Vol 23 June / July 2014Kanyirninpa

Jukurrpa

ISSN: 2203-7926

PAGE 01

PAGE 03

PAGE 07

PAGE 09

PAGE 11

PAGE 18

Opening up the Whitefella world

Women rangers monitoring program

Warru program

Martu learning about Indigenous Protected Areas

Helicopter burning

Karlamilyi Kalyuku Ninti trip

1Over the past couple of months, PJ and Ngangkari have had a chance to talk with all the leadership program participants about the leadership program. When we talk with people for the first time, we ask people things like. What do you want to get out of doing this program? Who else do you think should do this program?

One very clear message that we keep hearing is that people want to know more about makes up the whitefella world. They want to know more about government, companies, money and how the whitefella law system works. Most whitefellas understand very little about the Martu world. But equally, many Martu understand only bits of the whitefella world. It is this understanding that the leadership programs hopes to increase.

The Jigalong rangers joined the leadership team with some of the course work and helped draw the map of the world as they started to organise lots of different organisations, companies, departments, agencies etc. This map will be the basis for many more talks with all the rangers as we slowly give people a chance to see how all these different parts work and where they fit together.

Cover: Thirteen car convoy on the Karlamilyi Kalyuku Ninti trip. This page from top: A diagram showing which parts of government the leadership team are going to learn about first; Kernot adding the first part of the whitefella world jigsaw puzzle to the board; Galvin adding a section of the puzzle; Grant adding more of the puzzle in creating the whitefella map; the leadership team and Jigalong rangers with the completed map.

Ranger Leadership Program - Opening up the Whitefella world

2The leadership team will go to Melbourne in September to visit one part of this map. They will visit Not for Profit companies such as World Vision, The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and others so they can see for themselves how these companies operate.

Another thing that people are telling us is that they want everyone to have a chance to do this program. They are happy to go in the front so they can help PJ and Ngangkari. But very clearly, they feel strongly about many of their workmates getting the same opportunity. They tell us that all Martu should get a chance to do this program.

The leadership team would also like to give a big welcome to Billy Landy (Butler). Butler has joined the leadership program as a Martu mentor. He brings with him a wealth of experience and much enthusiasm. You can read Butlers heartfelt words to the rangers that put him in. We welcome Butler on board.

I would like to thank for my position. I just do not know how to thank you enough. I have been in Nullagine for most of my

time. On the street. For my position, I heard the rangers wanted me to take this position. I have not been back to politics for the

last five years. I got a feeling in my mind to help people with this program. I feel it is important for the future. It is a long road. It will be hot, dusty, wet. To aim for the goal. To be a part of this. It is like a footy team that can kick goals for the future and the young ones to follow. I want to work with the KJ board and the

directors, Martu and whitefellas all together. Thank you for giving me this chance. I will do what I can. I will help you, you will help

me. My tears are falling with this chance to be a part of this. Let us go forward.

From Butler.

From top: Ngangkari talking with people about the leadership program at Nyirripi; Butler (Billy Landy); Leon Taylor cleaning up in front of the shop; Leon Taylor, Hayden Richards, Neville Taylor and Marc Huber planting new trees; Hayden fixing the brush cutter; Neville Taylor inspecting the trench

What a great time of the year to do work in the garden and plant trees. Greening Australia paid the Parnngurr rangers a visit and brought a huge lot of new plants to put in the ground. The first day the team spent fixing the irrigation and cleaning up around the existing plantings in the community. For the rest of the week the rangers planted another two camps. Now it is just a process of waiting and watching the trees grow there will be a jungle in the desert in 10 years time.

Greening up the communities

3During June three Martu Ranger teams worked together to carefully burn over 3,000 hectares of predominately spinifex country south west of G.J Bore (Georgia Bore) and around Warntili (Well 26). The wirrili (faraway) country from these areas was accessed by helicopter that dropped small teams of rangers off who then carefully set fires. The areas had been previously identified through a combination of satellite photos and Martu knowledge, as areas that would benefit from careful mosaic style burning, similar to pujiman (bushman) days. Light daytime winds and cool calm overnight conditions contributed to a fantastic result.

The Jigalong crew focused on breaking up old spinifex to the south west of GJ Bore. This area between the Savory Creek and Punkulyi (McKay Ranges) had the potential to carry hot summer wildfires into the Punkulyi area. Punkulyi is identified as having high cultural and conservation status and is now better protected from the large wildfires summer brings.

The Parnngurr mens and womens ranger teams focused on burning around Warntili as it also had lots of old spinifex and the women had been keen for a number of years to burn the area to regenerate wamurla (bush tomato) known to flourish in the area following careful burning.

