PastMasters

In 1945 in a tidal creek like this one on the Wessels, WW2 serviceman Morry Isenberg found five coins from the Swahili Sultanate of Kilwa (in what is now Tanzania). Several were over 900 years old and have rarely been found outside of Kilwa and Zanzibar. One has been found in Oman on the Arabian peninsula and another Great Zimbabwe so this was truly a unique and remarkable find!

The Harleian world map (also called the Dauphin map, dated around 1542–1547) is a large, hand-drawn 16th-century manuscript map created by the Dieppe School of Cartography for the French royal family. It once belonged to Edward Harley, Earl of Oxford, which is how it got the name "Harleian". It is housed in the British Library. The map shows a massive southern landmass south of Indonesia labeled "Jave la Grande". This landmass has sparked long-running historical debates over whether early Portuguese or French sailors mapped parts of Australia's coast.

Fred Gray's 1940s postcards: In the early 1940s trepanger and secular missionary Fred Gray of Umbakumba, Groote Eylandt, sold garden produce and photos of traditional indigenous life of the Andindilyakwa people to fund his station on the east coast of Groote. He'd paddle his outrigger across the lagoon to the Qantas Base - a link in the then Brisbane to Darwin flight path for Catalinas in the early days of commercial flight. To transiting guests and the Base staff, he would sell fruit, vegetables and his postcards. The images are thought to be mostly of Groote Eylandt traditional scenes - of a hunting party, of a dance/ceremony and a fishing group with dugout canoe - but the one of the two pregnant women may be from Thursday Island. Fred visited there frequently from his Groote base to sell pearl shell and pearl produce [and to visit the dentist]. These photos were purchased by an Australian Air Force officer who was based at the Umbakumba Qantas Base in the aftermath of the 19 February 1942 Japanese attack on Darwin. It is thought the photos date to the late 1930s-early 1940s.

Thank you for your wonderful comments on our work. Our broader project is Australia’s Top End in the context of Indian Ocean maritime trade in days of old. Specifically, we want to know the significance of those medieval African coins that were found on the Wessels in northeast Arnhem Land in 1945. In mid-October in Darwin, we will reveal all with the launch of our new book. It’s called ‘Territory Treasures’ and it’s the product of years of study, fieldwork, and collaboration with Yolngu rangers and traditional owners. We will soon be sending out details of the event and all are welcome, though we may need to put a limit on numbers. The PMs will be flying in from all quarters, and it will be a great opportunity to hear a yarn or two about Australia’s hidden history. Details for registering will be sent anon.

This is a page where we share our love for Top End history and culture and our audience is made up of Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, including many Territorians, as well as people from Makassar and elsewhere in Indonesia, and around the world. We’ve seen comments recently from Sweden, Portugal, US, Tanzania, and many other countries. We welcome the sharing of contrarian views and debate is encouraged. We ask only that you be guided by civility in your communications. As a global site, let us know where you are checking in from.

More on the Indigenous Australian ‘totemic embrace’, a concept that the founder of sociology, Emile Durkheim, used as the basis for his theory of religion and the religious life. While researching the topic in the 1990s, IM attended a Darwin conference on Ecology and Politics where the subject of ‘ownership’ of natural species inspired an enthusiastic discussion. One Yolngu from Galiwin’ku told the audience that his name honoured the spirit of the magpie goose. A Bininj from Gunbalanya said that she was the caretaker of a major magpie goose site, a striking hill overlooking Kakadu National Park covered in rock art. Another Yolngu, from Ramangining, shared that he was the custodian of sacred magpie goose songs and dances. An NT government representative interjected at this point saying that he didn’t care what anyone believed because the Crown owned the magpie goose. The conversation came to a standstill and the session ended. For Yolngu, the Gurrumattji (magpie goose) is a totem of the Dhuwa moiety Djambarrpuyngu clan but traditionally there were no restrictions when it came to eating this much-loved Top End delicacy. Other totems remind the people of the old law, ‘Dhuwa eats Yirritja’ and vice versa.

Indigenous Australian religion is still poorly understood in academia. As anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss said back in 1962, it is not clear what it means when Aboriginal people say “The life of a bat is the life of a man, and the life of an owl is a woman’s life”. What he did say was that the totem was much more than a symbol of a group or a physical resource. Rather, totems were “good to think with.” While at Shepherdson College in the 1980s, PM Ian McIntosh worked with Warramiri elder David Burrumarra to create a comprehensive list of the totemic significance of every fish, bird, animal, reptile, tree, plant, insect and so on. The project was to be a resource for Yolngu kids and it was called the ‘totemic embrace.’ The kids learned that the white cockatoo is a totem for the Dhuwa moiety Rirratjingu clan, but through a different story it was a symbol for the entire Yirritja moiety. They learned that the dingo is Dhuwa in Dhuwa lands and Yirritja in Yirritja lands, and why the galpan (catfish) is ceremonially important to everyone. And so on. During their conversations, IM documented the clan affiliations of the totems, and whether there was a ceremony, sacred design, or story, connected with them. Burrumarra was a towering intellect and the annotations in IMs field notes give a sense of the process. For example, when IM mentioned the freshwater mussel Djarrgit, Burrumarra reminisced about his life in the early 1930s at Caledon Bay with Wongggu (the King of Arnhem Land). He remembered Wonggu singing for that shellfish, and said that while it might be small, it has a big story. Several short essays on the totemic embrace can be found in the free e-book ‘Between Two Worlds’ available on the PM website.

We reported on Darwin’s Buffalo Creek last week but I just found this wonderful drone image. The tide gets much lower than this and Yolngu women venture for a considerable distance along the sand and mud flats towards Micket Creek to collect all manner of bush tucker, including oysters and mussels, mud crabs and mangrove worms and, if they were really hungry, ‘long bums’. Then they bring them back and all enjoy a great feast by the Casuarina (‘whistling’) trees. I used to enjoy casting a net for prawns on the high tide or seeking an elusive barra. But this whole area is under threat. Saving Buffalo Creek involves addressing severe sewage and wastewater pollution, managing nearby residential development at Lee Point, and protecting local wildlife habitats. Buffalo Creek is located in the Casuarina Coastal Reserve but it is one of the most polluted waterways in the region, leading to high toxic bioaccumulation in local marine life. Expanding residential developments along Lee Point Road is increasing stormwater runoff and habitat disruption for local species. There is a concerted effort underway to save Lee Point. See https://saveleepoint.org.au

Everyone knows that the city of Darwin is named for Charles Darwin and that Palmerston was the first name of the city. You might also know that the suburbs are named after Aboriginal clans, like Anula (Yanyula), Wanguri (Wangurri), Nakara, Wagaman, and so on. But did you know that the street names also have significance? Alawa streets are named after workers killed in the bombing of Darwin in WW2. Anula streets are named after early NT mining and mineral fields, and Wulagi streets are named for native birds etc.

The famed Australian-born British navigator Phillip Parker King (1791-1856)—who charted vast portions of the Australian coastline—has a commemorative plaque in his honour in the historic town of Stroud, NSW, where he once lived. But the most substantial memorial is not in Australia. Rather, it is in Chile in the Magellan Straits of Patagonia. In May 2008, this memorial was inaugurated in San Juan de la Posesión Bay. The site marks the historic base of the British hydrographic expedition (1826-1830) and includes a historic local naval cemetery. PP King commanded the survey vessel HMS Adventure and, in company with HMS Beagle, spent five years surveying the convoluted coastline here. King also put together a unique collection of Patagonian objects purchased from local tribes in Tierra del Fuego which were later donated to the British Museum.