Western Australia’s Minningup Pool is a place of life, death, celebration

ABC NEWS (Australia)

In different parts of Australia, communities are peeling back the layers of British and European names imposed on landscapes by colonisers. Uncovering what they were originally called by locals First Nations peoples, as well as the stories behind them. The ABC’s This Place Project is now sharing these names and stories with the rest of Australia and today we are taking a look at the country’s west.

Transcript

00:00Country means more to me than anything else in this world.

00:09This is all we've got left.

00:12Kaya.

00:13Bunjil.

00:14Farbour Bridge.

00:15Wilman.

00:16So my name is Philip John Ugal.

00:20I was born here in Collie, but I was never born in the hospital like other people.

00:26I was born on the Collie River.

00:29That Minningup Pool, we believe, is the resting place for the Ngunnangarrik Swahili.

00:36He made the ecosystem of three rivers, the Brunswick River, the Collie River, and the

00:43Preston River.

00:44For the Bidiya people around this area, Collie was known as Minningup, where we gather.

00:59When you come to the water and you respect the Ngunnangarrik Swahili, you pick up a little

01:05bit of dirt, put it underneath your arm because it's got to get the scent, then you throw

01:10it in the water.

01:12That lets the Swahili know that you're there.

01:14These are the sorts of things that you've got to entrench.

01:20So then from me, I pass it down to my son.

01:26Also, I've got the opportunity to pass it to my grandchildren.

01:30And now I stand back, and even at that young age, they make me so proud that I know that

01:37our tradition is going to follow on in the future for thousands of years to come, like

01:46it came from thousands of years before, to me.

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