As part of the Woomera Nation, we are calling for news, stories and information from your country. We would like to know how things are going in your area, so that people can come together and share their stories and support each other. These stories can cover any range of news and business, from gatherings and meetings, to events that are happening in culturally and spiritually significant areas, that could affect all the mobs, to Native Title cases, and matters of harassment or infringement on rights on the behalf of government or other authorities.
Pleas keep us informed as. We are looking for short updates of 50 – 200 words, as well as photos, and other media.
If you would like to send us a longer story, please do, and we will include it in a special section.
Just like the storylines connect all of the Woomera Nations together, we need to keep telling those stories about what’s happening across the country.
Send to news@woomeranation.com.au
Judulu Interview 1
June 29, 2014 First Interview For WoomeraNation.com.au with Judulu, from the Northern Woomera Nation, “survivor of the massacres, who lives in the POW camp Yarrabah, in which my family has been imprisoned for previous generations”.
(Photo courtesy of Brisbane Aboringal Sovereign Embassy Media)
Q: What is the Woomera Story, and why is it so important for understanding the identity of the peoples of the Woomera Nation, and the current fight for the recognition of Australian First Nations Sovereignty?
The Woomera Story tells of the birth of the very question of Sovereignty in Australia. This Sovereignty was granted in Law by the Spiritual Ancestor, Kuyulum, who separated the lands between Papua New Guinea and the islands that make up the Australian land mass.
The Sovereignty of this land and country, Australia, without a doubt, was invested in and given to the First Nations people of Australia by the Spiritual Ancestor Kuyulum who separated the lands between Papua New Guinea and the islands that make up the Australian land mass.
After defeating invaders armed with bows and arrows from the North (what is now PNG) Kuyulum struck the land with a yam stick, creating the many islands of the Torres Straits, separating the land from the PNG coastline and creating our country for the First Nations people of Australia.
Kuyulum holding up the bow and arrow said, “This (bow and arrow) does not belong to us or in this county!” He then threw the bow and arrow to the North towards PNG. Kuyulum, holding up the Woomera, then stated, “This (the woomera) represents the LAW (sovereignty) of all the islands and lands to the South of the coastline of PNG!”
As both a physical symbol and a way of Law, the Woomera Nation represents the uniqueness of the Australian First Nations civilization as a whole, and the entire system of cultural and spiritual laws, beliefs and values it contains. No other civilization has used the Woomera as an implement, and rejected the bow and arrow law this way. Woomera Law is the oldest continual system of Law on the planet. Its continued survival in the face of oppression, violence greed and suffering testifies to its indestructible spirit.
In the years since colonisation, Woomera Law has been oppressed by other powers. But as the spirit behind the assertion of First Nations Sovereignty in the face of this oppression grows, it is time for the Nations to come together and show the world the significance of this Law, and the strength they posses through it. To show the world that that Law and identity still exists, along with the system of beliefs and values that goes with it.
We have to reunite, rejuvenate, and renew our relationships. That is what is demonstrated through the values and beliefs of our people. We need to unite, to come together, to show how those beliefs and values operate. To act, to demonstrate our sovereignty. Through co-existence, we can do that. But we need to understand the system of cultural and spiritual laws beliefs and values that unites all the nations, through their shared storylines.
Q: How does the Woomera and Shield of each Nation relate to the Woomera Nation as a whole, and the relationships within?
Along with the Woomera, the shield of each Nations represents the people, families, storylines, Dreamings and Laws within a region. The shields represent, like a coats of arms, every family, every group, every land, and the laws and relationships that are contained within them. Each nation and its shield is part of a bigger group that unites the Woomera Nation and civilization, because of the values and ways of our people, and the Woomera story itself. As a recognizable symbol of law, that still exists today, the Woomera and shield demonstrate the rights of land, of property and responsibility throughout the Woomera system.
