El Arquitecto como conservador del Patrimonio

This section assesses the ethno-historic literature about interaction and territorial negotiation in the Esperance region during the past 170 years, with a discussion of the range of (often conflicting) perspectives obtained through ethno-historic sources, and what this means for territory and identity in Esperance Nyungar country. It is important to note that this consideration of the shifting nature of Esperance Nyungar/Wudjari identity and territory over time, is not questioning contemporary notions of identity or territory. Contemporary Esperance Nyungar identity and territory are the result of historical processes, some of which are discussed

below. The term Wudjari is used to denote Esperance Nyungar people where it has been used in the literature reviewed.

There is a range of ethno-historic sources relating to this topic, published over a period of almost one hundred years. For clarity the discussion is organised chronologically, beginning with the journal of early explorers Edward Eyre in 1845, and John Forrest in 1875. The next source is a volume on Indigenous languages published by Edward Curr in 1886, followed by the ethnographic work of botanist Richard Helms who published information about the Esperance area in 1896. Moving to the 20th _{century, a discussion is provided of the later anthropological}

work of Norman Tindale and Daisy Bates whose field research was conducted mostly during the 1930s but published later. Following discussion about the ethno-historical literature, an appraisal is provided of the later linguistic work of Karl Von Brandenstein who published in the 1980s. While many details of the sources discussed are contradictory to one another, and together present a confusing picture, they present a common theme of the dynamic and shifting nature of identity and territory in Aboriginal society, which was subject to ongoing negotiation and re-negotiation within the study area during early colonial times.

When assessing the claims of different researchers and their informants, it is important to consider the highly political nature of the topic, both at the time of the ethnographic consultations, and indeed through to the present day. It appears that many of these early ethnographers recorded their information about the Esperance Nyungars from people closely affiliated with Ngadju culture and it is likely that their notions of identity differed somewhat from other Esperance Nyungar people’s notion of identity. Perspectives will also differ between individuals within a given group, and as most of these ethnographies were conducted with only one or two individuals, it is necessary to acknowledge that these may be only representative of

whom the researchers were interviewing, but when. Given the state of flux and constant negotiation and re-negotiation of these issues over time, a range of different perspectives are to be expected. Indeed, this topic remains dynamic to this day and different individuals will still give different perspectives. Also, as is demonstrated in modern Esperance Nyungar society where people also identity as Tjaltjraak or Wudjari, or just as Noongar, there may be multiple terms that refer to the same group of people.

Edward Eyre and John Forrest

The earliest ethno-historic account, that of Edward Eyre, has little detail pertaining to identity and territoriality. However, it does attest to the linguistic connections between Aboriginal people of the Esperance region, and those of the broader Southwest. The following account was recorded in 1845, when Eyre was about 50km west of Belinup. The passage demonstrates that Wylie, a Noongar man from a different region, was able to converse fluently with the local Aboriginal people he encountered in what is now known as Esperance Nyungar country:

During the time I remained on board the vessel [the Mississippi], a party of natives once or twice came down to the beach, and as I was anxious to enter into communication with them, two were induced to get into the boat and come on board. As I expected, my boy Wylie (from King George Sound [Albany]) fully understood the language spoken in this part of the country and could converse with them fluently (Eyre 1845:75).

In 1875, the accounts of John Forrest attest to the strategic location of the area between Thomas River and Israelite Bay with regard to territorial distinctions. This source demonstrates that the people from Thomas River maintained territorial connection only as far as Israelite Bay, which corresponds with modern Esperance Nyungar territorial claims, although their Native Title determination does not extend that far east.

[we] moved east accompanied by the two natives ... for about 21 miles ... to Israelite Bay ... after bidding goodbye to the two natives we had with us from Thomas River, who were now at the end of their country and were afraid to come any further (Forrest 1875:90).

Edward Curr

In 1886, Edward Curr published a wordlist compiled by the landholder at Thomas River Station (which incorporated the area of Belinup, at the Thomas River mouth), who attributes the language to an [unnamed] “tribe occupying the coast between Doubtful Bay and Israelite Bay” (Curr 1886 I: vii), an area which broadly corresponds with Esperance Nyungar country. The word list clearly demonstrates Noongar origins, with the common Noongar suffix ‘up’ being prevalent throughout. Another linguistic example is the word for ‘black man’ which is listed as ‘Youngar’ in the Doubtful Bay area [Esperance], which closely corresponds with word lists from other areas of the Southwest.

