Cirrus@Austlit

'A policeman called Gordon Stott travelled down from Timber Creek. He arrived at Waterloo Station and the Aboriginal workers asked his police boy Kurnmaili Japalyi, 'Why are the two of you here?'' (Introduction)

'They sent me across then. He was a Jangala, that old man. I call him grandfather. He was a sorcerer, a ngumpin murderer.' (Introduction)

'The policeman at Bow Hills used to tie Aboriginal people up. He would drag them along to the police station by chains and secure them to a tree. The policeman would chain them to a tree. Then he used to beat them. He beat them so badly that they couldn't get away and there'd be blood everywhere. That's when they'd set the dogs on them.'  (Introduction)

'Yes, alright. Today I'll tell you a story about one kartiya who lived here at the Settlement. He was an Afghan, that Kartipa, we called him Walyjiwalyji. Whatever his name was, we called him Walyjiwalyji.' (Introduction)

'I'm going to tell about when I was little. I didn't grow up with my mother, with my father. My granny and granddad raised me and took me around with them everywhere, through the bush, all over the place.' (Introduction)

'Okay, I'm going tell you a story from the old days. Alright, one day our boss, my father's boss, came to speak to him. 'You mob gotta go work now: all of the old girls, old men, everybody not the very old — just the fit and healthy ones. You gotta cut down trees. There's a flying machine that's going to come and land here, just over there, west from here. We've gotta clear out all the grass and trees — everything. It's going to fly over here and land right here.' The boss man was explaining '  (Introduction)

'I was a bit older when we first learnt of Welfare, the boss of Aboriginal people. They were the ones who took away the pilyingpilying and sent them to Darwin: my sister, Ronnie's brothers (Jim Ryan and Ted Henry) — there were lots of them --Jarrangka was another. I know them all. Some pilyingpilying are still living in Darwin. I know the ones who got taken from their mothers. The police took them. The children would be hiding behind their mothers when they came.'  (Introduction)

'When I was a child, a flood came and inundated everything. There were kartiya stranded up high in different places. All kinds of things were picked up and swept away by the floodwaters: plates, saucepans, camp ovens — all that kind of thing was taken by the flood. The station people had put food, like bread and sugar, in high places but anything else was swept away. The kartiya themselves stayed high up in the trees or on the roofs. They spent two nights like that.' (Introduction)

'A long time ago, east of here is where the first Wave Hill homestead used to be. I'm going to talk about what my great-grandfather, Tinker,41 did there when he went upstream from here to Seven Mile, to inundate this area. When I was little my father told me this himself, because it was about his grandfather.  (Introduction)

'Today I'm going to tell the story of the place where that old homestead was. Before that, there was nothing there and the kartiya put up tents. A lot of them came from Darwin and found the country east of here. I was told how kartiya arrived; my great-grandfather who made the flood told this story from a long time ago. '(Introduction)

Over here to the east - I'm not talking about Jinparrak, but the original Wave Hill Station which was washed away by the flood. I was little then. I was small and with my mother all the time, like these little Nawurla girls here. I was that age. I was starting to understand about things. So over here to the east, where the old homestead was, that's what I'm going to talk about. There was a kartiya manager who was going to arrive. He was travelling up from Darwin by boat. He got to Timber Creek and took a motor car. He unloaded all his gear, swag and everything.' (Introduction)

'Harry Reid shot my mother's mother's brother a long time ago when I was a good-sized boy. Yeah, Reid killed that Jangari (who was Murruwan Janama's father) and I witnessed it. I cried so much about that.' (Introduction)

'Further downstream from here, a large party of r kartipa ambushed a group of our people. What was the reason for that? There was no reason. They hadn't killed any cattle; they were just out hunting kangaroos. But the kartipa were killing people all around here in every direction; they used to ambush them. Like the story of how people were shot at Wirrilu, this was told to me and I'm passing it on. People went running for their lives in the same way as at Wirrilu — and they were good runners. (Introduction)' 

Alright, another story they told me occurred here at Seale River. It's to the west on this side of the river. There, downstream past Burtawurta, at Yurruj, two ngumpin were looking for bush honey and they heard the ding, ding, ding of a bell. Horses had bells. 'Ding, ding.' Horses!' The two men got up. ' (Introduction)

Today I'm going to tell a story from a long time ago. You know where I told the flood story (in 'Rainmaker Destroys the Homestead Chapter 4) , and where Jukurtayi (Dandy Danbayarri) talked about when the station shifted to Jinparrak (as told in Chapter 5), well all that's all more recent. This happened right at the start when kartiya (Europeans) found the place on the east side of the Victoria River (the site of original Wave Hill Station) and they made their camp. They came down from Darwin, maybe by boat, to Timber Creek and from there they continued on land, following the Victoria River all the way. They came all the way up here, up to this place on the east side of the river here where the old yards are.' (Introduction)

Thi extensive story recounts massacres across Gurindji country. The sites include: Warluk (Seale Gorge), and Tartarr (Blackfellows Knob), which are both located north of Kalkaringi; Wirrilu (Blackfella Creek), Jurlakkula (Nero Yard), and Wanyi (near No. 2 Bore) on Wave Hill Station; and Yurruj (Burtawurta), which is in the Daguragu Aboriginal Land Trust area. (Introduction)

'Tintapa-kari-warla ngurna-nga yurrk malu,  karukany-parningan nyamu warrkuj mani. Mani nyamu ngawa-ngka jintaku-lu ngumpit-tu. Yanani ngu nyila-ma ngumpit-ma manungka-ngarna, nyantu-wariny. Yanani ngu yangkayangkarrp kankula-parla yangkayangkarrp yanani ngu yangkayangkarrp parluk-parni, pamarra-ngarna wumara-la yangkarrp. Aaaa. Ngurra-ngkurra wart. Yalanginyi-ma tirrip as marntaj yangkayangkarrp-ma nyila-ma yangkarrp na. 

'Another story I am going to tell you, is about mermaids. It's about one who got taken from the water by a man. He was single and he used to go hunting by himself. One day he was out in the high country, looking around for rock wallabies first. Then he went back home. The next day he went hunting again. '(Introduction)

'Jawiji ngurnangku yurrk yuwarru yijarni nyawa-ma, yijarni, kula Puwarraja, nyawa-ma yijarni, nyila nyamu-rna-nga yurrk yuwani nyila-ma, Puwarraja, nyawa-ma yijarni-nyiyang. 
 

'Jawiji (Granddaughter), I'm going to tell you a story. It's a true story this one, not a Dreamtime . Other stories I've told you are from the dreamtime, but this one's from modern times. ' (Introduction)