Dreaming Ecology: Nomadics and Indigenous Ecological Knowledge, Victoria River, Northern Australia (Monographs in Anthropology)

In the author's own words, Dreaming Ecology 'explores a holistic understanding of the interconnections of people, country, kinship, creation and the living world within a context of mobility. Implicitly it asks how people lived so sustainably for so long'. It offers a telling critique of the loss of Indigenous life, human and non-human, in the wake of white settler colonialism and this becoming 'cattle country'. It offers a fresh perspective on nomadics grounded in 'footwalk epistemology' and 'an ethics of return sustained across different species, events, practices and scales'. 'This is the final and most substantial of Debbie's love letters to the Aboriginal people of the Victoria River Downs. I say this because there is such a sense of reverence, wonder and respect throughout the book. The introduction of concepts of double-death, footwalk epistemology, wild country ... are not only organising ideas but characterisations arising from what Debbie hears, sees and feels of herself and Aboriginal others ... I think of it in terms of love, if love is care, reciprocal respect, deep connectivity and a strong desire to never make less of the people she chose to commit herself to.' -Richard Davis 'This book was a pleasure to read, filled with careful description of people, places, and various plants and animals, and insightful analysis of the patterns and commitments that hold them together in the world.' -Thom van Dooren List of Illustrations Map 3.1. Dora Jilpngarri’s footwalk map. Map 3.2. Snowy Kulmilya’s footwalk map. Map 3.3. Kitty Lariyari’s footwalk map. Map 3.4. Hobbles Danaiyarri’s footwalk map. Map 4.1. The Victoria River region showing the main ecological zones as defined by Aboriginal people—the ‘saltwater side’ north of the Stokes Range, the ‘river Country’, (laman—river and pinka—creek), below the Stokes Range, and the savanna desert (kaja), Map 4.2. Dreamings that signify a zone (Latatj), connection between patches (Nanganarri) and demarcate a boundary (Walujapi). Map 8.1. The foraging range of Doug Campbell and other Aboriginal people who once lived in the ‘compound’ at VRD homestead. Table 3.1. Foods remembered being gathered by Snowy Kulmilya. Table 5.1. Showing the year of birth, sex, footwalk area, intensive foraging area, extensive area, home County zone, number and type of zones visited, and the number of foods listed for each of the footwalkers discussed here. Table 6.1. Mean rainfall (mm). Table 6.2. Highest monthly rainfall (mm). Table 6.3. Lowest monthly rainfall (mm). Table 6.4. Mean 3 pm air temperature (deg C). Figure 1.1. Jessie Wirrpa and the author, out bush on Victoria River Downs (VRD), 1982. Figure 2.1. Ivy Kulngarri, Nancy Jalayingali and Mollie at the bullwaddy tree at Kamanji, Pigeon Hole area, 1984. Figure 3.1. Dora Jilpngarri, Yarralin, 1982. Figure 3.2. The Black-Headed Python Dreaming boab at Manjajku (Bottle Tree Waterhole), Jasper Gorge, 1982. Figure 3.3. Snowy Kulmilya engaged in young men’s business, Yarralin, late 1981. Figure 3.4. Kitty Lariyari (left), Maggie John (middle) and author (right), Yarralin, 1982. Figure 3.5. The Pilimatjaru sandstone, Gordon Creek, VRD, 1984. Figure 3.6. Hobbles Danaiyarri, spinning hair string, Yarralin, c. 1985. Figure 3.7. Riley Young Winpilin trimming a sapling for a spear shaft, Lingara, 1981. Figure 3.8. Nina Humbert, Lingara, 1982. Figure 3.9. Nina Humbert’s painting of