An Aboriginal ‘Don Juan’

AN ABORIGINAL DON JUAN
By DAISY M. BATES

Opportunity makes the thief, and circumstance not infrequently makes the hero or the villain. It was a happy circumstance that delayed Nyooneemurra’s arrival into the world until a few years after white settlement had taken place in his district. Nyooneemurra first saw the light at Illimbirree, somewhere near Twin Peak, on the Upper Murchison, the ground which his forefathers had possessed for countless generations.

Nyooneemurra – Photo taken by Daisy Bates

He must have been an exceedingly sturdy boy, for his frame is now a very powerful one. The aboriginal baby has a hard struggle to survive the first few years of infancy. It is usually nursed by its mother for two or three years, unless another baby happens along in the meantime, when the elder child has to take its chance of living and thriving on the coarse animal and vegetable foods eaten by its parents. Native delicacies are not for children, they are for their elders, and native laws have been shrewdly framed for the guarding of the succulent young opossum (wai’orrda), bandicoot (malagoorda), or emu (kallai’a) from the healthy and hungry boy and girl, so that the supply will always be plentiful for their canny elders. Alas, in native life there is not much chance for the young boy and girl to indulge in any way and so perforce they obey the laws regarding forbidden foods.

I am sure that Nyooneemurra profited from his first conscious days by the settlement of the whites in his district, and he hunted and ate the forbidden game at his own sweet will. The native mothers have no control whatever over their children, and, if the fathers and uncles condone childish offences, the young delinquents go entirely unpunished. When very young they are allowed the run of every camp, but, as they grow up, native restrictions are explained to the boys by their fathers, uncles, and grandparents, and to the girls by their grandmothers and mothers, and in this manner they learn to know what native law and order means.

The Marriage Law.

To tell you about Nyooneemurra, I must first give you a little insight into one of the chief native laws relating to marriage, the breaking of which has been so detrimental to the aborigines of the continent. There are two primary divisions amongst the Western Australian natives, and the members of one of these divisions can only marry into the other division.

To marry a woman of his own family name is unlawful, and the punishment for a breach of this particular law was death. In the days before the coming of the whites, this law was seldom broken, for the penalty was as universal as the law itself. Occasionally a powerful, passionate man rose in some camp or tribe and pursued a lawless course in defiance of every rule amongst his people, and for some time he kept at bay—through fear—the upholders of the laws of his tribe, his great strength and probably personal prowess holding all in check, and preventing them from meting out the punishment due to him. Eventually, however, the man, grown bold through non-interference, overstepped the bounds of native moral law in some flagrant manner, and, as one man, every male in the tribe, including his own people, rushed upon him and clubbed or speared him to death, and the camp was cleansed again.

Sometimes, too, a young man or woman would “take a fancy” to someone of the same class as themselves, and one fine morning the tribe would wake up to find that a “sister and brother” had eloped during the night. Alas! in the wilds of the apparently trackless bush the young couple were easily tracked. By starting at night and journeying for two nights and a day they might manage to keep ahead of their pursuers, but where were they to go? If they visited a friendly camp they must both give an account of their parentage before they were admitted into the “run” of such camp, and the visit of two young people unattended by any of their relatives would be in itself suspicious.

Hence it would be their policy to avoid known camping grounds, and keep to the hills and broken country, so as to render pursuit difficult. If by chance they reached a native camp in their wanderings, and their relationship became known, the woman was calmly annexed by the men of her proper marrying division, and her lover either fought for her and was killed, or he gave her up. When the relations of the pair reached the camp, as they inevitably would, the young woman was either returned to her people to be dealt with by them, or an exchange of women was made. But the misguided couple were generally caught before they had proceeded very far, and both were invariably killed.

All this goes to show how strict was native law in this respect. The settlement of the country rendered it possible for the natives to travel constantly to districts far beyond their own hunting-grounds, and to mix with tribes in distant places, with whom they never would have come in contact were it not for the safety afforded by the presence of the white man in those far-off countries.

Nyooneemurra’s Youth.

Nyooneemurra’s first years were spent in the Murchison district, and when the time arrived in which he was to be “initiated” into the mysteries of manhood, a period through which every native boy must pass before he is entitled to take his place amongst the men of his tribe —Nyooneemurra was sent the rounds of his relations camps along the same road that his fathers and his male ancestors had traversed for hundreds of years. In each of the camps visited Nyooneemurra, then a boy of ten or twelve years of age, found relations of his father and mother. In the Murchison district there are four marriage divisions, and it was into one of these—the Kaimera division- that Nyooneemurra entered by birth.

