Turkey
Karrenganang St.
Koy karrenggvn is the Kokoberra word for catfish and Karrenganang is also the name of catfish story place opposite Rutland Plains Homestead
Kokoberra St.
Kokoberra is the name of a language and tribal group
Koltmomun St.
A Yir Yoront name that refers to grabbing a wounded wallaby by the tail. Minh kolt mom literally means “tail holding” Page 23
KOWANYAMA PROJECT NEWS
Kowanyama St.
A Yir Yoront name that refers to the name given by Chapman to the Mission site before it was officially named. Kowanyama literally means much water. Kowvn water and yamar meaning much, or a lot in Yir Yoront. Larr Kowvn yamar would mean Place of much/many water/s with larr meaning “place” in Yir Yoront.
Kunjen St.
Kunjen is the name of a language and tribal group.
Minbangar St.
Minh bangar is the Kokoberra word for long necked swamp turtle.
Minthalpm St.
Minh thalpm is the Yirrk Thangakl word for agile wallaby. Yirrk Thangakl is commonly known by others as Yir Thangedl.
Ogimburngk St.
Og imburngk is the Kunjen word for waterfall and the bush name of Nelson Brumby and early Aboriginal Council member.
Papulenthrrkunt St. Pa pulenthrr kunt is name of a Kokoberra place and refers to two men having been speared in a significant traditional story.
Pindi St.
Pindi is the name of a Top End Pelican Clan man who helped during establishment of the Trubanamen Mission in 1905.
Thangedl St.
Yir Yoront name for the Yirrk Thangakl a neighbouring language and tribal group of both the Yir Yoront and Kokoberra. They are a coastal group whose lands cover from the South Mitchell mouth north through Duck Hole and Kokomnjen Island.
Thartjmanengk St.
A Kokoberra word “t(h)arrch mvnengk” that refers to ma t(h)arrch the local tree used for dying raffia for traditional string. It is the Kokoberra name for the area on Magnificent Creek near the airport.
Tulathulum St.
A Yir Yoront word Thulathvlvm and the name of the sand ridge area of the Kowanyama Cemetery. Yo thulathvlvm is the YY name for a tree that commonly grows on sand ridges and is the birth place of Banjo Patterson before the cemetery was established.
Uwelkoril St.
A Kunjen word that means noisy.
Wulerr St.
A Kokoberra word for Miy wulerr a bird and the bush name of an old man called Stephen.
Yir Yoront St.
The name of a language and tribal group with country from the Main Mitchell through to Chillagoe Pocket on the Coleman River.
Man narkr St.
A Kokoberra word that refers to the grass necklet that was placed around the necks of young men by the women as they came out of seclusion of the bora. At the head of the street was where the last such ceremony of coming out was held about 1928. The name was given to honour such an important event.
Transmission of cultural knowledge of the ancestors and their children Page 24
The Coleman family visiting Mitchell River Mission by caravan in 1948
Bill Coleman helping with a building at MRM 1948
The Stephen Davis at the Landing 1948
Wagon load of posts for building
Chapman Road from what is now the corner of Chapman Road and Chellikee Street The building in the background is the Girl’s Dormitory where the Police Station is now. Believed to have been photographed during Lauriston Sharp’s second visit in the 1950’s. Photographer: unknown
KOWANYAMA PROJECT NEWS
Station Attacked by 1884 Blacks. A brush with the niggers at Dunbar
This Brisbane newspaper records historical events in the early days of the establishment of Dunbar Station.
The Queenslander (Brisbane, Qld. 1866 - 1939) Saturday 28 June 1884 Page 1030 Ref: 28 Jun 1884 - A Station Attacked by Blacks. Trove (nla.gov.au)
MR. Thos. HUNGERFORD, proprietor of Echo and other stations north and west, kindly permits us to republish the following graphic account of a severe tussle with the blacks, which lately took place at Dunbar station, on the Mitchell. The narrative is supplied by his son, Mr. H.B. Hungerford: Echo Downs, 30th April 1884 “My Dear Father, Kitton has just arrived from Dunbar, and goes on to the Norman after he rests here for a day. The poor fellow is very bad—a perfect skeleton, but very much swollen where the scurvy affected him. He has to be lifted in and out of his bed, and cannot stand alone. But the other day he made a vigorous attempt to walk, and succeeded, when the niggers attacked the station—a large party of them. Kitton and the men think about 150 or 200. It was evidently a premeditated thing, for which they all assembled and dressed themselves in war paint. They arranged themselves in line, and were planted in the grass within about 100 yards of the house, forming a half-circle about seventy or eighty yards in length and two or three deep. This was on Sunday afternoon; the men were all away, and March (Budden), who had just brought in some honey for Kitton, was returning to the tree to get the remainder, but
1883-1884 An accurate copy of an 1884 article represents its time when people fought against the settlement of strangers in their lands.