Helicopter burning

From top: Edwina Booth, Parnngurr ranger and Matthew Paterson, Mens ranger program manager, inspecting the fires; Thelma Judson and Yanjimi Rowlands having a break from a days work at Warntili; mosaic burning patterns appearing across the desert thanks to the Martu ranger teams

4Martu rangers have now had a chance to hear from several traditional owners groups about Indigenous Protected Areas (IPAs).

Late last year there was the visit to Groote Eylandt where they got to talk with the Anindilyakwa mob about their IPA. Anindilyakwa mob told Martu that they liked having an IPA because it allowed them to look after country but it also allowed them to do some business with mining companies. Groote Eylandt has a very large manganese mine that is within the declared IPA.

Earlier this year Martu rangers were back in the Northern Territory as they were invited onto Warlpiri country. They heard from Warlpiri the story about their IPA helping them to look after their country and provide more jobs for young people. At the moment, Warlpiri have the biggest IPA area in Australia. This is something they are very proud of.

Coming up is another invite for Martu. This September Martu rangers have been invited to a big ceremony at Kiwirrkurra. This ceremony is to mark the start of a new IPA that covers a lot of the country around Kiwirrkurra.

This is a big decision for this mob and something they hope will let them start their own ranger teams and get some funding from the government to look after country.

We dropped in at Kiwirrkurra earlier this year when we were on our way to visit the Warlpiri mob. We got to hear about what this IPA means to this mob and some of the exciting plans for the future. When we got there they were busy renovating what will be the new IPA headquarters. Exciting times ahead for the Kiwirrkurra mob.

Martu Learning about Indigenous Protected Areas

Late in July, the rangers took the opportunity to improve their ranger station known as the Lakehouse or Rawa Ngurra. The rangers worked hard and showed off their building and safety skills and the old people joined in to help, doing some paintings.

The team has also been busy over the past month getting ready for the Kulyakartu Kalyuku Ninti trip. Unfortunately, due to an unusual amount of rain the trip had to be cancelled and will be rescheduled at a later time. While this was disappointing, the cold and wet weather meant the Punmu mens ranger team could get out on country to do some waru (fire) work. Particularly in some places the team were worried that the waru would have gotten too big and possibly caused problems in the hotter months.

Punmu ranger station

From top left: Nancy Chapman, Mulyatingki Chapman, Rosie Williams, Rena Rogers, Minyawu Miller and ranger Charlston Miller helping to paint the doors of the Lakehouse / RAWA Ngurra; Punmu men and women rangers; the Martu leadership team met up with Jimmy Brown, a senior Kiwirrkurra man who is one of the people taking a leading role in getting the IPA declared for their country

5All three womens ranger teams have been working out on country over the past two months conducting fauna, flora and water monitoring.

The Parnngurr women rangers headed out on a trip to locate a site where a strong medicine plant was thought to grow. After spending a night at Duck Pool, the team headed out to the site that had not been visited in some time, stopping on a rocky outcrop to visit a gnamma (rockhole) on the way. Once the site was found, the women harvested some of the new shoots and leaves before beginning a threatened species fauna survey at a new plot nearby.

In July two researchers, Rebecca and Doug Bird accompanied the Parnngurr womens ranger team on two camping trips. On the first trip, a small group of rangers took the Birds out to Yulpul and the surrounds to monitor water at Yulpul, Karlya and Nangurr as well as conduct fauna monitoring. The team also had a wangka (talk) around the campfire about the different types of bush food and bush medicine plants which the team may want to select as priority species.

The Parnngurr womens ranger team went on a two-night trip to Pimurlu and Kunti Kunti to conduct water testing and flora monitoring. Kunti Kunti was chosen by the Parnngurr women in May as one of two priority water sites to be tested regularly throughout the season, along with Wangkakalu that we hope to visit next month.

The team spotted some fresh mankarr (bilby) diggings and burrows on the road to Kunti Kunti and so established a couple more fauna survey plots on our way home.

Women rangers monitoring program

From top left: Nola Taylor chopping up a medicine plant; Edwina Booth and Raylene Robinson working their way through a water CyberTracker sequence; Charlene Bullen, Noreena Kadibil, Edwina Booth and Elizabeth Kadibil testing Kunti Kunti; Jessica Robinson putting in small burns

6Despite the unseasonal heavy rains washing out the work week, the Punmu womens casual ranger team had some great successes, with the elders pushing on through the big rain. Naturally the rain cleared all the tracks, so fauna monitoring was a little more difficult, especially estimating the age of signs unless the tracks were really fresh. It also meant that some usually low water holes were full and able to be tested, and regular tests completed at Illyarra.