When the young boy is taken away on his “initiation” travels, as they are called, he is usually placed in charge of a man who stands in the relation of brother-in-law to him (that is, a man who may have married, or whose brother may have married, one of Nyooneemurra’s sisters), and in each camp that the boy visits, men of the same relation as his first “guardian” will have charge of him. In that part of the Murchison to which Nyooneemurra belonged, these men would be of the Boorgooloo division, and he could marry no other women than Boorgooloo women, and even then so many native restrictions abide as to marriages—he could not marry every Boogooloo woman, only certain ones of a special generation and special relationship. It will thus be seen how narrow was the choice with regard to wives.

Nyooneemurra passed on from camp to camp, learning the hunting lore, the songs, the methods of making weapons, and all the things of a native boy’s training, and, in particular, learning how to throw the spear, club, and boomerang, so that when he arrived at manhood he should be able to play his part in native life. Nyooneemurra became very proficient in hunting, and in making boomerangs and other weapons, and even in those boyish days, and notwithstanding the strict prohibition regarding the female sex, which obtained during the boy’s initiation into manhood, Nyooneemurra’s young eyes roved amongst the young Boorgooloo girls, and flashed many a saucy challenge which was as saucily returned.

Time passed on, and the eventful journey—sometimes lasting years—was over, and the day came when the boy was to receive the covering of red ochre, without which no native boy is ever supposed to reach manhood. This ceremony was attended by representatives from all the camps visited during the probation period. It marked the final close of boyhood, and when it was finished the boy was ranked amongst the men of his tribe, and took a man’s part in hunting and fighting. Nyooneemurra’s travels led him towards Geraldton, his homeward route to Illimbirree being a detour partly towards Cue, and other places on the Murchison. From these centres many brothers-in-law and other relations in law generally came to “the beedawong, bringing with them presents of all kinds—weapons, ornaments, string, and other native products.

Entering Manhood

Meantime, Nyooneemurra’s own people were making vast preparations for the visitors. Vegetable food, meat, fruit, and every imaginable eatable, were collected and placed in readiness for the guests, and “presents” were also prepared. Each contingent also brought food, and the special party in charge of Nyooneemurra, who were, in effect, his sponsors, brought many and varied articles for presentation to the boy’s own people. When the special party reached the hunting ground of the boy’s father they stopped a little distance from the camp, and, erecting some bough shelters, they proceeded to decorate themselves with many and varied articles of adornment.

The morning is always chosen as the time of formal entry into the camp of the boy’s parents, and, consequently, most of the visiting tribes arrived the day before the ceremony and pitched their camps or bough shelters at that point of the compass in which the direction of their homes lay, so that they could come and go without disturbing the other visitors. The evening before the boy’s formal entry, the visiting tribes go to the camps of the boy’s parents, and singing and dancing and much pleasantry are indulged in, but Nyooneemurra remained hidden in the bough shelters of his sponsors, and no mention was made of him by any of the party.

Early the next morning everybody was astir, and Nyooneemurra was painted with ochre, and decorated with the bee’dawa (pearlshell), with hair string belt, necklaces of dogs tails, kangaroo teeth, and pendants of pearlshell, and with head ornaments of feathers and string. His “brother-in-law” was his special attendant or decorator. As soon as the decorations were completed  a long line was formed of the men of the visiting tribes, and between this living line Nyooneemurra was carried on the shoulders of his sponsor brother-in-law. As soon as he came in sight of his own people, who had not been seen for years, a shout went up from his assembled relations, and the women of his family prepared themselves for a good cry.

When the boy reached the place near where his father and mother were seated, waiting for him, his sponsor stooped down and Nyooneemurra rolled off his shoulders and on to a bark bed that was placed in readiness for him, covered with ochre, over which the boy rolled until he was covered with manhood’s red symbol. Instantly his mother and womenkind lifted up their voices, and a great cry was indulged in for a few moments. Then, the bark bed having been made sufficiently wide, the visiting tribes came and placed their presents upon the corners of it, until all had advanced and retreated. The same afternoon Nyooneemurra’s own people visited the boy’s sponsors, bringing their presents, which were laid on a bark bed, placed in readiness near the visitors’ camp. Nyooneemurra meanwhile was free, a young bachelor, and at liberty to many at any time. He must have been a fine-looking young fellow in those days, for his photo-graph shows him even now to be a powerful man.

His First Marriage.

