Kowanyama, Queensland
Encyclopedia
Kowanyama is a town on the Gulf of Carpentaria
side of Cape York Peninsula
in Far North Queensland
, Australia
.
At the 2006 census
, Kowanyama had a population of 1,017.
The Aboriginal
people who live in this community include Kokominjena, Kokoberra and Kunjen groups, amongst others. In their overarching Yir-Yoront language
, Kowanyama means "The place of many waters."
The community is situated on the banks of the Magnificent, a tributary of the Mitchell River
, 20 km inland from the coastline of the Gulf of Carpentaria.
Kowanyama is accessed by an all weather airstrip, as well as unsealed roads in the dry season from Pormpuraaw
to the north, Normanton
to the south and Cairns
to the east.
Later, in 1916, Mitchell River Mission was founded on the present site of Kowanyama and the Trubanamen site abandoned. Some peoples continued to occupy their traditional lands, moving into Kowanyama as late as the 1940s.
Greater than 1000 people now live in Kowanyama, making it one of the largest communities on the Cape York Peninsula. Kowanyama's Aboriginal people continue to identify strongly with their ancestral countries and with the languages, stories, songs, dances, and histories associated with those countries. Language groups associated with countries in the Kowanyama region are Yir Yoront, Yirrk Thangalkl, Koko Bera, Uw Oykangand, and Olkola.
In 1964, a cyclone
destroyed the mission. The Queensland government funded the rebuilding.
In 1967 the Anglican church
were no longer able to sustain their activities in the area as a Church Mission. The Department of Aboriginal and Islander Affairs, a government department, under the Act continued running the affairs of the community.
In July 1987, the State Government of Queensland implemented legislation for a DOGIT over the lands in the Mitchell River delta, an area of 250 km². The deed covered the traditional lands of the people of Kowanyama.
Like other DOGIT communities of the time, Kowanyama had a town Council elected by Aboriginal people living in the community. The newly formed Kowanyama Council assumed responsibility for implementing certain conditions of the DOGIT. Seven elected Aboriginal residents hold three year terms in office.
Since the 1990s, many Kowanyama people have been returning to their Ancestral lands through the Homelands Movement. Homelands within the Kowanyama DOGIT include Scrubby Bore, Red Lilly, Ten Mile, Shelfo, Stewart Place, Old Rodeo Ground, Kowanyumal, Duck Hole, Wonya Bore, Kokomenjen Island, Wallaby Island, Joe's Lagoon, Yangr Bore, Engkoram, Fish Hole, Robert Demaine great elder and Thilpi.
Other homelands, including the Oriners Pastoral Lease and the Sefton Pastoral Lease, were independently purchased by the Kowanyama Council and are located outside the DOGIT boundary.
A Community Justice Group is operating within Kowanyama. This group is made up of respected members in the community. They meet to discuss issues within the town and make recommendations to Council.
The community also has a Council of Elders, who are consulted by the Kowanyama Council when making community decisions. The Elders operate in conjunction with the Lands Office.
The Kowanyama Aboriginal Land and Natural Resources Management Office (KALNRMO) works to promote and facilitate Aboriginal management of the natural and cultural resources of Kowanyama country by the people of Kowanyama. Through community consultation and direction, KALNRMO has developed a community development agenda for the Kowanyama region, including:
Through the initiatives of KALNRMO, the Kowanyama community is widely regarded as a leader in indigenous land management issues. Since 1987, Kowanyama has effected substantial local control over fishing in the Mitchell River Delta, including the closure of some waters to non-Aboriginal fishing under state fisheries legislation. This action, funded through the enterprise income of the Kowanyama Aboriginal Council, has provided Aboriginal people access to the River’s fish stocks for their cultural and economic needs. In this way, Aboriginal people can fish and hunt as they have done for many thousands of years.
KALNRMO employs a senior ranger and four field rangers. The Kowanyama Rangers implement land management strategies in many areas of the DOGIT, and, in addition to tourism and visitor management, patrol closed and open waters. The Rangers also observe fisheries regulations, especially for illegal commercial or recreational fishing in closed waters. Beginning in 2007, the Rangers monitor threatened turtle populations and participate in the Carpentaria Ghost Nets Programme to remove debris (primarily fishing nets) discarded into the Gulf of Carpentaria by commercial fishermen from Australia and Indonesia.
