French-born Maleny resident Anne Delmas recently went, with her two daughters and some friends to a sacred Aboriginal Women’s Law Camp in the Great Sandy desert in WA. Anne talks about this rare honour.
“We were invited to help run the Women’s Law Camp, and look after the Elders. It was an honour to be a Tilitja (culture worker) and a real privilege to engage with the Elders in this way. Everyday we worked hard and participated in the sacred ceremonies, a mixture of songs, painting and dancing. Entrancing. Some of them had not been performed for 20 years.
2009 Balgoo Women
On the second evening a powerful storm raged through the night taking away some tarps and tents. In the morning we helped collect the water from the remaining tarps threatening to burst onto some Elders. With buckets we managed to pour back 500 litres of water into the water tank. We overheard some Aboriginal Elders arguing about one of them being a rainmaker. It makes sense to me if one of them is…
At the end of the camp, we handprinted with red ochre the first car of the convoy and covered ourselves with ochre to drive to Balgo community as Aboriginal Women’s Law wants it. The men were sitting in a line in the oval, in sign of respect for the Women’s Law. We walked in a line towards them and shook hands with each of them. It was the end of the ceremony.
Before going, I realised the underlying feeling of guilt in white Australians which was stopping them from making a step towards the Aboriginal Australians. So we are trying to help support these amazing Kapululangu Elders Women who are getting very old, and need to pass on their 50,000 year-old culture now so that it is not lost.
Nobel Peace Prize nominee and author Dr Zohl de Ishtar will speak in Maleny about the Kapululangu Elders and the Women’s Law and Culture Centre she helped establish.
Keeping Aboriginal Women’s Culture Alive Maleny Baptist Church.
Thursday October 15. 6.30pm $10 / $8 concession. Light refreshments. Contact Rachael, phone: 5494 2286 or Anne, phone: 5494 3346.
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