Anyinginyi Manuku Apparr: Stories from Our Country

We Still Dance There

Kunjarra
E. Graham Nakkamarra

We're holding this country and this yawulyu on our country. That yawulyu comes from Kunjarra and Kulyukulyu (Devil's Marbles). We go to Kunjarra to sing and dance, we learn from the old people, they show us. They told us we have to learn otherwise people will talk about this mob that we don't know country. That's why we have to show our yawulyu to others when they come from other country. The old people told us to dance to hold our country and yawulyu. The other mob might ask where we are from and we tell them our country is Patta (hard rock country) and then we dance and we go then to Purttu country – near that tree at Phillip Creek. We paint ourselves to dance in the afternoon till nighttime, then dance late through the night.

This corroboree now, we dance till late all through till morning. We sing daytime till afternoon and we dance two days. We get people coming together, the boss lady tells the others to go out and get other women from different place to join in and dance, to show them what we got and they show their dance. Old people coming from everywhere to dance, we show them that this yawulyu is our own. We only dance one time to share with others and after people scatter going back to their country, from camp to camp. They take that yawulyu to another country to show them. They dance at Kurundi all in one mob. Then to Devils Marbles with Alyawarr mob, Kaytetye and Warumungu, Warlpiri mix they been dance and share that yawulyu. Old people travel to different countries and then back to their country, they take it back there. They tell the younger ones that after they pass on they have to carry that yawulyu, country. Ask niece and daughter to follow in their footsteps.

That old lady she was boss, she was feeling no good so she passed that yawulyu and them dancing sticks and hair-strings on to her niece to keep it and open it up. That yawulyu the auntie for that one nana asked her niece and her daughter to carry on. She gave her everything and they went to Jurnkkurakurr. They sat down there at Seven Mile and that old lady gave her that yawulyu, whole lot. The yawulyu was really big, no men or boys were allowed to look at or go near it they weren't allowed at all, it was a hard one that yawulyu. If men try to come and gather they weren't allowed, only women. No man can ever see this its really strict.

We took the yawulyu to Phillip Creek and back to Tennant Creek and opened it now. The old lady in the nursing home got it then. She asked her for that dance and showed it now to everyone. The first opening was out where that railway is now. There was a dancing ground there. The old people got painted up, old men and women opened up the yawulyu and pujjalii. This corroboree is for my grandfather. A whole lot of people went and they had a bowl and put the money in when they opened the dance for Warumungu. That is where it started and its still going on all the way here.

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