Kowanyama has a small supermarket that sells fresh foods, packaged and frozen foods, and hardware items. The store is similar to a medium sized IGA store. The store is operated by DATSIP, and the manager is able to obtain any goods that are not normally kept for sale. The store prices are somewhat higher than provincial towns, which reflect the high costs of transport and storage.
The coffee shop (alas does not sell coffee)
Operated by the Anglican Church, a fully air-conditioned Coffee Shop stocks take away food, entertainment media and small goods.
There is a Guest House located along Chapman Road, opposite Kowanyama's General Retail Store, in close vicinity to the Kowanyama Community Council's administration building.
Kowanyama Aboriginal Shire Council originally held a liquor licence allowing light beer to be consumed on the premises of the Kowanyama Canteen from 3:30 pm to 8:30 pm, Monday to Friday (with some take aways), but this was suspended by Queensland's Liquor Licencing Commission and Queensland Treasurer, Andrew Fraser
, in February 2008.
The decision to suspend Kowanyama Aboriginal Shire Council's liquor licence is claimed to have resulted in the Council losing a business valued at $1.6 million, plus up to $120 000 in stock. As a consequence, on 30 October 2008, the Council went to Queensland's Supreme Court
to challenge the liquor licencing decisions as racially discriminatory.
(Köppen climate classification
Aw).
Early storms in October can make the 400 km dirt road to Chillagoe east of the community subject to flooding. By late December the storms of the monoons have usually arrived, isolating the community by road.
The monsoons are regarded as the arrival of nhawrr yirrpa, the Rainbow Snake who brings the life giving water to the land. During the wet season, which may last until May, the community is serviced only by aircraft, as all other access is restricted. During the wet season, fresh foods and perishables are flown into the community each week on charter planes by stores in town. Airline passenger services to Cairns, 600 km away is maintained throughout the year through Kowanyama Airport
.
Gulf of Carpentaria
The Gulf of Carpentaria is a large, shallow sea enclosed on three sides by northern Australia and bounded on the north by the Arafura Sea...
side of Cape York Peninsula
Cape York Peninsula
Cape York Peninsula is a large remote peninsula located in Far North Queensland at the tip of the state of Queensland, Australia, the largest unspoilt wilderness in northern Australia and one of the last remaining wilderness areas on Earth...
in Far North Queensland
Far North Queensland
Far North Queensland, or FNQ, is the northernmost part of the Australian state of Queensland. The region, which contains a large section of the Tropical North Queensland area, stretches from the city of Cairns north to the Torres Strait...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
.
At the 2006 census
Census in Australia
The Australian census is administered once every five years by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The most recent census was conducted on 9 August 2011; the next will be conducted in 2016. Prior to the introduction of regular censuses in 1961, they had also been run in 1901, 1911, 1921, 1933,...
, Kowanyama had a population of 1,017.
The Aboriginal
Indigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands. The Aboriginal Indigenous Australians migrated from the Indian continent around 75,000 to 100,000 years ago....
people who live in this community include Kokominjena, Kokoberra and Kunjen groups, amongst others. In their overarching Yir-Yoront language
Yir-Yoront language
Yir-Yoront is a Paman language spoken in two settlements, Kowanyama and Pormpuraaw on the southwestern part of the Cape York Peninsula, Queensland in Australia, by the Yir-Yoront people. As of 1991 only 15 speakers remain, with the rest of the Yir-Yoront people speaking English or even Kuuk...
, Kowanyama means "The place of many waters."
The community is situated on the banks of the Magnificent, a tributary of the Mitchell River
Mitchell River (Queensland)
The Mitchell River is a river in the Far North Queensland region of Australia. The river begins on the Atherton Tableland about northwest of Cairns, and flows about northwest across Cape York Peninsula from Mareeba to the Gulf of Carpentaria....
, 20 km inland from the coastline of the Gulf of Carpentaria.
Kowanyama is accessed by an all weather airstrip, as well as unsealed roads in the dry season from Pormpuraaw
Pormpuraaw, Queensland
Pormpuraaw is an Aboriginal community situated on the west coast of Cape York Peninsula approximately half way between Karumba and Weipa on the Edward River. It is by road from Cairns. Pormpuraaw currently has a 2-man police station...
to the north, Normanton
Normanton, Queensland
-External links:****...
to the south and Cairns
Cairns, Queensland
Cairns is a regional city in Far North Queensland, Australia, founded 1876. The city was named after William Wellington Cairns, then-current Governor of Queensland. It was formed to serve miners heading for the Hodgkinson River goldfield, but experienced a decline when an easier route was...
to the east.