Readers are warned that this is a direct unedited copy and that the language in this story reflects the time. In 1885 a Native Mounted Police camp was established at Cairo Lagoon on what is now Highbury Station. The camp was closed in 1900 under Inspector Garraway. still within hearing, when the dogs discovered the niggers and gave the alarm. They no longer wanted to conceal themselves, and the whole line gave out a warwhoop, which made the forest ring again. They advanced towards the house, marshalled by a conspicuous-looking fellow at the extreme end of the right wing. He held bushes in his hands, and two men behind him carried two bundles of spears. At the other end was a formidable-looking warrior who carried his own spears. These two seemed the chief men, and they made the closest approach to the house while the centre of the line hung back. Imagine poor old Kitton's state of mind when he beheld this great body and heard their terrific yells. There were no firearms in the hut which he could get, the only weapon was the revolver in his tent, to and from which he had been carried for weeks. For a long time he had not walked, but he walked then, and when he reached the tent the niggers were within thirty yards of him. Page 27
KOWANYAMA PROJECT NEWS The chief with the bushes was supplied by his men with spears, and when be sent one a shout went up from the whole crowd. The niggers soon retired, but six were found dead or dying on the field, probably a good many more had bullets in them. This is Kitton's story, perhaps a good deal exaggerated. But was it not fortunate it resulted as it did? They might have killed poor Kitton, taken all the rations, and scattered the cattle all over the
Lauriston Sharp photograph: 1933 Puyul
The left-hand man was closest, and Kitton's mark, but he missed him. The shot only seemed to throw more energy into him. He raised a spear, observing the spot from where the shot came, but while in the very attitude of sending it, Kitton's second bullet went, and thank heaven it went right. The raised arm was struck, and the spear, which in another instant would perhaps have killed poor Kitton, fell to the ground.
Yir Yoront Camp fight at Puyul, Chillagoe Pocket 1933 Meanwhile the chief opposite was using all his energy to keep order, and encouraging his men by shouts and waving of his bushes. Kitton said he had wonderful control over them. They had a mind to clear when their chief warrior was disabled, but their other general rallied them, and Kitton had two more shots at them, but without success.
country. It is scarcely credible the fright the niggers give cattle.
At this time March Budden came galloping back, and seeing assistance coming they retreated. The poor fellow had a face like a poisoned pup when Kitton gave him the revolver and told him to follow them. But in his excitement, he emptied the revolver without hitting anyone, as he kept wide of them instead of following behind, so they turned on him and hunted him back to the house again. By the time he had some more cartridges another man came, and so a great war commenced.
They would cock their heads up, and fancying they saw something in the grass go off again, till a fine large heifer about eight months, fell dead from running.
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On the Wyarbara sic. (Wyaaba) yesterday where we were mustering, Grace found two head of quiet cattle and their calves running, and they ran for about six miles before he could stop them.
There is no news of Edmund yet. It is two months since I sent two men with horses to meet him. What has become of Burne? He has been gone for five months”.
KOWANYAMA PROJECT NEWS .
BLIND WEAVERS We dedicate these first pages to Ethel Colin and Martha Josiah Two of our most loved traditional weavers who maintained their craft into old age as blind weavers until their passing.
Yirrp wal par thil thiluw pan Ethel Colin Yir Yoront Rain Clan
In the late 1970’s singing the pied goose song of the Pinpan Cycle created by the two brothers as they passed Wul’a ancestral home of the Yirrk Thangakl Wallaby Turkey Clan
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KOWANYAMA PROJECT NEWS
THE KOWANYAMA COLLECTION
Used fine weave basket Thawl (Yir Yoront) Martha Josiah Corypha palm fibre string Undyed natural fibre Kowanyama. QLD
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KOWANYAMA PROJECT NEWS KOWANYAMA PROJECT NEWS
THE KOWANYAMA COLLECTION
Kowanyama Collection
String bag in progress Ethel Colin Kun (Yir Yoront) Corypha elata palm fibre Undyed natural fibre 1979 Kowulh yal’alh camp South Mitchell River. QLD
KOWANYAMA PROJECT NEWS
THE KOWANYAMA COLLECTION
Lily with her brother Art mow warrvnang (Norman) and their sister’s son Wol Puyul August 1934: Photograph by Lauriston Sharp
Yam Strainer
Thawl (Yir Yoront) Lilly Raymond Art yor koyir Yir Yoront Rough backed stingray Clan Corypha Palm fibre string Undyed natural fibre 1980’s Kowanyama Page 32
KOWANYAMA PROJECT NEWS
THE KOWANYAMA COLLECTION
A yam strainer being used to prepare sour yam or corn flour yam over a coolamon at a camp near Mitchell River Mission at Trubanamen 1905-1915, illustrating the use of the knees to keep the strainer tight across the coolamon. Ref: 1928, Cyril Grant Lane, Adventures in the Big Bush, In the Haunts of the Aboriginal, Hutchinson and Co Ltd, London, p144.