His own brothers-in-law surrounded him and made much of him, taking him over to their camps, giving him food, and making a little tin-god of him for the time being, and Nyooneemurra began to feel, like all young men, white or black, that he was “a very fine fellow indeed.” Usually at this time, the young man, who has been kept aloof from women and girls all his life, feels a certain shyness towards womenkind during the first days of his emancipation, but Nyooneemurra was apparently a precocious youngster, and it appears that, jealously as he was watched in the camps to which he was sent on probation, he found time and opportunity to make love to some of the young sisters of the men who were in nominal charge of him.

His first marriage was with a girl of his proper marrying class, although he gave great offence to his fathers and uncles by insisting upon marrying the girl, Woodra, she having been betrothed in her infancy to another man. Nyooneemurra insisted upon having her, and when her own betrothed husband came hot upon the scene, the two men fought for the possession of Woodra, and Nyooneemurra, being the younger and better fighter, proved the victor, and kept the girl. Her parents promised another girl to the defeated lover, who was obliged to retire after trying in vain to induce Woodra to accompany him and leave Nyooneemurra. Nyooneemurra and Woodra pitched their camp on his father’s ground, and he apparently settled down to the ordinary married life. He was then about 21 years of age.

It was not long before Woodra began to have suspicions that Nyooneemurra was philandering with some of the Boorgooloo women in his father’s camp, and fight after fight took place between poor Woodra and her temporary supplanters. In the first days of their marriage she and Nyooneemurra had scarred each other in token of their affection, and now and again a fresh cicatrice or two would appear on Nyooneemurra’s upper arm or chest, showing that other women were equally desirous of leaving marks of their attachment on his body. Woodra’s days were spent in trying to find out the ‘wicked’ women, and her recriminations were poured unceasingly upon them. A life of such strenuousness soon had its effect upon Woodra, who became thin and old-looking, and “no good,” as Nyooneemurra expressed it, and so he cast his roving eyes about the camp to find someone to replace her.

Seeking His Affinity.

Nyooneemurra was always one of the visiting parties, and wherever he went his roving eyes searched for a temporary affinity. Jealous husbands more than once matched their skill with him, only to retire beaten, having their revenge afterwards on their too susceptible women by half-killing them. Magic was brought to bear upon Nyooneemurra who even at that early period of his life was beginning to acquire a sinister reputation—but apparently he possessed a more powerful magic, for he went unscathed, though bones were pointed at him from east, west, north, and south. It was at a place somewhere east of Illimbirree that Nyooneemurra committed his first serious breach of native laws by running away with a young Paljeri woman, who was by native law his “niece”, and, as such, forbidden to him.

The couple fled towards the Greenough district, where some white people were settled, and here they remained for a time unmolested, fear of the white man’s law preventing their angry relatives from killing them. Nyooneemurra was, however, not of a nature to remain faithful or contented for long, and very soon he tired of domesticity and enforced semi seclusion, as it was not safe to venture far bushwards, otherwise he might be caught and compelled to pay the penalty of his crime in some place where there was no white man to protect him.

As for the woman—the native women bear the burdens and the faults of their mankind, and happy is the woman who is unattractive enough to repel the regard of the male sex. She has a chance of living quietly with the husband of her parents choice, and unless women are very scarce, no one will manifest a desire to run away with her. The poor little Paljeri girl realised the waning of Nyooneemurra’s affections, but she dared not complain, and when one day he failed to return to their little bough shelter, she knew that the end, for her, had come. She remained in the vicinity of the white people until some natives, happening along, discovered her unattached condition, and promptly annexed her. As she had broken her class rule, or native law, she could now be the wife of anyone.

According to Nyooneemurra, she died “by magic” shortly afterwards.

A Second Wedding.

Nyooneemurra’s next “matrimonial venture” took place in the neighbourhood of Lynton, where he cast his eyes upon a young Nanda girl, and persuaded her to elope with him. She also was of the wrong class, and her disappearance caused a great outcry amongst her people. The couple fled first to Bowes, and then further south and east, always managing to keep in the vicinity of white people, where Nyooneemurra knew he was safe from vengeance. By this time he was known and feared by the natives, who alluded to him as Mar’doowal’j’ee (big blackguard). They found that he was impervious to magic, that he was one of the best spear dodgers on the Murchison, and also one of the straightest spear throwers. It was his policy, when he arrived at a native camp, to become friendly with its occupants, to go out hunting with them, and while ostensibly joining in their sports, to show them how proficient he was in every method of native warfare. His supposed possession of magic also held them at bay, and thus he was allowed in the various camps on sufferance, and though young girls and wives were carefully watched while Nyooneemurra was about, his evil reputation with the men proved his best weapon with the women, who generally contrived to meet his advances half-way, and, therefore, rendered his ventures much easier than they would otherwise have been, had opposition come from the females as well as the males.