Curr’s volume also presents additional interesting information with regard to neighbouring Aboriginal groups to the east, in an area he refers to as Eyre’s Sand Patch (on the Nullarbor plain). He says the area was occupied by the Wonunda Meening Tribe, whose country stretched east from Point Culver for about 140 miles (Curr 1886 I: 394). In name and location, the term

Meening (used by Curr), broadly corresponds with the modern Mirning culture group. Curr suggests that in 1877 when the “Whites” first settled, the Wonunda Meening numbered about 80 persons made up of about fifteen men, fifteen women and around fifty children and adolescents (Curr 1886 I: 395). The text says that “both males and females are marked with scars on the breasts and upper portion of the arms, and the septum of the nose is pierced” (Curr 1886 I: 396) which would appear to be consistent with Noongar initiation practices and what Bernt referred to as the “Old Australian Tradition” (1980a,b). It also claims that desert initiation rites were observed among the Wonunda Meening (Curr 1886 I: 396), which is consistent with modern Mirning culture which adheres to desert rites. This is interesting and pertinent because it suggests that the ancestors of the Mirning people practiced both Noongar and Western Desert law and identified as a coherent single group.

In the ethno-historical account, which Curr obtained from a Mr W. Williams, who in turn had obtained it from a Mr W. Graham, it is suggested that during consultations, the Wonunda Meening people refer to a “tribe” immediately to the west (which is certainly Esperance Nyungar country) as “Bardook” or “know nothings” (Curr 1886 I: 394). The term Bardook or similar derivatives, appear in a number of different sources (discussed below), and it is interesting to note that the term is applied to different demographic and territorial groupings depending upon whom is being consulted and when. It may be that ‘Bardok’ was a term used to signify ‘neighbours’ or ‘others’ or some sort of generic meaning that was interpreted by Curr, Tindale and others to denote a specific group of people. The meaning of Bardok (and its derivatives) remains unclear. However, as outlined above, Bardok is a term still used by modern Esperance Nyungar people today, when referring to a sub-group or territory, within the western portion of their country. Nonetheless, as can be seen in the text below, Bardok, like Wudjari is a disputed term and there are a range of different claims about whom or where it refers to, and what it means.

Richard Helms

In the 1890s, Richard Helms, a naturalist who took an active interest in Aboriginal culture, conducted interviews with Aboriginal people around the Esperance region. Helms talks of the “Yunga” as a coastal tribe, whose territory is centred around Esperance Bay (Helms 1896: 281). He suggests that the Yunga were in serious dispute with the Bardok at that time, which is interesting because this conception of the Bardok differs from other sources, such as Tindale (discussed below) who claims that the Yunga and the Bardok are the same people, but that Bardok was the name used to refer to them by the people living west of Fanny Cove (people who had not adopted desert law). However, it should be noted that Tindale conducted his

consultations during the 1930s, some 40 years later than Helms. Helms suggested that the Yunga did not practice initiation rites of either the desert or the Southwest in 1896, but they were aware that the Bardok did so. Presumably Helms is referring to the Bardok practicing Southwest initiation rites but the text is not clear on this point.

During a consultation session for a commercial heritage assessment in October 2011 (Guilfoyle and Mitchell 2011: 10), a group of contemporary Esperance Nyungar Elders disagreed with Helms and Tindale’s discussion of the Bardok. They agreed that the people of the area were known as Wudjari and that the Bardok were a sub-group associated with the western part of Wudjari country but disagreed with Tindale’s suggestion that Bardok were a separate tribe.

