Yingiya talks to Keith’s Class in California

There are four Quicktime videos, taken using Screenflow software.  The first, is of setting up, and hasn’t been transcribed.  The connections kept giving up.  Michael began to give a short introduction to his work, and the connection was lost.  When it was re-established, he handed straight over to Yiŋiya. 

This second video is 22_Yingiya_Ca_1.mov Yiŋiya introduces himself and the location of his land. Northeast Arnhemland is very remote, and the traditional languages and culture are strong and Yiŋiya says he keen to find people around the world who can help keep his languages and culture strong. When asked about how he learnt of the connections between ancestors and land, Yiŋiya talks about the ancestral practices of travelling over the land, leaving behind the waterholes and land forms, and the people who belong to that land with their particular languages. The stories have been passed down for many generations. A student asks about weather and ceremonials. Do the ceremonials follow the seasons? Yiŋiya talks about the weather phenomena which are totemic for particular groups – clouds, rain, winds, floodwater. They are like the waterholes and the animals. Keith asks him to explain more about totems.  Yingiya says he will make a PowerPoint.  (You can see a good example at http://learnline.cdu.edu.au/inc/tfc/yolngu_resources.html look at number 3).The totem is something in the environment that signify connections between particular groups of people and their histories.  They have spirits.  They are in the songs and dances, they have spirits, they look after us, we look after them, they make an ‘eco-system’.  The gentle easterly wind which blows immediately after the west season is a totem for Yiŋiya’s Liya-Dhaliny people, it’s part of their ceremonies, it makes them, it creates them, it makes them ‘turn back and think’ loved ones who have passed away, it tells us a story of how land is, and the wind and clouds... We use the songs and dances to tell the stories to our children.

In the third video which starts immediately following the first, Keith asks about fire. Fire is not one of Yiŋiya’s totems (it belongs to the Yirritja moiety, and he belongs to Dhuwa). It is in both secret and public ceremonials. Landscape burning is very productive and takes place after long ceremonials in the dry season. (This is in part an answer to the first question about seasons and ceremonials).  The big important ceremonies are held in the dry season when people congregated around water holes, when travelling is easy, and food is more scarce. Even the landscape burning is totemic, and is done ceremonially, and helps us to see the spirits of our forefathers. The connectivity cuts out and the next ten minutes are spent trying to reconnect.

In the final video, we have moved to another room and another computer.  Yiŋiya has started to answer a question about waterholes.  All water holes (and in fact all water including the deep ocean water) belongs to particular clan groups.  The water produces songs and ceremonies and dances, and has its own reason and purposes and its own discipline. (See for example the Garmak Gularri story at http://learnline.cdu.edu.au/inc/tfc/writings.html).  He tells a story of his father becoming sick when the jungle around a sacred water hole was burnt.  Keith asks again about passing the knowledge on to the new generation. Yiŋiya says young people are told the stories when the elders know they are ready.  They don’t ask questions.  They don’t sit in a classroom. Teaching is also through paintings, songs and dances.  The stories lie in the country where we can speak and feel comforted and supported by the spirits of our fathers. Keith asks about environmental issues, and Yiŋiya says any bit of earthmoving is hurting the feelings of the environment. People and places are family. Bauxite mining on Yolŋu land is killing our people. Yiŋiya says he is keen to talk from his own land, which he may be able to do next week.

2nd Video

Skype noise.

K

Hey

M

Okay, You’re back again?

K

Yep

M

All right that was my introduction…So I’m just going to hand over to Yiŋiya.  He will tell you bit of a story about who he is and what he’s doing. Can you see us?  00:34

K

Yeah, fine can you see us?

M

No we can’t see you but then we don’t need to, and in a moment you won’t need to see me any longer either.  Um… I’ll um… hand over to Yiŋiya he’ll just introduce himself and his work for a few moments, talk about a couple of the points that we’ve mentioned, and then I think answer some questions, how does that sound/

K

00:59  Sounds good. Can you see me now?

