Mondalmi | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Died | 23 October 1969 |
| Resting place | Goulburn Island |
| Monuments | Mondalmi Place, Bonner, ACT |
| Other names | Mondalmi Milimili; Ngalwububul; Bubu |
Mondalmi (born c. 1910; died 23 October 1969) was an Aboriginal activist and cultural informant from Australia.
Mondalmi was born around 1910 in Wighu, South Goulburn Island, Western Arnhem Land [1] (although her brother, in his autobiography, states she was born in 1906 [2] ). Her people were the Maung. [3] Mondalmi's dreaming was an ubaidj (njindjarigarngulg). [3] Her father worked at some points in his life for Macassan traders from Sulawesi, who paid him to collect trepang. [4] Her mother, Ngalmiyjalwarn, was from the Junction Bay area. [1] Her brother was Pastor Lazarus Lamilami, [5] who like Mondalmi, became an important guardian of cultural heritage. [6]
In 1916 she was taken to the Methodist Mission on South Goulburn Island, where she learnt to read and write English, as well as learning how to sew and basketry. She later continued to work there as a domestic servant. She married Gadawar, also known as Ganaraidj, on 27 June 1927. [7] He also used the name John and was a lay preacher at the mission. They had seven sons and two daughters, who were born between 1928 and 1953. [1] They brought their children up speaking Maung and ensuring they were taught traditional ways, despite being brought up on, and going to school at, the Methodist Mission. [7]
She died of cancer on 23 October 1969 at Goulburn Island. [7]
Mondalmi's oral histories and testimony make her a key source for our understanding of Aboriginal life in Western Arnhem Land. [1] Much of her testimony was recorded by anthropologist Catherine Berndt from 1947 onwards in a collaboration between the two. [1] Mondalmi discussed with Berndt that some children, who have a white father and a black mother, reject their mothers. [8] She also discussed sexual relations within their community with Bernt, [9] including how polygamous marriages were banned from the mission. [10] Mondalmi also discussed practices of gathering food with the seasons. [11] She also helped others learn the Maung language, like nurse Heather Hewett. [12] She tried to transfer much of her knowledge of plants, children's songs, sign language, kinship, bush medicine and many more topics to Berndt, to enable others to understand her culture more deeply, with a particular focus on her lived experiences as a woman. [1]
Mondalmi herself recognised the importance of creating a record of her life and culture. [13] When talking about her culture, she had "a real storyteller's sense of balance and detail". [14] She was proud of her heritage and proud of the distinction in being a "saltwater person", "from the beach" rather than the bush. She spoke many languages in addition to Maung, including Yiwadja, Gunbalang and English, and she understood Gunwinggu. [1]
Mondalmi, her brother Lamilami and the anthropologist Berndt all have streets named after them in Bonner, a suburb of Canberra. [15]
Groote Eylandt is the largest island in the Gulf of Carpentaria and the fourth largest island in Australia. It was named by the explorer Abel Tasman in 1644 and is Dutch for "Large Island" in archaic spelling. The modern Dutch spelling is Groot Eiland.
Arnhem Land is a historical region of the Northern Territory of Australia, with the term still in use today. It is located in the north-eastern corner of the territory and is around 500 km (310 mi) from the territory capital, Darwin. In 1623, Dutch East India Company captain Willem Joosten van Colster sailed into the Gulf of Carpentaria and Cape Arnhem is named after his ship, the Arnhem, which itself was named after the city of Arnhem in the Netherlands.
The Yolngu or Yolŋu are an aggregation of Aboriginal Australian people inhabiting north-eastern Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of Australia. Yolngu means "person" in the Yolŋu languages. The terms Murngin, Wulamba, Yalnumata, Murrgin and Yulangor were formerly used by some anthropologists for the Yolngu.
The Goulburn Islands are a group of small islands and islets in the Arafura Sea off the coast of Arnhem Land in Northern Territory of Australia. The largest islands are Weyirra and Warruwi, where the climate is slightly cooler than in Darwin. The Warruwi or Maung people are the traditional owners of the Goulburn Islands.
Makassar people from the region of Sulawesi in Indonesia began visiting the coast of northern Australia sometime around the middle of the 18th century, first in the Kimberley region, and some decades later in Arnhem Land. They were men who collected and processed trepang, a marine invertebrate prized for its culinary value generally and for its supposed medicinal properties in Chinese markets. The term Makassan is generally used to apply to all the trepangers who came to Australia.
