WEST KIMBERLEY PLACE REPORT - Department of Sustainability ...

In contrast to ontological views of the West, the Indigenous story of creation is nonlinear
in the sense that aspects of the present are considered both to affirm and to reenact
the events of the Dreaming. The Dreaming exists in a continuous past-presentfuture
continuum, in what Stanner (1987) calls 'the everywhen'.
Each Kimberley Aboriginal society has a rich body of religious narratives that
concern the Dreaming. While such narratives are distinct for each of these societies,
they all contain accounts of creator beings who 'gave' them their laws and customs.
Importantly, across the Kimberley, these narratives describe how ancestral creator
beings have 'made' the Indigenous countries that comprise the west Kimberley region.
During their many travels and other exploits, such beings are said to have carved out
the rivers, lifted up mountains and transformed themselves into rock formations and
other features of the land, the sea and the sky.
Some of the ways in which these Dreaming-derived laws and beliefs are transmitted
from generation to generation are in the form of traditional narratives, art forms, and
enactments through dance and song. Aboriginal children are taught these laws through
'wudu' or observation and practice. These verbal and visual expressions tell the history
or stories of Kimberley Aboriginal people. In the words of one Bardi woman 'they are
living stories; they are the spirit of us'. As integral strands in a broader corpus of
Aboriginal being and knowing, stories are forceful social expressions. Explaining this
relationship between power and knowledge, a senior Wunambal man stated, 'the story
can't be told just anyway, anytime, people can get killed if they have the wrong
information, and do not know how to respect the place, the place is still alive'. As this
Traditional Owner's comments imply, the reproduction of stories has serious
implications and sometimes dangerous consequences. So while some stories are
public, others are more restricted in their use. Kimberley Aboriginal people have
carefully considered the kind and nature of the stories they have contributed towards
this National Heritage listing of the west Kimberley.
'Making' the country
The Wanjina-Wunggurr people of the north-west Kimberley – which includes the
language countries of the Worrorra, Ngarinyin, Unggumi, Umida, Unggarrangu,
Wunambal, and Gaambera – explain that one of the most important activities of the
powerful creator beings, Wanjina (Wandjina) and the Wunggurr Snake, is their role in
'making' the country. Like other aspects of their belief system, the Wanjina-Wunggurr
people and indeed all Aboriginal people's concept of 'country' stands in stark contrast
to Western views.
In Western thought, country is often described with reference to its geology and
topography, its climate, and its characteristic animal and plant forms. Country is
considered an aspect of nature. It is a geographic space, often seen as untapped
wilderness that becomes transformed into a culturally meaningful place through the
actions of its human inhabitants, for example when humans create an agricultural or
urban landscape. Such a Western perspective differs markedly from Indigenous views,
including those of the Wanjina-Wunggurr people. For them, country is far more than
a geographic location with particular topography, flora and fauna. Marcia Langton,
one of Australia’s leading Aboriginal scholars, explains that while White settlers in
Australia 'see an empty wilderness, Aboriginal people see a busy spiritual landscape,
peopled by ancestors and the evidence of their creative feats' (Langton 2000:14).
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