Yidumduma Bill Harvey is an aboriginal elder of the Waterman tribe. " He is recognized throughout the world as an artist of high esteem on many different stages. He is a master storyteller, Songman, Didjeridoo player and maker, painter and writer. All his art forms have the deepest roots in the celebration of his Wardaman Aboriginal heritage and his unique ability to "walk in both worlds" and communicate the joy of his culture to a global audience. He has been formally acknowledged as one of Australia's living national treasures."(cited from Boomerang ad. Feb. 9 ) Bill speaks in a kind of broken English as Paul translates and helps weave the stories. Bill, along with Paul Taylor have been traveling in the U.S. telling their story. Paul Taylor grew up around Botany Bay and went to northern Australia as a health care worker. In the north, he found a great link between himself and the aboriginal peoples and culture.
The program began with Bill relating the story of creation. Aboriginals believe that the land is alive and that it came from "the ancestors". The ancestors came from the ocean and from the sky. All language comes from the songs which are about "caring for the land." As the ancestors came from the ocean, they were changed into birds and insects and all living things came from the ocean and the sky. The format of this program was story then song, story then song, as that is their way of telling a story. These stories and songs are passed to the children. There are also dances that aid in the storytelling. Paul did a wonderful dance of the sand hill crane and a dance that men did to connect to the earth and also one that women did to connect with the sky.
As Paul danced, Bill sang or played the didgeridoo and a drum like beating.
We also were exposed to aboriginal paintings and dreaming. The paintings connect with the landscape and the animals. All of the culture of the aborigine is connected to the landscape, according to Bill.
This was a fascinating short look into the life and stories of the aboriginal people. It was made extra wonderful as it was told by an elder and a man who loves and studies the culture and people.
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I also attended the lecture. The most interesting aspect of the Aboriginals that Yimdumduma described was the idea that all the tribes of Australia are put on the earth in order to serve as earthly cosodians. The Aboriginals use Walkabouts to reconnect themselves to the landscape and its creators. The world is sending signals to us all the time and every action that a Bushman does is focused toward the memory of the creators.
The Frog Lady is creator of the earth, Rainbow the snake is creator of the oceans and Big Boss is creator of the skies. Frog Lady first created the lands then married Rainbow after he created the oceans. Rainbow left to govern the oceans and Big Boss then married Frog Lady also. (This polygamist attitude is still accepted in the Bushman tribes.) Rainbow grew angry and flooded the oceans until the Lightening People, with the help of the white and black falcons, killed Rainbow and the flood waters receded. When the creation was finished the ancestors transformed into the landscape itself; jumping into rock to form pictographs, turning into plants and animals and even humans like us.
Yimdumduma sang these stories beautifully. He told us that every creature and action has its own song. He sang songs for the kangaroo, lizard (boy's dance), and crane (girl's dance). The songs are sacred but also a way to create great joy within the people.
Even such a peaceful, spiritual and happy people have a tremendously difficult past. When Europeans colonized Australia, they took sacred aboriginal land and looked down on the natives. The Europeans said that Aboriginals were the lowest and least intellectual of all the tribes in the world. As time moved forward, they were seen as less inferior and more like antiques needing restoration. In the 1960's there was what was known as the Lost Generation, in which the government took the Bushman children away from their families due to assumed inadequate rearing. The government has only recently apologized for this dark time in history. The Aboriginals are still continually fighting to defend and maintain their sacred culture.
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