From Kowanyama Collection Book and Photo Archive
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KOWANYAMA PROJECT NEWS
THE KOWANYAMA COLLECTION
Ochred fighting shield Craig Goggleye Olkola Egng ojow Sour Yam Clan Batwing Coral Tree wood Made for CIAF Exhibition Purchased by Kowanyama Aboriginal Shire Council
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KOWANYAMA PROJECT NEWS
THE KOWANYAMA COLLECTION
Ochred Fighting Shield William Yam Olkola Egng ojow Sour Yam Clan Batwing Coral Tree wood Made for CIAF Exhibition Purchased by Kowanyama Aboriginal Shire Council
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KOWANYAMA PROJECT NEWS
Photograph: Chelsea Smith
THE KOWANYAMA COLLECTION
Wallaby bone heel drill Banjo Patterson Yirrk Thangakl Mel thiw Baldy owl Clan Agile wallaby Macropus agilis Fractured tibia
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KOWANYAMA PROJECT NEWS
EXCITING DEVELOPMENT FOR KOWANYAMA COLLECTION Sharp FX Pty Ltd is an Australian based special makeup effects company in Melbourne. They pride themselves on delivering high quality products to their clients Australia wide and internationally. Sharp FX is headed by Russell Sharp, an industry professional with over 20 years of experience. Some of Russell’s credits include amongst a long list: The Hobbit, Matrix 2 & 3, Anaconda Frontier and the Canberra War Museum.
An example of a Sharp FX mannequin
sharpfx.com.au
Sharp FX creates super realistic & lifelike mannequins for museums & displays. All mannequins are custom made from life-casts of actual people so every shape and angle is as natural as possible. Mannequins are reproduced in fibreglass with heads and hands made using a durable skin like translucent silicone. Fingers and wrists can be made adjustable, hair styles and eyes are individually hand crafted to suit each character. Mannequins can also be custom sculpted to look like particular people or famous characters. Sharp FX is striving to create the most realistic looking mannequins in the world.
Kowanyama Project is excited to announce that we have commissioned the services of Sharp FX to make two life sized mannequins for Kowanyama Project. A tracker based on a photo of Geoffrey Phillip a Yir Yoront Brown Crane man who was a tracker from Mitchell River. Tracker Geoffrey worked with Constables Clupfel and McNaught during the late 1930’s through the 1940’s. His bush travels took him as far north as the Holroyd River. The other mannequin will feature a Native Mounted Policeman and be part of a future museum exhibit. Page 37
KOWANYAMA PROJECT NEWS
PARROT’S STORY
A young Yir Yoront bush boy’s Journey
A young boy was on the coast during the bush times. No one knows exactly when but it was when people lived on their country and the sandlewood cutters were travelling through the Cape and Gulf region. The boy was picked up and taken by a ship’s captain called Giblet for many years.
The boy’s name was Parrot. He was a Yir Yoront boy who carried the name Parrot for Minh Mar the crimson winged parrot. Min mar was celebrated in Pinpan story and song as the parrot that was seen by the two brothers as they travelled through Mitchell River delta country naming places and leaving the songs for the people to remember in ceremony. Minh mar was seen feeding in a tree feeding on wongay fruit by the two ancestral beings. The little boy was Malachi Parrot’s father. The last time the parrot dance was performed was in 1977 at Kowanyama by Patrick Eric and Morris David who danced the two ancestors spearing parrots as they came to feed in the wongay tree.
Giblet the ship captain, it is believed was a trader collecting sandlewood, possum and water rat skins who had a trading camp at Batavia River dealing in sandalwood and it is said, the man also dealt in trochus and pearl shell. Years later Giblet dropped the boy back on the Mitchell. When he met his family, they all marvelled at the strange new language he could speak. It was the first time they had heard English.
Malachi Parrot Photograph by Craig Holmes
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In the Kowanyama Collection we have a collection of trochus shell buttons and the rim of a shell where the buttons had been cut in the days before plastic buttons. It is to remember the little boy Parrot so log ago. For our old objects there are many stories.