Y

Yes

M

Yep I certainly can. Okay here he goes.

Y

Hello everybody…

S

Hi…

Y

Yes, ah, those of you who don’t know me yet, my name’s Yiŋiya Guyula and I come from the Liya-Dhälinymirr clan of the Djambarrpuyŋu people.  You don’t need to note all that just yet, I can … I come from eastern Arnhemland, which is along the top coast of the Northern Territory,  I’m, not sure whether you’ve heard of Kakadu National Park.

K

1:58 No but I showed them a map of Northern Territories,

Y

Oh yep, on the top, right had corner of the Northern Territory, is a place called Arnhemland, and that’s where I come from. And my teaching, I’m a lecturer, here in the Darwin University, in what we call the Yolŋu Studies which is the language for we indigenous people, the language that we teach about law and culture, here on our land. So that’s what I’m briefly introducing myself, and I have a lot of things in mind, I want to tell a lot of stories, but we don’t have all that time, so maybe if you can keep me on track, ask me questions as we go along we’ll try to make short strong as possible, okay?

K

3:04 Great, sounds good.

Y

and by the way, I’m not just trying to say Arnhemland, in that top corner, it’s one of the very strong, it’s a place, or the last place, one of the last places here in Australia that our culture, and language and traditions, ceremonies, are very very strong, and we would like to keep it that way. And for that we need support from everywhere wherever we can get to maintain our language, culture and that ceremonies that we carry on. (To Michael) Nhe dhu waŋa?  (Will you say something?)

M

Yeah, do you want me to ask you a question?

Y

yow

M

I’ll ask Yiŋiya some of these questions from the paper that you sent us Keith

K

good

M

Let’s talk about the first one.  How did you learn about the ancestors and the relationships between the ancestors and the land.  How did you find out about that?

Y

4:06 Well about the ancestors, when this land, a long long time ago, during the time of creation, when the land was being created, the ancestors walked, they named the places, they named my clan, gave names to my people, the songs, the ceremonies which we sing and dance, they named the waterholes and the ancestors and the ancestors created our land and langue and the custom that we live by. And that story was passed on through generations, through generation, through generation, until my great great great fathers picked that story up and they carried it on passed it on to the younger generations until it got to us, and it’s the same story that we tell that was told of how the ancestors walked, who our ancestors are, what they did, what they created, the songs they gave us, the languages, and expertly passed on from generation to generation, and that’s how we, I found out, and I’m, and that’s how I know who my ancestors are. (To Michael) And what was the other … about the land?

M

5:35  Okay.  Do you want to make a comment or question you guys or do you want us to carry on with another question?

St

I have a question.  What type of ceremonies do you, like is there any ceremonies or rituals that go with weather changes and stuff like that?

M

Okay we missed the questions.  Is it to do with…

St

… Just like, does the rituals, do they have anything to do with the weather?  Do they correlate, do you have certain type of things, that you do during dry season, and certain type of things that you do during the rainy season?  Cos I don’t know about that…

M

Okay, good question.(To Yiŋiya) do you understand the question?

Y

6:25  Mmm Generally speaking, the songs and the dances that was given to us by our ancestors are about nature, about looking after land, because the spirits of our forefathers that have passed away and the ancestors, that actually created the land, actually living as live spirits in our land… through the wind, through the songs that we sing, the clouds, the rain, the water, looking at how the seasons change, when we stand on the ground and walk along we are getting comforted by the spirits of our fathers, and the ancestors that actually stood.  When we talk about the images that in the form of a mountain, or on a rock, we say, there is a spirit in there of our ancestor and it is a totem now. And there is a way that we look after it, if we look after it, if we look after the land, the animals and they look after us, they are part of us and we are part of them. It’s the eco-system if you like, it’s been generated a long long time ago, and the rocks and the mountain, the waterholes the wind that blows that fire that we make are all part of our songs and dances, and in all that stories, is our forefathers, and furthermore, our ancestors that walked that land. I’m not sure whether I’ve answered that question…

M

8:15 Yeah, can you say something about maybe the wind and the rain, and clouds and how they are part of the totem system and they belong to people and they belong to people, and their part in ceremonies.

