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7. 1MUNGOREPORTtheStatement of Significance of the Willandra Lakes World Heritage Area toAboriginal People of Western New South Walesstatements contributed between 1985 and 1991update to 2017production and editorial content by Western Heritage GroupCHAPTER 7MANAGEMENT AND CAREOF THE WILLANDRA LAKES WORLD HERITAGE AREA 23MANAGEMENT AND CARE OF THE WILLANDRA LAKES WORLD HERITAGE AREAThere should be Aboriginal management and Aboriginal rangers so it’ll be there for our kids and their kids’ kids, so we can look after it with pride.Ruth Kirby (Murrin Bridge, 1986)Chapter 7CONTENTSAboriginal involvement in management Who are the appropriate Aboriginal people to be involved in management?Some ideas about tourism and facilities - Includes discussion of the ‘hot topic’ (1985-91) of the proposed motel at MungoThe need for Aboriginal rangers and park workersCaring for burials still in the groundPreparations in 1991 for the return of Mungo WomanThinking about the responsibilities of Aboriginal people7.47. 5Aboriginal INVOLVEMENT IN MANAGEMENTIt’s the responsibility of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people. But responsible and relevant Aboriginal people should be the custodians of the area and be the park rangers. The Whitefellas’ role is looking after the World Heritage side of it. The Aboriginal people of the area should care for the sacred side of it. Mum’s been custodian out there since it was recognised by the World Heritage Committee, and before. It’s always been a sacred place for the Aboriginal people of this area.Mary Pappin (Balranald, 1990)Yes, we should have a say in management. It’s a part of Aboriginal history, eh?Patsy Quayle (Dareton, 1985)They should hand back Mungo and all significant sites to Aboriginal people, then Aboriginal people can lease them to the government, and Aboriginal people can get revenue. There should be Aboriginal guides and rangers.Greg Lawson (Mildura, 1990)There should be Aboriginal people on the Board of Management and the Steering Committee for the Willandra Lakes. Badger Bates (Broken Hill, 1990)Aboriginal people should have a say in the management, I’m dead certain of that. There needs to be more time to think about management. There should not be any discussion on management without Aboriginal people there to give their opinion.Vincent Quayle (Dareton, 1985)There was unanimous agreement about the need for Aboriginal involvement in management of the Willandra Lakes World Heritage Area. This aspiration was mostly stated modestly because in the 1980s there was no experience of Aboriginal involvement in the management of National Parks.Yes, that’s right - we should have a say in the management, same as at Mutawintji, same as any place that’s sacred to Aboriginal people. And Aboriginal people should be out there looking after it.Doug Jones (Wilcannia, 1986)The National Parks does pretty good at management, but I would like our people to get more involved with them. Especially if anything comes up that concerns our people. Every National Park should have an Aboriginal ranger.Evelyn Bates (Menindee, 1987)7.67. 7Aboriginal people should have all the say in management. I can’t see why not. It’s Aboriginal land, isn’t it? Well, he should have all the say.Ronnie Johnson (Murrin Bridge, 1986)If it’s got something to do with Australia in history, then I think Aboriginal people should have good representation on it. Because we are Australia.Beverley Cunningham (Broken Hill, 1987)Well, there’s National Parks all over New South Wales, and the Aboriginal people just recently have gained a certain amount of Land Rights in their state. With those Land Rights we should at least have custodianship over those National Parks where there are very significant sites, like Mungo in particular. So the role that the Aboriginal people should take, in that case, is complete ownership and custodianship of those areas. But you must keep the qualified people on.Darcy Pettit (Robinvale, 1986)It’s the Aboriginal remains there that got it on the World Heritage list. So why shouldn’t their descendants have a say in how it’s run?Gerald Quayle (Wilcannia, 1986)We should have a say in how it’s