Talk:Green Island (Queensland)

Intellectual Property Statement

It is noted that some/much of the cultural landscape material relied upon in compiling this natural and cultural history (ranging from the 'naming' of places, to the stories/mythology for the places, plus the content of both the names and the stories) should properly be considered the intellectual and cultural property of those Aboriginal people's who first gave the material to be documented and recorded.

It is also recognised and noted that within local Aboriginal economies of knowledge great store is placed on the act of performing or presenting knowledge, and it is in fact by performing or presenting knowledge (or some version of it), that the ownership of the knowledge is established. The more frequently and effectively particular stories, designs, skills or knowledges are performed, the more they become stamped and owned by the performer, plus, the more the performers performances will be to 'purchase 'obligatory relationships against which claims to real world benefits can be drawn/demanded.

Recognising and acknowledging the above, it is not the authors intention, nor can it be considered Wikipedia's organisation's intention to rob the original performers, tellers, knowledge holders of their 'ownership' of those names, stories, or knowledge that may be used in this article. Instead, it is here asserted that any use made of the names etc in this article can not be considered a genuine, authentic, authorised use, and should, rather, be regarded as more of a charactiture of the original, promotional in nature, leading readers towards the actual, authentic knowledge holders, potentially increasing the value of their intellectual and cultural property .. As a matter of practice, in accessing and using such names, stories or knowledges I undertake, whereverpossible, to either name the person/s or family who have originally given the performances/knowledge, and/or the families/group from amongst whom the performances/knowledges find their source.

Bruceanthro (talk) 05:49, 21 November 2007 (UTC)

Work in Progress

This is a stub page, signalling intention to add further material, giving more detailed geomorphological description of the island, detailing Aboriginal mythology for the island and sea rises, and giving some of the islands natural and cultural history.

I hope to make these additions, with proper referencing over next couple of days! Bruceanthro (talk) 07:56, 20 November 2007 (UTC)

Natural and Cultural History Material

Below is a growing compilation of material, from which narrative for the main page may be added.

Origins
Core samples containing fossils, pollen, and charcoal were taken from thesubstrata of the outer Barrier Reef

1973
Dick Moses gives texts in Yidinji language telling, as a recurrent theme, of a time which the linguist Bob Dixon estimates to have been at the end of the last Ice Age (some 10 millenia ago), when the sea levels are lower. Dick Moses advises that at that time Green Island (wunyami) was about four times as big as it is now, and that it is only the north-west corner of the island that has remained above water.

1993
Roy Banning, Henrietta and Henry Fourmile, plus Robert Patterson explains Aboriginal connections to Green Island (wunyami), and advises that he and Gungganyji people know the island as wunyami, as a place huanted by spirits, it also being an island the Gungganhji used to initiate young men.:

- story 1: initiations would only take place at times when there was plenty of rainwater .. as there was no permanent supply of water on Green Island (wunyami)

- story 2: it is common knowledge to local Aboriginal peoples that Green Island (wunyami) was once much larger than it is now, and that this larger island had a marshy centre. Fresh rainwater collected in the marsh, which flowed out in a creek a little south west of the western tip of the current Green Island (Julie MARTYN advises that, in fact, there are records from before 1900 of a marsh in the middle of the cay, but by this time it would dry out. Page 7</ref>

- story 3: told of a turtle story that takes place on the larger green island, and, tells an even older (?) story of the movement of ancestoral turtles from land into the sea .. in this case, the turtle finding himself unable to get water from the creek, dips his head in apuddle only to get nipped by a mud crab, creating two nostrils that allowed the turtle to live in the sees, by breathing through these nostrils

- story 4: told of a hunting ground that strectched right to the outer edge or fringe of the Barrier Reef. In this story, an event Julie Martyn believes to happened bery slowly with the melting of the icecaps with the turn of the ice age through to 6000 years ago, occurrs 'as rapidly as a cyclone .. this is one of the stories involving Damarri and Guyala (note there may need to be a reference around about here to the Dixon article referring to stories of the Yidinji and other peoples 'coming from the north' (never from the south) ..

it seems the two brothers visited Gunngganyji and Yidinji for awhile ... :

One time Damarri was out in a canow with his two wives when he speared a sacred fish. Suddenly a big wind started to blow and a storm came up. The sea began to rise and flood the whole land. Everything was under water. All Damarri could see was the top of some mountains in the distance so he paddled back past Green Island straight towards them. He was .. a clever man and placed a magic balur, or curved spear thrower on the front of his canoe. Everywhere the canoe went, the sea was made calm by the balur ..

Bruceanthro (talk) 12:31, 20 November 2007 (UTC)