Wurrwurrwuy stone arrangements

Dried sea cumber

Flinders' encounter with Pobassoo is the first Australian record of the north Australian trepang industry. Macassans had probably started to visit the northern Australian coast before 1650[5] but Dutch East India Company documents suggest that the intensive catching and processing of trepang for the Chinese market probably began in about 1750.[6][7] Macassan involvement in the industry ended in 1906 when the South Australian Government, which administered the Northern Territory at that time, restricted the issuing of licenses to locally-owned vessels.[2]

The distribution of tamarind trees (an exotic species), trepang processing sites and the depiction of Macassan praus and other items of Macassan material culture in rock art provide direct material evidence for the Macassan trepang industry. Trepang processing sites are found on the Kimberley coast[8][9][10] and on the Arnhem Land and Groote Eylandt coasts.[11] While depictions of praus and items of Macassan material culture are not unusual in the rock art of Arnhem Land[12][13] and offshore islands like Groote Eylandt,[14][15] Chasm Island[16] and Bickerton Island,[17] such images are rare in the Kimberley.[18] These data and Aboriginal oral tradition suggest that the relationship between Macassans and Aborigines in the Kimberley was different to the relationship between Macassans and Yolngu with the former relationship characterised by hostility.[19][2]

Aboriginal people in Arnhem adopted a number of items of Macassan material culture[20][21][22][23] including dugout canoes and iron. This transformed Aboriginal economies so they had an increased marine focus. This is shown by the large numbers of dugong and turtle bones in middens on the Coburg Peninsula that date from the time of the Macassan trepang industry[24]and an increased marine focus on Groote Eylandt.[25][26] There is also evidence for changes in the way Aboriginal people used space and evidence for changes in their exchange networks.[27][28][29][30][2]

Aboriginal people living in Arnhem Land incorporated the memory of Macassans into their social and cultural life. For example, Macassans and their voyages are important in some ceremonies and song cycles where songs may reference Muslim prayers.[31][32][33][34] Oral tradition also provides accounts of Aboriginal people working for Macassans on trepang sites and undertaking voyages on praus to the Celebes and further afield.[35][36] The close relationship between Macassans and Aborigines is reflected in the large number of Macassan borrowed words found in Aboriginal languages in Arnhem Land and on Groote Eylandt which includes words for different parts of praus and the rigging on these vessels. Aboriginal people in these areas use the Macassan names for some parts of praus and their rigging that are depicted in rock art.[37][2]

A type of Macassan perahu, the padewakang

The stone pictures at Wurrwurrwuy are part of the story of Macassan Aboriginal interactions in Arnhem Land. They lie within the territory of the Lamomirri clan but on the death of the last responsible Lamomirri man they were taken into the custody of the Gumatj clan. A father and son, Yumbul and Dhatalamirri, created the pictures, probably in the second half of the nineteenth century.[38] Oral histories recorded in 1967 indicate that Yumbul, possibly with the aid of some of his fellow clansmen, made the first pictures. The site was entrusted to his second son, Dhatalamirri, who added further pictures at a later date.[2]

The stone pictures created by Yumbul and Dhatalamirri depict Macassan praus, canoes, houses with multiple rooms, fireplaces where trepang were boiled, trepang drying houses, a house for storing wood, and stones for sharpening iron knives. There are also pictures of an Aboriginal fish trap and Aboriginal dwellings that may not have been made by the father and son.[2]

When Macknight and Grey recorded the site in 1967,[39] two Aboriginal informants, Munggurrawuy (a Gumatj custodian) and Mawalan (a relative of Yumbul and Dhatalamirri), were able to explain how the divisions within the pictures of the praus represented different parts of the vessel: the crews' quarters, the galley, the eating space, the store and the water tank. They also provided Macassan names for the different parts of praus, the rudder, bowsprit and the tripod mast with its sail and rigging. These pictures show that Yolngu visited trepang sites and spent enough time on praus to learn the various parts of the vessels and where the crew lived and ate. This is consistent with historical records showing that Aboriginal people travelled in praus to the Celebes,[40][41] a trip that was made by Munggurrawuy's father.[42] The custodians told Macknight and Gray that Wurrwurrwuy was a legacy from the past with no sacred associations.[43] They felt that it was useful as it provided younger men with some idea of the way of life of Macassans who had come to the area to collect trepang. The pictures are a permanent reminder of Yolngu knowledge about this past.[2]

When first recorded in the 1960s there was some minor damage to the site from buffalo mainly at the southern end, but there has been no evidence for subsequent deterioration. The site has been fenced and paths and interpretive signs have been installed. The place is maintained by Dhimurru Corporation Aboriginal Rangers.[2]

The stone pictures at Wurrwurrwuy are nationally significant as a rare example of stones arranged to depict secular subjects rather than the arranged stones being associated with ceremony and the sacred. The stone pictures depict a range of subjects including Aboriginal camps, fish traps and images relating to the Macassan trepang industry including praus, canoes, the stone fireplaces where trepang were boiled and Macassan houses. The depictions of praus at Wurrwurrwuy show the internal arrangements of the vessels, which is rare in Aboriginal depictions of praus in any medium. The creators of the stone pictures would have acquired their knowledge of the internal arrangement of praus during visits to, or voyages on, such vessels.[2]

Wurrwurrwuy stone arrangements was listed on the Australian National Heritage List on 9 August 2013 having satisfied the following criteria.[2]

Criterion B: Rarity

The stone pictures at Wurrwurrwuy have outstanding heritage value to the nation as a rare example of stones arranged to depict utilitarian and secular objects rather than the arranged stones being associated with ceremony and the sacred. It is also a place with rare depictions of the internal arrangements in praus. This is knowledge that the creators would have acquired either during visits to or voyages on such vessels.[2]

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• Dhimurru Aboriginal Corporation 1999. Documentation of Heritage Values - Nanydjaka. Canberra: Unpublished report to the Australian Heritage Commission.
• Flinders M. 1814. A Voyage to Terra Australis: Volume 2. Downloaded on 15 June 2012 from http://freeread.com.au/ebooks/e00050.html#chapter2-8.
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• Macknight C.C. 2011. 'The view from Marege: Australian knowledge of Makassar and the impact of the trepang industry across two centuries'. Aboriginal History 35: 121-143.
• Macknight C.C. and Gray W.J. 1970. Aboriginal stone pictures in Arnhem Land. Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies.
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• Mitchell S. 1996. 'Dugongs and dugouts, sharptacks and shellbacks: Macassan contact and Aboriginal marine hunting on the Coburg Peninsula, north western Arnhem Land'. Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association Bulletin 15: 181-191.
• Mitchell S. 2000. 'Guns or barter? Indigenous exchange networks and the mediation of conflict in post-contact western Arnhem Land'. In Torrence R. and Clarke A. (eds.) The archaeology of difference: negotiating cross cultural engagement in Oceania. London: Routledge. pp. 182-214.
• Morwood M. and Hobbs D. 1997. 'The Asian connection: Preliminary report on Indonesian trepang sites on the Kimberley coast, NW Australia'. Archaeology in Oceania 32, pp. 197-206.
• O'Connor S. and Arrow S. 2008. 'Boat images in the rock art of northern Australia with particular reference to the Kimberley, Western Australia'. In Clark G., Leach F. and O'Connor S. (eds.) Islands of inquiry: colonisation, seafaring and the archaeology of maritime landscapes. Canberra: ANU ePress. pp. 397-409.
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This Wikipedia article was originally based on Wurrwurrwuy, entry number 106088 in the Australian Heritage Database published by the Commonwealth of Australia 2018 under CC-BY 4.0 licence, accessed on 13 October 2018.