Here, Betty Meehan reflects on her long involvement with the An-barra community.
While being aware of the complexity of the names of the Aboriginal groups I have known since 1958, I have usually referred to the Aboriginal community that I have known for many decades as the An-barra people or An-barra community. They seem to be happy with this. They own land located around the mouth of An-gartcha Wana (Blyth River) in central Arnhem Land, Northern Territory (NT).
I first met the An-barra people in 1958. After several months stranded in Darwin, Les Hiatt and I boarded Curly Bell’s boat, The Kaprys, a converted pearling lugger, and set sail for Maningrida. This journey took about four days, the sea was turbulent, and I was seasick for most of the way. However, we arrived safely at Maningrida on a fine, sunny afternoon by which time the sea was calm. A large crowd of people had gathered on the beach to welcome the boat.
Maningrida, which lies some 500 km east of Darwin, is located at the mouth of the Liverpool River in picturesque Boucaut Bay (Map 1.1). The settlement was established by the federal government in 1957 to provide trading and medical services for the Aboriginal people who lived in the area. The Traditional Owners of the country on which Maningrida is located are the Ndjebbana but very soon people from other communities, speaking many different languages, including the one spoken by the An-barra (Burarra, Gu-jingarliya), moved into the settlement – for at least part of each year, usually during the wet season. Today, the town supports well over 2,000 people, including those who live on some 30 homeland centres or outstations located in the Maningrida area.
Les, then an anthropology PhD student at ANU, had come to Maningrida hoping to learn about Aboriginal social life. After a series of negotiations, the An-barra community decided to welcome us both. A senior An-barra man, Frank Gurrmanamana (deceased), his wife, Nancy Bandeiyama (deceased), and their children (two of whom are also deceased) agreed to educate us in An-barra ways and, as well, protect us from the dangers of the tropical bush.
While living in Maningrida, apart from being a “tent keeper”, I participated as much as I could in the daily life of the An-barra community. I had previously worked as a primary school teacher and, in 1958, I also established the first school in Maningrida. From a humble beginning, that school has developed into a flourishing establishment which celebrated its 60th anniversary in 2018.
While Les pursued his research, I spent as much time as I could in the company of An-barra women and children – harvesting food from the country surrounding Maningrida and occasionally from traditional An-barra land, which lay around the mouth of An-gartcha Wana some 40 km to the east. I also attended secular parts of ceremonies and enjoyed the performances of song series, associated dances and the production of beautiful objects manufactured by An-barra people for these events and for use in their daily life.
It is hardly surprising that, eventually, after spending two enjoyable years in this unique and stimulating environment, I enrolled as a mature-age student at the University of Sydney, specifically to study anthropology. Fortunately for me, this was the first year that prehistory (now called archaeology) was included in the anthropology curriculum. Studying archaeology and anthropology had a major impact on the future direction of my life and the nature of the research that I would eventually undertake – a focus on the lives of Aboriginal women and children, especially the production of food and the material culture associated with these activities.
I returned to Maningrida during the dry season in 1972 – by then an ANU PhD student – with the archaeologist Rhys Jones, to find that many An-barra people had returned to their own estate and were living at Gupanga – a significant home base located on the western side of An-gartcha Wana, a short distance from its mouth (see Figure 2.1). The An-barra were there because they were participating in a ceremony being staged across the river. Rhys and I established a base camp at Gupanga but spent most of our time, while the ceremony was in progress, living at Ngarli ji-bama. After several months, when the ceremony had finished and visitors from other communities had returned to their own estates, many An-barra people decided they would stay on their own land throughout the wet season and agreed that Rhys and I could stay with them. This was a wonderful opportunity for us to be with a group of Aboriginal people living on their own land and harvesting much of their food from that area. The An-barra estate is rich in food resources – it contains a large river, much coastline, big areas of mangroves and very productive freshwater floodplains. The downside of living in this rich tropical environment is that, during the wet season, mosquitoes and sand flies make life hell for people not accustomed to such challenging conditions. I am pleased to say that before the 1972–73 wet season began in earnest, the An-barra moved from Gupanga to an exposed coastal site called Lalarr gu-jirrapa. At this significant location, it was wild, wet and windy, but, unless you were foolish enough to enter the surrounding mangroves, the mosquitoes and sand flies were manageable.