KOWANYAMA PROJECT NEWS
GOING BUSH
Looking after our Elders
The HACC Program provides services that support and help frail older people and younger people with disabilities to live independently at home. HACC services provide eligible people with help at home, help with getting out into the community, and a break for carers.
The staff of both our community agencies caring for elders and our people with disabilities have run a consistent and successful program getting people out onto country and away from the Health and Aged Care Centre. Both HACC and NDIS staff and participants were interviewed by ABC in October and featured in a number of featured stories. HACC staff have taken Elders in their care out for day trips visiting popular fishing spots at places like Topsy freshwater, Topsy coast, Thum tharrar, Starfish and Paruw. Catches have included turtles and fish on the coals, catches of barramundi and more recently during shark season some have enjoyed traditional shark cakes and liver
Arnold Possum at a get together at the Men’s Shed Photographs courtesy of HACC
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KOWANYAMA PROJECT NEWS
Photograph provided by Fitzroy Lawrence
ON COUNTRY Some real food for the soul Arnold was flying high when he visited his family’s country at the mouth of the Mitchell River with Kowanyama Rangers and brother Malcolm one of our known quiet, but persistent promoters of dance and culture and a caring brother
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Photographer: Peter Taylor HACC
KOWANYAMA PROJECT NEWS
OUR POLICE TRACKER SLOUCH HAT Of donors, ebay and sheer luck
November was a month when it was realised just how the goodwill of donors, and sheer luck play such a big part in the strategic selection of key things for Kowanyama Collection that best represent the culture and history of our region.
Kowanyama Collection refurbished hat shaped and ready for a band
Lawrie Witham a former OIC of the Kowanyama Police Station in the 1970’s generously donated his acorn and rope for the Tracker uniform. The slouch hat and the small package from Lawrie arrived on the same mail plane. The slouch hat arrived from Victoria with a pinched military bash. After an overnight soak and a good brush down, it took on the form of a great used looking Queensland Police hat. Our generous donor was emailed to let him know his donation had arrived safely, and that all we needed now was the band or puggaree to complete our Police slouch hat. That same day the very same kind of band that suited the Police style was advertised on ebay. When the puggaree arrives we will have a fine example of a period Tracker’s slouch hat for our mannequin. The mannequin will be modelled from a photograph of The Late Geoffrey Phillip a Police Tracker from Kowanyama who worked with police out of Normanton and Coen.
150 years of policing in Queensland, QLD Police Museum 2009
Our commissioning of the mannequins to illustrate our collection’s Native Mounted Police and Aboriginal Tracker exhibit really put us under pressure to get the uniforms complete.
Constable Lawrie Witham shoeing his horse at Forsayth during the 1960’s as a young man
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KOWANYAMA PROJECT NEWS
FRONTIER SURVEYING ERA Cattle stations on Western Cape York John Embley, was a surveyor with the Queensland Department of Lands. Embley made a number of journeys through Cape York from the 1880s. He added to the work of other explorers. His travels and surveys took ok him inland from Princess Charlotte Bay (1883-4); Coleman River (1884); oleman to Kendall K Coen River (1884); the lower Mitchell River (1886); the Stewart River (1895-6) as well as the Weipa area. ar Kowanyama Project ect has acquired a set of o 1876 surveyors chains. kind of s. They would have been the kin surveying equipment pment carried by Embley with a compass compas on his travels through Cape York. The set of chains are close to 150 50 years old and will soon become a part of anyama Collection. the Kowanyama
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Mapping out our future Meetings have been held in November and December and a Planning Group has been formed, meeting monthly to organise a gathering of Olkola Clans at Oriners in July 2022. Meetings are being facilitated by Mark Malthouse from ABC and funding support from Caritas.
The cultural gathering might include workshops, song, dance, traditional fire burning practice and good old bush cooking. Plus a lot of good fire side yarning about the future of the Western Olkola mob.
Plans are developing •
To reconnect to country and culture, discuss and plan towards a strong Olkola community,
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Revisit the vision elders had and renew the vision,
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Celebrate and acknowledge our vision, aspirations, skills and knowledge of country,
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Share our ideas about family and individual wellbeing and community development,
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Acknowledge and celebrate the strength we have to make good things happen.
And a good time will be had by everyone Page 43
BEST WISHES TO EVERYONE FOR 2022 From The Kowanyama Project
https://www.facebook.com/KowanyamaProject
TRANSMISSION OF CULTURAL HERITAGE OF ANCESTORS AND THEIR CHILDREN
