Photo SMH.
Jakamara Nelson, who died last month, was six years older than the community in which he spent most of his 80 years: Yuendumu. The story of his life reflects the huge changes to people and policies that have taken place in Central Australia in those eight decades.
I was fortunate to meet this influential Warlpiri man a few times in his later life, when he shared with me parts of his life story. It began at the pastoral station of Mount Doreen, where Jakamara’s father was a sheep herder. He would have four wives and nine children, of whom Jakamara was the fifth.
The life of his people before the days of white settlement was still close in people’s memories, and Jakamara recalled stories told to him by his famous grandfather, Minyina.
These included tales of a bloody dispute between tribes in the early 1920s. As Jakamara related it, warriors from the north had come down in a raiding party to kidnap women while many of their men were taking part in a ceremony some distance away. When the men returned, they found many old people and children dead.
Jakamara’s grandfather was one of the scouts who successfully sought out the killers and avenged their deaths – as well as getting their women back and taking some of theirs.
A few years later, many Warlpiri were murdered in the dreadful Coniston Massacre, triggered by the killing of a single white man. So perhaps the concept of Yuendumu appealed to the Warlpiri as a safe haven as well as a reliable source of food, water and services. Jakamara was six years old when his parents told him they were going to move to a rations depot that had been set up there by the government.
As Jakamara told me in an interview for the Central Land Council’s great oral history opus, Every Hill Got a Story: I can only remember my parents saying to me: “Look, the cattle station can’t support us. There’s no tucker, but they’re going to set up a ration depot, or a settlement” — where people from other communities as well, like cattle stations surrounding Yuendumu, were also asked to move in.
Also, people living in outlying countries – their homelands – heard about a place that was built there to bring in all the people, because there was easy access to food, medical needs and also education. So, gradually, people from outlying countries came into Yuendumu and established some community in those early years.
Jakamara’s descriptions of the early days at Yuendumu evoke the decisions people had to make virtually on the run, as they sought to balance elements of traditional culture with the rough serve of western civilisation that was suddenly on tap. Yuendumu offered people regular rations with the expectation of some work from the men in return. Some of this was in building, some in creating and maintaining several productive veggie gardens that supplied the community with fresh fruit and veggies. Meanwhile at night there were large corroborees, and people felt free to engage in traditional pursuits to some extent. (more…)
Feb 18, 2021 | Categories: Faces & Voices, Features | Leave A Comment »
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An Alice Springs business operator has described a town under siege from uncontrolled petty crime after one of the town’s landmark cafes was trashed last weekend. Lisa Perry was on her way to Alice Springs to spend a fortnight working with her staff at the Royal Flying Doctor Service Cafe when she...
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Jakamara Nelson, who died last month, was six years older than the community in which he spent most of his 80 years: Yuendumu. The story of his life reflects the huge changes to people and policies that have taken place in Central Australia in those eight decades. I was fortunate to meet this influe...
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In the first part of this interview, Peter Latz talked about how increased carbon dioxide has been a boon for the Central Australian desert — while stressing his belief that we need to take action to reduce world-wide carbon dioxide levels. It’s a view that recognises the complexity of i...
A selection of articles of enduring interest from the archives of Alice Online, collected since the site began in February 2009.
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