Culture

Aboriginal people from the area around Roebourne call themselves Ngarda or the Ngarda-nali, although people also identify with their language groups, referring to themselves as Ngarluma, Yinjibarndi, Gurrama or Banjima. These distinct groups have their own local traditions, so there is a mix of laws and customs found in Roebourne. Many people living in the town today have been displaced from their country since colonization, and forcibly removed from their homelands as a result of the pastoral industry and, more recently, the impact of the mining industry.

It is estimated that Aboriginal people have lived in the region for at least thirty thousand years, practicing their culture, and caring for country. The spiritual and law system, is interconnected with the Land, and the Dreaming, which is called Ngurra Nyujunggamu by Ngarluma and Yindjibarndi people, and means, ‘when the world was soft.’ According to local belief systems the creation spirits or Marrga got up from the ground, and, lifted the sky and the world out of the sea. The Marrga and Minkala/Mangunyba (Skygod) named and shaped the country, and all the birds and animals.

The Burrup peninsula, referred to as the story book of the Pilbara, is a place of great spiritual significance, and is thought to be the place where mythological creatures emerged from the sea and began their travels across the land. As Yinjibarndi elder, Yilbie Warrie describes: ‘The Burrup is where the Law came out of the sea and traveled inland. We sing it every year.’

Aboriginal Law is kept strong in Roebourne through the annual Birdarra Law ceremonies that take place near Roebourne. Yartha (shade structures) are built on the law grounds and the families of the initiates, camp for up to five weeks on country during law time. Aboriginal people from all over the Pilbara, and the Kimberley often attend the ceremonies.

Galharra or skin names were part of the laws created during the ancestral Nyujunggamu times. In the community, everyone belongs to one of the following skin names: Banaga, Burungu, Balyirri or Garimarra. An individual’s Galharra governs who they can marry, and their relationship to other people in the community. Since the land and rivers have Galharra they also have a special familial relationship to men and women in Roebourne.

People continue to renew their ties to country, hunting kangaroo, emu, goanna, bush turkey and going fishing. Many women collect bush tucker and this painting shows some bush tucker found around Roebourne. Ngarluma elder, Pansy Hicks paints bush tucker.