Stories Of Dreamtime And Songlines

How do a people without a codified language perpetuate their culture? With Go Cultural’s Nyungar guide Walter McGuire, I peer past the veil of history into the rich heritage of the Nyungar people, the Traditional Owners of Western Australia.

- WORDS SUFFIAN HAKIM PHOTOS GO CULTURAL + STATE LIBRARY OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA

I WAS STANDING UPON the rolling green hills of Kaarta Gar-Up, the highest point of Karrgatup in the heart of Whadjuk. My companion Walter McGuire was telling me the stories of Dreamtime or The Dreaming. Before us, the azure waters of Derbarl Yerrigan, glittering under the midday sun, whispered its own grand stories and cosmic secrets as it surged out to the ocean.

It is unfortunate that the places and landmarks I was describing seem foreign to so many. Many of us are more familiar with the names that people not from these lands have given to those places. I was at Mount Eliza (Kaarta Gar-Up), the highest point in King's Park (Karrgatup), in Perth (Whadjuk), standing before Swan River (Derbarl Yerrigan).

Downtown Perth sprawled out before me, beyond the waters of the river. “Once, these were the lands of my ancestors. That was a birthing place,” Walter says as he gestures to an area best defined by its cluster of skyscrapers. He points to a spot by the river. “There, we held wedding ceremonies.” Now, people walk by cafes and restaurants on a boardwalk.

“All this, Nyungar land,” he repeats, his voice dropping to a wistful whisper. Walter is a respected Nyungar man and a descendant of several Aboriginal tribal clans of Western Australia’s South-West region, making him a Traditional Owner of Nyungar Boodja (Nyungar land), specifically the Whadjuk lands where Perth City now stands.

The Nyungar are now recognised as the Traditional Owners of the land. But many Aboriginal activists feel this is lip service, a hollow gesture that barely compensates for the centuries of violence, discrimination, and ethnocide done against Australia’s Aboriginal populations. Clearly, the major cities of Australia were built without the consent or consultation of its Traditional Owners.