A kind and thoughtful man
Words, voices and images: Connecting to cultures around the world
"Here language is the vessel that nurtures oral culture, history, knowledge, education and ceremony. He is a freshwater man living in saltwater country".
Duration
17.18
Director
Peter and Andrea Hylands
Cinematography
Peter and Andrea Hylands
Sid and I go to sit by the beach of a million bleached shells, piled high along the tide's edge for as far as the eye can see. This too is Saltwater Crocodile territory. The Crocodiles sleep in the morning sun. It is here we stop to talk.
In Pormpuraaw Sid Bruce Short Joe learnt to speak the Thaayorre language. In his teens Sid lived with the Kugu, his grandmother’s people and he learnt those languages. He has told me often that these languages are very different from each other, sometimes the words are the same but they have a different meaning.
Sid Bruce Short Joe is also a peacemaker, welcomed by other tribes because of his language skills, to calm trouble ahead. He is a carer of old and young. He is a kind and thoughtful man, his freshwater totem, the blue tongue lizard.
“We believe our people were created with their totem, trees and animals from traditional lands can be totems”.
Like many Aboriginal people on Cape York in North Queensland, Australia, Sid Bruce Short Joe no longer lives on his land, his tribe long since displaced from their lands. The lands on which they once lived now a cattle station.
“At certain times of year we may go to stay with relatives in different country”.
His tribe’s country is north east and inland from Pormpuraaw. A chance to visit country, once more, negotiated as part of land rights, a visit to scared sites and dreaming country. Still a difficult journey in a heart and in a soul.
“They make it hard”.
Of course they do, as we hope the dust of all those years will cover our tracks.
In Pormpuraaw Sid Bruce Short Joe learnt to speak the Thaayorre language. In his teens Sid lived with the Kugu, his grandmother’s people and he learnt those languages. He has told me often that these languages are very different from each other, sometimes the words are the same but they have a different meaning.
Sid Bruce Short Joe is also a peacemaker, welcomed by other tribes because of his language skills, to calm trouble ahead. He is a carer of old and young. He is a kind and thoughtful man, his freshwater totem, the blue tongue lizard.
“We believe our people were created with their totem, trees and animals from traditional lands can be totems”.
Like many Aboriginal people on Cape York in North Queensland, Australia, Sid Bruce Short Joe no longer lives on his land, his tribe long since displaced from their lands. The lands on which they once lived now a cattle station.
“At certain times of year we may go to stay with relatives in different country”.
His tribe’s country is north east and inland from Pormpuraaw. A chance to visit country, once more, negotiated as part of land rights, a visit to scared sites and dreaming country. Still a difficult journey in a heart and in a soul.
“They make it hard”.
Of course they do, as we hope the dust of all those years will cover our tracks.
The Rainbow Serpent Man
The second part of the film shows Sid Bruce Short Joe working on a sculpture at the Pormpuraaw Art & Culture Centre and Sid tells the story of his Rainbow Serpent Man.
“At the moment I am making this Rainbow Serpent Man. After he made everything the Rainbow Serpent, he goes as well, like we do. His spirit came into a man like form. After he went to his story place they say he sank into the earth. That is the woomera, the spear thrower. I just need to make him two spears. Give him an eyeball, probably hair, I don’t know, maybe pretty hair. I might use those colourful raffia for hair".
More history
Pormpuraaw is the home to two major Aboriginal language groups, Thaayorre and Mungkan. The Thaayorre people are the saltwater people, originally from Pormpuraaw. The Mungkan people moved to the region in more recent times and were traditionally from the north including areas along the Edward and Holroyd Rivers.
The Thaayorre people also had close relationships with the southern Wik, Olkolo, and northern Yir Yoront peoples, particularly after the establishment of the Edward River Mission, an Anglican mission established in 1938, the time when change and disruption to culture began in the region. Thaayorre people mainly speak Kuuk Thaayorre and related dialects.
“It is quite common for our people to be speakers of multiple languages, this occurs through marriage or because of mother’s or father’s language”.
