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Rockhole, and their trigonometrical marker was seen as a white men’s pointing bone sending evil to the Wallaby
Ancestor. There was always this two-edged side to the white people: a distant government promoted the taking
up of vacant crown land—Minyana’s home country, not at all vacant to him!—but then the station-owner’s wife
baked bread for many Aborigines and the station-man killed goats for meat-food for everyone, when the drought
times prevailed.
In 1946, with another terrible drought on the land, the government established a ration depot at Yuendumu,
270 kilometres from Alice Springs and near one of the great ritual centres of the Yarapiri Snake Dreaming for which
Minyana was a major figure. The Aborigines were removed to this locality, at times against their will, to allow
the government officials to assist in giving them regular nutritious food and generally to ‘civilise’ them. However,
the community soon came to be an established Baptist mission, with the Reverend Tom and Mrs Pat Fleming as
the missionary couple who found that, amongst others, they had to win the respect of Minyana to give effect to
their major endeavour.
Throughout the late 1940s Minyana remained a great traveller of his country, and a great ritual leader. He and
the other Warlpiri elders perceived the value of reliable and permanent food and water supplies and used these to
hold major extended ceremonies—a counter to the overall pressures of the government policy of assimilation.
Minyana’s great knowledge now meant that not only was he in demand as a ritual leader and a medicine man in
the Aboriginal community, but also as an assistant to Europeans. Anthropologists, filmmakers and other travellers
sought his assistance. All acknowledged him as ‘a wise dignified man’ and ‘undoubtedly... the most powerful
influence in the tribe’.
Eventually, though, his eyes began to fail him and he grew more frail, and yet, as the anthropologist M J Meggitt
commented, even in 1955–60 when he was blind he remained ‘greatly respected for his vast ritual knowledge
and was loved for his personal charm’. By 1967, he was old and very frail as well as blind, yet his intellect
remained unimpaired and he was still interested in whatever happened at Yuendumu. He spent many hours as a
great storyteller, explaining to his grandsons the details of the mythology as well as talking of the events of his own
life. And in April, when all of the other elders had spoken in favour of allowing an area of land to be set aside for
a church, it was Minyana who gave the final blessing: Mr Fleming asked the old men if any wished to speak, and
noted that Minjina Jagamara... wanted to say something. He was old, weak and blind, but supported by one of his
grandsons he stood, and in a strong authoritative voice said, “In my country here we are. For the Father the country
belongs. This is his home here, the home for me and my ancestors, the Juburula who kept it at the camp. Yes, here
I now give it for the whole family”.’
His authority, his graciousness, and his willingness to compromise for the well being of all were all reflected in
this speech. A year later, the new church was completed and one of Minyana’s grandsons, Harry Nelson Tjakamara,
read the lesson from the New Testament.
Minyana Tjakamara died on 2 January 1969 and was buried in his own country. He was but one of a group
of respected elders of the Warlpiri people, yet he was exceptional for his and for any age. He was as one with the
heroic figures of myth and legend and, in that he was a great warrior, ritual leader and medicine man before ever
white people settled in his country, it is true to say that there can never be another like him.
J Bjerre, The Lost Cannibals, 1974; J Cawte, Medicine Is the Law, 1974; B Dean and V Carell, Dust for the Dancers, 1955; D Lockwood,
We, The Aborigines, 1970; M J Meggitt, Desert People, 1968; C P Mountford, Australian Aboriginal Portraits, 1976; T Fleming, ‘A History
Of The Aboriginal Missions’, 1981 [unpublished]; R G Kimber, unpublished records 1970–87.
R G KIMBER, Vol 1.MINYINA: see MINYANA, TJAKAMARAMIRA (MIRY) (?–?), an elder of the Woolna people of the Adelaide River region, was one of the unsung Aboriginal
statesmen whose efforts prevented a great deal of bloodshed, both European and Aboriginal, during the early days of
permanent settlement. Mira was a leader in the region where the abortive settlement was attempted at Escape Cliffs
(1864–66). Relations with the Aboriginal people were extremely bad at Escape Cliffs under the commandancy of
the paranoic Finniss, but on his removal, Finniss’s deputy, J T Manton and Mira developed an amicable working
relationship. Mira diplomatically guided an exploration up the Adelaide River with J W O Bennett as interpreter.
Mira defused some potentially dangerous situations and peace was preserved until the end of the settlement in
October 1866.
Mira (now sometimes spelt Miry) turned up again at Port Darwin shortly after the arrival of Goyder and his
survey team in 1869. In a courageous and compassionate act, Mira had rescued two shipwrecked Southeast Asian
fishermen from the Aborigines, who had already killed their comrades, and delivered them to Goyder. Subsequently,
Mira was a frequent visitor at the survey camp where he was helpful in giving directions and guiding exploring
parties. On another occasion, it was almost certainly Mira’s intervention that saved the life of John Packard from
a large armed band. Mira’s statesmanship and peacemaking often put him in personal danger, particularly from
Aboriginal people not of his own group. He was very distressed at the death by spearing of Bennett, and asked to
be shown the spearheads, apparently failing to recognise their owners. He was present when Bennett’s companion,
William Guy, was having his wounds dressed by Dr Robert Peel, where he ‘cried bitterly’.
Margaret Goyder Kerr, Goyder’s granddaughter, described Mira as ‘a peaceful old fellow with an obvious
liking for whites, often to their embarrassment and inconvenience. He had many an altercation with his tribesmen
when they felt moved to aggression.’