History
In 1905, Trubanamen Mission was established inland on Topsy Creek, now known as the old mission. Aboriginal peoples of the region were gradually drawn from their ancestral lands into the mission settlement.Greater than 1000 people now live in Kowanyama, making it one of the largest communities on the Cape York Peninsula. Kowanyama's Aboriginal people continue to identify strongly with their ancestral countries and with the languages, stories, songs, dances, and histories associated with those countries. Language groups associated with countries in the Kowanyama region are Yir Yoront, Yirrk Thangalkl, Koko Bera, Uw Oykangand, and Olkola.
In 1964, a cyclone
Cyclone
In meteorology, a cyclone is an area of closed, circular fluid motion rotating in the same direction as the Earth. This is usually characterized by inward spiraling winds that rotate anticlockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere of the Earth. Most large-scale...
destroyed the mission. The Queensland government funded the rebuilding.
In 1967 the Anglican church
Anglican Church of Australia
The Anglican Church of Australia is a member church of the Anglican Communion. It was previously officially known as the Church of England in Australia and Tasmania...
were no longer able to sustain their activities in the area as a Church Mission. The Department of Aboriginal and Islander Affairs, a government department, under the Act continued running the affairs of the community.
In July 1987, the State Government of Queensland implemented legislation for a DOGIT over the lands in the Mitchell River delta, an area of 250 km². The deed covered the traditional lands of the people of Kowanyama.
Like other DOGIT communities of the time, Kowanyama had a town Council elected by Aboriginal people living in the community. The newly formed Kowanyama Council assumed responsibility for implementing certain conditions of the DOGIT. Seven elected Aboriginal residents hold three year terms in office.
Since the 1990s, many Kowanyama people have been returning to their Ancestral lands through the Homelands Movement. Homelands within the Kowanyama DOGIT include Scrubby Bore, Red Lilly, Ten Mile, Shelfo, Stewart Place, Old Rodeo Ground, Kowanyumal, Duck Hole, Wonya Bore, Kokomenjen Island, Wallaby Island, Joe's Lagoon, Yangr Bore, Engkoram, Fish Hole, Robert Demaine great elder and Thilpi.
Other homelands, including the Oriners Pastoral Lease and the Sefton Pastoral Lease, were independently purchased by the Kowanyama Council and are located outside the DOGIT boundary.
Community Justice Group
The community also has a Council of Elders, who are consulted by the Kowanyama Council when making community decisions. The Elders operate in conjunction with the Lands Office.
The Lands Office
- Homelands development
- Land and Fisheries Management
- Tourism and Visitor management
- Kowanyama Ranger Service
- Native Title ClaimsNative titleNative title is the Australian version of the common law doctrine of aboriginal title.Native title is "the recognition by Australian law that some Indigenous people have rights and interests to their land that come from their traditional laws and customs"...
- Cultural Resource documentationCultural mapping"Cultural mapping" is the label organisations and peoples concerned about safeguarding cultural diversity give to a wide range of research techniques and tools used to "map" distinct peoples' tangible and intangible cultural assets within local landscapes around the world In its Universal...
Through the initiatives of KALNRMO, the Kowanyama community is widely regarded as a leader in indigenous land management issues. Since 1987, Kowanyama has effected substantial local control over fishing in the Mitchell River Delta, including the closure of some waters to non-Aboriginal fishing under state fisheries legislation. This action, funded through the enterprise income of the Kowanyama Aboriginal Council, has provided Aboriginal people access to the River’s fish stocks for their cultural and economic needs. In this way, Aboriginal people can fish and hunt as they have done for many thousands of years.
KALNRMO employs a senior ranger and four field rangers. The Kowanyama Rangers implement land management strategies in many areas of the DOGIT, and, in addition to tourism and visitor management, patrol closed and open waters. The Rangers also observe fisheries regulations, especially for illegal commercial or recreational fishing in closed waters. Beginning in 2007, the Rangers monitor threatened turtle populations and participate in the Carpentaria Ghost Nets Programme to remove debris (primarily fishing nets) discarded into the Gulf of Carpentaria by commercial fishermen from Australia and Indonesia.
Education
The Kowanyama State School educates children from preschool classes (4 years) to grade 10 (15 years). After grade 8, students from Kowanyama are encouraged to leave the community to attend boarding schools. Many students find it very difficult to leave the community and fit into boarding school life.Shopping
The coffee shop (alas does not sell coffee)
Operated by the Anglican Church, a fully air-conditioned Coffee Shop stocks take away food, entertainment media and small goods.
