Some more Elcho Island

So here we are starting our last weekend on the island. And we are very excited to go. Not that we haven't enjoyed our experience here, we just thought it may be a bit different. You see, as it turns out, it is not easy in three weeks to really penetrate society here. To get to know people and join in their social activities, as we'd hoped. The general consensus seems to be that we are here to work in the store, and serve them, and for nothing else. Oh ya, except to give out free food to and from work. It is assumed that anytime we leave the house we are going to or coming from work so that's the reaction we get. I am disappointed, but realise I have learnt quite a bit about their culture and daily lives and rituals. I did see what I was planning to; sober and culturally involved Aboriginals living their lives in a traditional way.

There is one major cultural difference here that really starts to get to Carla and I: they yell. See, for us, in our culture, yelling is rude, and that is not the case with them, sometimes. They have no native word for "please" or "thank you", simply for lack of requiring it, because before we emerged I guess those sentiments were always assumed as part of a transaction. But in our culture we want to hear it. I sure as hell don't feel it here if no one says it. So sometimes we scold the teens, in a nice way. Always smilling...ok always trying to smile.

There was a disco last night, which is the flood lights are turned on in the basketball court next to the shop and music is played out of the back of a jeep with an mc and everything. It was so cute. And good music too. Made me want to go out and join in the dancing. There was even this really adorable group of boys. They must have been about age 7 to 11, and were dancing in sync all in a line. My favorit ewas to "Ice Ice Baby". Although at one point as they were throwing lit flares at each other, the mc threatened to shut it down reminding the kids "that's fire!". There are so many kids here, it is unbelievable. There must have been a few hundred munchkins under the age of 13. And they stay out all night. Even the 5 year-olds. Must be all those 1Litres of Coke and Sprite they drink, and chocolate bars they eat for dinner.

So we went walking yesterday to find Mission beach. Where the Macassans used to land to trade with the Aboriginals on the island. his is the first Aussie land that made contact in trade with the outside world. So I thought I'd include a bit of history on the relationship. This is also the only Aboriginal land tat flies flags, so that when the Macassans come back, they will know where to land (they never did understand why they stopped coming).

Macassan traders from the southwest corner of Sulawesi (Indonesia) visited the coast of northern Australia for hundreds of years to fish for trepang (also known as sea cucumber or sandfish), a marine slug prized for its culinary and medicinal values in Chinese markets, used for flavor enhancing, as a stimulant and as aphrodisiac. These visits have left their mark on the people of Northern Australia — in language, art, ecomony and even genetics in the descendants of both Macassan and Australian ancestors that are now found on both sides of the Arafura and Banda Seas. They first arrived around 1720 to Elcho and stopped trade in 1906 due to new trade laws and taxes.


While markedly different from their experience of colonisation by the British, the Macassancontact with Aboriginal people had a significant impact on their cultures. The visits are remembered vividly today, through oral history, songs and dances, and rock and bark paintings, as well as the cultural legacy of transformations that resulted from the contact.
(which is how we learnt it, from the interpretation of a painting, here on the island, in the art center)

The Macassans exchanged goods such as cloth, tobacco, knives, rice and alcohol for the right to fish in Aboriginal waters, and to employ Aboriginal labor. Such products brought with them new opportunities as well as new challenges, such as the dangerous combination of knives and alcohol.

Some Yolngu (Indigenous Australia People of the North) communities of Arnhem land re-figured their economies from being largely land-based to largely sea-based with the introduction of Macassan technologies such as dug-out canoes. These seaworthy boats, unlike their traditional bark canoes, allowed Yolngu to fish the ocean for dugongs and turtles.

Some Aboriginal workers willingly accompanied the Macassans back to their homeland across the Arafura Sea. The Yolngu people also remember with grief the abductions and trading of Yolngu women, and the introduction of smallpox, which was epidemic in the islands east of Java at the time.

A Macassan pidgin became a lingua franca along the north coast, not just between Macassans and Aboriginal people, but also between different Aboriginal groups, who were brought into greater contact with each other by the seafaring Macassan culture. Words from the Macassan language can still be found in many contemporary Aboriginal languages of the north coast. A widespread example is the word Balanda meaning 'white person' (which originally came to the Macassan language from the Dutch, "Hollander"). Some of the goods traded by the Macassans spread far across the country, even to the south.

So that's a bit more history for you. It is all very interesting, and I feel very privileged to be able to be in such a historical place.

-R

A bit about Elcho Island...

