Whispers of This Wik Woman
Page 10
The story of Awumpun, an Alngith legend, will now live on. Her descendants will know her. They will know of their past and be able to determine their own future, having this knowledge. This woman once existed in time. She produced fruit. She has passed on knowledge and has provided for us what each one of her blood line needs to possess. This knowledge is there for us to use, to define a personal sense of identity to Alngith and Wik country.
The descendants of Awumpun will always know their place on Alngith and Liningithi country. We know our connection as it has been taught to us by our Elder, even if this connection is not recognised at the Weipa level.
I have watched in silent pain the dispossession and the downright misinterpretation of a true traditional Alngith. This image is presented to the public, in my opinion, incorrectly.
Time is precious and I must complete this small dedication to this Wik woman. I have a strong desire for Nana to hold this book in her hands before the good Lord calls her home. I want Nana to see that I love her and realise how precious she is. I have been so fortunate and blessed to be of her blood.
Nana and Fiona Doyle at Napranum, April 2001 (Photograph by Stef Furlong)
She is sitting across from me. Her eyes water in a stream of silent tears. I can see her spirit is hurting at what recent memories are bringing back. She does not want to share it with me anymore. She is tired but she knows her story will continue to live on and she knows I will never forget her. Nana, Awumpun, dignified Alngith woman, your whispers have been heard and transformed into a voice to be heard by all.
POSTSCRIPT
One part of her life is ending ... What more can be said? It’s over two years since the ‘historical signing’ took place, in March 2001, between the four communities, Comalco/Rio Tinto and the government.
On reflection, I wonder how my grandmother has benefited from the signing of the agreement. How exactly will her descendants benefit?
Who can speak for all our different groups properly and fairly? Our different clans must be well represented. Who can speak for my family and, just as importantly, who will listen?
There are millions of dollars at stake and the alternative is the starkest poverty. Who is going to determine how the terms of the funds distribution are set up and if it is done fairly?
Nana often questions me. ‘Baby, what time them mob gonna pay up?’
‘Nana, they put im in big fund,’ I tell her.
‘What! How come? They should come straight to us. Them other black fellas gotta only take care of their own mob. We, we take care of our own business.’
Nana still awaits her old-age pension from fortnight to fortnight. She often forgets if it’s pension day or whether she would have money in her bank account or not.
Nana, throwing a cast-net with perfection at Beening Creek, 1992. (Photo by Paul Sweeney.)
Just the other day I ran into her and my mum at the shops.
‘Nana, what you doing here?’ I asked.
‘I just need hot chips and little bit money to catch taxi home, baby.’ Before seeing me she had been asking relatives for a few dollars. She had expected money to be in her bank account. My stomach knotted up as I gave her the money that she and my mum needed to buy a feed and get home.
Two people, two women, with the richest connection to rich, rich country and look at them. Is there something that is not quite right?
That same day I flew out to Cairns to wrap up Nana’s story.
It’s about to be told,
I kept whispering to myself...
It’s about to be told, about to be told.
TIME LINE
10 June 1898 Weipa Aboriginal Mission (first known as the Embley River Mission) established at Spring Creek.
4 August 1904 Aurukun Aboriginal Mission Station established by Rev. Arthur Richter.
20 October 1921 Roy George Uluchngoon/Twangul born to Old George Waukmatha of the Mbaiwum/Troch and Old Ethel Athailpun.
19 December 1925 Jean George Awumpun born to Dick Kelinda, an Alngith man of Weipa, and Nyrlotte, an Apalich woman of Wathaniin.
2 May 1931 Rev. Samuel McKay appointed Superintendent, Weipa Mission. 1931–1932, Weipa Mission moved from Spring Creek down to the waterfront at Jessica Pt by Rev. McKay.
8 November 1938 Mr James Sidney Winn and Mrs Betty Syme Winn (nee Graham) appointed as assistant missionaries at Weipa. Mr Winn was later appointed superintendent and served until June 1963.
1939 The Aboriginals Presentation and Protection Act (Qld) came into force.
1942 First Japanese air raid on Horn Island.
1942 Jean George Awumpun and Roy George Twangul walk to Weipa as newlyweds. They were accompanied by Old Matthew and Mariah of the Liningithi.
15 February 1943 Awumpun gives birth to her first child, Annie (Athailpun).
15 September 1948 Dick Kelinda, father of Awumpun and Councillor of Aurukun Mission, passed away.
16 July 1955 Discovery of bauxite at original Weipa Mission.
15 June 1956 Exploration, surveying, mapping and drilling of Weipa bauxite deposits commenced by Enterprise Exploration Pty Ltd.
August 1956 Top Camp established by Enterprise Exploration, operating until 1967. Area known traditionally as Munthing.
6 March 1965 Awumpun’s first grandchild, Lynette Jean, born at Thursday Island.
17 November 1965 New village at Weipa Mission (Napranum) officially opened by the Queensland Minister for Education, Hon. J.C. A. Pizzey.
1967 Aboriginal people first given citizenship and the right to vote and inclusion in the national census under the 1967 National Referendum which gave the Commonwealth control in Aboriginal Affairs over the states.