Helms obtained his information from a man named Wainbret (Tom Bullen’s grandfather) who was purportedly of the “Yunga tribe” (Helms 1896: 281). Helms met Wainbret in the Fraser Range, which is deep in Ngadju country, so Wainbret likely had close affiliations with the Ngadju and it is difficult to make a critical assessment of his stated identity, based on available ethno-historic information. However, Wainbert was cited by Murray Bullen as his great-great grandfather and is an important ancestor for the Esperance Nyungars who is known to have spent a lot of time in Ngadju country (see Section 2.6). Wainbret apparently laid claims about the Bardok engaging in cannibalism, which likely reflects political tensions between Wainbret (and perhaps the ‘Yunga’ more broadly) and the Bardok. Unfortunately, Helms changes topic at this point and begins discussing claims of cannibalism in distant parts of Australia and no more information is provided about Wainbret, the Yunga or the Bardok.

Norman Tindale

Based upon fieldwork undertaken in the 1930s, Norman Tindale (1974: 78) discussed the notion of a “disputed boundary” between Thomas River and Israelite Bay, describing the dispute over territory in some detail, which he argues was between the “Njunga” who occupied what is now known as Esperance Nyungar country, and the Ngadjunmaia (Ngadju). Tindale referred to the term “Wudjari” as an “earlier name”, and claimed that the Wudjari had split as a result of some members accepting the “desert influence” while others maintained their Southwest cultural affiliations. He suggested that at the time of the interviews, the people living east of Fanny Cove (in Esperance Nyungar Country) preferred to be called “Njunga” (which he says means ‘men’) or even “Bardonjunga” (initiated men), rather than Wudjari. Tindale described the territorial dispute between the Njunga and the Ngadjunmaia (Ngadju) and ends up offering his own evaluation in favour of the Njunga on account of the original place names in the area between Thomas River and Israelite Bay being of “Njunga” linguistic origins. He claims that the Ngadju tried to usurp this territory by adapting the place names through the addition of linguistic suffixes reflecting Ngadju language, for example the original Nyunga place name “Tjitjalap” being adapted to “Tjitjilanja” with a Ngadju suffix (Tindale 1974: 78).

While the details of their accounts are slightly at odds, both Tindale and Helms appear to have been discussing the same territorial and cultural dispute and to this extent they corroborate one another. There is some discrepancy in the details, which may reflect a number of complexities, including shifting alliances through time (there was about 30-40 years between their respective research) as well as different perspectives between different informants. This was clearly a highly political issue in a state of flux, so competing accounts are to be expected. It is likely that Tindale’s use of the term “Nyunga” for the Esperance people, and Helms’ “Yunga” were both different derivatives of what Curr (1886: Vol. 4 pg. 8) lists as “Youngar”, meaning man.

It appears likely that these various derivations were early precursors to the modern term ‘Noongar/Nyungar’, though this suggestion has been disputed by other scholars (e.g. Von Brandenstein 1988: VI)

The varying derivations of the word meaning ‘man’, may have been used by Tindale and Helms’ informants as a way to assert their masculinity in reference to other cultural groups, who may have practiced different male initiation rites. This would be consistent with Daisy Bates’ (discussed below) claims that desert-initiated people, often tried to assert their masculine prominence over the Nyungar initiates, referring to themselves as men, and the Nyungar initiates as boys or women (Bates and White 1985: 86). However, linguist Karl Von Brandenstein (discussed below) strongly disagrees with this suggestion and with the translation of ‘Nyunga’ as ‘man’. Instead, Von Brandenstein argues that the term “Nyungar” (he used this spelling in reference to what Tindale spells as ‘Nyunga’) means something more like “ally” or “brother”– essentially person of the same identity (Von Brandenstein 1988: VI). He bases this assertion on his own research in Esperance and the Southwest more broadly, and on the very early historical linguistic work of George Grey who published A Vocabulary of the Dialects of Southern Western Australia in 1840, which cites the word “Eungar a brother, one of the same race, used to denote the natives generally” (Von Brandenstein 1988: VI). Von Brandenstein dismisses Tindale’s and Bates’ suggestions that the Ngadju called the Southerners ‘women’, and the Southerners responded by referring to themselves as ‘men’, as an “ad-hoc” interpretation and disagrees with it entirely (Von Brandenstein 1988: VI). Von Brandenstein, Tindale and Bates were probably all tapping into different linguistic nuances of meaning relating to the precursor of the modern term Noongar, the meaning of which, has changed over time. While ‘Noongar’ is now clearly understood as referring to the Aboriginal people of the Southwest, the term is commonly thought to have originally meant man or something similar.