K

And can you also explain what the totem system is, in brief.

M

Okay

Y

8:37 I’ll try and do it in brief!  The totem system is of a, I’ll be sending you a PowerPoint set-up sometime later on to make it more clear, to explain it more clearly.  The um, I missed the first question the wind and the um… it’s all … when the ancestors walked through, they called the winds to blow and the winds that blowed in to  the direction that they walked through, already had been adopted into as part of them, so when we sing and we dance and we look after the winds, (Skype noise) that we   is there something wrong?

M

No it’s all right.  Are you still there?

K

Yep

Y

Sorry?

K

Go ahead…

Y

9:42  yeah, when the winds that we turn around like during the change of season, just after the wet season, there comes a season called midawarr, in our language, which is the easterly wind gently easterly wind, and it belongs to, it’s part of our ceremonies, it’s part of my clan, my tribe’s ceremonies because the Easterly wind is a Dhuwa (moiety), it’s one of the moieties what we have here, two moieties, which is Dhuwa and the Yirritja, and when that easterly wind blows, it is part of our wind and it makes us, it creates with, it associates with the land here, and we turn back and think about, it makes, brings memories of our loved ones that passed away, and furthermore we look at how seasons have changed and it gives, tells the story of how land is, and how the wind blows and the clouds.

M

And manikay…

Y

10:57 And the song and dances that we sing are all associated, and through that, we can tell stories to our children as well.

3rd Video

K

Hello!  Can you talk a little bit about the important of fire – fire, - yes but he wants to see me!

M

Yeah okay, we’ve seen enough of you.  Okay, thankyou.. Okay, fire.

Y

(00:19) Fire is the same as although it mightn’t be in my traditional ceremonies because when my ancestor walked through there might have been a fire that they carried in.  It can be described sacred, if it’s we have sacred ceremonies (tweeting noise) and public ceremonies. (to Michael) Nhä ŋunhi? What’s that?

M

Yeah I don’t know what that noise is.

Y

(00:45) Public ceremonies and sacred ceremonies and fires are preserved always for during dry season, it is only used for hunting purposes, that bush fires that we burn a bit of land, only a bit of land for a special reason, when a tribes come in and after major ceremony has been held for about three or four months and then this bit of land is burnt out in order to be able to go and hunt, for hunting purposes.  Like going into a marketplace to hunt around and we catch all sorts of animals that we can eat, the goannas I don’t know if you’ve heard of goanna? The wallabies are trapped in there, bandicoots, and snakes, edible snakes that we catch, and it’s all done through songs and dances, ceremonies, it is, so that we look after that fire, and hopefully through the fire we can see the spirits of our forefathers, and let alone looking at the hands of the creation. Mukthurru bulu way. Nhä ŋunhi nhä ga mukthumukthun. (It’s cut out again.  What makes it cut out like that?)

M

Yeah I don’t know but we’ll just keep trying….

Skype noise. 

Y

Nha ŋunhi gumurr-däl question mala? Why are their questions so hard?

M

Yeah they are, but it’s good practice.

Y

Yow manymak. Oh yes, it’s fine.

M

Hello!

Skype noise. 

Y

(03:00) Mak ŋuyulkthin rraku?  (joking) Yol ŋunhi miyalk yäku? Do you they may have decided they don’t like me? What was that woman’s name?

M

Yeah yeah, Hello!

Muffled noises

M

Are you still there?

Y

Hello! Bäyŋu. Nothing.

M

Yeah, I’ll…it’s gone.  (looking at the prepaid internet account) Oh it’s us that’s gone… we’ve lost all our money.

Y

Mmm?

M

 Yeah yeah yeah… Oh no, it’s still got ten dollars…

Y

Ten dollars.

M

No, ‘disconnected’, it’s connected isn’t it? ‘You are off line’

Y

(5:25) Dhuwal ŋunhi djorra’? Is this the paper he sent?