1966 End of mission era at Weipa
1 February 1966 APBM handed control of Weipa mission to Sub-Department of Native Affairs.
20 September 1968 Jessica Point State School officially opened.
1971 The Aborigines Act 1971 (Qld) came into force.
March 1974 Napranum Pre-School opened.
September 1973 Weipa Aborigines Society formed.
13 April 1979 Roy George Uluchngoon/Twangul passed away at Weipa Hospital.
9 March 1991 Name of the DOGIT (Deed of Grant in Trust) area changed from Weipa to Napranum.
17 September 1992 First Ruchook Aboriginal Cultural Festival staged at Napranum.
27 April 1993 Napranum Alngith Elder Jean George Awumpun met with Prime Minister Paul Keating to discuss the Mabo decision and Native Title.
May 1993 Napranum Aboriginal Corporation (NAC) formed to take over from the Weipa Aborigines Society.
1 July 1993 Wik Peoples claim filed in the Queensland District Registry of the Federal Court of Australia.
28 September 1995 Weipa Aborigines Society officially handed over to the Napranum Aboriginal Corporation.
February 1996 Justice Drummond rejected the Wik claim in the Federal Court.
4 May 1996 Remains of a child taken from the Embley River area early in the twentieth century were returned to Napranum. The remains had been kept by the Queensland Museum.
23 December 1996 Judgement of the High Court of Australia in the Wik case found that the Comalco Agreement and mining leases were valid. However, it also found that pastoral leases granted under the Queensland Land Acts did not ‘confer rights of exclusive possession on the lessee, giving birth to the notion that pastoral leases and native title could co-exist. Fiona Doyle’s Aunty Gladys Tybingoompa made history when she danced outside the Courts in Canberra in celebration of the finding.
8 May 1997 John Howard, Prime Minister of Australia, released The 10 Point Plan summarising the Australian government’s response to the Wik judgment.
16 June 1998 Agreement between Jean George Awumpun, Ronnie John and a third member of the Napranum community was signed at Cape York Land Council in regards to title to Alngith country. Awumpun relinquished primary claims to Alngith country north of the Embley River under considerable pressure from legal and professional representatives of t
he Cape York Land Council.
January 2000 Awumpun suffers a minor stroke, recovers and continues her fight for traditional recognition of Alngith Country.
February 2000 Awumpun submits a letter of retraction to the Cape York Land Council regarding the agreement signed by Ronnie John, a third person and herself in reference to the segregation of traditional estates over Alngith country.
14 March 2001 Western Cape Communities Co-existence Agreement (WCCCA) signed at Evans Landing, Weipa, between the Peoples of the Western Cape, the Federal Government and Comalco. Awumpun signs the agreement as an Alngith Elder and an Alngith Wikwaya Elder. Subsequently, Awumpun suffers a second stroke but recovers once more.
July 2004 Awumpun is living with her eldest grand-daughter Lynette in the same area she and her husband Roy George moved into in 1965 with eight-month-old Lynette.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
The Aboriginals Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act, 1897. Queensland.
The Aboriginals Preservation and Protection Act of 1939. Queensland.
‘Annual report of the Northern Protector of Aboriginals for 1901’, Queensland Parliamentary Papers, vol.1 (1902), pp.1131–49.
‘Annual report of the Chief Protector of Aboriginals for 1904’, Queensland Parliamentary Papers, vol.1 (1905), pp.749–73.
Hale, Kenneth L. ‘Appendix to XXIX: The Paman Group of the Pama–Nyungan Phylic Family’, Anthropological Linguistics, vol.8 no.2 (February 1966), pp.162–97.
Hale, Ken. ‘A Linngithigh Vocabulary’ in Tyron, Darrell and Walsh, Michael, eds. Boundary Rider: Essays in Honour of Geoffrey O’Grady. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics, 1997, pp.209–246.
Sutton, Peter. ‘Talking language’ in Simpson, Jane, et al. eds. Forty Years On: Ken Hale and Australian Languages. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics, 2001, pp.453-64.
Wharton, Geoff. Chronology of Weipa and District. (Unpublished typescript, January 2001).
Wharton, Geoff. Mission time: A guide to Queensland Presbyterian Church records relating to the Gulf missions at Aurukun, Mapoon, Mornington Island, Weipa and the Thursday Island Mission Agency 1891 to 1978. Fortitude Valley, Qld: PCE Press, 2000.
First published 2004 by University of Queensland Press
PO Box 6042, St Lucia, Queensland 4067 Australia
www.uqp.com.au
© Fiona Doyle
This book is copyright. Except for private study, research, criticism or reviews, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written permission. Enquiries should be made to the publisher.
Typeset by University of Queensland Press
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This project has been assisted by the Commonwealth Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.
Sponsored by the Queensland Office of Arts and Cultural Development
Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
National Library of Australia
Doyle, Maryann Fiona, 1969–.
Whispers of this Wik woman.
1. George, Jean. 2. Weipa Mission – Biography. 3. Aurukun Mission – Biography. 4. Women, Aboriginal Australian – Queensland – Biography. 5. Napranum – Biography. I. Title.
994.00499415
ISBN 978 0 7022 3461 3 (pbk)
978 0 7022 5052 1 (pdf)
978 0 7022 5053 8 (epub)
978 0 7022 5054 5 (kindle)