M’raat-Land, Ngamath-Sea

Our ancient mraat (which means land) has been occupied by us, the Meintangk people since time immemorial. This Pawur we now call the Maria has been loved and lived alongside by the Meintangk Peoples for thousands of years and was a natural point of connection. Vast areas of land naturally inundated by winter floodwaters from the South-East were impounded to the east of a low ridge of land which is now breached by an artificial drain linked to the Pawur. This once vast swamp used to generate subsurface (groundwater) flows to the ocean through the Pawur you see here, and some water also gently flowed north from here towards the Coorong. Together, these waters formed one great wetland of the south. Wetlands like this supplied much of the traditional foods of the Meintangk, including tadpoles, aquatic beetles, plant foods, swamp fish, mammals and waterfowl. The Pawur was also a living place for long necked turtle, eels, and native rats.

Inland of this place, parallel successive ranges were more heavily timbered with stringy-bark and manna-gum forest with an undergrowth of bracken fern and scrub. The flats between the ranges were often more lightly timbered with various eucalypt species including blue gum, swamp gum and silver banksias, with an understorey dominated by yacca, cutting grass, patches of tea-tree, or in the wettest areas, open aquatic herb lands and wide plains which were seasonally inundated. Pawur itself was lined with salt-water paperbark and sustained aquatic plants which provided food and habitat for wildlife, including ducks and swans. The sandy banks of the creek and the adjacent coastline were managed and maintained for millennia as an open grassy woodland, studded with sheoak and banksia forming an open park-like cover, through the traditional use of fire by the Meintangk.

Mantha

Buthu-kurra

The Meintangk have fished and trapped food at the Pawur from time immemorial and they hold a strong relationship with ngamath, the sea. These relationships are remembered through ancient Meintangk stories. Aboriginal histories tell us that we are born of the land – not merely owners and controllers of property in the European way, but as human beings existing in an ongoing cycle of relationships to the land, waters and sea. We belong to the natural world; this is our identity. The South-East is a place of abundance which has supported First Nations from time immemorial. Meintangk People cared for mraat and ngamath, as they, in return, cared and provided for the people.

The language of the Meintangk and Bunganditj Peoples was applied by Tamara Pomery alongside the following chart of species and common names of native plantings along the Pawur. Where the traditional name has not been recovered, we have applied what is recognised as Bunganditj language to describe the specific species and in some instances have used more generic terms. The translation also involved using nouns and attaching a word which describes the use of the plant for example ‘kakawi buloyn’ herb smoke meaning a herb which is used for smoking and clearing of the air. Another example is ‘kakawi marlayt meaning a herb which produces fruit. The translation for ‘buthu-kurra’ has both the noun ‘buthu’ (grass) for the plant type and ‘kurra’ (kangaroo) included. In this case we chose to translate the common name into Bunganditj, to assist in the recovery of language, rather than leave a blank space.

Kakuwi-winba-bup

Ngamath-marlayt

Kakuwi

Bunganditi Name	Species Name	Common Name
Mutha	Acacia melanoxylon	Blackwood Tree
Kakuwi	Acaena novae-zelandiae	Bidgee-widgee
Kiriwu	Allocasaurina verticillata	Drooping Sheoak
Buwang	Apium prostratum	Sea Celery
Buthu-dhirr	Austrostipa stipiodes	Coastal Spear-grass
Wroyt	Banksia marginata	Honeysuckle
Pinanari-barnbul	Calytrix tetragona	Fringe Myrtle
Kinga	Carpobrotus rossei	Pig Face
Barnbul	Chrysocephalumapiculatum	Common Everlasting
Kakuwi-winba-bup	Clematis microphylla	Old Man’s Beard
Pingki marenyi	Cyperus gymnocaulos	Basket weaving sedge
Pintuk	Dianella brevicaulis	Short-anther Flax-lily
Pintuk-wulu	Dianella revoluta	Black-anther Flax-lily
Pinanari	Hakea nodosa	Yellow Hakea
Pinanari	Hakea rugosa	Dwarf Hakea
Mantha	Kunzea pomifera	Native apple
Buthu	Lepidosperma carphiodes	Black-headedFine-sedge
Nankru	Lepidosperma gladiatum	Coast Sword-sedge
Duth	Leptospermummyrsinoides	Heath Teatree
Karawun	Lomandra longifolia	Spiny-headed mat-rush
Pinanari	Melaleuca gibbosa	Slender Honey-myrtle
Wiriyu	Melaleuca lanceolata	Tea-tree
Buthu	Pelargonium australe	Austral Stork’s-bill
Buthu	Poa labillardieri	Tussock Grass
Buwang	Tetragonia implexicoma	Bower Spinach
Buthu-kurra	Themeda australis	Kangaroo Grass
Kakuwi-bu	Lotus australis	Austral Trefoil
Kakuwi-buloyn	Olearia axillaris	Coast Daisy-bush
Kakuwi-marlayt	Scaevola calendula	Dune Fanflower
Buthu-bu	Ficinia nodosa	Knobby Club-rush
Buthu	Juncus krausii	Sea Rush
Buthu	Poa poiformis	Coast Tussock-grass
Ngamath-marlayt	Rhagodia candeollana	Seaberry Saltbush