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Country and Maps | Noongar Lore
Noongar lore is the body of knowledge or kaartdijin in oral tradition and observed in the customs, rituals and behaviours of Noongar people. The terms law and lore are sometimes used interchangeably but 'law' refers to the written Australian laws based on a British legal system, whereas 'lore' for Noongars refers to unwritten kaartdijin (knowledge) and our beliefs. rules and customs. The Noongar community share a set of lore and customs relating to marriage, food, adulthood, land ownership and access. Kaartdijin belongs to Noongar people only and is different from other Aboriginal groups. This knowledge is passed down through Noongar Elders.
'If they go one way, and you go this way, you're not allowed to meet up otherwise you get into big trouble, you know. And that's always we kept those lores. Always you kept those lores'. Hazel Brown - oral history
Many parts of Noongar lore are complex and remain known only to Noongar people. It is for this reason that our lore is often easily misunderstood. Noongar lore here is not transcribed from thousands of years of oral history into writing. Our explanation of Noongar lore is an introduction to some of the main types of acknowledged lore and customs observed by Noongar people.
To survive European colonisation, Noongar lore has had to change and adapt but it still remains identifiably Noongar. As recently as 2006, the Federal Court of Australia found the acknowledgement of Noongar lore and observance of Noongar custom by Noongar people has continued since 1829. http://www.noongar.org.au/noongar-single-claim.php
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Jubyche with his three wives and children at their Bellevue
camp, 1904. Jubyche inherited his third wife, Yoolyeenan (Fanny
Shaw), from his elder brother. Daisy Bates is sitting behind
Jubyche.
Photo: Barr Smith Library,
University of Adelaide |
Values
Underpinning Noongar lore is a set of values and a sense
of what is kwoba (good) and winarch (bad). Linked
to this in the spirit world are a corresponding good ancestor,
Motogon and an evil ancestor, Djinga. These
spirit ancestors lack any kind of divine worship but they help
provide answers to what is right and what is wrong. To keep
social order and codes of morality, Noongars maintain a set of
values conveyed through stories handed down generation after
generation with messages or morals of right and wrong.
Payback
For many thousands of years Noongars had our own system of retributive justice or payback. If a lore was broken, swift payback would be carried out. The severity of payback depended on the significance of the lore broken. 'Under traditional law, payback took the form of reprisal against a family deemed responsible for an offence under customary law. The identity of the specific offender was relatively unimportant'. i
Powerful men known as Boylas or Marbarn carried out payback. These men were like a law practitioner, doctor or medicine man. They had to undergo initiation and often lived separately from the group. Mabarn are those who have supernatural powers which enable them to exercise control over the spiritual world, heal sickness, foresee events and understand phenomena which may be beyond the understanding of ordinary people.
* Like many Noongar words, there are different ways of spelling mabarn.
'...His name was Uradale but he was given the name Doctor because he was one of the clever men at the time. He was regarded as a maban man or mulga darok they used to call them back in the old days'. Glen Colbung
'Payback might occur if an intruder 'fired' the territory of another or stole towan (parrots' nests) that were deemed valuable and the property of the chief Noongar custodian. However, the authority of the chief custodian was meaningful only insofar as it was respected. For example, when in the 1830s Coolbun's family joined Mokare's in burning Coolbun's land before he was ready to initiate the burn, he was unable to enforce his authority because he had no back-up. As a result, he chose to join in'.ii
Noongar Lore and Marriage
Like Aboriginal groups all over Australia. Noongar people have a system of marriage or union, which ensured our survival over thousands of years. Traditionally, we developed a rule-based system to avoid intermarriage between close relatives. Groups of families were categorised into separate moieties or kinship groups. Classification into these moieties is determined by descent from our mother (matrilineal) or from our father (patrilineal), depending on the country we came from. iii Noongar men would travel a long distance to find a wife from another group.
Jubyche wearing a mulyart (nose bone) at Maamba Reserve, 1905
Courtesy State Library of Western Australia, The Battye Library - 5323B/898
Amateur ethnographer, Daisy Bates describes matrilineal moieties she learned from Jubyche, a Balluruk Noongar man who had great knowledge of Noongar lore and tradition. The matrilineal kin groups are Manitjimat (white cockatoo) and Wardongmat (crow). 'Mat' means 'stock, family, leg'. Children inherit the moiety from their mother and must not marry a member of the same skin group. For instance, 'a Crow man could only marry a Cockatoo woman and vice versa'. iv See table below.
| Male | Female | Offspring |
| Wardungmat | ||
| Ballarruk | Tondarup or Didarruk | Tondarup or Didarruk |
| Nagarnook | Tondarup or Didarruk | Tondarup or Didarruk |
| Manitchmat | ||
| Tondarup | Ballaruk or Nargarnook | Ballaruk or Nagarnook |
| Didarruk | Ballaruk or Nagarnook | Ballaruk or Nagarnook |
From Bates, 1985. The Native Tribes of Western Australia v
Hazel Brown tells how her uncle married her mother following the death of her father, how it was part of Noongar custom.
From Kayang and Me, Kim Scott and Hazel Brown. (Fremantle Press:2005)
'We moved around Borden, Ongerup, Gnowangerup and Needilup area until I was about four years of age. Then we came back to Gnowangerup to live, about 1930. That's when Freddy Yiller died. My mother then had two children, so Fred Tjinjel Roberts - really the only father I've ever known - he married my mother. They got married about two weeks after Fred Yiller died because that was the Noongar way, you know. She was accepted Noongar way, and his brother died, and so he had to look after her'.vi
Lore and Adulthood
Certain Noongar lore belongs solely to either men or women. There are many special places around Noongar boodja (country) that are important to Noongar men and women for ceremonial purposes. In Noongar lore we still have cultural recognition for the coming of age from youth into adulthood. Traditionally, secret customs and rituals existed for the passage into manhood and womanhood. Senior males were identified by a mulyart or nosebone.
