Kakadu Man.
the_grynne has been posting some beautiful and fascinating poetry over the past year or so (and you should really head over there to check them out). Most of them are foreign, so I thought I'd post something (not that I'm making a habit of this) from our own little island. It is one of my mother's favourite poems.
When I was growing up
good mob of people all around then.
Now people bit wicked.
My time never do little bit wrong ...
Otherwise get spear straight away.
Now ... little bit cheeky mob.
Old time they would all be dead now.
First people came to us,
they started and run our life ... quick.
They bring drink.
First they should ask about fish, cave, dreaming, but...
they rush in.
They make school ... teach.
Now Aboriginal losing it,
losing everything.
This earth . .
I never damage
I look after.
Fire is nothing,
just clean up. When you burn,
new grass coming up.
That mean good animal soon ...
might be goose, long-neck turtle, goanna, possum.
Burn him off...
new grass coming up,
new life all over.
All these places for us ...
all belong Gagadju.
We use them all the time.
Old people used to move around,
camp different place.
Wet season, dry season ...
always camp different place.
My culture's hard,
but got to keep him.
If you waste him anything now,
next year ... you can't get as much,
because you already waste.
We want goose, we want fish.
Other men want money.
Him can make million dollars,
but only last one year.
Next year him want another million.
Forever and ever him make million dollar
him die.
Million no good for us.
We need this earth to live because ...
we'll be dead,
we'll become earth.
This ground and this earth ...
like brother and mother.
We like this earth to stay ...
we don't want to lose him.
We say, 'Sacred, leave him'.
We come from earth ...
bones.
We go to earth ...
ashes.
keep going ...
hang on like I done.
Bill Neidjie
"get spear": spearing, often in the thigh, was a traditional punishment for breaking tribal law.
"cheeky": bad, impudent, dangerous.
"little bit cheeky mob": a rather unruly lot.
"burn him off": burn off. Fire is one of the chief ways by which the Aborigines manage their land.
"first people came to us": i.e. white people.
"If you waste him anything": if you waste anything.
"story": story, creation myth, set of beliefs.
"law": both law and lore.
"hang on": hang on to this 'story', and these understandings.
Bill Neidjie (c. 1920 - May 23 2002) was an elder of the Gagudju people, who own parts of Kakadu National Park in the Northern Territory, and the last surviving speaker of the Gagudju language.
In many indigenous Australian cultures, there are traditional secrets passed down from generation to generation, and it is taboo to reveal these secrets to a non-initiate. As he grew older, Bill Neidjie realised that he might be in the position, as one of the last Gagudju initiates, of taking these secrets to the grave with him, and so made the courageous decision to break this taboo, so that his culture might live on. He related many of his stories to the anthropologist Stephen Davis and others, and published two books, in which he related his passion for the land of which he was part, and insisted on the importance of managing the land in the traditional ways. He hoped that, one day, his culture might thrive once again, and his grandchildren, or their grandchildren, might pick up the threads once more.
The above 'poem' is written out in lines of verse that corresponded to Neidjie's breath pauses; a transcription of his oral reminiscences and remarks, as collected by Stephen Davis. It is addressed primarily to non-Aborigines.
When I was growing up
good mob of people all around then.
Now people bit wicked.
My time never do little bit wrong ...
Otherwise get spear straight away.
Now ... little bit cheeky mob.
Old time they would all be dead now.
First people came to us,
they started and run our life ... quick.
They bring drink.
First they should ask about fish, cave, dreaming, but...
they rush in.
They make school ... teach.
Now Aboriginal losing it,
losing everything.
This earth . .
I never damage
I look after.
Fire is nothing,
just clean up. When you burn,
new grass coming up.
That mean good animal soon ...
might be goose, long-neck turtle, goanna, possum.
Burn him off...
new grass coming up,
new life all over.
All these places for us ...
all belong Gagadju.
We use them all the time.
Old people used to move around,
camp different place.
Wet season, dry season ...
always camp different place.
My culture's hard,
but got to keep him.
If you waste him anything now,
next year ... you can't get as much,
because you already waste.
We want goose, we want fish.
Other men want money.
Him can make million dollars,
but only last one year.
Next year him want another million.
Forever and ever him make million dollar
him die.
Million no good for us.
We need this earth to live because ...
we'll be dead,
we'll become earth.
This ground and this earth ...
like brother and mother.
We like this earth to stay ...
we don't want to lose him.
We say, 'Sacred, leave him'.
We come from earth ...
bones.
We go to earth ...
ashes.
keep going ...
hang on like I done.
Bill Neidjie
"get spear": spearing, often in the thigh, was a traditional punishment for breaking tribal law.
"cheeky": bad, impudent, dangerous.
"little bit cheeky mob": a rather unruly lot.
"burn him off": burn off. Fire is one of the chief ways by which the Aborigines manage their land.
"first people came to us": i.e. white people.
"If you waste him anything": if you waste anything.
"story": story, creation myth, set of beliefs.
"law": both law and lore.
"hang on": hang on to this 'story', and these understandings.
Bill Neidjie (c. 1920 - May 23 2002) was an elder of the Gagudju people, who own parts of Kakadu National Park in the Northern Territory, and the last surviving speaker of the Gagudju language.
In many indigenous Australian cultures, there are traditional secrets passed down from generation to generation, and it is taboo to reveal these secrets to a non-initiate. As he grew older, Bill Neidjie realised that he might be in the position, as one of the last Gagudju initiates, of taking these secrets to the grave with him, and so made the courageous decision to break this taboo, so that his culture might live on. He related many of his stories to the anthropologist Stephen Davis and others, and published two books, in which he related his passion for the land of which he was part, and insisted on the importance of managing the land in the traditional ways. He hoped that, one day, his culture might thrive once again, and his grandchildren, or their grandchildren, might pick up the threads once more.
The above 'poem' is written out in lines of verse that corresponded to Neidjie's breath pauses; a transcription of his oral reminiscences and remarks, as collected by Stephen Davis. It is addressed primarily to non-Aborigines.