The prehistory of Australia is the period between the first human habitation of the Australian continent and the colonisation of Australia in 1788, which marks the start of consistent written documentation of Australia. This period has been variously estimated, with most evidence suggesting that it goes back between 50,000 and 65,000 years.
Anindilyakwa is an Australian Aboriginal language spoken by the Anindilyakwa people on Groote Eylandt and Bickerton Island in the Gulf of Carpentaria in the Northern Territory of Australia. Anindilyakwa is a multiple-classifying prefixing language in which all traditional nouns, adjectives, personal and demonstrative pronouns are prefixed for person, number and gender. According to the 2016 Australian Census, Anindilyakwa was spoken natively by 1,486 people, an increase from 1,283 in 2006.
The Iwaidjan or Yiwaidjan languages are a small family of non-Pama–Nyungan Australian Aboriginal languages spoken in the Cobourg Peninsula region of Western Arnhem Land.
Catherine Helen Berndt, néeWebb, born in Auckland, was an Australian anthropologist known for her research in Australia and Papua New Guinea. She was awarded in 1950 the Percy Smith Medal from the University of Otago, New Zealand and in 1980 she received a children's book award and medal for her book, Land of the Rainbow Snake, a collection of stories from Western Arnhem Land.
Baijini are a mythical people mentioned in the Djanggawul song cycle of the Yolngu people, an Aboriginal Australian people of Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory. Many speculations have arisen that try to link these mythical culture-bearers with historical immigrants from either China directly or Southern Asia.
The Gunwinggu (Kunwinjku) people are an Australian Aboriginal people, one of several groups within the Bininj people, who live around West Arnhem Land to the east of Darwin, Northern Territory. Kunwinjku people generally refer to themselves as "Bininj" in much the same way that Yolŋu people refer to themselves as "Yolŋu".
Maung is an Australian aboriginal language spoken by the Maung people on the Goulburn Islands, off the north coast of Arnhem Land, in the Northern Territory of Australia. Maung is closely related to Iwaidja language which occupies the northwestern corner of the opposite mainland. This is a language that belongs to the Iwaidjan language family of Non-Pama–Nyungan languages. As of 2016, there were 370 speakers of the language.
The Anindilyakwa people (Warnumamalya) are Aboriginal Australian people living on Groote Eylandt, Bickerton Island, and Woodah Island in the Gulf of Carpentaria in the Northern Territory of Australia.
The Maung people, or Warruwi, are an Aboriginal Australian people living on the Goulburn Islands, in the Arafura sea off the coast of the Northern Territory.
The Bininj are an Aboriginal Australian people of Western Arnhem land in the Northern Territory. The sub-groups of Bininj are sometimes referred to by the various language dialects spoken in the region, that is, the group of dialects known as Bininj Gun-Wok; so the people may be named Gunwinggu, the Kuninjku, Kundjeyhmi (Gundjeihmi), Manyallaluk Mayali, Kundedjnjenghmi and Kune groups.
The Ngardok were an indigenous Australian people of the Northern Territory. Nothing is known of the language, which has been extinct since about WW2.
Wurrwurrwuy stone arrangements is a heritage-listed indigenous site at Yirrkala, Northern Territory, Australia. It is also known as Wurrwurrwuy. It was added to the Northern Territory Heritage Register on 15 August 2007 and to the Australian National Heritage List on 9 August 2013.
Wellington Range is an escarpment whose western extension forms part of a sandstone plateau, situated in western Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of Australia. It lies approximately 100 km (62 mi) north-north-east of Jabiru. The nearest settlement accessible by road is Gunbalanya (Oenpelli), about 80 km (50 mi) away.
Umbakumba is a community located on Groote Eylandt in the Gulf of Carpentaria, Northern Territory, Australia. The main spoken languages are Anindilyakwa, an Australian Aboriginal language, and English. There are also several Yolŋu Matha speakers. It is one of the three main settlements on the Groote Eylandt archipelago, including Milyakburra and Angurugu, where Anindilyakwa is the predominant spoken language. According to the 2016 Australian Census, the population of Umbakumba was 503, an increase from 441 in 2011.
Wukun Wanambi is an Australian Yolngu painter, filmmaker and curator of the Marrakulu clan of northeastern Arnhem Land.
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help){{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)A project of the Northern Regional Council of the Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress, and the Uniting Church in Australia, Northern Synod
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