Today’s post presents a personal reminiscence story in Jiwarli with English translation, told and explained to me by Jack Butler on 20th May 1985. There is information about Jiwarli spelling here.

Joe Butler and the poison

This story is about an incident which happened to Jack Butler’s younger brother Joe Butler when he was young. Joe was making poison out of the ground up seeds of barambu ‘acacia’ which he planned to put in a small puddle of water to stun birds (this was a traditional method of catching birds for food). In the midst of this activity he was called to eat a meal and he failed to wash the poison off his hands. Joe was very ill as a result and almost died.

Seeds and pods of acacia

Marrgara yinha nganaju. Yinharru banhalu gumbinha guwardidhu. Yinha warlbara warrgamurringu mayangga. Yini ngunhaba walybalawaridhu George Roberds. Gumbaja ngunhi garlibagarnu jumaburradhu wirdamurdudhubarambuwu burrarnu yurlurlarnu walangunyjarriyi wirndubinyararringu. Bayalbarru burrarninyja ngulubayurlurlarnu. Babarru yindilgarringu. Guburnmarru wandharrgarringu dhugudhugu. Ngurndira ngunhaba dhana ngabanhu. Dhanggulurringu ngunha ngurndajarru. Banhalu yananyja babarla barlurarniru dhurubulanguru barlgarralarru. Malhu bunggarninyja. Baba barlurarnilgarringu. Walangu ngunha gumbira ngunhirruba babawu bajarnu. Warrirru walangulu ngunha bajalbuga dhurubula. Gumbaja ngunharru jirriljibarnu walanguwu dhurubula. Ngunhirruba bajalga baba wandharninyjalu barlgarrala. Bayalba nguluba nhanyanyja ngunha biji walangu. Gumbaja ngunhaba marajagarru ngurnuba galamarnu murlimurlirnu marajaga. Yanararringu yindirugundidhu ngunhiba. Ngurrudhu ngunha julyu mirranyjarru. Ayi! Yanamarnigayi nhurra dinarlagayi dhigaru. Warrirru banhalu mararru bundhanyja. Bayalbandhurru ngunha yananyja dinarla dhigaru. Ngurnubadhu ngunha yananyja murlimurlirninyjalu marajaga. Gumbaja birruwurru dhigarnu. Ngunhabadhu birruwadhu ngunha barambudhu marangga ngula banhalura. Dhuranggarrinyja dhigarninyjalu birruwu. Ngunha dhanagarrirru ngurndaja jamidhubirruwa ngunha guburndurarninyjabarndi. Balingurru gumbaja ngunha wardawardarringurru galarru dhindhalwarigundirru. Yanyjadhu ngunha ngurru gumbaja bundharnu babajagarru barnawu bulhuwarnirnu. Bayalbandhurru bagalyarrinyja ngunhaba juma. Ngunha dhanagarrirru ngurndaja birruwadhu. Julyudhu ngunha yananyja jugururru ngurluba. Wanggirarringurru. Warri nhurra yanararri barru nyulirringu wirda nhurra ngurndirangu. Gurlga binyanyjarru ngurrunggu nguluba.

Translation

This is my brother, that I am going to tell you about. He is living here in Onslow now. He was working in the south on a station where there was a white man whose name was George Roberts. My brother was living there at Cullabookana Bore as a young boy, crushing up acacia and making powder in order to kill birds. So, he crushed it and made powder. Next he poured water on it. Then he put on a hot cooking stone, and left it to soak. When it was cooked he went to get some water from the cattle trough on the flat ground. He dug a hole and filled it with water. The birds would come and sit there and drink the water. So they wouldn’t drink the water in the trough, he frightened the birds away from it. Then they would drink the water that had been put on the flat. He saw there were a lot of birds. Then he sat there, going like that with his hand, stirring the poisoned water with his hand. He went to pour the water in the hole he had dug, but one of the old men called out: “Hey! You come here first to eat dinner!” My brother didn’t wash his hands but just went to eat the dinner. He went straight away after having stirred that water with his hands. He sat down and ate some meat. The ground acacia husk was still on his hands. He became affected after eating the meat. The ground up husk had been left on his hands after he put hot cooking stone on it. He vomited and shook like that, as if from poison. Another old man bathed his head with water, cooling him down. Then that little brother of mine became better. He left that husk alone. The old man went and threw it away. He said: “Don’t you go again and be a nuisance, boy!” That old man scolded him.

