By Stephen Johnson and Graham Friday.
The word
governance is a tricky one - some might even call it a weasel word.
In Natural Resource Management when people talk of Indigenous
governance more often than not they use blackfella names to refer
to whitefella ways. Not so in the southwest Gulf of Carpentaria
where Yanyuwa people and li-Anthawirriyarra Sea Rangers live
and work.
On 18 March
2008, li-Wirdiwalangu [senior Yanyuwa people] met with
Rangers to formalize a longstanding, but to date, informal working
relationship. Representatives from all four Yanyuwa clan groups
– Rrumburriya, Mambaliya-Wawukarriya, Wuyaliya and
Wurdaliya – were present. The meeting was called
because of increasing concerns that Yanyuwa ways of doing business
– of caring for kin and country – were being left
behind in a mad scramble to do things “whitefella
way”.
Over the course
of the meeting, li-Wirdiwalangu elected two representatives
from each of the clan groups. The two people elected will represent
ngimirringki [owner for father’s country] and
jungkayi [custodian for mother’s country] for each
family estate. These eight representatives now form a Management
Committee to oversee and direct all li-Anthawirriyarra
Sea Ranger operations and
activities.
These
developments were timely with li-Anthawirriyarra poised to
take on another five new Rangers – three fulltime and two
part time – through the Working on Country NT programme. On
14 April, an interview panel consisting of four Yanyuwa Management
Committee members, held a number of interviews for these positions:
li-Anthawirriyarra now has five new Rangers who will start
work on 21 April 2008. In addition, the Unit will be taking on
another two fulltime positions for women Rangers - at the end of
financial years 2007/2008, 2008/2009 – this time through the
Working on Country Australia Wide programme. Within two years
li-Anthawirriyarra will have eight fulltime and two part
time Rangers working together with the community to look after
business Yanyuwa way.
Once again, it
will be senior Yanyuwa Traditional Owners who will make these
employment decisions and guide the Rangers into the future. They
will do so according to a Yanyuwa system of governance – a
system that has served people well for at least the last 8,000
years – where family relationships with each other, the land
and all it holds, are paramount.
Graham Friday
and Stephen Johnson
li-Anthawirriyarra Sea
Ranger Unit
c/- Mabunji Aboriginal Resource Association
PO
Box 435
BORROLOOLA NT 0854
Ph: 0427970834
Emails: graham.friday@mabunji.com.au
stephen.johnson@mabunji.com.au