M

I think it’s good when they just ask questions…

Skype noise. 

M

(7:09) “Unknown error!...

(7:17) Michael types “Can you read this?” into the skype text box.

Skype noise. 

M

(7:41) “Miscellaneous error!”…

Skype noise. 

M

(8:15) “No proxies found!” Every time it comes up with a different message! Um…

Y

Mak räli!  Pass it here!

Skype noise. 

Y

(8:46) Do they want to try call me?…

M

Yeah if we could, see the user’s not on line though.

Y

They got the bäyŋu nhawi…

Skype noise.

M

How come you’ve got the, have you got the video on?

Y

Bäyŋu. Yaka ŋarra marŋgi.  No, I don’t know.

M

(9:20) Have you got the.. Is your internet on? Are you using.

Y

Dhuwal muka ŋarraku … This is my one here…

M

Oh it’s not, okay… all right let’s see if we can try um….I’ll put that on again just in case they ring up, and I’ll

Y

??

Skype noise…

M

(11:00) Is that okay there?

J

Yes, we’ll share that…

Y

Wanhaŋur dhuwandja? Where is this from?

J

You’ll have to take out the modem…

M

Yeah whose is that one?

Y

Nhuŋu muka. Yours isn’t it?

M

Yeah, no bring yours… Oh we’ll try it with this one…

4th Video

Y

Well every water hole and every water, and every waterhole was created by the great ancestors that walked the land, and when they walked the land they gave the name to that land, and the clan name… are you still there?

K

Yeah!

Y

(00:26)…the clan name of that land and the significance of that water, water, and it producing part of our singing, ceremonies, songs that we dance, every land, every … the water has its own reason or purposes and it has the same surname and it’s a living thing and it’s the same, same dreaming in our, in my clan, we sing about it and dance about it and we call it, that is, that can be when someone asks, um talk about a question about a totem, what a totem is. Well that water hole, is a totem, it is another form of a totem, because it is alive and it has spirits, and it was created by our spiritual ancestors  that walked the land and there are lots of significant meanings, in there.  We tell stories, paintings, and there is discipline, there is songs and dances, that we respect. If you come out and try and remove or changing the shapes of that water hole, with human hands, I can feel a bit sick and I feel that something is hurting me deep inside because spiritually we belong together, the water hole and myself.  If you came an took that water hole away and replaced it with a swimming pool, I wouldn’t be the same, in fact I would be a cripple or feeling very very sick. (2:25) If I can just explain to you one story, long long about ten years ago, maybe fifteen years ago my father was very very old man that time, and people were doing a bit of hunting and cooked a bit of fish and some in our sacred water hole, around our sacred water hole. And forgot to put the fire out, the fire started burning around the waterhole, the trees, and the grass which our ancestors were standing around spiritual ancestors, and the fire started to burn, deep into the water hole and suddenly my father at home which was about 20km away at home, started to feel the heat inside his body, and he was actually feeling crook at that time, and he told us to go and “Go and have a look at the water hole, there could be something wrong there”.  So we went down, sure enough there was fire.  We put it out, and he came better again. At home.  And that’s how the spiritual connection with songs and ceremonies and even our ceremonies, and that waterhole is a totem in one way. Have I confused you or misled you there?

K

No that’s good.

Y

(4:00) So that’s the significance of water holes, and even the, that goes for any other totem or any other whether it be in the form of clouds or wind, or the images on rocks, the trees, are all part of us…

K

Can you say a bit about the way in which you pass this information on to your children.  You have a son at least I’ve heard….

