Aboriginal Culture

Tuesday 28th July 2009
I woke up this morning feeling a little bit better but still on the slow side and a bit dizzy. Ilse had to do the driving to a place called Maguk where we walked for about one km to a water fall with a large plunge pool. The walk took us through a beautiful monsoonal rainforest with crystal clear water flowing through it. We had to cross the creek twice, first was a foot bridge but the second crossing was rock hopping. From the second crossing onwards the track ran along the rocky bank of the creek with the other side being lined with Pandenous Palms.
At the end of the creek we found the large Plunge Pool with crystal clear water and plenty of good size fish clearly visible below. As with most fresh water pools there were a few people swimming despite the croc warning signs all along the path and even as far back as the car park.
The crocs are being "managed" in these areas - this means that during wet season crocs move into these areas and in the dry season most of them move out, the one's that don't get trapped by the rangers and relocated further downstream. However, occasionally a croc makes it's way back up the creek durring the dry and for this purpose a croc trap is set downstream of the freshwater pools. The theory is that a croc going upstream is caught in the trap and never gets to the pool where people swim. All warning signs point out that crocs sometimes enter these pools undetected and will make a meal of swimmers.
The crocs are so plentiful here that we have even seen one from the car while driving over a bridge.
Lunch was back at the caravan and our afternoon trip took us to Nourlangie, another of the locations that make Kakadu a world heritage area. We timed out trip to coincide with the ranger talks at the various Nourlangie sites.
The first was at the Anbangbang Shelter were archeologiest have done some carbon dating and found that Aboriginal people have been using this shelter for over 20,000 years - that a long time in anyone's book. The Pyramids in Egypt are said to be over 5000 years old and western civilization started in the ancient city of Sumer around 7000 years ago. The last Ice Age ended 12,000 years ago and this place has provided shelter for 8000 years before that.
The place may not be as impressive as the Pyramids, but it sure is much older and it was still in use when David Attenborough filmed here in the 60's.
From the Shelter we walked around to the "Inclined Gallery", a place where we listened to another talk on "Living Culture". Here we learned how Kakadu and it's sacred sites are still in use today by the traditional owners and how the park is managed in conjunction with them. There are sites in the park which are not to be photographed and other sites where males (irregardless of race) are not allowed. Some places are completely off limits to everyone but the most senior elders who know and understand the ancient ways.
Not much further along, at the Anbangbang Gallery, we admired the rock art and learnt that the picture created by the rock art is of no real importance to Aboriginal people, it the act of creating drawings on rocks (or any other medium) that is significant. Hence, its very difficult to establish the meaning of drawings unless one was actually present when it was created. That is also the reason why drawings are just layered upon older drawings, with some of them having 15 or more layers, each with a different drawing, that have been created over many thousands of years.
At this Gallery we were informed about "Law Land and Family", a extremely complex subject in Aboriginal culture. In an effort to keep the gene pool of this relatively small population clean there were (and still are) many complex rules and the ranger gave us a rudimentary understanding of the very basic concepts. An important part of this system are names and everyone is identified by about 4 names (a bit like westerners first name and surname). From these names one would automatically know who can be married to whom. Males start with "Na", females with "Al" and the next part after that is repeated at a fixed sequence for 4 generations. This is only one part of a total of four which make up the whole name.
The other important part of a name is that it determines what part of nature one takes responsibility for - I guess back then everyone looked after the land (like rangers do today) and one's name determined whether one had to look after certain animals or fish or maybe some plants.
Before white man came to this part of the country with all his diseases and other incompatibilities there were 22 clans in this area, each with their own culture, law and language - today there are only two left. Most Aboriginal people here speak 4 languages plus English. They speak their own clan language, their wife/husbands and two or more of the neighbouring clans.
By the end of the talks we were certainly much better acquainted with some aspects of this ancient culture but have really only scratched the surface of an extremely complex social structure.
We had to rush back to the caravan so we could have dinner before attending the next event which was a talk and slide show on Wetlands and their Wildlife. Very interesting to hear about the changes between the wet and dry season and how the fauna changes. One of the more remarkable fish we heard about was the Archer Fish which spits water up to 3mt into the air, with deadly accuracy, to "shoot" his prey (insects) out of the air and scoop them up when they land in the water.
Another astounding fact is that the salt water tides run 110km inland in this area and where we have had our cruise on fresh water wetlands, the wet season will bring Sharks and all sorts of other sea creatures a long way inland.
After another pretty big day were ready to hit the sack so we can be well rested for tomorrow which is our last day at Kakadu.