Canoeing Ancient Songlines

Abstract

<p>This narrative is built around a story that was told to me by my uncle Tim over a decade ago. It is a story told about the relationships between Australian Aboriginal people and Indigenous Hawaiians in the far distant past. For various reasons, this story cannot be proven. But that does not matter to me, because in my Aboriginal way of being and knowing, stories like my uncle's does not need scientific proof in our modern world to have validity. Before I go on to explain more about the role of story in Indigenous community, I will introduce myself.</p><p>I am a Gumbayngirr/Gamilaroi man born in Gamilaroi country. Both my father's and my mother's sides are all Aboriginal. We lived in and around the New England region of NSW. I have grown up in departmental housing my whole life, and moved between Armidale and Tamworth for most of my childhood. I have a huge family, with many extended cousins from my grandmothers' sisters' and brothers' families and their children's siblings, and my grandfather's side and his brothers' families with their children and siblings. We were always visiting the towns of Tingha, Inverell, Guyra, Armidale, Tamworth and Tabulam. Travelling between these communities gave me an all-round emphasis on country and its layout. I got to know the New England landscape like the back of my hand, just like my old people did.</p>