While in the field, I was always aware of the archaeological manifestation of my research interests. However, at this time I was focusing on the complex life that the An-barra were living on top of their land, rather than what their ancestors had left behind in the archaeological record – usually some shellfish remains, animal bones and a few stone tools. However, during 1972–73, in addition to the work I was documenting on An-barra subsistence, Rhys and I were able to carry out several small archaeological investigations, which are described in this monograph. I also felt, very strongly, that it was such a privilege to be able to carry out archaeology on land where many of the descendants of the people who laid down these archaeological deposits were still living. Of course, I understand that one cannot assume that what can be observed of Aboriginal contemporary life is the same as that represented in the archaeological record – but it can indicate what life might have been like. There are no rock shelters or caves located on An-barra territory, as there are in other areas of Australia, where rock art images may enhance the interpretation of what is found in the archaeology. An-barra “art” appears on the walls of temporary bark shelters, on human bodies for ceremonies, and on some items of material culture. More recently, of course, bark paintings are produced by some An-barra, and these often depict significant information about An-barra culture, including religion.
I wrote about my life in the An-barra community during 1972–73 in Shell Bed to Shell Midden (1982a), based on my PhD research (1975). I then had to find employment. I was lucky enough to find positions that allowed me to maintain my friendship with the An-barra community and carry out further archaeological exploration with them on their estate. Rhys and I were able to excavate the large mound at Ji-bena and several smaller sites in 1978, also described in this monograph. Unfortunately, Rhys died in 2001 before we had a chance to publish the results of these investigations.
Since 1958, some An-barra people have been able to travel south to Sydney or Canberra for special events that involved them personally or for holidays. These days, I maintain regular contact with Betty Ngurrpangurrpa (Frank Gurrmanamana’s daughter), now 60 years old, mainly by mobile phone. She, like her mother and father, is a highly intelligent, knowledgeable person, keen to describe and explain aspects of her culture to people (including Europeans or “balandas”) who are keen to learn.
Sally Brockwell agreed to co-operate with me to process and publish results of the archaeological investigations that Rhys and I had carried out on An-barra land over time. We made two trips together to Maningrida and An-barra land to the east (4–7 August 2003 and 10–14 August 2015) with Traditional Owner Betty Ngurrpangurrpa, her husband, Dominic Mason, and various other An-barra people. These trips were designed to introduce Sally to the An-barra people and to enable her to see the sites where the archaeological material came from, collect shells for dating and isotope analysis, and keep the community informed about the archaeological project and the monograph we were hoping to publish.
We are keen to publish these results as they give some idea of when the current An-barra estate was first occupied by Aboriginal people. After all, if Aboriginal people have been in Australia for as long as the latest dates indicate, perhaps 65,000 years (Clarkson et. al. 2017), then ancestors of the An-barra probably have been too. However, because of the time span and the intricacies of the sea-level changes in northern Australia in particular, it is difficult to describe this process precisely. The archaeological story that Sally and I wish to tell is based on the information we have been able to accumulate. It is certainly not the full story and may not, in some details, even be correct. However, hopefully, it will reveal some exciting clues about when the An-barra and their ancestors began to occupy their current estates around the mouth of An-gartcha Wana, how they lived in the past, and in what way this story compares with how they live today.
1958 and 1960: 20 months at Maningrida in Arnhem Land, NT, with Les Hiatt, where he was carrying out research for his ANU PhD (Hiatt 1965). During 1958, I established the first school at Maningrida.
1970: Carried out a reconnaissance at the mouth of An-gartcha Wana in Arnhem Land seeking permission to do some ethnoarchaeological research with the An-barra community.
1972–75: Fieldwork with the An-barra community carrying out ethnoarchaeological research. Rhys Jones was with me for some of this time.
1978: Five months spent at An-gartcha Wana carrying out archaeological research. During this visit, I also provided logistical and technical support for Kim McKenzie of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies (AIAS) who was making the film Waiting for Harry (McKenzie 1980) with the An-barra community at Jinawunya.
1978: Assisted Dr Bryan Keon-Cohen to elicit An-barra views about proposed law reform relevant to Aboriginal people (Hanks & Keon-Cohen 1984).
