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Paddy Yam‟s dissatisfaction about not being paid sufficiently for the work he did is
counteracted by his sense of achievement, but also concern that the way of life he knows
has been superseded:
If I can think quiet, sit down. I think it over, what I done, what I seeking in my life. Who‟s
ever going to do that sort of thing? But nothing now! It‟s bloody chopper, chopper. Chopper
mustering, chopper mustering. No good.
Paddy Yam
Speaking about his own country near Coen, Philip Port noted the tension between his
perspective as a traditional owner, ex-cattle worker, and horseman, with the objectives,
methods, and needs of contemporary conservation and National Park management:
And at those National Park meetings I have an argument with them. „You got $40,000 to do
fencing or go chase lizards or birds or something?‟ I jump on a horse and take them out.
Go walkabout you know. I‟m a horse bloke. I love my horseback. And they all pack their
motor car up, throw their gear on and drive back home. I say: „Righto, I‟ll see you when I
get back home‟ then I just ride through the country. I love it. That‟s how I enjoy my life. And
they say „oh we‟d love to go up here and have a look at this country‟. I ask „you been up
there?‟ and they say „No, we want you to follow us up there and show us.‟ „I don‟t know
mate, I might do something else today‟. „No, we‟ll pay you to come with us.‟ Do you see?
And then you got to lose a day by going with them. And you take them up and show them
around and they say „beautiful this place got everything, beautiful!‟. And they drive around
taking photos of everything. But to me I gotta come back and say, „ok they giving me the
right to take them up there, it don‟t give them the right to outdo me!‟ See that country is
very different. You come out there, and we just go for a little drive and climb a little hill, just
go for a little walk, come up a little hill and you can look all over. And you take a photo, and
the GPS, [and more] photo taking. „Beautiful country‟ [they say]. I reckon its beautiful
country too! I grew up there, all around it! I‟ve been everywhere! And this is the thing now;
we have this Wild Rivers, National Parks, that‟s the thing now we can‟t work out. Our
country is like that, it‟s good for [parks], but you won‟t get [conservation] people on
horseback because they are not like us. [In] our time we were told to go out there, do the
job and that‟s it.
Philip Port
The older cattlemen are proud of their working tradition and of the knowledge, independence,
and self-respect it gave them. Alan Creek describes how they were focused on the cattle, but
also aware of the need to consult locally, and understand local variations in conditions. Philip
Port notes how knowledge and experience of the country has changed with different kinds of
work, particularly the transition from cattle work to conservation management. Nevertheless,
the cattle era at Oriners was crucial in people maintaining and establishing connections to
the area during the colonial and pastoral period.
2.5.5 Old and new connections
The younger Kowanyama people resettling Oriners after it was purchased back in 1990
enjoyed rediscovering evidence of the previous history of residence there, and were reluctant
to remove or damage it, as Edwin David recalled:
I used to stay in that old hut there. Sleep in the back shed there. Philip Yam went up there
and he saw my name in that shed there. He said „you been up there at Oriners there?‟ And
I said, „yeah, I was up there when I was nineteen‟. He said „that was a long time [ago], your
name is still there.‟ I was still asking about that shed and they said „no that shed is still
there‟ and I said „you blokes better knock im down‟! But they said „no, we‟ll keep that‟.
Working Knowledge at Oriners Station, Cape York
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