Ganggu Mama – Uncle Daddy

This story was about how a young boy is hanging around “mainstream” Aboriginal boys who are into stealing and generally getting into trouble. When the boy decides he doesn’t want to be involved in this mischief the other boys make fun of him.

The boys uncle lives out ‘bush’ and is a traditional Aboriginal Person. When his uncle comes into the city to busk he sees his nephew who was embarrassed by his traditions and declines to help busk with his uncle. The boys friends laugh and make fun of him.

When the boys friends go to steal a car the boy decides he doesn’t want to be a part of this mischief and his friends make fun of him. The boy goes to find his uncle and decides to help him busk.

The boy helps his uncle and paints his face in his traditional markings and does a ‘bird’ dance, he embraces his tradition.

This short film shows how the Aboriginal People try to fit in with the mainstream culture and how they ‘give up’ on their traditions as they are afraid they will get made fun of and be an outsider. This is an issue from the past when the Certificate of Exemption was used (obviously in very different circumstances as they didn’t have a choice or they would get shot) but is also an issue today as they have a choice to stay in their traditional land in most cases. Aboriginal People choose to live like White Australians in order to fit it, but they are giving up on much more than tradition. They are giving up on their ancestors, their dreaming and spiritual believing. This film also shows how the Aboriginal people can revert back to their traditional life when the realisation of how the White people live is far from different to what they are used to and shows that they can always rely on their tradition to revert back to for guidance. This film was a very clever way to represent issues which are ignored in society by the White People and how the whites persuade the Aboriginal people to change and conform to their behaviours.

Kelsall, Belinda. Ganggu Mama: Uncle Daddy. Producer Mark Harett. Australian Broadcasting Commission. 12 min. 2004

Blackout – Malangi

This documentry was on David Malangi and Aboriginal Artist:

"When the earth was made there were no waterholes or billabongs, places had no names and people had no language. Two spirit women came at sunrise from the East and breathed life into this place. The two Djang-kuwa sisters who came from the East changed their language when they go to Dhamala. They named the places and became part of the tribe here. When walking slowly with their digging sticks and they put their sticks into the ground they made waterholes. Before this there was none. When they put their sticks into the ground the water rose up.”

This is the 'dreaming' story of how the water holes became apparent and this was something David was likely to paint. David paints his sacred sites and dreamings which I found unusual as I thought that dreaming stories were secrets of the ancestors and should only be passed down generation to generation.

David Malangi was the custodian and tribal leader. He lived a semi traditional life and was an acclaimed artist. Most of his paintings depict creation stories and reveal how his land, creatures and people came to being. These stories are David’s reality. David has four wives.

“Our law is different, we were raised on a different sort of law. A man can have two, four or five wives. We are different to white people. I look after everyone, they’re all mine, the people and the land. I am the one who’s looking after them.”

Hearing this actually really surprised me that in the Aboriginal Culture a man can have as many wives as he wants. I have tried to find more information on this but unfortunately couldn’t find anything. Hopefully I will soon be able to find something on it and post about it.

“We have grown up with our culture and kept it. Our sacred sites, our ceremonies and secret dreamings.”

1965 The Reserve Bank used one of David’s paintings depicting Gurrmirringu in a funeral scene as a design on the new $1 note. David was only aware of this when the first notes appeared in 1966. The bank was quick to correct this oversight. David received a medal from the Administrator for the $1 note.

 

(this image was sourced from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_one-dollar_note)

“This is how they paid me, with a dinghy, tent and $500. That’s all I got from the $1 note, and this medal.”

It’s funny how the white Australians take recognition of the Aboriginal People when it suites them. They needed a design for a note and David’s Gurrimirringu funeral scene was something they were after and ‘used’ it. I believe this still happens in the modern society of today. Especially in the sense where non Indigenous people are buying Aboriginal art with no or little knowledge of what the art itself and the history or spiritual side behind it actually means because it is ‘trendy’. 

Cantwell, Paul. Blackout: Malangi, Directed by Michael Riley, Australian Broadcasting Company, 30 min. DVD

When the Snake Bites the Sun

I recently watched a DVD called When the Snake Bites the Sun and found this documentary very interesting. One thing that took me buy surprise was when Sam Woolagoodja (an Aboriginal Elder) chose Michael (director of the documentary) to take over his responsibility's.