Today’s post presents a personal reminiscence story in Jiwarli with English translation, told and explained to me by Jack Butler on 18th May 1985. There is information about the Jiwarli spelling here.

Halley’s comet

This story dates from the 19th or 20th April 1910 when Jack was living at Glen Florrie Station (see map below) and at nine years old had already begun riding horses and doing yard work on the station. One night, he saw what he describes as a star with a long tail cross the sky. It was so bright that kangaroos could be seen crawling on the hills near the station. According to Jack, the white stockmen said the light was so intense that they could count the sheep in a mob they were looking after. What Jack describes is the passage of Halley’s comet 75 years previously. As Elizabeth Howell reported on Space.com in September 2017, “[t]he comet’s pass in 1910 was particularly spectacular, as the comet flew by about 13.9 million miles (22.4 million kilometers) from Earth, which is about one-fifteenth the distance between Earth and the sun”.

Photograph of Halley’s comet 21st April 1910, from Harvard University’s Southern Hemisphere Station in Peru (http://dasch.rc.fas.harvard.edu/gallery.php, accessed 2020-07-26)

Ngunhaburra gumbaja ngurnubarndibadhu. Ngurnubarndidhu ngadha gumbaja. Yananyjarni barlirringu mimburndadhu mayangga. Maajaru ngunhiba. Barrundhu nhanyanyja gundhardijaga bardara ngula. Ngunha bardaradhu wardandu gundhardidhu nyirnda jirndinggarru ngurndiniya. Gumbaja jurunggagundirru nhanyangu madhangu warrgalarriyawu barlungga yirrara. Jirrilmarringurru gumbaja ngurrunyjarri. Nhaanha ngunha ngandhurrarla. Guwardi maarru warndija. Nganggarnu. Gumbaja ngunhiba jurunggagundirru gardajula nhanyangu gurrbirliyi madhangu barlungga warrgalarriyawu babarla. Gumbaja ngurnubarndibadhu ngurrunyjarri julyunyjarri gurlganyurringu. Nhaanha ngunhabadhu. Nhaanha ngunhaba ngandhurrarla. Guwardi maarru murlgurrinyja. Bayalbarru ngunhaba. Gayanura ngunhaba gardajula. Yanyjala gardajula gurninyjarru ngurrunyjarri. Aa wandhawurru ngunhabadhu yananyja gundhardijaga bardara.

Translation

I was there after that. After that I was there. I came back to the house at Glenn Florrie. The boss was there. Then I saw a star with a tail there. The tail of the star was here in the sky in the east. You could see the hill kangaroos crawling on top of the hill as if it were daytime. The old men were afraid. They said: “What is that for us? This is the first time it appeared”. They didn’t know. You could see in the night as if it were day the kangaroos crawling on the hill towards the water. After that the old grey-haired men thought: “What is that? What is that to us? This is the first time it turned up”. That was it. That was on just one night. On another night the old men looked for it. “Oh where has that star with a tail gone?” they asked.

Today’s post presents a personal reminiscence story in Jiwarli with English translation, told and explained to me by Jack Butler on 18th May 1985. There is information about the Jiwarli spelling here.

The Earthquake

This story comes from when Jack and his younger brother Joe were children travelling with their mother and step-father along the Henry River in Jiwarli traditional territory. It describes an occasion when there was a loud noise, trees and the earth shook, and water, together with the fish in it, was thrown out of the waterholes in the river. At the time, no-one knew what had happened, and Jack found out later that it had been an earthquake.

According to information from the Seismology Research Centre in Melbourne, Australia, a major earthquake (of approximate magnitude 7.5-8 on the Richter scale) took place at 07:18 GMT on 19 November 1906. The earthquake was centred at 22° S and 109° E, which is off the North-West Cape of Western Australia. Jack’s story takes place at marndaangu, Mundong Well (see map), which is located at approximately 23° S and 115° E. Jack described the earthquake as coming from the north and heading east — this fits well with advancing shock waves from a point off North-West Cape. A date of 1906 also matches Jack’s description, as he and his brother are being carried by their parents, though Jack is described as a ‘little bigger’, suggesting that he was able to walk. In 1906, Jack would have been five and his brother Joe was three. A date in late spring or early summer is also suggested by the fact that the family were travelling, there was water in the waterholes, and there were jalgunungu (bardy grubs, Trictena atripalpis) in the river gum trees. It seems highly likely then that this story is an eye-witness account of the 1906 earthquake, recalled almost eighty years later.