managed, because it’s Aboriginal. It’s ours. We claimed it first.Ruth Kirby (Murrin Bridge, 1985)Aboriginal people should have a bit of a link-in to the management.Leslie Taylor (Dareton, 1990)Aboriginal people should have a lot of say in the management. They’re the people whose remains they’re studying.Mervyn Williams (Wilcannia, 1986)Yes, by all means, we should have a say in management. Lake Mungo is a very sacred site. And it is a National Park. Therefore it should be combined management by Aboriginal people and National Parks and Wildlife.Johnny Quayle (Wilcannia, 1986)My oath! They’ve got to have a say! If the dark people don’t, they’re very weak.Max Harris (Griffith, 1990)7.87. 9Aboriginal people should have a say about management and digging the bones up, because it’s where the Aboriginal used to live in the first place. So far it’s all Whitefellas’ say, isn’t it? I reckon one of the Aboriginal elders should have a say about management.Eileen Williams (Wagga Wagga, 1986)Aboriginal people should have a say, seeing it’s their ancestors’ graves they found there.Elizabeth Hunter (Wilcannia, 1985) Yes - it’d be nearly all sacred sites around there. I’d like to see younger people to be trained up to take over responsibility for these sites.Willy Riley (Wilcannia, 1986)It should be all Blackfellas in charge out at Mungo. We should have an Aboriginal trainee under the National Parks and Wildlife Services administrator, training to be the officer in charge of this district. We’d like to see a Blackfella in that job. Roddy Smith (Dareton, 1990)I think Aboriginal people should have all the right in Australia to be involved in the management, if it’s their site. All Aboriginal people in Australia should have a say.Dennis Hall (Wilcannia, 1986)Actually, it should be mainly run by Aboriginals.George O’Neill (Wilcannia, 1987)Yes, seeing it’s got all sacred sites there.Philip Kerwin (Wilcannia,1988)Yes, Aboriginal people should be involved. Sites should have protection, otherwise people could ruin it. Especially scientists.Toddy Johnson (Wicannia, 1986)7.107. 11WHO ARE THE APPROPRIATE Aboriginal PEOPLE TO BE INVOLVED IN MANAGEMENT?It’s no good having one-sided people, because they’d just push things one way. It should be like in this report – where there’s people who think one way, and people who think another way. It’s no good having people who are just going to agree with scientists doing things - it’ll have to be balanced, or they’ll end up having rows.Daphne Hall (Broken Hill, 1986)I really believe in Land Councils. It should probably go back to management by Land Councils.Maxine Kirby (Griffith, 1987)The thing that makes you a Blackfella is accountability. You can’t be a Blackfella and be an individual. Traditionally, people who ended up in positions of authority and trust had to perform, had to be accountable to the rest of the people.Barbara Flick (Wilcannia,1991)It should be two old and two younger people - it’s too hard for the older people when there’s a big mob of whites.Badger Bates (Broken Hill, 1990)Elders, definitely. Aboriginal people should tell National Parks and Wildlife what they want.Bill Elwood (Dareton, 1985)They should take great care to have the right people.Gayle Kennedy (Ivanhoe,1990)They must be knowledgeable and caring.Rhonda Cunial (Griffith, 1990)7.127. 13SOME IDEAS ABOUT TOURISM AND FACILITIES AT MungoThere could be an Arts and Craft shop run by the Dareton people. If they made the stuff, they’d have no trouble selling it at Mungo. I’d sooner have a mia mia set up on the back of a trailer for a shop, that way it’s not costing anything to put up a new building. You could have the mia mia at one end of the trailer, and drop the sides for selling work. And have an Instamatic camera so people could have their photo taken there near the mia mia - kids would go for that.Badger Bates (Broken Hill,1990)I think sacred places like that should be left as they are, no more buildings to interfere with the tranquillity. Tourists are out there looking at how it was, how our people survived. A set amount of funds should be set aside so Elders from all the different parts of the region can be taken out to Mungo and they can sit down in a special