Kunyanarks

Today we went for a meeting with Guy Right
On the sandy plains
Way out north of Wanneroo
A cold miserable day

Hugh big giant paperbarks are still left standing
Looked like a fire’s been through there
We stood somewhere in the paddock there
Talking about plans for another pipeline coming through
Gas or some big development
Heaps of development out in that area

We stood in the circle there
Listening to what Guy Right the anthropologist
was explaining to us
What was planned for that area
Few of us in numbers
Some women and old men
Some young men

I was more interested in what was left of the scrub
I just felt as an old fella there
That we were under surveillance
By them Old Fellas
Who passed through there a lot of years ago

The area looked well used
and worn out by fires and whitefella motorcars
People driving through the property
But we were under surveillance there
I could sense and feel
The spirits of those Old Fellas
Still standing around
Away from us under the trees
What’s left there

It was cold and miserable
And drizzling
rain was coming down
I said what I had to say
About the whole of the project
And then I walked away from there
Going back to the road

I came across an old giant paperbark tree laying down
The tides of time and the age
Look like it rotted the roots
And it just collapsed
It was a huge paperbark
When it hit the ground
It broke into many pieces just laying there

It reminded me of the Old Fellas
My Grandmother, Grandfather
Old Sammy Broomhall
Old Wandi
Old Lukey Wobber
Spud Eyes Old Lady Worrell
Old Lotty Anna Grey
Old Jimmy Gillespie
Old Bertie Anderson
Old Yabby Parfitt
Old Tunny Morton
And Old Gordon Boundary
And all them Old Fellas
Dave Gentle

I walked along down towards the road
Toop Bodney came up behind me
He followed me along
And we walked along talking

We definitely were under surveillance there
By the spiritual old fellas spirits there
Only a Blackfella would sense those things
Which is sad in way
Because my visions of what was once there
In life the Old People who passed through there
Their footprints been covered over
By the sands of time and the wind blowing to and from any one direction

Anyway
We walked a bit further along
Towards the road
Toop Bodney and me
Talking about why we was out there for that meeting

We stopped near a old huge paperbark tree
The fire had got to it in the past
By the looks of it
The bark was all black
I walked away from the road over
To have a look at the butt of the tree
And there was a lot of green shoots
Coming out from the bottom
As I looked up from ground level
Up the trunk of the tree I could see all the bark was black
And the rain was coming down and it was wet
And I looked at the bulky shaped barks on the tree
And it looked like black faces of my ancestors
And the rain made it worser by pouring down onto the tree
And the water was running down over these faces
It was a shivering chilly thought what flashed through my mind when I seen what I seen on that tree trunk

I didn’t say anything to Toop when I came back to the road
And we walked on
Heading towards the road
Heading to where all the cars were left

Then there was a huge mob of Kunyanarks
That flew over the top of us
Heading in a south easterly direction
They was flying low and making their noise
This is the black cockatoos
The old saying in the past by Dad, Mum and Grandmother and all them
That when the Kunyanarks fly low that’s more rain coming

And yes, the rain was coming
We walked on down to the road
And we stood there and waited for the rest of them to come
From the meeting place back up along the fence line

So in a sense what I’m saying is Guy Right
As the white anthropologist there
Talking to us about the project
It leaves a lot to be accepted by the white man

That he’s saying
Like Peter Randolph from the Sites Department
Questioned my anthropologist report that I did
With Daniel Degand
Of the Green Bullfrog Dreaming
At Swan View Cemetery
And the whole of the hill

Peter Randolph’s comments were
To Daniel Degand
And he related it back to me
Saying that Peter Randolph said
“Where’s the boundaries of the sacredness
Of the report that robert’s written?”

Now I want to say unto Peter Randolph
And the Minister Michelle Roberts
And all the people working at the Sites Department:
“There’s no boundaries on our sacredness
None
It’s up there
It’s down below
It’s in and all around us”.

So don’t insult us Peter
By asking that question of us
The Aboriginal People

I’m a senior elder and I’m 77 years of age
And I’m born into my Spiritual Dreaming
I’ve lived it on a daily weekly yearly basis
And the time I’m born in 1930 right through to the year 2008 now

Peter, we say in the old way of saying
Us old people
That the sites department was built around you Peter
You’ve been there too long
And you know nothing of our Sacredness
Because you are a white man
And we as Aboriginal People know nothing of you
And who you are and where you came from

Your Tenth Commandment beliefs is the white values of life
And that was broken
And when the Aboriginal People asked of the white man:
“Where’s heaven?
What’s it like?
Where’s the boundaries?”
He cannot answer us

So coming back to our Religion and Culture
And our Aboriginal values Peter
Don’t be insulting to people like us
It is our Aboriginal values
It is our way of life
And not yours

You respect the Muslims
You respect other nationalities of people that are living in Australia now
Respect the host
The Aboriginal People
And their values
Which you the second race of people
Are visitors still now
I’m Robert Bropho
And I care not for the Tenth Commandments
And its white values
It’s a load of bullshit
Because you’ve broken it all.

Robert C Bropho