Apart from its historical interest as a first-hand account of an early Aboriginal experience of an earthquake, the story is also interesting for what it tells us about the daily life of the people at that time. The country of the Jiwarli was occupied by white settlers starting in the 1860s; Glen Florrie Station (mimburn), where Jack spent much of his early life, was established in the 1880s. Aboriginal people were conscripted into the pastoral industry as labourers, but they seem to have maintained much of their traditional lifestyle outside the demands of the white economy. Apart from the presence of a buri, an introduced European metal axe, the story describes a purely traditional journey. Other descriptions of his childhood from Jack support this. It was not until the 1920s, when Aboriginal people were rounded up and forced into the pearling industry, that the traditional cultural and social system was irreparably disrupted. Jack was unable to be initiated because ‘the whites had buggered it’, although he did repay the debt in the traditional manner to the man who would have initiated him if the ceremonies had not ended.

Bibijungarla babujungarla mimburnbarndi yananyja gardawurru gawarilari ngurndayi yarrgiyala jirlirra baba ngurndiniya jirlirra. Jumagudharra ngalijunha jimbinggalgurniya. Ngadhadhu barngamurdurru. Ngurndayi ngurnubarndibadhu mirninggadhumirdulyula yardingga. Mundurru yanararri warlbari yardinggamanda garlgaranydha ngunhi marndaanguwagarala yardingga. Nhanyanyja ngalijuru jumagudharralu gurrurdula yinha nyirlbu biji gurrurdula. Babujudhu ngadhala wanggaja. Ngadha gurlalga. Ngunha bayalbandhurru gurlarninyja ngunhiba wurungga burijaga jinyjiyi wandharnu jalgununguwungurnu nyirlbuwu. Jalgunungu ngunha yinidhu nyirlbu. Gumbirarri jalgujaga manangu wiinggarnu. Barrundhu babuju wanggaja yirraradhu. Gurlgayinha nhaanha ngulha bunarni yaburru. Nhugurru bunarni nhaanha. Nhaanha ngulhadhu. Nhuguwirlarrinyja ngunha. Barrundhu ngunha wuru wardawardarrinyjarru. Babuju ngunha julyu gurrgabarninyja yalhanggarru ngaliju jumagudharra ngadhiiniyarru yugarringu wardawardarriyarru wardawardalgurniyalarru. Gurlgayilgarringu barlunyjarrirru wiliwilirriyayirraranguru barlunguru. Gumbirarri ngurnuba gurlgayirnu buniya ngula wardandarirru ngunhaba. Nhaanha ngulha. Nganggarnuburra ngurrunyjarri. Baba ngunha ngurndiniya juma. Ngunhaba yananyja ngula wardandarirru. Nhanyararri babangga. Babadhu ngunha ngularru jugurninyja. Wardawardarrinyja ngunha yalhadhu. Nhanyararri bunyjinyjarrinha. Ngunhirru ngurndinha yaribirlila barlgarralarru.

Translation

My mother and father went directly west from mimburn Glen Florrie Station to camp at Yarrgiya claypan where there was water. They were carrying us two children on their backs. I was a little bigger then. After that we stayed at Mirni on the Henry River. In the morning we went south along the river to the fork there at Marndaangu. We two children saw lots of bardy grubs in the gum trees. My father said to me: “I’ll climb up”. Then he climbed up there in the tree, cutting steps with an axe, to collect the jalgunungu grubs. Jalkunungu is the name of that grub. He was getting them with a hook and pulling them out. Then my father called out from above: “I can hear something coming in the north. Something is getting close”. We didn’t know what it was. It got close, and then the tree shook. My poor old father jumped down to the ground as we two children stood crying, and the ground was shaking and we were being shaken. We heard rocks rolling down from the hill up above. We sat listening to it going towards the east. We didn’t know what it was. The old people didn’t know then. A little water was lying there in the river. That thing went east now. We looked in the waterhole, and the water had been thrown out there. The ground had been shaken. We saw the bunyji fish that were lying out on the river sand in the open.