Mornington Island
Mornington Iceland is located in the south of the Gulf of Carpentaria in Queensland, Australia, in the archipelago of the Wellesley Islands. She is one of 22 islands, of which only Mornington Iceland is inhabited by Aborigines, mainly from the Lardil.
Geography
The island is located 125 km north-west of Burketown, 200 kilometers west of Karumba and 444 kilometers from Mount Isa. With a highest elevation of 150 meters, the island is very flat. It is covered with shrubs and bushes, at the coasts there are sandy beaches, cliffs and mangroves. In the lake swimming fish, dugong ( sea cows ) and turtles that fed the Lardil earlier.
History
The first tribes of Aborigines came to the island about 10,000 years ago. It was the Marnbil, Dhual - dhual and Ghingin.
Missionaries arrived in 1914 on the island and after the end of World War I built the Presbyterian Church an Aboriginal mission station on and she started her assimilation and Christianization. Many children came under this policy to the island. They were the children of the Stolen Generation who were in Australia and other islands taken away from their parents and brought to this mission station.
In 1978, the Mornington Island and the 21 islands of the Wellesley Group for LGA Mornington Shire Council with its own constituency and they chose representatives of their community. Most islanders live in the city Gununa. The island can be reached via an airstrip.
Culture
The Dreamtime of Lardil based on rainbow snake and dingo. The inhabitants of this island are arrested the old traditions and live it in their songs and dances. The Lardil live again on their ancient ceremonial places on the island to part.
How deep this thinking is rooted, brings Jagarairee, the first chairman of the Mornington Iceland Councils expressed: " At the heart of everything is the land. It is the way we think and feel about the land did makes us Aboriginal. It is the only way to keep our culture. [ ... ] These are the things the Europeans do not understand about the way the bush can help us. These things can help Europeans too When Their Own way of living makes Their Lives sad. We can teach Europeans all about thesis things " ( German: At the heart of it all is the land It's the way we think and feel, what makes us Aboriginal people across the country, it is the only way to preserve our culture.. . [ ... ] These are the things that do not understand the Europeans on our way to help us. these things help Europeans even if they go their own way and this makes their lives not worth living. , we Europeans can learn about teach these things. )
The island is known for producing simple didgeridoos that does not go back on a long tradition, but began in the 1930s after a cultural exchange with native peoples from Yirrkala got under way.
The symbol of the islanders is the Woomera, a spear-thrower, and the elders of the Lardil on Mornington Iceland founded in 1973 for their traditional singers and dancers, the organization " Aboriginal Woomera " that goes on tours.
A special symbol as a headdress bearing the islanders at their dances. It is made of human hair and emu feathers and a historical copy is in the National Museum of Canberra.
Swell
- Side of the Lardil: www.woomerami.org
- Mornington Iceland