2.1MUNGOREPORTtheStatement of Significance of the Willandra Lakes World Heritage Area toAboriginal People of Western New South Walesstatements contributed between 1985 and 1991update to 2017production and editorial content by Western Heritage GroupCHAPTER 2THE WILLANDRA LAKES A SACRED PLACE23CONTENTSCreation of the sacred landscapeSacred knowledgeBurial places are sacred placesAlways sacredCHAPTER 2The Willandra LakesA sacred placeThat’s what it is – a sacred site.Irene Mitchell (Dareton,1986) 2.42.5Creation of the Sacred Landscape Malkarra was a special kind of person, a rogue, a cunning blackfella.Malkarra had something to do with Lake Mungo, Auntie Maggie Brody told us. Our people were scared of going out there because you’d be crossing Malkarra’s tracks - thina yapayapanha. There was country named after him: Malkarra kiirrakiirra, Malkarra’s country. They’d say, ‘Yiki Malkarra kiirrakiirra, kaantinya.’ ‘This is his area, he went here years ago’. They’d say, ‘Don’t go over there, that’s Malkarra’s country where he’s left his tracks.’Crossing Malkarra’s tracks is the same as what we were taught about going into caves. You could never go into a cave without saying the right words to protect yourself. And kiddies were never allowed to go in. The older people would say the words before they went near. They were very strict about that. Crossing Malkarra’s tracks was the same thing - you could cross his tracks if you said the right words to protect yourself. Told by Elsie Jones (Wilcannia, 1985)MalkarraMalkarra is supposed to have something to do with the man called Nhanya and his mob. They came in from the bush in 1893 and settled at Pooncarie. The Menindee and Pooncarie mob talked a lot about Malkarra. Granny Brody, she was one of that mob. I think she was one of the last mob who used to go out to Mungo a lot. Elsie Jones (Wilcannia,1985)Great-Grandfather Jeremiah Kirby told that story about Malkarra just the way Elsie does. And that’s why a lot of our people won’t go out there and live. For those same reasons Elsie says there.Alice Kelly (Balranald, 1986)2.62.7At the beginning of time, two hunters pursued a giant kangaroo. Willandra Creek shows the track of this kangaroo as it fled, all the way from the Lachlan River, through the Willandra Lakes and to the Murray River. Small hills show the camps of the hunters as they followed the kangaroo. Other ancestors interacted with the hunters along this track.This story was told to Alexander Cameron in the 19th Century. He published his notes in 1884The Hunters and the Giant KangarooThe hills and high dunes along Willandra Creek are the likely camping places of the ancestral hunters in this story.Warranary RangeHigh GroundHillHillHigh dunesHigh dunesHigh dunesHigh dunesPrungle HillMungo LunetteManfred MountainTorcobil HillScale bar = 100 kilometres(Google Earth)2.82.9Mount ManaraIvanhoeMarfield HomesteadPamirriIn ancestral times when all the animals were humans, there was no rain. People got drinking water from Pamirri, a swamp with a permanent lake (now called Boomery Tank near Marfield Homestead). While the people were all camped at Pamirri, Maliyan (eaglehawk or wedge-tailed eagle) and Kampal (bustard or plains turkey) quarrelled. While Kampal was out looking for grubs from the yarran tree, Maliyan, who was Clever, made some kali mira (skin water-bags) and filled them with all the water at Pamirri. Only the white pipe-clay remained. Maliyan took all the kali mira to a very large tree and sang each water-bag up the tree and into the other world beyond the sky to Wantangkangurra. Then he climbed up this tree to the same place. (This tree turned into stone and is now a large rounded tall rock near Pamirri.) Kampal returned to Pamirri and saw that the water was all gone. He crawled around in the bed of the lake in his search for water, smearing the white pipe-clay on himself. That is why the bustard is white on the sides of his face. Then Kampal and most of the people camping there climbed up into the sky to Wantangkangurra.Now, instead of all the water being in one place, rain may fall in different parts of the country, but it