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Woppaburra Dreamtime Stories n Customs

Acknowledgement by Chrissy Doherty: I could not fulfil my customary duties, as a Family Story Teller (Darlutta), without giving deep respect and recognition, to my mother land, and to my ancestral women, who shaped the traditional woman, I am today.

My beautiful and amazing, Grannie Konomie, and her eldest child, my Aunty Ethel, enriched my life so much, by passing down their traditional knowledge, as the next Family Story Teller, my beautiful ‘women mothers’ gave me, my ‘dreaming,my songlines, my skin, my mother land), and I am so proud and honoured, to share their stories and traditional knowledge with all our young ones, I pass down their precious ‘legacy’, traditional knowledge, as they would expect me to do, with dignity and kindness, to always share with others, and my personal promise, to my aunty Ethel, to keep our history ‘living’.

  1. Mugga Mugga - Whale Dreaming

Our spiritual tribal totem, defines us as the salt water people of the Keppel islands, (Mother land, ‘na-ja ga-pa’)and provides us with our spiritual connection, to our land and sea country, to our ancestors, and our customary duty, to protect our spiritual totem and the environment in which it lives, our sea country, and the water which comes from Mugga Mugga’s spout, is our dreaming, water from Mugga Mugga’s spout, brings the rain, which sustains all life, for our people, for our mother land, and all living things that share and exist in our land and sea country.

  1. Fire Sticks – ‘Holders of our Light’ Dreaming (our source of ancient energy, in a dark age)

Generations of our Woppaburra Men, are the holders of the light, the keeper/custodians, who in every day traditional life, carried our ‘Fire Sticks’, for cooking, for warmth, for safety. Our ancestral men, carried our ‘grass-tree’ fire sticks, most times, alight, as the grass-tree fibre, always smouldered well and for a long time, our ancestral men, were very clever, as carrying our fire sticks ‘alight’ saved them energy and time, in making fresh fires, in an age of darkness, their times. This custom was strictly Woppaburra Men’s business, our ancestral women, never carried the firesticks, it was taboo. (of note, we have an ancient firestick in the Sydney Museum, how lucky are we). Language Name for our FireSticks ‘we-ba’.

  1. Fertility Games – ‘Strictly Woppaburra Ancestral Women’s Business’

Language name –‘wu-ra’. The fertility game was witnessed by (Dr Walter Roth). Our young ancestral girls, played ‘wu-ra’, as a daily custom, seeking a lot of healthy babies, fertility, into womanhood. Our ancestral girls, would set-up (in our terms), a doll house, about 8 – 12 inches high. All the girls would kneel in front of the ‘doll house’ and throw as fast as they could, into the doll-house, small pebbles and rocks, alternating between their left and right hands, each pebble or stone, would represent the mother and father and their children, they would repeat this over and over, and our ancestral young girls, would also be chanting, whilst throwing the pebbles into the doll-house, and they would all compete against each other, and get so excited, about who would get the most pebbles/stones, representing the children they would have, their future fertility. This is such a beautiful custom of our ancestral young girls.

  1. ‘Sacred Places’.

Considine Beach

Grannie Konomie of the Keppels, was born on the northern end of Considine Beach, in approximately 1885, with her family clan, sadly, no physical trace or evidence is left, after milleniums of environmental damage, European settlement, only our precious, traditional knowledge, of our ancestors.

Cabbage Tree Palm Forest – Considine Beach

This whole area is a most sacred place, as there are sacred women’s birthing areas, and in 1981, the repatriation of our ancestors remains from State museums, where they have been re-buried in this sacred area, our ancestors, men, women, children, finally returned to us, laid to rest, and at peace, on their mother land (na-ja ga-pa). There is no marker, to give our ancestors, the respect and privacy, they are deserving of. RIP our beautiful ancestors.

The Cabbage Tree Palm Forest, is also sacred, as it is specially unique to our mother land, no -where else on the Queensland Coast, or other islands, can it be found, our very special sacred resting place of our ancestors.

  1. Speaker of Language – Grannie Konomie of the Keppels

I honour my grannie Konomie, by sharing her story. Grannie Konomie was a fluent speaker of 3 tribal languages, and was often used as an Interpreter, for the European community, and aboriginal protectors, of her times. She could speak fluently, her native Keppel language dialect, her wider Darumbal language dialect, and the Butchulla language dialect of her husband, Poppy Charles Richards (her Butchulla man).

In her 70’s, my grannie Konomie was interviewed, by Swiss Linguist, Nils Holmer, who was searching for informants of another tribal group, when he was referred to Grannie Konomie, and when he met her, he was astounded that she was a Keppel Islander, and could speak 3 language dialects, and he was terribly excited, to interview my Grannie Konomie, and record her language dialects. After spending most of my life, researching, I finally found, my grannie konomie’s language transcripts from Nils Holmer, which is the treasure of my life’s work, it is the foundation, to revive our native Keppel language dialect in the future, for our young ones.

My amazing Grannie Konomie multiple speaker of language, is also acknowledged in Linguist, Angela Terrills (Darumbal Language Book).

  1. Sacred Ceremonial Ground, Dreaming story of Grannie Konomie.

When my grannie Konomie, was about 5 – 6 years of age, she had a near-death dreaming experience. As told by my Aunty Ethel.. Her Family Clan were so distraught, carrying her, their precious konomie, to the sacred ceremonial ground, on bald hill, where they laid their little girl, to conduct ceremony and custom, they thought she was dying, and they were ‘wailing’ for her, grannie remembers being in a ‘trance-like state’ and she could see in visions, a stairway to the sky, to the heavens, where bad spirits were trying to take her away from her family.

She could see the faces of her old people, fighting the bad spirits, the spirits of her ancestors won the battle, of life and death, and grannie konomie, woke from her trance, her visions, in the sacred ceremonial ground, to the wonderful delight of her clan family, but grannie konomie, was so indignant, that her clan family, had placed her in the sacred ceremonial ground, for wailing and mourning.

Many years ago, I stood in the sacred ceremonial ground, on my mother land, where my grannie konomie, was laid and had this spiritual experience, where I sat quietly with the deepest respect, for this sacred place and reflected on this story of my grannie, which ‘healed me’, to stand in the sacred place where she was wailed and mourned, left me very emotional, but brought me such joy and healing.

I love you and treasure your memory, my beautiful Grannie Konomie.

Thank You

Chrissy Doherty (Darlutta Story-Teller)

Traditional Knowledge of Chrissy Doherty (Darlutta Story Teller)