restaurant and talk together about the old days - because a lot of that doesn’t happen. There should be a restaurant and culture shop out there, and Aboriginal people to work there. At Dareton, we just trained up eighteen young people and they trained in cooking traditional food and all. They could be employed at places like Mungo, to run the restaurant and do guided tours. In my shop, they’d sell johnnycakes and kangaroo rissoles! I’d like art work all around the visitors’ centre, Dreamtime stories.Marie Lawson (Dareton, 1990)Yes, there’s Aboriginal artists - original artists - and there’s nowhere for their goods to be sold.Val Harris (Griffith, 1990)Val Harris1985-91: PROPOSED MOTEL AT MUNGOHOT TOPICThe proposal to build a motel at Mungo was a very hot topic when this report was being compiled.I think a motel would be OK. People rush out there and rush back. They might be frightened to sleep in the huts they’ve got out there.HOT TOPICJunette Mitchell (Dareton,1990)If there’s going to be more accommodation out there, keep it simple, no motels. Just more huts and quarters like they’ve got, in outback style. If you have motels there’ll be drinking, hooligans and trouble.HOT TOPICJohn Mitchell (Dareton, 1990)7.147. 15Aboriginal people should be taught how to use the land, how to make money out of it. White people charge us to go to their land - like the National Park outside Sydney - you’ve got to pay $3 to go on it. I think Aboriginal rangers should charge white people for guided tours at Mungo, and that money could be used for educating black kids.Coral Dunlop (Wilcannia, 1987)I didn’t like the idea of a motel when I heard of it, but it was too late by then. They never asked me.I agree. No motel.Roddy Smith (Dareton, 1990)Dawn Smith (Dareton, 1990)It’d be better to just have camping, not a motel. A motel would mean people would go out there to mess around. Leslie Taylor (Dareton, 1990)There should be a mini museum at Mungo. Bob Harris (Griffith, 1990)Yes, I agree.Rhonda Cunial (Griffith, 1990)No motel. If I had my way, the visitors’ centre and all would be gone. It should be left how nature left it before white man came. I guess what I’m saying is that I don’t want the 20th century to catch up with Mungo.No motel. They shouldn’t even have coke machines or anything like that at Mungo. It should just be natural. That motel - they’ll expand it.This motel - it’s a good thing that they build it, but I’d rather see Aboriginal people run it.Greg Lawson (Dareton,1990)Colin Mitchell (Buronga, 1990)David Williams (Dareton, 1990)HOT TOPICHOT TOPICHOT TOPICHOT TOPICHOT TOPICHOT TOPICAnd there should be no unguided tours.7.167. 17The most ridiculous thing I ever heard is having a museum there at Mungo. Aboriginal rangers should come first, before they spend money on that sort of thing. Alice Kelly (Balranald, 1986)THE NEED FOR Aboriginal RangerS AND Park workerSThere was unanimous agreement that there should be Aboriginal rangers and park workers permanently on the staff of the Willandra Lakes World Heritage Area to ensure proper care of Aboriginal cultural property.They should have two or three Aboriginal people out there working, to take people around and show them, because tourists could be picking up personal things from Aboriginal people - teeth, stone tools - and making necklaces out of them. There should be a guide with tourists all the time. There used to be a lot of cutting tools out there. But I reckon people must be taking things.Junette Mitchell (Dareton, 1990)That’s what I’d like to be if I was younger - a tour guide. They should have Aboriginal people doing that. Bob Harris (Griffith, 1990)I’d like to see all Blackfellas out at Mungo when I go out there - black park workers, tour guides, everything. We all care about burial grounds. They should have people out there at Mungo who care about it more than what they do now. I would like to see Aboriginal rangers out there that do a bit more, too. Roddy Smith (Dareton, 1990)Well, that’s what we should have, to keep an eye on things! They’d have to be Aboriginal at a place like Mungo - it’s all Aboriginal history out there.Maxine Kirby (Griffith, 1987) I’ll go along with what Rod said.Dawn Smith (Dareton, 1990)Next >