Sid speaks nine languages, the ninth is English. His Aboriginal languages he learnt as a boy, not from school where only English was spoken, but from his relatives, his mother’s country and from his father’s country and grandmother’s country – saltwater people, freshwater people and people from further inland.
In Pormpuraaw Sid learnt to speak the Thaayorre language. In his teens he lived with the Kugu, his grandmother’s people and he learned those languages. He has told us often that these languages are very different from each other, sometimes the words are the same but they have a different meaning.
“If I visited Central Australia, I would not be able to understand the languages spoken there, we would have to speak English to each other. It would be like a German visiting Spain for the first time. I did not know about these different languages in Europe until you told me. When we are at home we speak our language, in schools, kids are learning in English. My young nephews speak English much of the time but they all know language. When I baby sit I speak to them in language, particularly when we are in camp. Older people tell traditional stories in language. Our traditional songs are sung in different languages, particularly when we are mourning, we share our sympathy and traditional dances”.
Sid was born at Aurum mission in 1964, this was before alcohol came to Cape York communities in the early 1970s. Sid describes the times before alcohol came as the good days.
“Alcohol and welfare dependence on the Cape are the price paid by its indigenous people because of displacement from traditional land and destruction of traditional culture. This is why the art centre at Pormpuraaw is so important, it is a way back to culture and respect”.
The Rainbow Serpent Man
The second part of the film shows Sid Bruce Short Joe working on a sculpture at the Pormpuraaw Art & Culture Centre and Sid tells the story of his Rainbow Serpent Man.
“At the moment I am making this Rainbow Serpent Man. After he made everything the Rainbow Serpent, he goes as well, like we do. His spirit came into a man like form. After he went to his story place they say he sank into the earth. That is the woomera, the spear thrower. I just need to make him two spears. Give him an eyeball, probably hair, I don’t know, maybe pretty hair. I might use those colourful raffia for hair".
More history
Pormpuraaw is the home to two major Aboriginal language groups, Thaayorre and Mungkan. The Thaayorre people are the saltwater people, originally from Pormpuraaw. The Mungkan people moved to the region in more recent times and were traditionally from the north including areas along the Edward and Holroyd Rivers.
The Thaayorre people also had close relationships with the southern Wik, Olkolo, and northern Yir Yoront peoples, particularly after the establishment of the Edward River Mission, an Anglican mission established in 1938, the time when change and disruption to culture began in the region. Thaayorre people mainly speak Kuuk Thaayorre and related dialects.
“It is quite common for our people to be speakers of multiple languages, this occurs through marriage or because of mother’s or father’s language”.
Sid speaks nine languages, the ninth is English. His Aboriginal languages he learnt as a boy, not from school where only English was spoken, but from his relatives, his mother’s country and from his father’s country and grandmother’s country – saltwater people, freshwater people and people from further inland.
In Pormpuraaw Sid learnt to speak the Thaayorre language. In his teens he lived with the Kugu, his grandmother’s people and he learned those languages. He has told us often that these languages are very different from each other, sometimes the words are the same but they have a different meaning.
“If I visited Central Australia, I would not be able to understand the languages spoken there, we would have to speak English to each other. It would be like a German visiting Spain for the first time. I did not know about these different languages in Europe until you told me. When we are at home we speak our language, in schools, kids are learning in English. My young nephews speak English much of the time but they all know language. When I baby sit I speak to them in language, particularly when we are in camp. Older people tell traditional stories in language. Our traditional songs are sung in different languages, particularly when we are mourning, we share our sympathy and traditional dances”.
Sid was born at Aurum mission in 1964, this was before alcohol came to Cape York communities in the early 1970s. Sid describes the times before alcohol came as the good days.
“Alcohol and welfare dependence on the Cape are the price paid by its indigenous people because of displacement from traditional land and destruction of traditional culture. This is why the art centre at Pormpuraaw is so important, it is a way back to culture and respect”.
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