Elcho Island is an island off the coast of beautiful Arnhem land, in the Northern Territory of Australia. It is located at the southern end of the Wessel Islands group located in the East Arnhem Region. The island's largest community is the settlement of Galiwin'ku (which is where we live).

Elcho Island is approximately 55 km long and 6 km across at its widest point. It is bounded on the western side by the Arafura Sea and on the east by the Cadell Strait.

Galiwin'ku, located near the island's sourthern tip, is the main community on the island. It is the largest Aboriginal community in northeast Arnhem Land, the second largest Aboriginal community (in terms of concentrated population) in the Northern Territory, and ranks eleventh in population of the 69 local government bodies in the Territory. There are a large number of tribal groups, with up to 22 different dialects being used in the community. The people of Galiwin'ku retain their tradition and culture for future generations by strict traditional methods, and through education, embrace the wider Australian community.

They all refer to us as "Yappa", which means sister, and to each other they say the same. "Yakka" means no, and "Yo" means yes, and "byno" is a general word for "not available". Otherwise we are learning items in the shop like "mapo" is eggs and so on.

The island is home to the largest Aboriginal community in northeast Arnhem Land, with approximately 2,000 residents living in the main settlement of Galiwin'ku. The total population of the island is 2,200 people, including 70 non-Aboriginal people. The population of Galiwin'ku varies during the seasons, with many outstation residents migrating to the community during the wet season due to inaccessibility. The community also serves approximately 25 outstations with a total population of approx. 450 people. 48% of the population is under 20 years of age, with 7% over 50.

Galiwin'ku is a traditional Aboriginal community with restricted access; permission to visit is required by law and can be made through the Northern Land Council directly or via the Galiwin'ku Council. Total alcohol restrictions apply and there is no gasoline available on the island; all gasoline-powered vehicles use Comgas as a fuel substitute.

The settlement was originally established as a Methodist mission in 1942, with the arrival of Harold Shepherdson, a lay associate of the Methodist Overseas Mission from Milingimbi. It remained under Church direction until 1974 when it became self-managed. Eighteen connected clan groups within the Elcho Island locale have close cultural ties with mainland Arnhem Land clans and language groups. The most commonly spoken languages are Djambarrpuyngu and Gupapuyngu (both Yolngu Matha languages). However, there are at least twelve more languages in use in the region.

All in all a petty cool place, with alot of history and a strong culture. There is no industry here, and the well equiped school is poorly attended, which is unfortunate. So as far as we can see the people's days are filed with eating the junk we sell at the shop (not much available in terms of healthy food), playing cards, the women play for dollars, and the kids for silver (20 cent pieces), and performing ceremonies. It appears they live pretty much entirely off of government funds and are not doing too badly.

And also we have been told that this is actually the first place in Australia that ever traded goods with the outside world. They began to trade with Indonesia, and the Indonesians told them that people would come and take over their land, so I guess when the Methodist church came, it wasn't such a surprise. No Christian influence here as far as we can tell, other than the housing beeing western, and clothing somewhat, and the time schedules of the schools and shops, although there is a run down church, I haven't heard any bells on Sunday.

Life on Elcho

So here we are on Elcho Island. Took us about an hour and a half in the smallest plane I've ever been on, about 12 passengers, and no airconditioning on it at all, but we arrived safe and sound. We are living right in the middle of the community on the island and about 5 minutes from the store we work at. The town as you may call it consists mostly of run down houses with dirt roads and bare trees. Not much looks alive here as we await the rains of the wet season, although there are still plenty of mangoes dropping from the trees. We are living in an apartment where we share a bathroom with the lady next door. Nice to have our own space again...mostly to ourselves. The heat is amazing here. 39 today, and that's without a humidex and in the shade. Even so, we wandered down to the beach to have a walk around and managed to get great sun burns...not much shade here. Ahh well. The ocean is the most amazing shade of blue, so beautiful, and its beauty and brezes make up for the dry dusty earth around us otherwise.

So our days are pretty much filed with wandering around introducing ourselves to everyone, reading, watching tv and movies and that's about it. Not really much going on these days. There were three deaths recently on the island, so there were some ceremonies to watch. Nothing too amazing, although it is interesting to be here among the community, even tho we feel more like observers than participants. A couple more weeks here and that may change. We will see.

Work is quite routine. Serving food stalking shelves, making fish and chips. Pretty easy. The worst part: no airconditioning! It is so hot in the shop. I was hoping to adjust by now, but no such luck.

So hope to report some exciting news to you all soon....that is if anything ever happens in this tiny town.

cheers, R