12/22/08
Nyinyikay Dha Wuba
New tourism venture in Arnhem Land brings Yolgnu people and Balandas (non-Yolgnu) together
Nyinyikay Homeland, north of Nhulunbuy in East Arnhem Land is the home of home of Nancy Mutilnga Burrarwanga and her family, who live a very traditional lifestyle. When visitors come to Nyinyikay they will have an opportunity to share the daily life of the Nyinyikay families and to develop new awareness, knowledge and skills of traditional Aboriginal culture by participating in a wide range of activities.
Nancy, along with her family offer visitors an exciting opportunity to gain a hands-on traditional Indigenous cultural experience through activities including: collecting traditional foods, pandanus for weaving, bush medicine, hunting activities with the men and opportunity to learn about indigenous art from exceptional artists Nancy and her daughter Megan. Nancy was born in the bush around Arnhem Bay in 1938. Two of her eight children were born in the bush and the other six at local medical clinics. Nancy's knowledge is based on tens of thousands of years of indigenous culture and practice. Nancy says she enjoys showing visitors to her homeland and helping them to understand the traditional Aboriginal lifestyle and culture. It is an exciting time for tourism enterprises in the region especially with the MV Orion, one of the top five luxury cruise ships in the world coming onboard.
IN THE LAND OF THE WILD DOGS
When visitors come to Nyinyikay, a small homeland community in East Arnhem Land, they are treated to a day out with Nancy Mutilnga Burarrwanga and her extended family, with the day's events dictated by the season. They are a people living on their traditional country, hunting, gathering bush foods and fishing, just as their ancestors had done for millennia.
If you visit in June, female visitors are likely to join Nancy and her daughter Megan picking pandanus leaves that they will use for weaving baskets. July is a special time when the woolybutt blossoms come out, making the bush honey taste sweeter-- but you have to find it. In October the stingrays are fat, so male visitors will take a spear down to the beach with Nancy's son, in hopes of bringing one back for lunch.
It is spontaneous tourism spent with traditional Indigenous people, offering an insightful glimpse into the world's longest continually surviving culture.
Just ask the tourists off the MV Orion or the True North cruise ships. Operating at the high end of the market, these luxury liners cruise Australia's northern coast, with both adding a stop at Nyinyikay to their itineraries. The Orion stop was particularly successful because on board were the top 20 Indigenous art collectors in Australia, guided by author and Indigenous art expert, Howard Morphy. The family did not even discuss the visit until the night before, then throwing around ideas on how best to entertain their impending visitors. Bring out the art, make a few baskets and shell necklaces with the ladies, walk the beach, spear a stingray, boil up some turtle eggs, do a lot of talking.
The Orion appeared, as planned, on the horizon, with the visitors racing towards the community in inflatable speedboats. Arriving on shore, the visitors were immediately treated like family members. They later said it was an experience like this was the reason they had taken the cruise.
"People want a real experience with Indigenous people on country that's not staged," says Department of Regional Development Project Officer, Stuart MacLean. "You're on a homeland eating bush foods. It's all totally spontaneous."
By the day's end the visitors spent over $30,000 on Nyinyikay art, including bark paintings, woven baskets, sculptures, spears, and shell necklaces and bracelets. They auctioned one painting for $12,000, a philanthropic gesture aimed at supporting the community business enterprise.
The hostess for any visit to Nyinyikay is Megan Balatj Ganambarr, Nancy Mutilnga Burrawanga's daughter. The softly spoken hostess tells the story of the dreamtime dingoes that created this spectacular landform on the very top of Australia. She gives each dingo a different character voice in the story passed down from generation to generation-- hence the paw prints on the welcome sign at the airstrip.
She loves to tell the story of how her late father, Mowarra Ganambarr, built this and two other homelands along the wild East Arnhem Land coast. He is remembered fondly as a man whose life revolved around family, culture and tradition. During World War II Mowarra Ganambarr served as a member of the Northern Territory Special Unit, patrolling the beaches of East Arnhem Land for Japanese intruders.
