Gija creation story recognised for the first time at World Heritage-listed Purnululu National Park

Purnululu National Park has been World Heritage-listed for decades but had no recognition of its Indigenous creation story. (Unsplash: Ben Carless; licence)

More than 30,000 tourists from around the world visit the Bungle Bungle Range in the heart of Western Australia's Kimberley region each year.

It's Dreamtime country for Gija traditional owners, dotted with sacred sites.

But for decades, visitors have driven, flown, hiked, and camped across Purnululu National Park with no way of understanding its cultural significance.

That was until this week when the WA Parks and Wildlife Service launched its first form of Indigenous cultural representation at the UNESCO world heritage listed site.

Jirraginy joo Goorrarndal tells the area's creation story as passed down over tens of thousands of years by Gija traditional owners, and has been displayed in an interactive panel for visitors of the national park to view upon entry.

Traditional owners and parks authorities have long acknowledged that Purnululu previously lacked the sort of cultural explanation boards synonymous with other UNESCO world heritage-listed sites where Indigenous people were deeply involved.

Gija woman and senior Warmun artist Shirley Drill has been working for more than a decade to see her language group's storytelling acknowledged at the popular tourist site.

"I feel happy and proud when I see [the panel] because they [visitors] can see what this place is for, and they can go through and not touch anything or take things away from here," she said.

The frog and the brolga

The panel tells the dreaming story of the frog and the brolga who, in the thwarted process of stealing water from a waterhole, prompted a flood that transformed creation spirits into the rocks, trees, and animals, while some decided to stay on as people.

The story is enacted by children from the local Purnululu community school.

"I'm really proud of this lot of kids who helped us do it," Ms Drill said.

Shirley Drill said the making of the interactive panel provided an opportunity for the next generation of Gija children to engage in their cultural storytelling, as well as pass on important messages to those outsiders that visit the park.

"That's what we wanted for our Aboriginal kids," she said.

"They've got white people who don't understand our country, how we feel about country, making tracks everywhere. They've got to slow down because some of those places are sacred."

Sophia Mung, a Gija community leader and assistant principal for language and culture at the Purnululu school, believes linking cultural knowledge with technology is important for future generations.

"Our old people will be very, very proud," she said.

"Knowing that we've done this using technology — because they've been passing it through many generations just by word of mouth — now we've got technology taking over and it's going to be here forever, every dreaming story, for us."

Long time coming

WA Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions (DBCA) manages the Purnululu world heritage area and worked with non-for-profit organisation Sharing Stories Foundation and Gija traditional owners to include the creation story in the park's visitor centre.

"It's important [for visitors] to be able to walk through the park with a greater understanding of of how this place came to be and what's important, other than just the natural beauty," DBCA project manager Alex Bouma said.

Between 1994 and 2022, Australia's longest running native title claim dispute between Gija and Jaru traditional owners held up any form of cultural interpretation at the national park.

There had been no agreement on a boundary for centuries.

Both cultural groups argued they were the rightful owners of the park and surrounding land, but in the end the parties agreed their connection to the ancient landscape was shared.

"There has been such a long, long road to get here," Mr Bouma said.

Other renowned UNESCO World Heritage sites, Kakadu and Uluru-Kata Tjuta, are jointly managed with traditional owners, but the previous dispute had prevented Purnululu from going down that path.

Mr Bouma said it was now something they were working towards.

"We're currently in early discussions with the Purnululu Aboriginal Corporation about how we can make it happen. And joint management is something that's very important and a top priority," he said.

The DBCA team are also looking towards a future where Jaru cultural heritage can be displayed at the national park.

"This was just a really unique opportunity where Sharing Stories Foundation and Shirley Drill had been working on this [Gija creation story] project for years and we had the opportunity to house it," Mr Bouma said.

"But we'd like to get something off the ground with the Jaru language group as well."