My Family

Guugu Yimithirr c. 1896

I am a member of the Nugal clan, part of the Guugu Yimithirr tribe whose tribal area extends from the River Annan, south of Cooktown, to Princess Charlotte Bay. My grandfather on my father's side was the last of his brothers and sisters to survive the arrival of the gold miners and settlers, and to remain on his country. His name was Wunbuu, or Charlie, and he was born at the Birth Site on our clan lands at Nugal where I take people on tour.

Both he, and my grandmother, Minnie, worked for white people around Cooktown, but they weren't tied to any property or station. They were still controlled by the Police though, and every night would have to leave town after the curfew to join the 'fringe-dwellers' on the other side of Boundary Street, in an area now known as the Burrgirrku Reserve.

My Dad, Thulu (known as Tulo), was born around 1922. By this time Charlie was working for the Lutheran Mission's cattle operation on an outstation called Spring Hill, not far from where Cooktown Airport is today.

Tulo's older brother and two sisters were already living permanently at the Mission's base at Cape Bedford, some 15 miles north of Cooktown, under the iron discipline of Pastor Schwarz (pictured). But my Dad was able to enjoy the relative freedom of outstation life for his early years, living in a bark hut at Spring Hill with his parents until he was 8 or 9 years old.

Here people hunted and fished, gathered seasonal foods, children played and swam in the creek and occasionally witnessed traditional dances. Away from the suffocating restrictions of the Mission, Charlie was able to share his stories and pass on his cultural knowledge to my Dad.

Then, in the late 1920s, my Dad was rounded up with some of his friends and taken to live in the Mission. Now he could only see his parents occasionally, and he was forbidden to practise or talk about his own culture. Only when Pastor Schwarz was put under house arrest in Brisbane during the Second World War, and the Guugu Yimithirr taken to an Aboriginal Reserve at Woorabinda near Rockhampton, were they able to maintain their culture again for a time.

After the war, the Guugu Yimithirr returned home and my Dad was amongst those who helped to build today's Hope Vale Community. The Church was strongly in control again (and remained so until 1986), but he did what he could to pass on the stories through his paintings, and also in the book Milbi he co-wrote with anthropologist and linguist, John Haviland.

And he started sharing his knowledge with me. I was born in 1957, and when I was old enough my Dad started taking me on hunting trips when we would visit the rock art sites, and he would tell me about my country and my culture, and share the stories in the paintings. This is how I became the Nugal story-keeper, and inherited the responsibility of sharing the knowledge to keep our culture alive.

The Artist & The Story-keeper

The Aboriginal Family: Growing Up

The Reconciliation or Acceptance Story

Picture Gallery: On Tour with Willie

www.guurrbitours.com

A Journey of 6,000 Years

This photo of a Hope Valley man was probably taken in the early 1900s. The scars on his chest show he was man of knowledge & understanding, and therefore a teacher.

Many people who come on tour with me ask what I think the future is for Aboriginal Australians. They ask about the problems in our communities, what is going wrong, and how things could be changed for the better. Some think Aboriginal people should “pull their socks up” and make more of an effort to become part of the economic society.

Yes, Aboriginal people today do have a big challenge on their hands. But I think we need to stop and look at the big picture. We need to remember the journey we are on—and when it started. 

In the developed world people slowly stopped being hunter-gatherers when farming was first introduced, around 6,000 years ago. This means they have had 6,000 years of gradual adaptation and change to reach where they are today. Aboriginal people in Australia started making this journey 220 years ago — a frighteningly short time span for us to catch up with modern society. Here on Cape York we've had even less time: my grandfather was born in the bush at the Birth Site where I take people on tour; my father's home as a child was a bark shelter.

When you consider the enormity of this journey, I think Aboriginal people have done astoundingly well. We have people who are in Parliament, who are successful artists, sportspeople, lawyers, doctors, academics. Families have children at University and we have young people with PhDs. There are Mums and Dads who are employed, and work hard all their lives taking care of their families. And we have people, like me, with their own businesses. So whilst there is much that needs to be done differently and which desperately saddens us, there is also much to celebrate and be proud of. 

Bulgan-warra Dr Damien Jacobsen with Dad, Bill. Charles Darwin University PhD ceremony 2010.

If we are to make this journey successfully, education is the key. We have to learn the knowledge, skills and tools of modern society, and embrace the modern ways of learning too. But in our rush to catch up, we still need to maintain our cultural lores and values, and not allow them to be misinterpreted or simply forgotten. We might have changed the way we live—just as other societies develop and change—but we still need our cultural values and lores to keep us strong, and maintain our sense of belonging. That is why I share my knowledge and stories, in the hope that they will contribute to this end.

What Guurrbi means, and Ngamu the Guurrbi Man

The Aboriginal Family: Growing Up

About our tours

www.guurrbitours.com

Photos: Courtesy Lutheran Church archives & the Jacobsen family.