Activity 14: Source Analysis: The Adnyamathanha People Today.

  1. ‘I would like to say how my life changed from the days of my initiation to how I live now. I was forced to make a choice. If I wanted to get work and give my children a chance of a good education I had to leave my home and ...(traditional)... land to go to a white community, I had to borrow money to shift to Port Augusta from Community Welfare. This money I had to pay back. ... For years now I have worked to support my family and give my children their education in Port Augusta, that they should have been able to get on their own …(traditional)… land.

    2. Quoted in Yura Adnyamathanha Trainees Newsletter, Vol 1, No 12, August, 1975.

  2. ‘I think we should be involved because Adnyamathanha people have a lot of history the park, in the sites and we would like to look after them things but if they don't have Aboriginal rangers there, you know what's going to happen. They’re going to have vandalism through that country and there won't be any control by aboriginal people and nobody to teach them the culture and heritage. My job involves teaching people about the area. Even one of the other Aboriginal rangers didn't know much about the area where the paintings were and the sacred sites and I had to show some of what I knew.’

    3. Roger Johnson, Nepabunna, 1989

  3. It would be good to go back and teach how to cook a damper, what sort of soil to use, what sort of wood to use to make a fire so that you can get the flavour, how to grill a kangaroo tail or leg on apiece of timber, how to cook witchetty grubs without burning them, why its important to eat witchetty grubs sometimes raw and where to go to find the iga tree and which is the ripest fruit and how to get it without knocking off and demolishing all the fruit, how to pluck the quandong fruit from the tree without bruising the fruit There's a lot of knowledge to pass down.

    4. Owen Brady, Port Augusta, 1989

  4. ‘/ think Udnyus (Europeans) should learn about our culture in schools. Mostly I'd like them to learn the language and our original foods. I think that's important because if they're stranded out in the bush they don't know anything but if there's Aboriginal tucker there, they'd be okay. You'd have to take them out there to teach them. You can't learn it from books. That's what I'd like to do with kids from Hawker, Udnyus and Yuras.’

    5. Pearl McKenzie, Hawker, 1989

  5. '/ was aware of being Adnyamathanha but I didn't come up here to the Flinders until about twelve years ago when I was about thirteen or fourteen. I was introduced to my relatives then by my uncles and grandfather. When I was at school, Aboriginal studies wasn't taught, it wasn't recognised. Aboriginal people weren't even recognised. It feels good to be teaching Adnyamathanha students here in Leigh Creek.
    I'm     slowly learning a bit of language. It's one of the things I've regretted. My grandfather believed that because we moved away from here he didn't talk about Adnyamathanha people and about things that happened so we missed out on a great deal of our heritage because when he died, he kept it with him.'

    6. Haydyn Bromley, Leigh Creek South, 1989

  6. ‘… our people … didn’t want Mt. Serle as a pastoral property. They wanted it as a place to preserve the land where they could teach their culture and look after the sites ... (they) looked at the land ... as a cultural resource - for camping, bush food. Collecting wild fruit, shooting kangaroos and emus for tucker ... '

    7. Cliff Coulthard quoted in Mattingley and Hampton, p. 233

  7. '...(the transfer) is a great achievement for the Adnyamathanha people as it (Mt. Serle) will be a great asset to today's and further generations' We welcome the white people to come and share our culture and live happily together. '

    8. Cliff Coulthard, quoted in The Advertiser, 12/3/90, p. 2

  8. ‘Alcohol will effect you and it doesn’t matter who you are. Those Aboriginal people that were finding it difficult to understand the physical damage that alcohol does just continue to drink and we’ve had a lot of deaths because of that. To prevent alcohol abuse, I think employment is very important. Being idle, having nothing to do tends to lead on to drinking. There’s (got to be) a commitment to employment but you've (also) got to develop as a person. We're hoping that with kids leaving school now that some things will rub off and respect is a big thing. If you are shift to gain respect that will help too.’

    9. Garnett Brady, Port Augusta, 1989

  9. ‘If I have kids one day, what I think would be important for them to be taught are the things I wasn't taught. It's only these past four or five years that I've learnt from my uncles and aunties about the Adnyamathanha way, like how come there's coal at Leigh Creek, about the eagle and "Oh my warlla" (the song) and where this person is related to that person and so on, how Coulthards are related to Jacksons and McKenzies. I can walk down the street now and say "Oh, that's my cousin" or "That person's related to me somehow." ‘

    10. Troy Jackson, student at the Aboriginal Teacher Education Program at S.A.C.A.E., Underdale, 1989

  10. ‘What I always stress for the future is you must have education. Realistically, you can’t live traditionally. ... You've got to go hand in hand with whitefellas. ... Education is the main thing. Relevant education. For Adnyamathanha kids, first thing, the must be proud to be Aboriginal. I believe you can work on from there. Adnyamathanha kids should be proud of their heritage. They should learn the language again, not again because they know it, but they should be encouraged to speak it in school and also learn the white man's way. Put two and two together. Another thing, with Adnyamathanha kids up there, they should be encouraged to come down to Adelaide to school (when they reach senior secondary).’

Buck McKenzie, Adelaide, 1989.

QUESTIONS
  1. In each source, identify a challenge facing the Adnyamathanha people today.
  2. What evidence in the sources is there to suggest that knowledge of traditional Adnyamathanha culture is vitally important for modern Adnyamathanha people?
  3. Each of the sources present the view of an Adnyamathanha person about their lives. How useful are personal accounts for historians?
  4. Use the sources and your wider knowledge to suggest ways in which indigenous and non-indigenous Australians can cooperate together to achieve reconciliation.

Reference: Education Department of South Australia, 1992, The Adnyamathanha People, Hyde Park Press, South Australia, pp. 226-240.
Activities menu