the Jirrikit and Warritja Dreamings (acrylic on canvas), 1991. In the author’s private collection. Figure 4.1. Yanturi on the Victoria River, a Dreaming place for Barramundi, Plover, Pigeon and others, Coolibah Station, 1982. Figure 4.2. Debbie, Ivy Kulngarri and Nancy Jalayingali at Winingili, a Latatj Dreaming site on the road between Yarralin and Pigeon Hole, 1982. Figure 4.3. Rock painting of Latatj, the rock goanna (natural ochres), 1984. Figure 4.4. Wayita tubers from Ngurundarni, Pigeon Hole area, 1984. Figure 4.5. Two little children from Wayita Country, Ngurundarni, Pigeon Hole area, 1984. Figure 4.6. Jasper Gorge was created when Walujapi, the Black-Headed Python Woman, travelled across the land, 1984. Figure 4.7. Old Tim Yilngayarri, Yarralin, c. 1981. Figure 5.1. Old Jimmy Manngayarri, a great Law man and when younger a great walker, Daguragu, 1991. Figure 5.2. Little Mick Yinyinma with trade goods—bamboo spear shafts from the north and boomerangs from the south-east. Figure 5.3. Jambo Muntiyari, Yarralin, 1982. Figure 5.4. Dead trees in Riley pocket, Humbert River Station, killed when the Rainbow Snake withdrew the underground water. Figure 5.5. Big Mick Kangkinang and Daly Pulkara, men with tremendous knowledge of Country and Law, Yarralin, 1981. Figure 5.6. Allan Young removing a small sorcery figure from the Walujapi Dreaming boab at Wangkangki, 1986. Figure 5.7. An engraving of the Black-Headed Python Dreaming boab at Wangkangki, based on a sketch that explorer Thomas Baines made in 1856. Figure 5.8. The Black-Headed Python Dreaming boab at Wangkangki in 1985, broken down but still living. Figure 6.1. A rock painting of the Dreaming Emu looking at the sugarbag bees biting its legs, Ngaliwurru Country, Stokes Range, 1982. Figure 6.2. Relationships and contexts. Figure 7.1. Baby (Louisa Bishop) after being rubbed with a slurry of antbed and aromatic plant material to ‘fix’ her to Country, Yarralin, 1982. Figure 7.2. Hobbles Danaiyarri making a nula nula (hardwood club or fighting stick), Yarralin, 1984. Figure 8.1. Eroded Country on Humbert River Station that Daly Pulkara described as ‘the wild, just the wild’, 1981. Figure 8.2. A scald area in the Victoria River Country, Camfield Station, c. 1990. Figure 8.3. Trees killed by overgrazing and drought, Wave Hill Station, c. 1988. Figure 8.4. Kayalarin (Crinum augustifolium), a species once prolific on VRD, but now extremely rare. Figure 8.5. Doug Campbell, Yarralin, 1981. Figure 8.6. Kunja Rockhole on Limbunya Station, a Dreaming place for the water plant kanjalu, now believed extinct throughout the district. Figure 8.7. Severe erosion at a site that was once a ‘garden’. In the foreground is a seed-grinding millstone. Gordon Creek, VRD, 1984. Figure 8.8. Anzac Munnganyi performing an increase ritual by brushing a Lily Dreaming during the Pigeon Hole land claim hearing, 1988. Figure 9.1. Ivy Kulngarri holding a Baby Spirit Dreaming stone, Pigeon Hole, 1986. Figure 9.2. Yarralin women, Debbie and her daughter Chantal dancing Pantimi, Yarralin, 1981. Notes for the Reader Acknowledgements Prelude 1. Dreaming Ecology: Bringing to Fruition Prelude 2. Debbie and Yarralin: The Early Years Prelude 3. Deborah Bird Rose—Ahla Tyaemaen Prelude 4. Dreaming Ecology: Reflections 1. Coming into Country 2. Footwalk Epistemology 3. Walkabout 4. Dreaming Organisation 5. ‘Looking at all the Country’ 6. Attentive Subjects 7. Interactive Benefits 8. Wild and Ugly 9. Coming into Life Appendix 1. Letter from Brian Pedwell Bibliography Index