Set within the coronary heart of South Australia’s Ikara-Flinders Ranges National Park, Wilpena Pound is a surprising pure amphitheatre and an award-winning public artwork area. It’s a sacred place for the Adnyamathanha folks, and as Tiana Templeman discovers, it’s the right spot to attach with Country.
Adnyamathanha information Vince Coulthard’s father, Clem Coulthard, at all times mentioned, “How can we expect Udnyu [‘white people’, in the local language] to understand us if we don’t share our culture?” Clem was head ranger at Ikara-Flinders Ranges National Park within the Nineteen Eighties. He was captivated with Country, and when Vince grew up, he determined to observe in his father footsteps. He’s been guiding on this Land since 2018.
Our Intrepid group has come to Ikara (Wilpena Pound) to affix him on a guided stroll that shines a light-weight on Adnyamathanha historical past, which stretches again hundreds of years, and share tales concerning the park’s newer previous. Learning about Country and the tradition of this place with a Traditional Custodian is a rewarding and tangible technique to help Australia’s reconciliation journey. It’s certainly one of three First Nations excursions included on our seven-day Intrepid Flinders Ranges Explorer journey.
The dramatic mountains and rugged peaks that make up Ikara stretch 17 kilometres throughout the russet panorama at Ikara-Flinders Ranges National Park. Together, they create a curve which types a pure ‘pound’ or enclosure, eight kilometres broad. In the Adnyamathanha language, the title Ikara means assembly place, and it continues to be a vacation spot the place folks can come collectively and share tales.
We set off with Vince, who leads us throughout his folks’s Land and in direction of the distant assortment of farm buildings generally known as Old Wilpena Station. White settlers had been first seen by First Nations Custodians of the Flinders Ranges within the 1840s, and so they actually made an impression.
“When the white fellas turned up, our people thought they were ghosts,” says Vince.
He explains that when Adnyamathanha folks died, they had been coated in white clay as a part of a standard burial ceremony. As the Europeans made their means throughout the panorama, it appeared as if the spirits of the First Nations Custodians of Ikara had returned and had been strolling the earth.
As historical past exhibits, this wasn’t the one cause the Adnyamathanha needed to be involved concerning the arrival of European settlers. It didn’t take lengthy for the pastoralists to say areas with easy accessibility to water for themselves and their inventory. The Adnyamathanha had been evaded these and different pure sources and retaliated by stealing sheep, one thing that didn’t go unpunished by the settlers.
Farming additionally took a toll on Adnyamathanha Land, which had been now not being managed in conventional methods. As we get nearer to Old Wilpena Station, Vince explains it’s going to take centuries for the realm to regenerate after being farmed.
As Australia continues working in direction of reconciliation and strengthening relationships between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and non-Indigenous peoples, the variety of First Nations-run excursions on Intrepid journeys have elevated to help this journey. Like many of those experiences, our Ikara tour consists of the historical past of the Traditional Owners and people who got here after them, and likewise appears to be like to the longer term. It’s an strategy that sits nicely with Vince Coulthard.
“Aboriginal culture is all about sharing and it’s about the stories. What happened needs to be acknowledged and then we can move on,” he says. “We can’t undo the past. It needs to be acknowledged or we can’t move forward.”
In 2009, the Adnyamathanha folks had been recognised because the Traditional Owners of Wilpena Pound and the Flinders Ranges area. They have been collectively managing Ikara-Flinders Ranges National Park with the South Australian Government since 2011. They additionally personal Wilpena Pound Resort, which offers a viable means for Adnyamathanha folks to work within the space and keep on Country.
“Aboriginal culture is all about sharing and it’s about the stories. What happened needs to be acknowledged and then we can move on.”
Vince Coulthard
As we make our means throughout the panorama, Vince factors out hole timber that Adnyamathanha moms and infants as soon as used for shelter, and one of the best spots to search out acacia seeds to make damper. We’re tramping within the footsteps of Sir Douglas Mawson, who devoted a lot of his life to researching the area. Mawson was a geologist and lecturer on the University of Adelaide previous to turning into an Antarctic explorer. Even when he ought to have been acclimatising in preparation for upcoming expeditions in subzero temperatures, he couldn’t resist the pull of this unbelievable place.
When we attain the gathering of buildings at Old Wilpena Station, our group settles down on a seat at a spot generally known as The Meeting Place, which can be an award-winning public artwork area. Vince explains Adnyamathanha is made up of two totally different phrases: adnya, that means rock, and mathanya, that means folks, and there are creation tales throughout us. He gestures in direction of the encompassing mountains and factors out Ngarri Mudlanha (St Mary Peak) shimmering within the distance.
Ngarri Mudlanha is the best level within the Flinders Ranges and the Adnyamathanha consider it’s the head of an enormous Akurra (serpent) who performed a key function within the creation story of Ikara. Late one evening, whereas everybody was at a corroboree, two mighty Akurra (serpents) ready to assault. Yurlu, the Kingfisher Man, noticed the hazard nevertheless it was too late. Only Yurlu and Walha the Wild Turkey Man managed to flee. However, the 2 serpents paid the final word worth for his or her grasping ambush. The Akurra had been so full they may now not transfer and died the place they lay, with their our bodies forming the partitions of the pound. Look intently whenever you’re out strolling, says Vince, and also you’ll see rocks that seem like imprinted with rows of big scales.
On our means again to the customer centre, turquoise mulga parrots flit by way of 500 year-old timber, creating splashes of color in opposition to a panorama that’s wealthy with tales and historical past. Ikara is 300 metres increased than Uluru, and arguably simply as culturally vital, however none of our group realised the affect this sacred place would have on us.
That afternoon, we discover among the scaly rocks that Vince was speaking about and are reminded of the 2 mighty Akurra serpents. It’s wonderful what you’ll be able to see when your eyes – and your coronary heart, thoughts, and soul – are opened to the pure wonders round you.
Want to discover Wilpena Pound your self? Check out our 7-day Flinders Ranges Explorer journey.