"Michael you take over, happy, you carry on, this must come true, you must carry on and finish the job."
I was taken by surprise because Michael is a white Australian, an 'outsider' but to Woolagoodja he is a 'Abe' (excuse the spelling) - a tribal brother.  Michael felt uncomfortable when Woolagoodja asked him to take responsibility aws he was not an 'initiated' tribal man.

Michael and Woolagoodja met whilst making a film in Western Australia and knew each other for about seven years before Woolagoodja passed away trying to reach his spirit land which can only be reached by sea. They became close friends quickly and Michael gained Woolagoodja's trust. Over the seven years Woolagoodja initiated Michael into the secrets of his ancestors which had been passed down since pre-history. When he passed, he trusted Michael to keep these secrets alive, to pass them along in a contemporary form through film.

"Woolagoodja was like a high priest, he was responsible for keeping alive the ancient western of his place."

This surprised me as I thought that these 'secrets' should only be passed to the Aboriginal People of Wolagoodja' tribe especially because Michael is an outsider but also he is a white Australian. Woolagoodja must have had a lot of respect and trust towards Michael to make him responsible for passing this knowledge down. However, it was not easy for Michael to take responsibility when Woolagoodja passed away.

Wolagoodja's death was sensationalised by popular press which lead to his community being shocked and confused about his death. Some even were saying Michael killed Woolagoodja. The elders of the community sought through legal means to sever Michaels link with the community for good. They succeeded and Michael was banished for the tribal lands which Woolagoodja made him custodian of.

Michael wanted to confront these issues and returned to the Wirrira tribe. Surprisingly when he returned the same people who banished him welcomed him with open arms. This shows how forgiving the Aboriginal people are (even thought it was all a bit of a miss understanding). I believe the majority of  the Aboriginal people in Australia forgive the white Australians for the invasion of their land, it is the White Australians who are 'holding' onto the issues from the past. The people who were forgiving Michael were the same people he had taken back to their tribal lands thirteen years prior and on this trip they were re-enacting a life style that was foreign to them.  This was because of the Silent Assimilation Policy of the 1950s which persuaded tribes to leave their traditional homes and adopt the culture of the majority (British).

"The price they paid was a loss of oral tradition which carries their ancestral knowledge and the wisdom of their law."

In 1972 when Michael was directing a film in their traditional land, some of this knowledge was still alive. This documentary was taken in 1985 and things are very different. When Michael arrived and was talking to some of the "Elders" of the Wirrira community they spoke of monetary value and how the mining companies give them $55 to talk.

"Michael we are modern people...... you pay."

It is unfortunate that the Aboriginal People have lost cultural value and 'swapped' it for monetary value. Instead of everything being about their land, spirits and people it is now about the way they need to live like the stereotypical world where 'everything' involves money. It would be great to involve some of our Aboriginal heritage back into everyday life and include it into the White Australians lives as this was where our 'home' originated from.

When Woolagoodja had asked Michael to take responsibility of his tribe Michael asked about his 'sons' but Woolagoodja laughed and said my 'sons' are too drunk to tell the stories so you have to tell the stories now.
This could be the result from the Silent Assimilation Policy, removing the Aboriginal People from their 'normal' culture and placing them into mainstream culture which caused many problems and introduced them to things such as alcohol and drugs, which is now a prevalent problem in society which the White Australians continually use to stereotype the Aboriginal People. It could be said that it is the White Australians who actually caused this issue to arise in the first place. This is because they took the Aboriginal people out of their culture and placed them into the 'unknown' secluding them from family and friends which lead the Aboriginal people to becoming lonely and turning to alcoholism and drug use.

Michael went on to talk about how in the Aboriginal culture:

"Things are possible that the white culture had taught me were impossible."

This is because the White culture always demands 'proof' of stories. In 1979 Woolagoodja 'came' to Michael when he was trying to find 'evidence' of an ancestral story Woolagoodja had told him even though Woolagoodja was in a different country and thousands of miles away from Michael. Michael naturally knew he had to go back to Woolagoodjas home. This example goes to show how different the White Australian culture and the Aboriginal Cultures are from each other but also how they can learn from each other and 'believe' in particular things.

Adkins, Ian.  When the Snake Bites the Sun, Directed by Michael Edols. Film Australia. 57 min. 1986 DVD