Margaret Drayton talks about growing up as part of the 'closely knit' group of Yued women. How her mother remembered when she was a girl Granny Sarah Cuimara was a 'real traditional woman' and how she used to take the women's group out for 'Women's Lore Business'.
'She recalls knowing the traditional roles of food gatherer and
regularly going out with her grandmother and with other older women
in the family to collect bush foods....She was taught when it was
appropriate to speak and when not to - the main word Granny used to
get the attention of the children was 'nie', which means
'listen, stop talking'. Mum used to do the same with her children,
and I do it with mine'.
Link to oral history.
Elders
Elders are recognised by their community, they are not self appointed. Both men and women are acknowledged as elders. They have as much respect today as they have for many centuries.
Kevin Fitzgerald Snr talks about the role of elders and the adaptation of Noongar lore
'Traditionally, the circle of elders was mostly men. They were given this position in relation to their age and stamp in society. It was a position that was earned, through initiations in lore, like a set of qualifications.
In contemporary society, men and women acknowledge one another and responsibilities are shared. Some of these include teaching, welcome to country and storytelling. This has come about over the past 20 or 30 years, as women have taken on more responsibilites. Noongar lore has adapted to contemporary society where men and women are equal. We still go out to hunt and we acknowledge Noongar lore but we've adapted it to today's laws and views. We still respect our elders and they still have a lot of decisions to make. They still have a major role to play'. (Kevin Fitzgerald Snr, 2011)
Lore and Land
Moore River 2008. Photographer: Brendan Moore
As Noongar people we also acknowledge our lore and observe our customs with respect to the land. These rights are incapable of being transferred or surrendered. Noongar people have collective rights through succession or inheritance to particular tracts of land, and Noongar cultural protocol establishes who can and cannot 'speak for country' or who can perform 'welcome to country'. When a Noongar man marries, he has rights to his wife's country and may visit and hunt on that land. Rights are inherited through family lineage to an area of land, and under Noongar lore and custom, they are respected as sacred. Any digression from this is forbidden and considered a breach in our lore. This lore is a central belief of Noongar culture and formed an integral part of the successful Noongar Native Title claim.
Hazel Brown talks about seeking permission from elders or land custodians
'Like years ago if you wanted anything. you wanted to go over that way. you would always have to ask these older fellows here. And they say it be alright for us to go over that way, across that side? And they'd said well you got to go and ask the old folks first over there'. Hazel Brown - Oral History
There are circumstances when travel across boundaries is permitted, such as an abundance or undersupply of food due to particular environmental conditions or wildfire or for the trade in goods and other cultural purposes. Permission to travel through country was always granted by the local Noongar group; it was custom however, that Noongar must ask permission from the appropriate Bridyer (boss). The travel route through designated areas was also agreed, and would avoid sacred sites.
The interests of Noongar land, often referred to as moort boodja or family runs, and the area in which we work, hunt and visit, were not only protected, but managed. This was done particularly with kala ( fire). Noongars periodically burnt off the grass to provide a new crop of sweeter grasses in the season to come. In addition to fire management, we have also used conservation principles in a system of lore related to food.
Lore and Food
Traditionally, Noongar men and women have collaborated with a division of labour whereby men hunt using kali (boomerang) and gidjee (spear), and women gather food using dowack and wanna or digging sticks. These weapons and tools can only be used by the men and women carrying out the activity. Gathering of kahno (native potato) and woorine (native yam) is considered the province of women because of the association of these foods with fertility. Women have traditionally practiced a natural type of husbandry that ensures the production of yams by leaving a portion of the plant in the ground. Yam grounds were extensive and Noongar people return to them regularly.vii
Quandong tree near Jurien Bay. Photographer: Brendan Moore
Bill Webb talks about conservation at the Wardan Centre in Yallingup
'....And they accept (the children), don't break that, dont' tread on that ant, you know or don't kill that bee there or that little djiliyaro, one of our little bees, because you wont' have any quondongs next year or you won't have any of those little berries and everything like that next year. So you got to look after them'.
Underlying Noongar food lore are principles of conservation and preservation of biodiversity. By practicing this lore the sustainability of plants and animals and the harvesting of them are maintained. Traditionally, no production of vegetables could occur when that plant was bearing seed, and rare foods could not be eaten. Taboos also existed for certain foods. For example, it was considered bad luck for Noongar to kill particular species that weren't in abundance. Lore around the way food is caught and prepared was also observed and still continues today. If we didn't abide by these lore, there were consequences. Associated with these lore is the tradition of elders receiving food first, which is still widely observed and accepted today. Link to food.
References
i Host, J., and C. Owen, It's still in my Heart, This is my Country.The Single Noongar Claim History. UWA Publishing, 2009, p.57
iii Bates, D. Aboriginal Perth, Bibulman Biographies and Legends. P.J. Bridge (ed.) Hesperian Press, Carlisle, 1992, p.57
iv Bates, D. The Native Tribes of Western Australia. Ed. Isobel White. Canberra NLA, 1985, p.76
v Bates, D. The Native Tribes of Western Australia. Ed. Isobel White. Canberra NLA, 1985, p.76
vi Scott, K and H. Brown. Kayang
and Me. Fremantle Press, 2005, p. 107
vii Hallam, S. Fire and Hearth: A Study of Aboriginal Usage and European Usurpation in South-Western Australia. Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, Canberra, Australia, 1979, p.12.