must be released by wirringan (Clever People) who are its keepers.Jack King and Fred Biggs told this story to Ronald Berndt at Menindee in 1943How Rain BeganFred Biggs Jack KingLocation of Pamirri off Cobb Highway north of IvanhoeScale bar = 20 kilometres(Google Earth)Aerial Image of Pamirri with Boomery TankScale bar = 500 metres(Google Earth)2.102.11Old Jeremiah Kirby was a Medicine Man. We were at Breakbuck in the 1930’s, that was our annual hunting ground. Auntie Lil Kirby was sick, she was going down, and Uncle Jeremiah was dancing - he came on the scene. They said he came in a whirlywind, and us young kids were in the cane grass. He was singing, rubbing her head. Uncle Ridley Murray was there.We say Uncle Jeremiah brought her back to life, Auntie Lil Kirby. He was a miracle man.Stewart Murray (Melbourne, 1986)SACred KnowledgeCLEVER PEOPLEOld Marfield Geordie was clever. He once healed my aunty of snake bite. He healed a lot of people when they were sick.Liza Kennedy (Wagga Wagga,1986)Moolbong Johnson was a Wiradjuri wirringan (Clever Person) who spent a lot of time with the Trida Mob and the Keewong Mob. He composed Ngiyampaa songs. Moolbong Station is south of Trida.This information was told to Ronald Berndt in 1943 and to Tamsin Donaldson in the 1970s.Moolbong JohnsonMarfield Geordie Maybe you would feel sick, and one of the old people would sing you better, or take the bark off a tree and wrap it around you. Our people knew special things.Tibby Briar (Wilcannia,1985)Jeremiah Kirby2.122.13CEREMONYSome of the old people told me that there’s a place at Lake Mungo that’s a sacred site for a few different tribes. It was Paakantji and Parrintji as well as Mathi Mathi. They didn’t tell me the exact place, I never went out there with the old people. I just know that this sacred place was on Lake Mungo itself. They used to put them through the laws and rules there. My old Granny, Sarah Cabbage, told me that. So did Granny Webster, the old lady we were taught to call ‘Granny Thuthan.’ And I heard it from Manfred Mary.Elsie Jones (Wilcannia,1985)Photo: Men from Menindee Mission dancing in Sydney in 19382.142.15In September 1860 the Burke and Wills expedition was travelling through the southern part of the Willandra Lakes area. Herman Beckler recorded: ”…uncle Whitepeeper, the old man as he … was called by all the natives of the district, walked in front of us with a fire-stick in one hand and a yam-stick in the other…”. It would seem that the old man was using his wisdom to warn the country of this intrusion and to lead the expedition away from restricted places. Note: Linguist Luise Hercus has worked out that the name used to address this man (recorded as Whitepeeper or Watpipa), is likely to be waarr-pik-waarr (senior man-old-senior man) in the Yitha Yitha language.The Wisdom Of Waarr-Pik-WaarrLudwig Becker’s 1860 drawing of Waarr-pik-waarr (from Luise Hercus 2013)NAMING THE COUNTRYBURIAL PLACES ARE SACRED PLACESMangku is a little red wallaby with long ears. Mungo Lake named after this.This description fits the Eastern Hare Wallaby, Lagorchestes leporides.Irene Mitchell (visiting Wilcannia,1996) Aboriginal law put our burials on the highest level. The most sacred of sacred sites was the burial site. Stewart Murray (Melbourne,1985The cultural importance of burials is discussed in detail in the section of Chapter 6 titled ‘What the Old People Taught About Burial Sites and Human Remains.’We were taught that burials are sacred, treat them with respect.Eileen Williams (Wagga Wagga, 1986)2.162.17ALWAYS SACREDAll the land is sacred to us, and in that land certain places are specially sacred, like Lake Mungo.Johnny Quayle (Wilcannia, 1985)I would see the Willandra Lakes area as spiritually and culturally significant, because Aboriginal people’s ancestors have lived and survived there for so many thousands of years. Physically and spiritually they’re still there. Wayne Atkinson (Melbourne, 1986)It’s always been a sacred place for the Aboriginal people of this area.Mary Pappin (Balranald, 1990)Opposite: Dark patches in the Milky Way forming the Emu in the sky over Lake MungoNext >