Aboriginals of the Tiwi Islands

by Charlie Leocha

A 16-minute flight from Darwin takes visitors to another land — an Aboriginal land, ruled by its own tribal council much like a Native American reservation. This island culture, separated from the mainland for thousands of years has retained much of its original and unique Aboriginal customs.

The flight from Darwin droned across the 80 km. of ocean through a blue-filtered world — the ocean was a deep blue, the distant shore a darker purple-blue and the sky a pure pale clean blue. The plane is met at the small Nguiu (pronounced new-you) landing strip by the minibuses of Tiwi Tours (08-8924-1115). We landed on Bathurst Island, the more populated of the two Tiwi islands. On the other side of the Apsley Strait lies the less-populated island of Melville, the second largest Australian island after Tasmania.

This was an organized tour with the benefits and limitations that organized tours involve. The controls placed on visitors such as registration to visit the Aboriginal lands and possibly rules on movement on the island meant that this was not going to be a day where I could change plans and wander off to explore. I was captive to the group. As you read through this tour with me, keep that in mind.

Once we boarded the bus, the native guides immediately begin explaining their history, culture and its remoteness, even from other mainland Aborigines. The language of the Tiwi people, for instance, is different from the language of the mainland Aborigines. English is the second language on the islands after Tiwi Aborigine.

The first landing of Europeans on the islands was back in 1705 by the Dutch. The Tiwi Aboriginals repulsed them almost immediately. Then in 1824 the British landed and were forced off the island four-and-a-half years later. Finally, in 1895, buffalo hunters came to the island to hunt buffalo that had been introduced by the British during their short stay. These buffalo hunters began to teach the Tiwi natives how to take advantage of their islands from a commercial point of view. Finally, Father Francis Xavier Gsell established a Catholic mission on the island in 1911 and negotiated with the Australian government to set aside the islands as Aboriginal lands. His mission continues trough today.

As the bus passed through the small town on the way to the museum the guide pointed out the local church, the boat shed, the social club (open from 4 to 7 p.m.), the cemetery (a curious combination of gravestones and Aboriginal totems) and the school where children are separated by gender during education. The houses had a feel of indigent Georgia, South Carolina and Mississippi — made with corrugated steel, plastic and paneling with a space for air to flow beneath the floor.

The first stop was the Aboriginal museum in Nguiu. Here the guides explained the fascinating Four Skin Pools. This is an intricate system that has been created by the Aboriginal peoples over millennia, as I understand it, to prevent inbreeding. The entire population of the island is made up of four types of peoples — fish, rock, pandanas (palm) and sun. The skin pool is passed down through the mother. Fish people can speak marry and speak with Sun and Rock skin types, but not with Pandanas. Rock people are forbidden to speak or intermarry with Sun people. This social network created with the avoidance factor is unique.

Children are allowed to freely communicate across skin pools until they reach puberty, then they must follow the cultural customs and cease contact with the forbidden skin pool. This system is not a form of a caste system since all the skin pools are considered equal with no hierarchy.

The museum visit was filled with Tiwi legends about the creation of the world and the man in the moon. One displays was filled with spears for every occasion from hunting to childbirth. Another explained totems. The father of our guide made the dugout canoe in the museum. Charts explained the seasons with the Aboriginal hunting and growing associated with each time of the year. One room was filled with memorabilia of the missionary influence on the island.

The explanation of dance and face painting was also interesting. Each male has a specific style of dancing and face painting, both of which are passed down through generations through the male side of the family. The dance and painting of today was the same for each male as his father and grandfather’s.

I could have spent at least another hour in the museum when the tour headed off to visit a Tiwi Aboriginal art gallery and see the artists at work painting pictures and shells, or carving small statues. The roof of the art cooperative was covered with artwork of former artists who had worked in that space to provide spiritual inspiration.

The traditional colors come from nature. White comes from chalk, black from charcoal, yellow from ochre and red from heated ochre that releases the oxides. In traditional Tiwi painting there is no blue or green.

Then the tour loaded back into the buses and went to the Tiwi Tour headquarters for morning tea, dampers (rolls cooked in the coals of a fire) and a demonstration of dance. This stop was far too long for my druthers. I would have rather spent the additional time in the museum hearing about legend and culture.

After tea, our guided painted up and performed dances to ward off evil spirits, then others depicting hunting shark, crocodiles and bush turkeys and finally a farewell dance. The pride that the Aboriginals had in their dance culture was clear.

After lunch the group headed out to another art gallery and workshop. Finally heading out to a lunch combined with a nature hike and a visit to a burial ground.