Von Brandenstein’s interpretation has some validity because in many regards the term ‘Noongar’ today connects Aboriginal people of the Southwest and in doing so is part of an allied Noongar identity.

Daisy Bates

Daisy Bates’ accounts of culture-history in the region have also been discussed in section 2.5, because rather than focussing on the Esperance area, she discusses the expansion of Western Desert cultural practice more broadly. However, she did conduct some consultations in the Esperance area as part of her broader study. Bates (1936) appears to have tapped into similar dynamics of interaction in the Esperance area as other early ethnographers, demonstrated in the following excerpt of her work printed in The Advertiser in Adelaide:

At Esperance there were but two old brothers, Deebungool and Dabungool, known to the Dempster family as Dib and Dab. I rode a draft horse fifteen miles to interview Dib. He told me that the [desert initiated] tribes had by this time encroached upon his home ground. They had given him a woman, but had taken his little son Ro, and initiated him into their tribal practices (The Advertiser, Adelaide, SA: Monday 20 January 1936, page 18).

This short passage seems to get to the core of interrelations between the groups through this period, whereby the desert people used a combination of friendly and antagonistic means of coercion to initiate people into their law as a means to open up access to land and resources. Dabungool is a known ancestor of the current Dabb family, from whose name their surname is derived.

Carl Von Brandenstein

Carl Von Brandenstein was a German born linguist who worked extensively around Western Australia with various Aboriginal language groups from the 1960s to the 1980s. Most of his research was conducted in the Pilbara region but he also worked with the Ngadju and Esperance

Nyungars during the latter part of his career. His “style” of linguistic research has been described as “idiosyncratic” and he was never considered part of the mainstream of Australian linguistics, which, during that time primarily focussed on “utilitarian” or “structuralist approaches”, whereas he was more interested in the “poetic side of Aboriginal languages” (Thieberger 2006: 321,324). He conducted linguistic studies in Esperance during the 1980s. He explored many of the same points as earlier ethnographers and refers to many of them, particularly Tindale. However, Von Brandenstein draws very different conclusions. He contends that the entire Nyungar language, spoken throughout the Southwest, was a new language, invented during the past 500 years by Wudjari people, fleeing the desert initiation practices being imposed on them by the Ngadju. He claims that the terms Wudjari, and Nyungar are Ngadju words, adopted into a “new” language that developed as a result of the Ngadju imposition:

Based on Tindale’s and my own enquiries, the situation on the south coast between Bremer Bay and Israelite Bay prior to full annexation by the whites can be assessed broadly as follows: as elsewhere in Australia, frequent clashes occurred between aggressive ‘law’ factions of the interior tribes and the more defensive and conservative [non-desert initiated] tribes along the coast. During one of these clashes, most likely just prior to the outgoing 18th _{century, the […] northern Ngadjumaya [Ngadju] succeeded}

in converting substantial numbers of young Shell-people to the law of the Western Desert people. Those who ‘joined’ were called ‘allies’ by the Ngadjumaya and accepted the new name Nyungurra (Von Brandenstein 1988: VI).

Von Brandenstein argues that the term Nyungar (and all its derivatives, including Tindale’s ‘Nyunga’) were linguistic variations on the Ngadju language word “Nyungurra”, meaning allies (Von Brandenstein 1988: VI). He also contends that “Wudjaarri”, which he says means “runaways”, was a new name “provided” by the Ngadju people in reference to the members of the “shell-people” who “objected to the conversion of their kinsfolk and resented the alien rites”, and thus moved westward to the other side of the Young River (Von Brandenstein 1988: VI). He argues that it was these “runaways” who invented the Nyungar language. This view implies that the Southwest had been either some sort of linguistic ‘terra nullius’, or that the old language was rapidly usurped by the new. Either way, this seems unlikely and does not receive support from other scholars, though I have not been able to find a specific critique of Von

Brandenstein’s “Nyungar Anew” hypothesis elsewhere in the literature. Von Brandenstein (1988: VII) argues that:

We may take it for granted that the westward movement of the Wudjaarri initiated a