Making gambarr
-
John B. Haviland
Abstract
A few years ago I revisited the Hopevale community in North Queensland with the intention of “repatriating” various sorts of materials – mostly photographs and films – from more than forty years of (discontinuous) research among Guugu Yimithirr-speaking people north of Cooktown. Taking as the central focus a short film about the traditional preparation of gambarr, a tar-like substance manufactured from the roots of the biniirr or ironbark tree and an essential traditional material for making spears and woomeras, I reflect on evolving and contested notions of land, kin, and ownership that surfaced in a disconcerting and unexpected way during that journey. The film is based on a compilation of photographs and audio commentaries from the 1970s and 1980s. Although at first the families of the now-deceased participants enthusiastically endorsed their elders’ desire that the knowledge they were trying to impart about making gambarr be widely shared among younger people, over the course of days of discussion and debate, the families concluded that instead the film ought not to be further disseminated or deposited in a shared community archive of traditional custom and practice. I try to untangle some of the contentious logic of such a decision.
Abstract
A few years ago I revisited the Hopevale community in North Queensland with the intention of “repatriating” various sorts of materials – mostly photographs and films – from more than forty years of (discontinuous) research among Guugu Yimithirr-speaking people north of Cooktown. Taking as the central focus a short film about the traditional preparation of gambarr, a tar-like substance manufactured from the roots of the biniirr or ironbark tree and an essential traditional material for making spears and woomeras, I reflect on evolving and contested notions of land, kin, and ownership that surfaced in a disconcerting and unexpected way during that journey. The film is based on a compilation of photographs and audio commentaries from the 1970s and 1980s. Although at first the families of the now-deceased participants enthusiastically endorsed their elders’ desire that the knowledge they were trying to impart about making gambarr be widely shared among younger people, over the course of days of discussion and debate, the families concluded that instead the film ought not to be further disseminated or deposited in a shared community archive of traditional custom and practice. I try to untangle some of the contentious logic of such a decision.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface and acknowledgements vii
- General maps ix
- Land and language in Cape York Peninsula and the Gulf Country 1
- Appendix 27
-
Reconstructions
- Connecting Thaypanic 39
- Regions without borders 61
- The Flinders Islands and Cape Melville people in history 85
- Fission, fusion and syncretism 105
-
World views
- Groups, country and personhood on the upper Wenlock River, Cape York Peninsula 139
- Hyponymy and the structure of Kuuk Thaayorre kinship 159
- Possession in Kuku-Thaypan through a comparative lens 179
- Correlation of textual and spatial reference 199
-
Contacts and contrasts
- Botanists, Aborigines and native plants on the Queensland frontier 221
- ‘There is no truth whatever as regards any Aboriginal being flogged by the Police’ 241
- Multiple views of paradise 263
- Shared country, different stories 285
-
Transformations
- Born, signed and named 305
- The problem of ‘tribal names’ in eastern Australia 337
- Going forward holding back 361
- Same but different 383
- The story of Old Man Frank 409
-
Repatriations
- On the edges of their memories 435
- Making gambarr 455
- Index of places 481
- Index of languages, language families and groups 483
- General index 487
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface and acknowledgements vii
- General maps ix
- Land and language in Cape York Peninsula and the Gulf Country 1
- Appendix 27
-
Reconstructions
- Connecting Thaypanic 39
- Regions without borders 61
- The Flinders Islands and Cape Melville people in history 85
- Fission, fusion and syncretism 105
-
World views
- Groups, country and personhood on the upper Wenlock River, Cape York Peninsula 139
- Hyponymy and the structure of Kuuk Thaayorre kinship 159
- Possession in Kuku-Thaypan through a comparative lens 179
- Correlation of textual and spatial reference 199
-
Contacts and contrasts
- Botanists, Aborigines and native plants on the Queensland frontier 221
- ‘There is no truth whatever as regards any Aboriginal being flogged by the Police’ 241
- Multiple views of paradise 263
- Shared country, different stories 285
-
Transformations
- Born, signed and named 305
- The problem of ‘tribal names’ in eastern Australia 337
- Going forward holding back 361
- Same but different 383
- The story of Old Man Frank 409
-
Repatriations
- On the edges of their memories 435
- Making gambarr 455
- Index of places 481
- Index of languages, language families and groups 483
- General index 487