He said that he did that so his Yolgnu people and Balandas (non-Yolgnu) could live together in peace. He fathered 35 children and over 200 grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Mowarra's children were brought up in the bush. His daughters recall their father announcing, when they ran out of tea and sugar, their only non-bush staples, that he had decided to walk to the new town of Nhulunbuy--three days journey from Nyinyikay over rough country.
They remember him hunting along the way with his shovel-nose spear, providing meat for the family. He was honoured with an Order of Australia medal in 2000 at 83 years of age, just a few years before his death. Mowarra raised his family on the edge of the sea that brought the first foreigners to Australia.
Before the Europeans were the Macassans from the island of Sulawesi in today's Indonesia. Fishing for trepang along this coast, they had a camp just around the headland from Nyinyikay. It was from there that they came and kidnapped Megan's Aboriginal grandmother, taking her back to Sulawesi, where she had eight children. Megan tells the story about how her son Tony journeyed to Sulawesi and visited his Indonesian family. Today only a handful of Ganambarrs reside at Nyinyikay, and it is Nancy's dream that her family returns to their homeland, far from the social problems associated with northern towns and communities.
But to do that an economic base is required, and it is hoped that tourism will supply that. When the family decided that tourism was the avenue they wanted to pursue, they turned to Stuart MacLean of the East Arnhem Department of Regional Development, Primary Industry, Fisheries and Resources.
It is MacLean's job to help Indigenous people set up business ventures, in this case introducing Nyinyikay to the market. It was he who knocked on Orion's door in Sydney and True North's in Broome, which led to their visits.
"Because Megan and Nancy are really patient, we've been able to target the high-end niche market," explains MacLean. "There are people out there who are really interested in Indigenous art and spending time with the artists on country, and will pay top money to do it." Already all proceeds from anchorage fees from the cruise ships have been placed in a family trust to be used for infrastructure upgrades at Nyinyikay. Megan's son Marcus, a teacher at nearby Galiwin'ku community on Elcho Island, acts as host when cruise ships make a visit. It is his grandmother's dream that he one day will set up a school here at Nyinyikay. Then all the Ganambarrs can return to the land of the wild dogs.
For further information
Contact : East Arnhem Tourism Hub
Phone : 8987 3433
Mobile : 0447 087 091
Email : tourismhub@bigpond.com
Article from Territory Quarterly
Nancy, along with her family offer visitors an exciting opportunity to gain a hands-on traditional Indigenous cultural experience through activities including: collecting traditional foods, pandanus for weaving, bush medicine, hunting activities with the men and opportunity to learn about indigenous art from exceptional artists Nancy and her daughter Megan. Nancy was born in the bush around Arnhem Bay in 1938. Two of her eight children were born in the bush and the other six at local medical clinics. Nancy's knowledge is based on tens of thousands of years of indigenous culture and practice. Nancy says she enjoys showing visitors to her homeland and helping them to understand the traditional Aboriginal lifestyle and culture. It is an exciting time for tourism enterprises in the region especially with the MV Orion, one of the top five luxury cruise ships in the world coming onboard.
IN THE LAND OF THE WILD DOGS
When visitors come to Nyinyikay, a small homeland community in East Arnhem Land, they are treated to a day out with Nancy Mutilnga Burarrwanga and her extended family, with the day's events dictated by the season. They are a people living on their traditional country, hunting, gathering bush foods and fishing, just as their ancestors had done for millennia.
If you visit in June, female visitors are likely to join Nancy and her daughter Megan picking pandanus leaves that they will use for weaving baskets. July is a special time when the woolybutt blossoms come out, making the bush honey taste sweeter-- but you have to find it. In October the stingrays are fat, so male visitors will take a spear down to the beach with Nancy's son, in hopes of bringing one back for lunch.
It is spontaneous tourism spent with traditional Indigenous people, offering an insightful glimpse into the world's longest continually surviving culture.
