Showing posts with label Gamilaraay. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gamilaraay. Show all posts

Monday, September 21, 2015

BUWADJARR and the Creation Story PART 1

An insight into the traditional belief systems of the GAMILARAAY nation.  This continent is home to hundreds of autonomous nation states with unique cultures, languages and traditions.


By Paul Spearim, GAMILARAAY



creation story

The story begins with BUWADJARR travelling throughout and within creation. BUWADJARR came from a place that was called GAMILU-BIDI WII (before the big light or the centre of the universe).

BUWADJARR had also passed on to us that traditionally in Gamilaraay we are not allowed to mention him by name (BAAYAMI). So we have to call him BUWADJARR which means creator, supreme father or fathers’ fathers’ father. The only time that you are allowed to mention his name is when you have been fully initiated.

Gamilaraay was created in a time when there was nothing, it was completely empty. Then BUWADJARR created our nation and now we have GAMILARAAY. If we break it down, we have GAMIL which means no/not and ARAAY which means having. Because now we have something and that is Gamilaraay.

He also passed onto us that storytelling, or more importantly BINANGGAL GAAYAA WANA-GI, listening too law and throwing words from the almighty father BUWADJARR, is how we as descendants of OLD GAMIL have always maintained a spiritual connection to our creation. OLD GAMIL is a word used along with BURRUGUU to describe when creation happened.

The first thing he did after travelling through the universe was that he created BIRRAYBIRRAAY (Orion’s Belt). This was a resting place within the centre of it for the lost spirits of any young boys and men.

BUWADJARR’s five wives also travelled with him and they were also very powerful. His five wives came from BARIYAN NGAMA, the Pleiades Constellation. Of BUWADJARR’s five wives, BIRRANGULU was the oldest and the carrier of all women’s knowledge. GANHANBILI, who was a few years younger, was the carrier of all women’s business and law. They were the older and wiser of the wives, and they had all the power and control.

The three younger wives were NGALIIR who was the holder of all umbilical cords, MUBALYAAL who was the carrier of all births, and finally the youngest of his wives NGAMU who was the carrier of all breast milk, nourishment and food. They all listened and learnt about creation from BIRRANGULU,  GANHANBILI and more importantly from BUWADJARR.

These five wives also created a resting place called MIYAYMIYAAY, which was in the centre of the Pleiades Constellation. This was also a resting place that the young girls and women’s spirits could go.

After BUWADJARR had found a place that was suitable, he began creating us, the animals, plants, rivers, mountains and everything else that is found within Gamilaraay. This allows all living things in Gamilaraay to live as sentient organisms in OLD GAMIL.

Then BUWADJAAR placed all of the Gamilaraay people into two main blood groups, the first being GUWAYMADHAN, the dark blood group, created from the ground low down and high up. Then we have GUWAYGALIYARR which is the light blood group that had among other things, the YARUDHAGAA, the matrilineal line of descent which all of Gamilaraay have to follow. YARUDHAGAA was created by BUWADJARR’s five wives.
Source:  Brisbane Blacks
http://brisbaneblacks.com/2014/02/18/first-nations-culture-demystified-2/

Saturday, October 26, 2013

Pilliga Protectors rally to save precious New South Wales Forest.

'Yaarma' - Local Gamilaraay Lingo for Hello and welcome  (around my home on the coast its 'Giniigay' in Gumbaynggirr).

Map from - Protecting the Pilliga on Facebook
The drilling Rig has arrived back to resume and expand exploration work in the Pilliga Forest. Last week on Tuesday the local Narrabri newspaper "The Courier' had much to say about the frightful  news that exploration has once again resumed in the Pilliga NSW.  

They report there are 16 holes and a water treatment plant to be constructed and that work shall commence immediately. 

The Pilliga Protectors are working extra hard to make this a successful Cultural Heritage Camp against Queen Csg and so here is a map of how to get to the Pilliga Protectors Camp to help out with this silent war on country.. The blessing from the local Gomeroi people has been given to come and protect.

 Santos are big boys in this mining game and they know with ease now how to sway entire communities by the use of carrot dangling.   Sponsorship deals for everything including a cake stall.  The people out there are simple people who are used to dealing with things on the up and up but these mining companies only pretend to have this quality because at the end of the day they really do not care about anything except profits.

The land all the way from Gunnedah to Narrabri is now almost all owned by  large mining companies and overseas consortiums.   There are a few farmers hanging onto what they have but to do this is not easy and the stress of this is not healthy at all emotionally.  This is the same story all over Australia at the present moment.  We are all suffering with various degrees of Cognitive Dissonance and it is causing trauma to many.

IMG 4939
The Land out here is spectacular
Santos have a  shop-front office in nearby township of Narrabri and it is here at this 'front for destruction' of Country  where there can be found an endless supply  of propaganda to make the ugly business of mining Coal Seam Gas look green and squeaky clean. After all, this is how they operate this corrupt business.   There is an engrained culture of placation to confound local communities and perform a takeover of everything right under everybody's noses.

If there is any suspicion or rejection of what they are offering  the game changes dramatically.  When the bribery tactics no longer work with landholders and communities and local councils  is when this game gets dirty.  This is when locals find out they have made a  huge mistake and by then it is usually too late to back out.

The Narrabri community just like all of the other farming communities under attack from mining are plied by the donations to everything that walks and talks and the newspaper seems on side with the mining as it boasts further reports that this new drilling venture will mean much booming business for the local  communities of Narrabri and the surrounding areas.   But exactly who are they employing and what businesses are going to boom? 

IMG 4936 I love Rocks!
Kamiloi Highway views
The hotels are all that come to my mind as being on the list of business boomers.  Bottle shops, Brothels perhaps, what else is there?  Those couple are about all I can name here as everything for the miners is provided for back at the work camp where they sleep and eat. 

So this  sounds like the usual mining spin these crooks use to get what they want with as little as possible outlay and fuss.   They make billions of dollars and communities lose everything and the land will never be the same again.  This is not my idea of "Booming Business".  It is not my idea of being respectful and its not every going to gain respect from a certain number of the community no matter how much they try.

IMG 0508 NVDA Workshop
NVDA Workshop
The Pilliga Forest Protectors have had meetings and there are now loud murmurings of protection and a clear call that the way things are to be done out here are different and  local lady Megan Kuhn said they were trying to get away from the term of NVDA that LTG have heralded as effective.

 IMG 6943  The Sky / the Sun / the Earth

A Base Camp is now in place and protection has begun. Here is the Pilliga Protectors invitation to protect. 

You're invited to join the Pilliga Cultural Heritage Community Camp, which will be holding a cultural workshop over the coming weeks.

The Gomeroi (Kamilaroi/Gamilaraay) people along with the local community are welcoming people to become Pilliga Protectors and to participate the community camp in the Pilliga Forest.

Camp activities will include Kamilaroi language classes, learning about the unique plant and animals of the Pilliga, soils of the Liverpool Plains, and protecting the forest and Great Artesian Basin. The local community is standing up to say 'Stop it', 'Wanagidjay' to any destruction in the Pilliga.
Images @ Eminpee Fotography