Bill Harney

circles at the top? Alright there’s one, two, three, four circles that make this thing happen, to make a songline right across the country. It travels from west to east all the way to the boundary of Wardaman land and to another people’s land and then they take over. But we stop in our Wardaman boundary. This songline on the left hand side is Gujingga (male ceremony). That’s a song called Gujingga, the songline was made by the Red-backed Kangaroo (Yunumburrgu) in the creation time. He travelled with the song, zigzagged all over naming all the country. Then on your left hand side they travelled together, far apart, say kilometres apart, woman’s dreaming went across too. That’s called Bandimi (women’s ceremony), and they (male and female kangaroo) went across and made a songline across the area. They started from the first beginning of the Wardaman boundary from the head of the Flora called Gerdan and Wuljarra estate and then on the left hand on the Jiggaigarn estate. East of Bradshaw boundary, that’s Djamindjung; that’s another tribe. They brought the songline to there and handed it over to us and Wardaman took over. All These little footprints (centre top) you see that’s all the little curlew come across making sound all the way singing in the night. Curlew, called wiliwuga, a little bird (bush stone curlew) you can hear him singing all night . Did you ever hear him? Wee ooo wee oo. Then when they take of dancing, they go, guyabut, guyabut, guyabut. A group of them are all dancing in the night, the wiliwuga. That’s a songlilne put together in place from the creation time. Also these two here (two right hand circles), here it’s a normal song (public ceremony) created by the Butcher Bird called jorlborrman and over there (far right) was created by the Long-tailed Pheasant called girribug. Jorlborrman was a singer who created the didjeridu who’se blown by the Long- tailed Pheasant. And Butcher Bird was singing and the sound of the didjeridu was making happiness to the country, and the clapstick, the sound again from the Butcher Bird when they were travelling, made happiness to the night sky, the land and all that. And the sound of all the women shouting make happiness to the county, the sound of the boomerang and the songlines, with the names of all the different sites: the billabong, the high mountains, floodplain, little spring, red soil open plains, scrubby land, little gullies over there like a big jump up, waterhole, spring and all the others. That’s what they’re making all that songline into, came all the way. And the didjeridu sound was also coming, following all the way and the clapstick sound was travelling all the way making all this happiness. Both sides of the party made a wonderful sound. The didjeridu and clapstick was on this side and the boomerang and the sound was going that side, and women with their clapsticks shouting a lot, making a lot of sound again. And the little wallaby was taking the road, travelling together with the little wallaby, little kangaroo, grass kangaroo, emu. Little Grass Wallaby called Garndarrin and Spinifex Wallaby called Dugurlgurl and the little bigger kangaroo (Nail-tailed Kangaroo) called Ngunangban. Then there’s Emu footprints there called Gumirrinji. Gumirrinji was dancing a lot making a lot of sound with his voice when they were going along. They were wearing loincloths in the front and they had two arrows looking backwards and forward using them on the neck to keep the country strong. They’re called winjawinja like a little quartz stone, they were wearing on their necks when they’re travelling to make sure that everything was going straight forward, that little black one there (triangle with circle shapes) I’ll lead you down with the didjeridu and clap stick first. They were wearing the loincloths warlburr when they were travelling. Down here on your right hand side you can see the hairbelt called warliwun. That one now, when a young man has to be initiated he has to wrap this around his waist like a belt, that way you recognise he’s going through the law. Then over here we call that jinggiyn like a little fire stick. Well they stop and sit down and design it. Sit far apart like didjeridu mob all seperate, the women all separate and all men separate again. This is men and men and women have a go at this one, all happy go lucky one, normal song on this side. Then further down they’re wearing a forehead band garlangband and this one here is called darmen they wear around the neck like a dilly bag, one, two darmen, the singer man has darmen and the didjeridu man has a darmen, them two there. And over there they’ve got a little lijarri, a little coolamon to carry their clapping tools and when they came here they sang, ‘This is the boundary of the didjeridu and wangga song.’ Wangga it’s like a clap stick song. They sat down, ‘This is the boundary now, we’ll stop here.” And they made all these little initiation marks (scarifications) you know they get all the stone tools called gindung. That’s for the didjeridu and clap stick. So you’ve got Gujingga and Wangga. I’ve given you half of that anyway. Now with the Gujingga song, we’ll call it the men all the way first. Gujingga made a big songline trail to cross from west to the east, zigzag all around, going backwards and forward naming all the country, the (clan) estate, they call it junding it’s like a little peg, they pegged it, gotta name it. Flood plain, swampy area, they name it, like a surveyor, but the songline, junding put it there, like all that Gujingga mob. This is flood plain, this is high mount, this is a low mount, open plain, a spring, a little swamp, and all that, they put it on (created it). While they were travelling they had the headdress called gumurndunga. They were wearing that gumurndunga to come across and see what they doing, you know, making that songline. And they came to here wearing that around their neck called ginan, little dilly bag over the neck. This one here is a little stick grasshopper (praying mantis) he’s a wobbly one with two long legs, that’s two one female and one male. When they were travelling across making the songline in the country, the Grasshopper People gave them a good breeze to cool down when they were travelling. Now they were given a breeze all the way as they travelled and sat down here they said, ‘The Wardaman song line ends here.’ The Red-backed Kangaroo said ‘Ok.’ They all sat down. They said, ‘Right, we’ll store all our songline song and everything, put it together and bury it here. Leave this for people to hear, to pick up and pass on to generations.’ And that’s why we’ve got that song, Aborigines like me, now today its been passed on to us. darmen they wear around the neck like a dilly bag, one, two darmen, the singer man has darmen and the didjeridu man has a darmen, them two there. And over there they’ve got a little lijarri, a little coolamon to carry their clapping tools and when they came here they sang, ‘This is the boundary of the didjeridu and wangga song.’ Wangga it’s like a clap stick song. They sat down, ‘This is the boundary now, we’ll stop here.” And they made all these little initiation marks (scarifications) you know they get all the stone tools called gindung. That’s for the didjeridu and clap stick. So you’ve got Gujingga and Wangga. I’ve given you half of that anyway. Now with the Gujingga song, we’ll call it the men all the way first. Gujingga made a big songline trail to cross from west to the east, zigzag all around, going backwards and forward naming all the country, the (clan) estate, they call it junding it’s like a little peg, they pegged it, gotta name it. Flood plain, swampy area, they name it, like a surveyor, but the songline, junding put it there, like all that Gujingga mob. This is flood plain, this is high mount, this is a low mount, open plain, a spring, a little swamp, and all that, they put it on (created it). While they were travelling they had the headdress called gumurndunga. They were wearing that gumurndunga to come across and see what they doing, you know, making that songline. And they came to here wearing that around their neck called ginan, little dilly bag over the neck. This one here is a little stick grasshopper (praying mantis) he’s a wobbly one with two long legs, that’s two one female and one male. When they were travelling across making the songline in the country, the Grasshopper People gave them a good breeze to cool down when they were travelling. Now they were given a breeze all the way as they travelled and sat down here they said, ‘The Wardaman song line ends here.’ The Red-backed Kangaroo said ‘Ok.’ They all sat down. They said, ‘Right, we’ll store all our songline song and everything, put it together and bury it here. Leave this for people to hear, to pick up and pass on to generations.’ And that’s why we’ve got that song, Aborigines like me, now today its been passed on to us. That’s all the male that travelled. Now the female came along with the Bandimi woman’s song, travelled across the country made it happy the country. The little birds, all the little the Kangaroos, the Grass Wallaby, the Kangaroo Dugurlgurl and the Gumirrinji, old Emu was making a sound all the way. They’re making the sound to match with the women’s sound and the woman was also wearing warlburr, like a loin cloth. Look we missed a couple there, that’s little junding, a male and a female one. It’s a boning tool they carry them and if you want a hand they’ll’ bone you out, you know that’s what they said, ‘Gotta keep everything in peace and straight make sure everything goes right.’ That’s what they said, the male and female. Down here is ginydan (stone knife). The ginydan here, they said, ‘Everyone must have initiation mark, body cutting, tribal mark. We are the tribal law men.’ See all those little knives, little flints? It’s ginydan, it’s a white quartz, the one they carried on their necks. You get initiated with all these little tools, little flints to make initiation with that. Then they get the white ashes, sing it and cure all those cuts like a medicine; from a gum tree, I forget his name. Make it go dry so it doesn’t get infected. Then they come up to here now and said, ‘This is where we’ve got to store all the ceremony and song here now in this boundary of Wardaman land. We got others like Mudburra people from the eastern side, they can take over all the songline now.’ Others take over then. This is as far as the Wardaman come. The boundary’s at Dry River it’s where the Wardaman land finishes (southeast). It starts from Djamindjung boundary there (north-west) around Bradshaw side, comes all the way up here and finishes Mudburra side. And going from this way, going south there’s another boundary again with Ngarinyman (south). Then over here again another boundary for Ngaliwurru (south west) and then over here you’re looking north, all the Wagiman people. Then you come again here, north all the way, to Dagoman people. then you come a but more up here to Jawoyn boundary then come a bit more to Yangman boundary. The Yangman mob around Mataranka that way. We’re square in the middle with boundary with that mob all around. We can’t go over with that song over the boundary. That’s a good painting!