Just ask the tourists off the MV Orion or the True North cruise ships. Operating at the high end of the market, these luxury liners cruise Australia's northern coast, with both adding a stop at Nyinyikay to their itineraries. The Orion stop was particularly successful because on board were the top 20 Indigenous art collectors in Australia, guided by author and Indigenous art expert, Howard Morphy. The family did not even discuss the visit until the night before, then throwing around ideas on how best to entertain their impending visitors. Bring out the art, make a few baskets and shell necklaces with the ladies, walk the beach, spear a stingray, boil up some turtle eggs, do a lot of talking.
The Orion appeared, as planned, on the horizon, with the visitors racing towards the community in inflatable speedboats. Arriving on shore, the visitors were immediately treated like family members. They later said it was an experience like this was the reason they had taken the cruise.
"People want a real experience with Indigenous people on country that's not staged," says Department of Regional Development Project Officer, Stuart MacLean. "You're on a homeland eating bush foods. It's all totally spontaneous."
By the day's end the visitors spent over $30,000 on Nyinyikay art, including bark paintings, woven baskets, sculptures, spears, and shell necklaces and bracelets. They auctioned one painting for $12,000, a philanthropic gesture aimed at supporting the community business enterprise.
The hostess for any visit to Nyinyikay is Megan Balatj Ganambarr, Nancy Mutilnga Burrawanga's daughter. The softly spoken hostess tells the story of the dreamtime dingoes that created this spectacular landform on the very top of Australia. She gives each dingo a different character voice in the story passed down from generation to generation-- hence the paw prints on the welcome sign at the airstrip.
She loves to tell the story of how her late father, Mowarra Ganambarr, built this and two other homelands along the wild East Arnhem Land coast. He is remembered fondly as a man whose life revolved around family, culture and tradition. During World War II Mowarra Ganambarr served as a member of the Northern Territory Special Unit, patrolling the beaches of East Arnhem Land for Japanese intruders.
He said that he did that so his Yolgnu people and Balandas (non-Yolgnu) could live together in peace. He fathered 35 children and over 200 grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Mowarra's children were brought up in the bush. His daughters recall their father announcing, when they ran out of tea and sugar, their only non-bush staples, that he had decided to walk to the new town of Nhulunbuy--three days journey from Nyinyikay over rough country.
They remember him hunting along the way with his shovel-nose spear, providing meat for the family. He was honoured with an Order of Australia medal in 2000 at 83 years of age, just a few years before his death. Mowarra raised his family on the edge of the sea that brought the first foreigners to Australia.
Before the Europeans were the Macassans from the island of Sulawesi in today's Indonesia. Fishing for trepang along this coast, they had a camp just around the headland from Nyinyikay. It was from there that they came and kidnapped Megan's Aboriginal grandmother, taking her back to Sulawesi, where she had eight children. Megan tells the story about how her son Tony journeyed to Sulawesi and visited his Indonesian family. Today only a handful of Ganambarrs reside at Nyinyikay, and it is Nancy's dream that her family returns to their homeland, far from the social problems associated with northern towns and communities.
But to do that an economic base is required, and it is hoped that tourism will supply that. When the family decided that tourism was the avenue they wanted to pursue, they turned to Stuart MacLean of the East Arnhem Department of Regional Development, Primary Industry, Fisheries and Resources.
It is MacLean's job to help Indigenous people set up business ventures, in this case introducing Nyinyikay to the market. It was he who knocked on Orion's door in Sydney and True North's in Broome, which led to their visits.
"Because Megan and Nancy are really patient, we've been able to target the high-end niche market," explains MacLean. "There are people out there who are really interested in Indigenous art and spending time with the artists on country, and will pay top money to do it." Already all proceeds from anchorage fees from the cruise ships have been placed in a family trust to be used for infrastructure upgrades at Nyinyikay. Megan's son Marcus, a teacher at nearby Galiwin'ku community on Elcho Island, acts as host when cruise ships make a visit. It is his grandmother's dream that he one day will set up a school here at Nyinyikay. Then all the Ganambarrs can return to the land of the wild dogs.
For further information
Contact : East Arnhem Tourism Hub
Phone : 8987 3433
Mobile : 0447 087 091
Email : tourismhub@bigpond.com
Article from Territory Quarterly
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