1979: One month of fieldwork with Rhys Jones carrying out archaeological research with the An-barra community.
1979: Proposed and assisted with the organisation of the performance of the An-barra song series, Djambidj, by An-barra men Frank Gurrmanamana, Frank Malkorda and Sam Gumugun, which took place at the Goethe Institute in Canberra. A record and booklet commemorating this performance was published by AIAS (Clunies Ross & Wild 1982).
1980: Short trip to An-barra community to check on and augment information about plants, especially Pandanus spiralis [Screw palm]. The kernels of the woody fruit are eaten and the fronds used to manufacture material culture items, like baskets] (Meehan et al. 1979).
1981–83: With Rhys Jones, assisted Dr Ronald Lampert with preparation of an An-barra section that was to be part of the Aboriginal Gallery in the Australian Museum, Sydney. Frank Gurrmanamana and Nancy Bandeiyama came to Sydney to oversee the An-barra part of the project.
1982: Facilitated the visit of George Garawun, an Aboriginal artist from Maningrida, when he came to visit Canberra for the opening of the National Gallery of Australia, in which several of his bark paintings were exhibited, and where he was introduced to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
1982: Assisted with organisation of the performance of the Rom ceremony at the AIAS by the An-barra community. A film was made, and a book published about this event by the AIAS (Wild 1983, 1986).
1982: Short trip to the An-barra community to investigate the processing of toxic plants with Associate Professor Wendy Beck (University of New England).
1983: Short trip to An-barra community to collect data about sites situated around the mouth of the An-gartcha Wana so they could be listed with the NT Sacred Sites Authority (later the Aboriginal Areas Protection Authority) in Darwin.
1986: Short-term fieldwork for the Northern Land Council with the An-barra people concerning the ownership of sites around the mouth of An-gartcha Wana.
1986: Several months on an Australian Research Grants Scheme for the “Technology of Subsistence Project” with Dr Neville White (La Trobe University) and Professor Rhys Jones (ANU). Time was spent at several Aboriginal communities in the NT, including with the An-barra at An-gartcha Wana.
1987: Same as above.
1988: One month spent at Maningrida working in the Djomi Museum with An-barra and other Aboriginal people.
1988: Organised visit of Betty Ngurrpangurrpa and her son Johnson from Maningrida to the Australian Museum and the ANU to work on artefacts from the An-barra culture.
1996: With Dr L.R. Hiatt, prepared an exhibition of black-and-white photographs, taken by both of us of An-barra and other people living in the Maningrida area of Arnhem Land in 1958 and 1960, in association with the launching of a volume in honour of Dr Hiatt (Merlan et al. 1997).
1997: Prepared An-barra genealogies for proposed Native Title Claim for area of sea adjoining An-barra land for the Northern Land Council, Darwin.
2001: Assisted the An-barra community to bring their Rom ceremony to Canberra at the invitation of AIATSIS. During this time, Betty Ngurrpangurrpa visited Rhys Jones in Canberra Hospital where he was being treated for chronic myeloid leukaemia. He died in September 2001.
2002: Betty Ngurrpangurrpa came to Canberra to attend the launch of the book People of the Rivermouth (Gurrmanamana et al. 2002) at the National Museum of Australia (NMA). She spoke on behalf of her father, who was too frail to attend. This volume was a joint venture of NMA and AIATSIS.
2003: Trip to Maningrida to introduce Dr Sally Brockwell to the An-barra community and to their land around the mouth of An-gartcha Wana with a view to the production of a monograph about the archaeology of that area.
2015: Short trip to consult An-barra community about the archaeological research I had carried out there and was now preparing for publication. I was also able to introduce Dr Sally Brockwell to more members of the community as she was to be a major contributor to the monograph. We also collected shells for radiocarbon dating and isotope analysis.
2016: Two An-barra people, Betty Ngurrpangurrpa and a young relative, Leah, came to holiday with me for three weeks over the Christmas period.
Note: My husband, Rhys Jones, was diagnosed with leukaemia in the late 1990s, and for much of the time he was very ill and required special care. It was difficult for me during this time to maintain regular physical contact with the An-barra community, though by then, many of them had acquired mobile phones, so I could keep them informed about Rhys’ health and other matters.