Jandamarra Country

  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

 

The Saltwater People

Experience the land of the Bardi – the saltwater people

My guide, Debbie Sibosado, fell silent as a flock of red-tailed, black cockatoos flew overhead. She became agitated, shuffled on her feet and kept her head down. I silently waited, admiring the birds, looking at the rugged bush land around me, and the red soil beneath my feet. The midday sun was beating down as the uncomfortable interlude passed. Soon enough Debbie revived and as cool as a cucumber, while I sweated profusely in my descent into sweltering mess, continued our bushtucker walk through her native Djugaragyn back yard.

Debbie is an Indigenous guide, one of the Bardi ’saltwater people’ whose traditional homeland is the remote Dampier Peninsula in northwest Australia. After a long legal battle, the Bardi people finally won recognition of their native land rights to the Peninsula as recently as 2005. Today, the region is slowly becoming known beyond the Kimberleys, as one of the most unique, pristine, coastal environments in Australia. Home to rust red pindan soil, blinding white sandy beaches by iridescent ocean, unspoilt native scrubland and many Indigenous communities, the Dampier Peninsula, or Dampierland, offers some of the most authentic and rewarding Australian experiences.
 
I had left Broome at dawn, bumped my way up the 4WD Cape Leveque Road, and reached Djugaragyn by 11am. Joining Debbie for an insightful exploratory into Dampierland history, culture and flora, we discovered atmospheric old timber stockyards, from the land’s past life as a cattle station, tried local bushtucker, learnt about untouchable ‘law trees’  and revealed a traditional medicine for headaches – one for my next hangover hopefully. Some time later, as we were enjoying a plate of hot damper, fresh from the fire, Debbie explained her earlier discomfort. Red-tailed, black cockatoos are her inlaws and according to Bardi law, when she encounters them she must show respect and neither look nor not speak until they have passed. I wondered for while who my secret inlaws could be. While I am speechless when I see a dreaded huntsman spider, I soon decided phobic fear and ancient law were far from the same thing.