00:00I'm a Larrakia woman of this country. My Larrakia name is Jouanning, and Jouanning means
00:16perma crab. My language is Golumergan language, and that term Larrakia is a term we now use,
00:23but in the old days we referred to ourselves as Golumergan people. Golumergan is also our
00:29language. This place here is called Mindal Beach, or Mindal-gwa, or Mindaleng-gwa,
00:35is all the big names for it. So in Golumergan language, Mindal actually means shoulder.
00:41So they say it's the shoulder of the ancestor. So the ancestor is Darabarungalina, and all
00:47around Darwin it's all different body parts to do with Darabarungalina. The name that's
00:52being used now for Darwin area is called Garamela, but Garamela is the beautiful white rock that
00:58you see around in Darwin. Mindal Beach is also a place where the Tiwi and Larrakia people
01:04fought. They say that this is where the Tiwi actually came to get wives, and they fought
01:09over wives, and they were stolen from here. So that's one of the stories from this area
01:13here. This place here at Mindal is actually really important to us because it was a burial
01:18site back in the old days. When we bury our dead, there's always ceremony to do with it.
01:24For the Pukamani Poles, the Tiwi would have danced. For any of the Larrakia people,
01:29Larrakia would have danced, but as part of the funeral ceremony. World War II time was
01:34also used for the servicemen that passed away in the war. They were buried there temporarily
01:40and then taken back to Adelaide River for a proper burial. Our old people lived all through
01:47this area and hunted all through this area, and we still do today. The term to say goodbye
01:55is the term we use is Nagar, but that means I'm going.
Comments