![[from left] Mulkas Cave Hyden; Wedge Island; Shark's Mouth](/Resources/Images/slides/nat_photos.jpg)
![[from left] Camp at Crawley; Noongar men at Guildford 1901. Both photos courtesy of Battye Library](/Resources/Images/slides/hist_photos.jpg)
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Left: Tommy King in his dugout, 1880s. Right: Timbul and Ngilgie sitting outside humpy, Perth c1900s. Courtesy State Library of Western Australia, The Battye Library 046848PD and 35036P. No further reproduction may be made from the copy for any purpose without the permission of the Library Board of Western Australia.
Karlup & Moort Boodja (Heart - Country)
Karlup in Noongar means home or heart-country. Ngany kurt ngany karla - our heart, our home. Joe Northover talks about beautiful Minningup Pool, his ancestral home. He says, 'This is where all our spirits will end up here. Karla kurliny, we call it, coming home'.
Before European contact in 1829, we Noongar people lived in our karlup and moved around for hunting and gathering, meetings and ceremonies, in a wider space called a family-run or Noongar moort boodja. We followed familiar paths called moort bidi, a family track. Roaming freely within our country, we lived according to tradition, as we had done for many thousands of years.
Home and European Settlement
With European settlement, Noongar people became prisoners in our own land, forced from our heart-country. Noongars camped where we could in bush or on farm land, but we were often forced off our karlup. After WW1 the government began sub-dividing land for returned servicemen. Yet Noongar returned servicemen were not given the same recognition. This further restricted Noongar people from accessing our karlup. Noongars were sent to live in town reserves or missions, as more land became fenced off.
Noongars still continued to follow work where possible and maintain our traditional ways. The seasonal and contract -based nature of farm labour meant most Noongar people had to move constantly to find employment. Despite this situation, the majority of Noongars continued to follow work within the area of our family-run, maintaining a connection to our home country.
Types of Homes
Camp at Herdsman's Lake. Courtesy Barr Smith Library, University of Adelaide, MSS 572.994 B32t
As Noongar people we did our best to make our houses as homely as possible. Materials were recycled in creative ways; hessian bags sewn together to form blankets, or the lining of a tent. Kerosene tins were used to collect and store water. Sunshine milk tins made good lanterns. Brooms were made from bush-materials, to keep mia-mias, humpies and coornts neat and clean. Mia mias and coornts are more traditional Noongar homes. A mia- mia is made of natural bush materials such as sticks and branches, whilst a coornt is built from balga or grass tree rushes. A humpy uses the combined materials of wood, tin and hessian bags.
Family Together
No matter where Noongar people lived, there was a sense of family and togetherness in the camps. This is particularly true when families were faced with the threat of children being taken away to homes. There was a sense of family in the camps that was wider than the nuclear family. Joe Northover tells of living 'in the old railway houses with their big verandahs and family always next to you'. For Gus Ryder it was 'a humpy alongside the river, with plenty of rabbits and sometimes, duck eggs'.
Although increasing numbers of Noongar families were forcibly removed from their Karlup, many people post-contact remained living on the traditional family-run. Today, many Noongar people choose to live and practice traditional customs, such as hunting and ceremonies, on the land where our ancestors have lived since the beginning of time.
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