A Life of Escapade.

Wife, widow, or young betrothed girl, it was all one to Nyooneemurra, whoever he desired, he obtained, and his life was a continuity of adventures and escapades. He became so adept in the art of abductions and elopements that his reputation for the possession of magic increased by leaps and bounds, as it was not thought possible that, without its aid, he could continue unmolested in the pursuance of his evil courses. He knew the whereabouts of every white settler on the Murchison, and when he fled from one district, either with a new wife, or deserting an old one, he invariably made for the next white farm or station, where, in a short time, he had set the native residents by the ears through his

“Don Juanesque” propensities.

At one of the places visited, in the course of his peregrinations, he met Woodra with her proper husband, who had become reconciled to her, notwithstanding her previous preference for Nyooneemurra. The trio became friendly during their short space of meeting, but to Nyooneemurra Woodra did not exist, for which her husband was mightily thankful. Geraldton and Dongara were then settled by the whites, and Nyooneemurra went to the former place, obtained a Nunnagurdee girl, lived happily with her for a short time, and then calmly walked out of her life and into that of another young woman at Dongara, whose people, however, were the first to offer effective resistance. Beyond a few stolen meetings, for which the girl was soundly thrashed, no elopement took place.

Nyooneemurra now directed his attention towards Nannine and other places, where he thought he was not well-known. He visited camps in a friendly fashion, found out in an incredibly short space of time the class or division of some young woman upon whom he had set his quickly roving eyes and fleeting fancy, and instantly announced himself as being of the girl’s proper marrying class—becoming a turncoat, as it were and claiming her as a wife. There might happen to be someone in camp who knew Nyooneemurra’s real division, but if they knew that, they were also aware of his reputation, and fear, in most cases, kept them silent, and so if the girl were a Pal’jeri, Nyooneemurra instantly became a Boo’rong, and, as such, of her proper marrying division, in that district.

A Recent Interview

I met him at Tuckanarra, on the Murchison, late last year, and he was then a Boo’rong with a Kaimera wife. As I am a Boo’rong, having been adopted into that class, I resented Nyooneemurra’s calling himself one. I told him I knew he had married wrong and had given the wrong class name more than once, but I was careful not to speak to him before his new found friends. I said to him : “Take off your hat, Nyooneemurra,” and, after some slight demur, he obeyed. Then I saw he was bald, and pretended I had known it all along. I said, “You are bald, Nyooneemurra because you have been wicked all the time. You married wrong at Geraldton, at Yalgoo, at Lynton, and many other places, and now you’ve got your sister, because you are Kamera, and she is Kamiera, too. I am the ‘aunt of both of you, you are my nephew and niece and I know your conduct is not right according to native law.” I had heard that Yeeraweergee, his latest wife, and a Kaimera, had a husband somewhere in the Weld Range and that there would be trouble during the Cue races, when Yeeraweergee’s husband came down to claim her, and so I wanted Nyooneemurra to give her up, and thus avoid a quarrel.

Nyooneemurra hung his head, He received my strictures sulkily, but said nothing as to his intentions as to dealing with Yeeraweergee, and I was vain to hope that something would prevent Yeeraweergee’s husband from visiting the Cue races. I understood, however, from an old granny at the White Well camp that there was a young girl at Crowther upon whom Nyooneemurra was keeping a watchful eye, and, if so, Yeeraweerga’s days as the in’naloo (woman or wife) of the strongest man in the camp, were numbered. I was desirous of obtaining Nyooneemurra’s photograph, but he calmly demanded five shillings for the privilege of posing for it, (see above).

After my return from the Murchison, one day a young Tuckanarra friend, Bertie Searle, brought me a message from Nyooneemurra, which shows that not only had he fully realised the protection afforded him by the whites, but had also grasped a certain relation of “employer and employee” which is not unknown in Perth. “Tell Ngowerinoo (‘aunt’) that Yeeraweergee is not my in’naloo (woman or wife) any more, I have made her my housekeeper!”

I could do no more than send back word that I was very “pleased” to hear it.

Group of Murchison Aboriginals – Photo Taken by Daisy Bates