Following on from last months activities, the Punmu casual women rangers collected the sensor camera set up in May, with some great shots of the resident mankarr (bilby). The large amount of dingo / dog scats collected nearby were tested by Barbara Triggs and came back with some interesting results; rabbit remains were found and one contained dingo remains. Most importantly, none of the scats contained mankarr. Various species of mouse have turned up in other dingo and cat scats, and one dingo scat contained cat remains.

The monitoring plot at Yatutuma (Lake Auld), although washed clean by the rain, clearly had little use by mankarr recently and no fresh signs for the last two years. There are many rabbits living around this area. Rabbits seem to be appearing in a lot more locations at the moment.

New locations have been found for the mulyamiji (great desert skink) and langamarlu (mulgara). The mulyamiji burrows have parents and babies living in them now, and the langamarlu burrows have pregnant females that will give birth in spring to lots of little ones. They will stay in the burrows until they have grown enough to come out. Nancy and Mulyatingki are very excited about their find, and the younger women rangers are mapping their locations and collecting other information that will help to look after the surrounding country.

Parnukuraja has recently been visited by both the Punmu mens and womens ranger teams, with the women digging it out, burning and locating grinding tools around the soak. The day with the Punmu mens ranger team was spent looking for a special soak. Maybe on the next trip we will find it. The team burnt along the roadsides on the way home.

From top: Debra, Tasha, Marjorie, Danielle and Michelle water testing at Illyarra; mankarr captured on a remote sensor camera; Mulyatingki holds a langamarlu scat while Marissa enters the GPS location of the burrow; Punmu men and women rangers clearing around Parnukuraja soak

7Rachel Paltridge from Desert Wildlife Services will be spending the week in Punmu in August to learn from and share knowledge with the women on the best way to manage the special areas for mankarr, mulyamiji and langamarlu.

The Jigalong casual womens ranger team have also been busy identifying target areas for threatened species monitoring.

The Jigalong casual women rangers have been tracking on three new fauna monitoring sites. So far, one of these sites has consistently shown tracks and ngurra (home) of langamarlu.

In July, the women found a closed off burrow network, which they believed had babies in it. The same site also showed the picture of a dingo chasing a mankarr at high speed. It is unknown what became of the mankarr and more tracking needs to be done to find mankarr burrows, diggings and other evidence.

The women continue to keep an eye on many waterholes. Two waterholes are monitored every month in both the morning and afternoon: Nuka Springs and Meeka Springs.

With lots of recent rains, it was good to see many water sources full with clean water, including Ngujapunya and the Watch Point claypan.

From top: Rena Rogers with a wakura (upper part of a grinding stone) at Parnukuraja soak; the Jigalong casual women rangers: Moranda Burton, Ravina Dunn (background), Gabrielle Samson (foreground) and Judith Samson having a laugh while water testing at Meeka Springs; Chrissy and Brenda Sailor with a loaded grass tree seed head on the Puntawarri track.

8In May, the Parnngurr men and womens ranger teams assisted Dave Wells from Prevailing Wind Productions and Curtis Taylor in making a traditional ecological film about pulija / kirti kirti (hill kangaroo).

Elders, the Parnngurr ranger teams and the filming crew headed out on country for a few days to record footage and stories. Waka Taylor, Muuki Taylor, Nola Taylor, Nancy Taylor, Yanjimi Rowlands and Thelma Judson provided knowledge and stories about pujiman (bushman) days and pulija. Curtis and Waka hunted a pulija for the film. Dave and Curtis filmed Waka cutting up the animal in the traditional way while explaining its importance to Martu and country.

Whilst out on the trip the Parnngurr mens team also collected their camera traps that had been placed along the rocky outcrop a number of months before while the Parnngurr women rangers carried out fauna surveys.

The movie is now available for viewing on www.kj.org.au/films and is also available on the Community Access Libraries (CAL) in each community.

A number of other films about traditional ecological knowledge are scheduled to be made. If you have any ideas of a movie you would like to make please contact Zan King at the KJ office.

Pulija / Kirti-kirti (hill kangaroo)

From top: Curtis Taylor capturing footage of burning; Waka Taylor demonstrating hunting with a spear during pujiman times; elders recording thier stories about pulija; Leon Taylor, Parnngurr ranger, acting in the movie

9Last week the Jigalong rangers headed out to Kaalpi to undertake the final stage in the warru (black flanked rock wallaby) protection program for this year. Part of the warru relocation project is to continue to undertake work around Pinpi and Kaalpi to protect the warru populations.

The Pinpi work was done earlier in the year and last week the Kaalpi work was done. The trip was also extremely fortunate to have Yunkurra (Billy Atkins) join the trip. A big thank you to Yunkurra from the Jigalong team for coming out with us. Also on the trip was waru (fire) man Rohan Carboon from Bushfire Safety Consulting. Rohan is a bushfire safety specialist who came out with the team to assist the rangers with burning work to protect important sites and animals.

