Dhuwalatjan Dhukarrkurr Yuṯay Yolŋuy Märram Djambatj
Yolŋu Qualifications
When thinking about the difference between Yolŋu and Balanda (non-Indigenous) education, Gawura made clear how it is that Yolŋu young people become qualified within their knowledge community. It is the end of a process in which practices of care and respect, understanding the environment and what it provides, right speaking and skillful behaviour are nurtured by parents and elders. The elders assess the young person in terms of ceremonial performance (re-presented by sacred shelters) and ancestral knowledge (ancient cooking sites) and award particular people particular qualifications from within the traditions of their own clan group.
To a significant degree, this piece of writing advocates the newly proposed research scheme, ‘dual academy’ at Charles Darwin University (CDU) – how a contemporary institution such as tertiary education providers should take seriously both Indigenous and university-based knowledge practices. That is the knowledge production which is recognised and credited by academic authorities within the university as well as by local/ancestral knowledge authorities working in their own knowledge traditions.
In 2024, Gawura commenced his PhD candidature at CDU with his research work that he entitled – Marraŋu Djarrambaḻ. He is intending to foreground the ways in which Yolŋu knowledge claim is ancestrally invested once and for all and ineluctably placed and immobile, yet shareable and recognisable by the right people in the right place.
Dhuwalatjan Dhukarrkurr Yuṯay Yolŋuy Märram Djambatj – Yolŋu Qualifications
by Gawura Waṉambi
2024
| Yolŋu dhäruk | English translation |
| Nhinanha ŋuli marrtjinya Yolŋu walal bala ŋuli yothu ḏirramu wo miyalk malthunan bala ŋuli djägayunminyawuynydja rom ŋurr-yirr’yuna. | Yolŋu people live together; one day a male or female child is born, then the tradition of caring starts. |
| Djäga marrtjinya yan warray märr ŋuli ŋunhi yothu djäkamirriyinyan bala ŋuli marrtjinya romgun marŋgithinya. | The child is cared for until she/he reaches the right age and height, she/he then starts to learn Yolŋu education. |
| Dhärukkun waŋanharaw, dhuŋgarrawnha malaŋuw marrtjinya marŋgithinya, nhäku ŋathaw märranhaw, nhaltjanaraw bathanaraw ŋuruŋiyidhi ŋayaŋay’wu wo wäyingu, buŋgulwun giritjinyarawnha. | It includes the ways in which how to speak our world with languages and names and how to know well the country and which food to collect and cook, and also how to dance our world in the ceremony. |
| Ḏirramuny yothu ŋuli dhapiwurrnha romgurr marrtjinya ga marŋgithinya. | Yolŋu boys go through the circumcision ceremony and learn more through that process. |
| Beŋuruyidhi ŋaḻapaḻmirriy worru’wurruŋuy wo ŋäṉḏiy ga bäpay ŋuli djambatjnha nhänha wo ŋänha dhäruklil wo djämalil ŋunhiyidhi yothuny bala ŋuli nherranan wo yäkumirriyanhan nhakun ŋunhiyidhin yolŋuny bilin gaḏamannha ga muḻkurr dhukarrmirrnha. | After a while, senior leaders or the father and mother of the child start to watch the performance they do in all sorts of things. They observe what the child is adept at, and carefully see and hear whether the child is skilful and clever in speaking languages and performing according to Yolŋu ways. |
| Ŋarambiya’lil ŋuli nhänha djambatj, waŋanhalil dhäruklil, buŋgullil gakallil, manikaylil ga milkarrilil makarrlil. | When and where boys are good at singing songlines and girls are good at crying songlines, they are recognised and expected to be the next leaders. |
| Goŋ-dhuḻaŋmirrnha li wo goŋ-buyumirrnha li, dhäruk dhu ga nininyŋun waŋa nhanŋuwuynha yan yakan wiripuw bala ŋuli dharaŋanan romdhuny ga wurruŋunydja yolŋuy bala ŋuli gurrupanan ga yäkumirriyanhan. | Being skillfully knowledgeable in speaking Yolŋu world with their own clan language, not someone else’s, they are allowed to start learning how to paint patterns and designs and make sacred baskets. |
| Dhiyakkurr dhukarrgurr ŋuli dharaŋanawuydja märram. Bäyŋu gi ŋula wiripuny dhukarr dhärri. | This is when they receive recognition from the most senior Yolŋu people in the Yolŋu world. There is no other way or shortcut. |
| Romdhu warraw’yu ŋurrŋgitjthu ga ḏilakthu yolŋuy yan gurrupandja dhu yurr balaydhi yan dhu nhämany wo djarr’yundja djambatjlil malaŋulil. | In our Yolŋu world, Yolŋu seniors are the ones who carefully watch, hear, evaluate and then decide whether young Yolŋu receive recognition qualifying them as djambatj – a skillfully knowledgeable person according to the Yolŋu ways. |
