My Origins

My name is Dr John Hunt (D.M.A) - Doctor of Martial Arts with 48 years training

Born in New South Wales, one of the stolen generation from Wolcania,  I found my mother `Mary Hunt' when I was 40 years old.
My mother would not tell me who my father was (shamed and scared), she passed away 5 years after that  meeting and an Aboriginal Elder called Nanna Clart pulled me aside and opened up about my origins.

She told me  my mum's secret and that my father was also Aboriginal & confirmed my whole family came from Wolcania NSW..

And so my family ancestry and bloodline continues into the future, knowing our links to the past and living each generation better than the last, whilst still paying respects to the love of our land and feelings towards our environment and nature.

My paintings depict the stories of my people `Barkindji People' the Pakajihthi Mob, which translates to River People.

The Blue colours represent the Darling River and the sea animals.

The Brown colours represents the land and its animals.

The Rainbow Serpent protects our main source of food and the Creator of Life, Spirits and Journeys.  It continues to live in Ulurru (aka Ayers Rock by the English)

The Elder prepares for the Wedding, whilst the Bride and Groom collect wood for the celebrations.

The Dots represent the Sunrays (Life) and each dotted line represents the journey.

The circle represents the camp fire and the half circles represent the women who run the camp fire..

                   


                   

This is the story of my people !!

 

Early History of the Barkindji
The fullest account of the use of the land before European settlement can be found in the detailed history Lament of the Barkindji by Bobbie Hardy, which Rigby Press published in 1976. This book is no longer in print but some second hand copies can still be found. The research was funded by a grant from the Federal Office of Aboriginal Affairs. The information in this section has been drawn from this book as a secondary historical source. It is understood that the Barkindji people will add to and modify these details as the cultural heritage work in the Biosphere Reserve evolves.

The Barkindji peoples included a number of tribes which lived along the Murray near the Junction with the Darling River, north along the Darling and West towards the South Australian border.

The Barkindji had complex laws governing their use of the land and rivers, relations between men and women, initiation, and their interaction with other tribes, some of whom moved into their areas when central Australia became inhospitable. Each group within the Barkindji had specialised techniques which suited the environment in which they lived.

Those along the Rivers made canoes (and many canoe tress can be found in the Biosphere Reserve), they made fish traps, nets for snaring wildfowl, caught yabbies and crayfish, and tracked bees for honey. They also ate yams, grubs, quandongs, mulga ‘apples’, many other seasonal fruits and berries, wild spinach, pigweed, marshmallow plant, and nardoo bulbs. The harshness of the environment in times of drought required special skills and knowledge. Dew could be collected overnight to drink in the areas far from the rivers.

In desperate times, tribes would move into neighbouring areas and, depending on the relationship of the Barkindji with the particular group, would either be accepted for a limited time or a battle would take place. The Barkindji were known for their superior weaponry – the men of the Murray made their spears more lethal by placing them in decomposing flesh.

The Barkindji lived in curelie or waimbadjibunga houses; some were of more longterm construction than others, depending on the exact nature of that group’s lifestyle and food supply. The mekigar – spiritual person – remained of major importance into the 1900s. Their knowledge was about healing and death and the preservation of tribal law. The people were able to read the signs of flood and rain and the mekigar was often called upon to bring the rain.

The exploration of the Murray and Darling Rivers and the building of the overland route meant increasing contact between the Barkindji and European settlers. The history of contact between the two groups is varied – some such as Charles Sturt had a respect for the Aboriginal people and tried to understand their customs. Others such as Major Mitchell were less tolerant. There were many misunderstandings and clashes of cultural behaviour that led to bloodshed and eventually the loss of much of the territory of the Aboriginal people. Pastoralists arrived and began developing grazing lands and the Murray River was used by river steamers for trade and commerce, bringing even more settlers to the area.

The Barkindji were nearly destroyed by the loss of their native lands and water supplies, by warfare with explorers and early settlers, and by diseases, such as
syphilis, chest complaints, diseases related to tobacco use, alcoholism, and from malnutrition.

There were many difficult seasons when even the new settlers and their animals faced starvation due to drought and the destruction of the land because of poor
farming practices. Aboriginal people were exposed to some of the poorest, least educated and most socially disadvantaged Europeans in the towns; in this situation it was almost impossible for many of them to maintain a meaningful existence. The Protection Board instituted various initiatives, such as providing station owners with small amounts of funding to support local Aboriginal people, but these were swept aside in times of general hardship and were in any case ‘bandaid’ solutions. Sadly, most Barkindji adopted European surnames from the 1880s onwards in their dealings with the new arrivals, perhaps to assume a positive identify in government records. Amongst themselves they used their tribal names and languages.

The Aborigines Protection Act 1909 did not acknowledge the critical connection of the Barkindji – and other tribes – with their own lands and relatives were moved to other mission stations on government whim. Even in 1936, groups of remaining Barkindji were being relocated to missions outside their tribal areas. Those who were not transferred to reserves but could earn money within the European settlers’ society and then practise their tribal customs within their land managed to retain some of their heritage.

“Almost all trace of the tribal imprint on the land was obliterated.”(Lament for the Barkindji, Hardy B, p222) This must be redressed.