A 20-minute film produced by Prevailing Wind Productions on the management of the warru in the Western Desert can be viewed on the KJ website www.kj.org.au/films. This film covers three weeks on country where some of these wallabies were relocated from Kaalpi to nearby gorges at Pinpi, to help secure their survival for the future.

Warru (rock wallaby) program

From top: Rohan Carboon and Jigalong rangers undertaking burning north west of Kaalpi; Jigalong rangers putting in small burns; elders on the Karlamilyi trip pointing out a soak

Karlamilyi Kalyuku ninti trip

For eight days in early June 60 people travelled from Punmu to Parnngurr on our first Kalyuku Ninti trip for 2014. There were representatives from the Taylor, Miller, Chapman, Roberts, Landy, Long, French, Oates, Biljabu, Jones, Sailor, Nanudie, Yates, Larry, Rodgers and Williams families. The Parnngurr and Punmu ranger teams supported the trip. The trip headed down the eastern side of Lake Dora to Jutupa and Tarl.

The Punmu team took the lead and did the scouting for the first part of the trip. This meant that the Punmu team had to find the way to the next place and make sure it was a track that everyone else could follow safely.

Although the lake was wet and there were a lot of bogging the Punmu rangers did a really good job guiding people through and fixing up the road. Waka and Minyawu showed the way and the Parnngurr rangers made sure everyone got through at the back.

Waka guided the group to Wawul that he had found on a helicopter reconnaissance trip a few weeks earlier.

10

It was very exciting for everybody to find this important place and pay our respects. We then headed over to Mirrpurn (Jarntinti) claypan that was looking beautiful with so much kalaru seed there. The Punmu ranger team then lead the group to the river. We camped for two nights at Jamparri claypan that was full of water. This was a really beautiful camping spot where people had a good wash. Then we headed down the river with the Parnngurr ranger team taking over the leading and scouting for the group.

Both teams did a great job getting the 13 vehicles though the tricky river crossings and Parnngurr team found a new less bumpy road. We visited a special place for the Chapman family called Jatarrngara. We went on to Kunti Kunti and then out from the river via Kuta Kuta and Pimurlu. It was a great trip with lots of storytelling, fun around the campfire, great food and good company.

On the trip many of the old people asked the rangers to take on the responsibility for looking after the country as the group was travelling through. The rangers are happy the old people have given them this responsibility and it will be easier to get into this country for waru (fire) work and checking the water places now the teams have put a road through.

Thank you to the old people Waka and Nancy Taylor, Minyawu Miller, May Chapman, Mulyatingki Marney and Nancy Chapman who showed us the places and told so many stories to the young people. Also thank you to the Punmu and Parnngurr ranger teams and to all the whitefella KJ staff. It was a great trip.

From top: Fifty-two Martu and eight non-Martu were involved in the eight day Karlamilyi Kalyuku Ninti trip; Waka Taylor showing the younger generation how to carve; paying respects at a waterhole; Punmu and Parnngurr ranger teams inspecting the map to plan the days route

11

1 - 9 August: Greening Australia working with the Jigalong rangers

4 - 12 August: Parks and Wildlife working with Jigalong rangers on the warru program

4 - 15 August: Rachel Paltridge mankarr work with the Punmu women rangers

11 - 16 August: Leigh Sage (Parks and Wildlife) working with Parnngurr rangers on firebreaks

11 - 15 August: Leadership trip to Kirriwirri

14 - 18 August: We Dont need a Map exhibition Melbourne

18 - 23 August: Darks and Wildlife working with Parnngurr rangers on the warru program

20 - 26 August: CSR trip Jigalong rangers

26 - 28 August: Cultural Awareness Newman

24 August - 2 September: Jigalong women ranger work

29 August - 3 September: CSR trip Jigalong rangers

3 - 14 September: Punmu women rangers work

6 - 12 September: CSR trip Jigalong rangers

8 - 15 September: Helicopter mapping

15 - 19 September: Greening Australia weed training with the Parnngurr rangers

23 - 25 September: Cultural Awareness Newman

22 - 24 September: Parnngurr rangers overnight trip

27 September - 12 October: School holidays

29 September - 2 October: Kiwirrkurra football carnival

Whats coming up: august and september

From top: Jigalong mens ranger team involved in the helicopter burning; Raylene Robinson, Parnngurr ranger, at a gnamma (rockhole); Jamie Rowlands, Parnngurr ranger, burning country; claypans viewed during the helicopter burning trip

12

13

Funders, Partners and Supporters