Debates Day 5 - Wednesday 17 October 2007
Parliamentary Record 17
Debates for 10th Assembly 2005 - 2008; 10th Assembly 2005 - 2008; Parliamentary Record; ParliamentNT
2007-10-17
Made available by the Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory
English
Debates
Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory
Darwin
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Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory
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https://hdl.handle.net/10070/278153
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/423053
DEBATES Wednesday 17 October 2007 4892 only a few days does require some sort of action to be taken. I wish those people, including principal, Ursula Balfour, the wonderful staff, parents and friends, and the school council well in their endeavours to find a solution in such a way that might better protect their school in future. With those words, Mr Deputy Speaker, I conclude. However, I say to Darwin-based members if you are in Alice Springs and you want to see a terrific school and get to meet a great school community, call into Bradshaw. They do a great job. I am sure all members share with me my outrage and disgust at what happened to Bradshaw Primary School only a couple of weeks ago. Ms McCARTHY (Arnhem): Mr Deputy Speaker, recently we lost one of the Territorys most respected Aboriginal leaders, and one of the pioneers of indigenous tourism. Burlany Nawurrpbarnbulu was a Senior Guide and Director of Manyallaluk Aboriginal Corporation and so very highly regarded within the community. Burlany was born in Central Arnhem Land and is a member of the Myalli language group. He was raised in a traditional way, hunting with spears and learning from his own tribe as well as neighbouring tribes, Jawoyn, Rembanga and Gunwinku. His family started to trade skins, snake, crocodile and buffalo, with traders at Maranboy to obtain tobacco, flour, sugar and steel axes, then returning to the stone country. This evolved into working on Eva Valley Station for the Dry Season mustering and working on a surrounding tin mines, but returning to the stone country during the Wet for ceremony and traditional teachings. Eventually. his family settled on Eva Valley Station among their extended family, the Jawoyn. When the Jawoyn bought Eva Valley Station, his own family decided to try tourism and formed an agreement with the Jawoyn which was incorporated as Jarwurluk. They formed a joint venture with Terra Safari Tours and called their company Manyallaluk. Manyallaluk is a small spring near the homestead which is Sand Frog Dreaming. It is a womens site and is where women swim when they want to become pregnant. Some of his many stories are being told today through Manyallaluk Aboriginal Cultural Tours, which include basket weaving, spear throwing, fire lighting, painting, learning about the didgeridoo, and short, informative walks learning about bush medicines and bush tucker. During his time in tourism, he became known as the Northern Territorys premier cultural guide. His extensive traditional knowledge and outstanding people skills have expanded his reputation to all corners of the international market. His outstanding humour and trademark smile made him popular with all who met him. His willingness to share his culture and story with outsiders was evidence of his generous and caring nature, his sense of humour very much pronounced when a tourist once asked if he could eat a certain berry. His response was: Yes, and just as the tourist was about to put the berry into his mouth, he said: but it will kill you. He had been on many trade missions with what was then the Northern Territory Tourist Commission, promoting his Aboriginal products overseas, interstate and within the Northern Territory. He attended the major international tourism trade show in Germany, ITB, in the early 1990s and was the driving force behind Manyallaluk winning awards at the National Tourism Awards and Brolga Awards in 1993, 1994 and 1995 and being inducted into the NT Tourism Hall of Fame. In the year 2000, he guided two descendants of Ludwig Leichhardt, who returned to the Territory to retrace the steps of their ancestor through south-west Arnhem Land. He helped guide the Jawoyn and Parks NT in documenting the thousands of rock art sites encompassed by south-west Arnhems escarpment country - a mammoth task, but this was something that he loved to do: to share his knowledge so that his culture could live on. He was doing exactly that when he passed away, sharing his knowledge of his beloved stone country whilst guiding a group of scientists from Curtin University, Charles Darwin University and the CSIRO who were conducting water and fish studies in the Katherine region. His advice and knowledge on the concentration of feral animals in the Katherine district has been instrumental in the eradication of thousands of horses, donkeys and pigs under the Feral Animal Project, which commenced in 2005. Burlany was one of the original senior men involved in setting up the West Arnhem Land Fire Abatement (WALFA) project funded by ConocoPhillips. Having grown up in the Eva Valley area, his knowledge of the upper Katherine River, together with his traditional Aboriginal knowledge of burning using ceremonial and hunting methodology, was significant to the project. The WALFA project simulates this traditional method of breaking up the country into a mosaic and rotating burning in the ceremonial way. Mr Deputy Speaker, the WALFA project has recently won the inaugural Eureka Science Award for solutions to climate change. Burlany was the Senior Fire Manager who, along with Long Johnny Dewar, helped protect the Manyallaluk community