Accommodation
Alcohol restrictions
Kowanyama community is subject to strict alcohol restrictions enforced by police prohibiting individuals holding any alcohol, and prohibiting any vehicles carrying alcohol anywhere within the communityKowanyama Aboriginal Shire Council originally held a liquor licence allowing light beer to be consumed on the premises of the Kowanyama Canteen from 3:30 pm to 8:30 pm, Monday to Friday (with some take aways), but this was suspended by Queensland's Liquor Licencing Commission and Queensland Treasurer, Andrew Fraser
Andrew Fraser
Andrew Fraser may refer to:* Andrew Fraser, 3rd Lord Fraser, Lord Fraser* Andrew Fraser , lieutanant governor of Bengal from 1903–1908...
, in February 2008.
The decision to suspend Kowanyama Aboriginal Shire Council's liquor licence is claimed to have resulted in the Council losing a business valued at $1.6 million, plus up to $120 000 in stock. As a consequence, on 30 October 2008, the Council went to Queensland's Supreme Court
Supreme court
A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of many legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, instance court, judgment court, high court, or apex court...
to challenge the liquor licencing decisions as racially discriminatory.
Climate
Kowanyama experiences a tropical savanna climateTropical savanna climate
Tropical savanna climate or tropical wet and dry climate is a type of climate that corresponds to the Köppen climate classification categories "Aw" and '"As."...
(Köppen climate classification
Köppen climate classification
The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by Crimea German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen himself, notably in 1918 and 1936...
Aw).
Travel
Kowanyama is serviced weekly in the dry season by road trains from Cairns. The service becomes more frequent as the wet season approaches.Early storms in October can make the 400 km dirt road to Chillagoe east of the community subject to flooding. By late December the storms of the monoons have usually arrived, isolating the community by road.
The monsoons are regarded as the arrival of nhawrr yirrpa, the Rainbow Snake who brings the life giving water to the land. During the wet season, which may last until May, the community is serviced only by aircraft, as all other access is restricted. During the wet season, fresh foods and perishables are flown into the community each week on charter planes by stores in town. Airline passenger services to Cairns, 600 km away is maintained throughout the year through Kowanyama Airport
Kowanyama Airport
Kowanyama Airport is an airport in Kowanyama, Queensland, Australia. The airport recently received $107,448 for security upgrades.-External links:* from Airservices Australia...
.
Further reading
- Moran, Mark 2006 PhD Chapter on Kowanyama reviewing Kowanyama's ethnographic materials and detailing Kowanyama's institutional structure, services, and local governance arrangements Accessed 25 January 2009
- Monaghan, James (2005) ‘Our Way': social space and the geography of land allocation practice on the southern Gulf Lowlands of Cape York Peninsula. PhD thesis, James Cook University.Accessed 26 January 2009
- Ethnologue.com entry for the Kunjun Language indigenous to the Kowanyama area Accessed 6 November 2008
- Queensland Government Department of Communities 'Descriptive Data on Cape York Communities including Kowanyama Accessed 6 November 2008
- Sharp, Nonie (1998) Reimagining Northern Seascapes in Australia: Open Access, Common Property and the Return of Responsibility? (Reference to Kowanyama on Pg 6) Accessed 6 November 2008
External links
- "I belong student clip - Kowanyama" brief video on growing up in Kowanyama Accessed 25 January 2009
- Our World 2.0Our World 2.0Our World 2.0 is an online magazine created by the United Nations University Media Centre, located in Tokyo, Japan and was launched in July 2008 in time for the 34th G8 summit...
Our World 2 Video & Video Brief on Saltwater vs Freshwater Changes around Kowanyama Accessed 21 January 2009 - Peta Hill 'Aboriginal Station Life' on-line photo collection of people and places around Kowanyama. Accessed 25 January 2009
- Story Place: Indigenous Art of Cape York web page on "Kowanyama" Accessed 9 November 2008
- Our World 2.0Our World 2.0Our World 2.0 is an online magazine created by the United Nations University Media Centre, located in Tokyo, Japan and was launched in July 2008 in time for the 34th G8 summit...
United Nations University's 'Kowanyama Climate Change' video brief Accessed 19 November 2008 - World Wildlife Funds' News Archive 2001 Article on Kowanyama Cultural and Natural Resource Mapping Project Accessed 6 November 2008