Y

(4:37) Yes, how we pass it on, it’s a… it’s not really…. We don’t do it in a classroom like this… talk about our land… How we tell our story to our young people and how the story was told to our fathers and our fathers told the story to us is actually taking us to the actual site where everything is where the story, through showing the images on the plants, and the rocks, ga waterholes and they tell the story.  Only when we know it is right to teach our children. It’s not when they want to ask questions.  We have never learnt that way through asking questions what the signficances are. They the old people and I would right now take my children when they are mature enough when they have been through ceremonies, and when they are ready to be told stories, but not in a classroom out here, like here. Because we can’t feel the spirits of your fathers and the ground that we stand on, they are very rich in spiritual meanings, and stories, so we actually take them out, to the land where all the stories are, and we can probably speak, and in the background we can feel that we are being comforted, and we are being supported by the spirits of our fathers, and our ancestors that walked the land.  And that’s how we teach our children. Make it more strong and meaningful. (To Michael) Bilin? Finish?

K

(6:45) Can I ask another question?

Y

Sure go ahead.

K

Can you describe any environmental problems that you have in Arnhemland that face your tribe, I’ve heard that there’s I’ve heard a bit about a uranium mine, but I wonder if there are any other, is there any environmental problems you want to talk about, or if you have any maybe relatives who are working in Kakadu Park, as part of their joint conservation efforts.

Y

Yes, the effect of any mine I suppose or building roads or shifting bit of land, or dirt, is actually it’s hurting the feelings the environment, and all the land that is around, the land where I tell you where I actually come from the top end corner of the Northern Territory which I told you about, is all part of us. If you take me from my land, my land and myself are far away, it’s a big family that we have, and people creating mines such as uranium mine in the Kakadu National Park area, and there’s a bauxite mine which taking the escarpment of land that once created by our ancestors, and now being bulldozed by human hands, and it is actually a very very bad for our people and it’s actually hurts it is like killing our people.  Killing the land, it’s like killing me. And you’re destroying me. And it is a something that we’re very very much opposed on, mining explorations that come around every now and then, we always think about our future, the languages,  um if minings and towns were built around our sacred sites and places we would be empty of – we wouldn’t know what to teach our children later on… about our culture.  It would be more better if we stayed on the ground that was created by our ancestors long time ago. Did that answer it Keith, or maybe cleared things up?

K

That’s it for now?  Okay!  So I think our class is over here at our end, Yiŋiya. So I want to say how much I how grateful I am and we are in terms of your sharing your time and expertise and hanging in there despite some technical difficulties because what I think that you’ve done is help us to see, put the human face on some of the things we have been reading about as well. And that’s always a good thing.

Y

(10:25) Yeah I could only show you a little, a tip of the iceberg, of our my culture, I wish I had more time, which to share you more about what I believe and I feel strongly now that I haven’t done enough for you, but I’d like to through the helps of my friends, to be able to tell you more information about our land, language ceremonies, and culture.

K

Well I would like that and I’m also very much looking forward to meeting you in person in about two months when I’m down in Darwin.

Y

Next week, actually next week I’ll be making a live coverage from the land where I’m talking about, we’ll be going over there, and testing some of the new satellite dish that we’ll be doing through Skype.  So wonder if we could make an appointment and maybe for just maybe few minutes I’ll talk to you from the land there.

K

Yeah well lets see what – give us the information and if we can make it work or if I can make it work for myself, I would like to do that.

Y

Yeah, can we somehow get back to you, I’ll have to talk to my the other people that I work with like Michael or John and um see if we can contact you and make an appointment for that date.

K

That sounds great.

Y

So I’d actually like to stand on the ground and show you the image, and not sit here in this room and talk to you about what my land is all about.

K

Yeah, I think that would be good.  We wouldn’t want you to start acting like a white man hanging out in all those rooms like that.

Y

No. Okay then, so can we do it that way? Because a bit of a, maybe spend a few minutes talk to you from the land next week?

K

I would like that. It’s just a matter of meshing it with my class schedules.  So I’ll let you guys work out some for the details, and I’ll be in touch with your or Michael by email and we’ll set something up.

Y

Okay. Thanks for calling in and listening in.

Ss

Thankyou… Thanks a lot… by now…

Y

Bye, Djutjutj

K

Thankyou Michael, thankyou Yiŋiya.