Dhäruk ga Wäŋa

As part of his contribution to a major research project called Investing in Aboriginal languages, Ian Gumbula and his wife, Mercy Djungmali and daughter, AJ collected stories in and about various languages at Ŋukurr. As part of the research process, Ian made clear over many hours of discussion around his own philosophy of language, in particular its relation to land, power and identity.

Given the land is not an object to be known or talked ‘about’, Ian is listened, watched and spoken by the land. Ian uses the word ‘spiritual’ in a diplomatic manner for non-Indigenous audience to be able to partially grasp the Yolŋu commitment that the land has its mindful network and structure and ancestral authority. With and through the authority of the land, Ian further discusses the ways in which Yolŋu and non-Indigenous work together in making the right decisions for Aboriginal communities.

Dhäruk ga Wäŋa (Words of language and land)

by Ian Mongunu Gumbula

CDU Northern Institute, June 2023

It is the land that gives the language
When we talk we don’t talk about the land. We talk the land. We don’t own the land, the land owns us.

It is the land that holds the power. The land is the foundation. The land is first, fully awake, fully aware that it is alive. The land can speak to us but sometimes it is standing still there. It can listen to us, watch us, and speak to us through the languages specific to each place and its people, whether they be Dhuwa or Yirritja.

Land gives us the language that makes it possible for us to have ceremonies, to remember ancestors’ songs, and to know where the plants and animals belong and how we should find and use them.

Every ceremony, every ancestral song comes from the land. The land is actually giving us the mind to speak, according to its will. Songs and ceremonies are given by the land so that the people can perform, sing, praise back to that land.

Ceremonies dancing and ancestral songs keep the land alive and show us what to do for healing and survival.

Everything in its place
Everything is spiritual, so everything must have its right place in the network. Don’t just mix it up, just put a plant there, it has to be put into a structure that has a purpose for something – medicine food, healing, making things. Everything is spiritual and has a placement among all the items.

The land has everything. It has kinship. But it can’t give it. Someone has to take it. Djalkiri (foot, footprint, ancestral foundation) gives authorities and responsibilities for how it should be demonstrated or carried out in the law.

You can’t just say what you want
Language isn’t words for you to say what you want. Everything comes from the land. The structure of how language can be spoken comes from the land. That is why you have each area that has its own language and each has its suffixes to go with (for example) Dhaŋu language, both Yirrtja mob language and Dhuwa mob. That’s so it can have a meaning.

If you don’t use language according to the authority of the land, you will end up separating people and being separate from the authority of the land. When people speak properly with language, their authority comes from the land.

So just talking a language doesn’t give you authority for yourself. When language is used properly, it brings people to safety and ownership.

When we are talking about investments in language we need to show that we’re paying respect to the land. When people use their language, it is a power not within his or her power. It is the land’s power. It belongs to the land. We need our language to listen to country,

The power is not in the person, he uses the power of the land which gives him the right way of acting for his own place, to show what is in the land, and he is a really good dancer now.  Land is giving me my unique ancestral style of behaviour (gakal) so I can use it and demonstrate to reflect what is already in the land.

Language reveals the law of the land
There is nothing I can say or do if there is no law.

But the law is not like a policy for land and people. The law does not give you ownership, the law gives the land ownership. That law in the land gives language its particular forms and practices: dancing, ceremonials, talking, kinship.

The ancestral songs have got governance inside them. The special ancient words that old people use in their governance of groups and ceremonies come from the authority of the land.

Sacred ceremonial leaders are needed to make clear all the authorities and responsibilities which come from the networks of places and songs and dances and ceremonial objects and paintings…

The songs demonstrate exactly how people-places fit together whether Dhuwa or Yirritja law or ceremony. Each has its own authority.

The land tells you all these things in a correct, clean and beautifully crafted (dhapirrk) way. It’s up to you to make that fullness so the land will be happy.

We need, together, to have the skills and knowledge that please the land.

If you do the negotiations properly through the land, then when you go back the land is changed, and the people are changed. And your philosophy has changed.

Language in an Aboriginal Community
When Balanda (nonaboriginal) government and nongovernment representatives come Aboriginal people are really tested as to how they can do the right things in accordance with the land.

They have a program, but where is the right place for it? Where is the right authority? The Balanda say: ‘I know the constitution’. But the constitution is in the land.

That governance of the land will tell us where to put the services. That’s how we can honour and respect the land.

Think about the land before the program was there – it had its language, its song, its dances and ceremonies.

So it’s not good when those government people come in expecting an individual person, rather than the land, to have authority. People can ask if that person who is working with government are speaking with the authority of the land. If he is, people will listen and respect him because the land is being acknowledged in the right way. It’s really bad to expect authority to be in a person.

Especially Balanda are saying go to him, that person can decide, but no. Not him that has the power. Other people look at him to see if he is using the right authority from his land – on somebody else’s land. Can he show that? Can he demonstrate that? If he demonstrates that he is speaking country, and we agree, he is using the right authority.

Local Decision Making
Aboriginal politics – that is agreement about whether the land is being used in the right way. Aboriginal decision making – not people making decision, but decision through whether land is being acknowledged in the right way by those right people, by the right group, by the clan and family.

In local decision making, I am not saying “I know that thing”. The land already knows that thing, and I am just passing it on, checking to see that the style of that performance is indicating to be situated within the land (not within me, or you, or the organisation)

So in Local Decision Making for example, people can’t just decide what they want for themselves, the decision needs to be made through the land that the services and programs are sitting on.

When Balanda don’t understand or respect that principle of land’s authority, then programs go wrong and community people get the blame. This will make people fight amongst themselves.

The first thing Balanda do is push Yolŋu away from land. People and places are pulled apart. If people don’t want to come on board, that leaves the community with nothing.

That is why Balanda are frightened. Balanda are frightened not because of the person, but the law that the services and programs are sitting on. This is the bottom line – it is not you sitting on the services, it is you sitting on the land and working on the land. And services themselves are often not acknowledging that I am there and doing wrong things, but blaming community for wrong things. You get a program, but where is the right place for it? Ceremony: we can see its right place in the land, it has got connections.

Investing in Languages
Programs and services coming in, where are the connections for them? They can say culture, it is new culture in that space. But hang on, go back, go back… when that thing was not there, what was there? Language, ancestral song, ceremony, proper speaking.

And where were they, where is the place for them in the land? The land holds that. The land itself is the governance. When you do the ceremony, song, proper speaking, the good governance is reflected back to the land. When it is done, it is reflected perfectly, clean and beautiful. Not interrupted by anything.

Like when get drunk people that come in, people get upset but really it upsets that land. Disgrace the land. Not saying we don’t like you, but you are showing things that should not be shown. Your behaviour, attitude. Discipline, behaviour everything, the land has got that. When you do that right, the land gives you a long life. If you mess this thing up, something happens, but don’t blame the land. Blame yourself.

So there’s a problem with Kriol. It’s the language of people without place. Of course the Balanda think that’s very appropriate for policies, processes and rules. But no, lets invest in local languages. Not Kriol.

Kriol has no part in ceremony. Kriol keeps making people with no places. If you use Kriol it gives balanda more power to make decisions, say that is really good and Kriol can be on the policies and processes and rules. That everything has to be in Kriol.

Purpose of Investing in Aboriginal languages is not to invest in Kriol. We are investing in local languages, Aboriginal languages.