Shield from the Djabugay Nation, North Queensland (South Australian Museum) - See more in Image Gallery
Together, they show we made a choice not to accept the bow and arrow, and the system of laws that they represent. By not accepting the bow and arrow, we told them that we don’t need their system of laws. We respect them, that’s their business, but we don’t need them. They’re theirs. What is in this country is Woomera Law. And that shield and Woomera will bring understanding to the rest of the good people in the world, and demonstrate that we have a legitimate right to continue, under the system that has been embedded through the spiritual ancestors, and the way we interact with everything. The land, the minerals, the rivers, the entire ecosystem as a whole. And with all of the teachings, stories and laws and relationships that are connected across the entire Woomera Nation. The Woomera Nation Art Project is part of showing this. (www.woomeranationartproject.com)
And also, with the northern bow and arrow people, and the relationship we had with them by agreeing to trading relationships. These relationships run up to the West Papuan people. These trading relationships existed, right up until the invading forces stopped it by claiming sovereignty over our people, so they could also enforce that law over the West Papuans, and through Indonesia, despite these pre-existing relationships that had been agreed on by people through Woomera Laws.
These agreements and trade need to be respected, because they agree with and acknowledge the sovereignty and ownership of the Woomera Nation
Q: Through what means is this unification possible, and how could such unification happen through the Law and structure of the Woomera Nation?
We’re already in the relationship with the lands. That’s the foundation to reconstruct and to continue the relationships with country, with people, with the spirit.
It’s very important to reconnect back to the real world. The real world of good law, values, and sharing and caring, of responsibilities to our lands, environment, ecosystem, and to our next door neighbours. To the storylines, that contain a lot of the values of the management of country. We’ve been great managers for 60,000 years, and in just over 200 years, that dispossession has impacted on us through the so-called colonisation system. That’s why today, we’re not part of the social citizenship of our own country. We have been systematically excluded from the system of social citizenship of the colonising powers. But we have our own practices and structures which will allow co-existence, as long as there is the commitment from the people. It has to come from the people, and that co-existence must stand apart from the government and law of the colonising powers.
In coexisting, we need to offset the damages of the impact of continual pressure on the beliefs and values of our people. This is also inflicted through the education system, in the way that they make us believe that this is the way we have to behave and live, and accept that. That’s why it’s very dangerous to let others educate our people. And why we need to set up our own education structures and institutions.
(Photo courtesy of Brisbane Aboriginal Sovereign Embassy Media)
Through co-existence, we will have to put back in place the system of education that was here, and also to incorporate new methods and new technologies. But we need to be the custodians of that system, that curriculum, and we need to not be influenced by their system, or be forced into believing that their system is the right way, because our system, more than any other nation on this planet, was successfully running smoothly for tens of thousands of years, incorporating knowledge of food, diets, health, the health of the rivers and environment, because we’re all part of the same circle of life.
We have rights. From the spirits. The rights to maintain, and continue. A right to be a nation, a people, under international law, under any law. We have successfully, for tens of thousands of years, fought against the values from the north, by not accepting everything that they had. The Woomera Story, and the identity and uniqueness of the Woomera Nation demonstrates that. And the main thing that connects all of those is the rejection of the bow and arrow, and the assertion of Woomera Law. It’s so simple, that’s what I believe we need to get back to. We’ve got a mass of people who are distorted by this system. We’ve got to bring all of this back, through land, through the unification of the Woomera Nation, interacting and taking control of our education, health, resource management and social responsibility on every level. On personal and professional levels, in cultural and spiritual events, in social events, through education, health services, and all working on our time, not somebody else’s time, because time is very important. There’s a lot that can be done, through reconnection, through our own system of financial management, of information management, and cooperative sharing and collective buying power and all the business that goes with it.
Shield from the Djabugay Nation, North Queensland (South Australian Museum) - See more in Image Gallery
The recognition of Woomera Law is essential in order to save some of the laws of humanity that are needed throughout the world. We have the opportunity as a link between the past and future. Otherwise we are doomed. We have a responsibility to get rid of the filth that’s been pushed into us. The filth that destroys the values of our people in the Woomera Nation. Responsibilities to the future and the past, and to the long way past, in the continuation of this law and way of life. We can do it successfully within the lands and structures we already have in our hands, and by coming together
In coming interviews, I will talk more about the potential management structures of the Woomera Nation, and will also be available to talk and sit down and meet and yarn with the mob, if travel and accommodation can be provided.
For contact details, more information, news and regular updates, and the opportunity to contribute stories from your country and discuss all elements of the Woomera Nation, visit:
For information regarding the Woomera Nation Art Project: A World First in Time, a World First in Law visit www.woomernationartproject.com
You can also talk to me directly on 0412-975-631
Interview conducted with Sam Burch.