Into the heart of Jandamarra Country
Our guide’s dark leathery hands grabbed at the spinifex, plucking handfuls and making a bouquet with other dry shrubbery. Bundling it all together he placed it on a clear patch of earth and set fire to it. As smoke billowed from the green leaves, he quietly spoke a few words in his traditional language. Continuing to chant, he invited us to walk through the white smoke that was curling its way towards vast blue sky. Having passed through, we had been formally welcomed into ‘Bunuba Country’. The Indigenous Bunuba people are traditional owners of a spectacular part of the West Kimberley region in northwest Australia, including the well-known Windjana Gorge and Tunnel Creek. The Bunuba have roamed these rocky gorges and vast grassy plains for thousands of years. Our guide, Dillon, was born and raised here and now lives in the remote Biridu Community, where we are headed as guests for the evening. On the way, we pause to explore a rocky outcrop, known only to locals, where rock art thousands of years old can been seen by the lucky few who are taken there. It is late afternoon as we approach Biridu. Our rough 4WD track heads across Pigeon Creek, named after the Bunuba warrior, Jandamarra, who the white settlers nicknamed ‘Pigeon’. Often considered to be the Indigenous Ned Kelly, Jandamarra frustrated authorities for years back in the 1890’s while fighting for the freedom of his people; he died a legend during a defiant last stand, at the entrance of the cave through which Tunnel Creek flows.
Emerging from the Pigeon Creek bed, we drive down a dirt airstrip, clouds of red dust billowing behind us, before arriving in the Community itself. Locals come out to welcome us with broad smiles and spirited kids fall about laughing. The sun descends, as we set up camp beneath the Coolibah trees on the banks of Pigeon Creek. Corellas squawk in the sky above as they head home for the evening, while the relative cool of the night brings relief from the day’s heat and stars fill the Kimberley sky. Our dinner cooks on the campfire, as Dillon entertains us with stories of his youth in the area, local Bunuba legends and adventures of the hero, Jandamarra.
This country has largely been off limits to travellers and watching the campfire flicker, surrounded by tall grasslands, swollen boab trees and new friends, I feel privileged to be here. It is unfortunate that remote Indigenous communities have experienced such negative media attention in recent months – I realize that for me this has been an experience of a lifetime, sadly one few other Australians have embarked upon themselves.
- Gina Woods travelled on Kimberley Wild’s 3 Day West Kimberley Experience
