“Bloodline is based on land; It’s in our bloodline to care for country; It’s a perfect balance"
DJC, Kuuku I'yu Northern Kaanju ElderKaanju Ngaachi – Kaanju Pama
Kuuku I’yu Northern Kaanju Ngaachi showing clan estates (click for full size image)
We Kuuku I’yu Northern Kaanju or Kaanichi Pama are ‘inland’ people belonging to the highlands – the mountains, tablelands and sand ridge country of central Cape York Peninsula, Northern Australia. Ngaachi refers to our ‘homelands’, traditional ‘country’ and ‘home’.
Our Ngaachi is centred on the upper Wenlock and Pascoe Rivers and encompasses some 840,000 hectares, stretching westward from the Lockhart Valley and across the Peninsula to and including Embley Range (meeting the Wik people and the Thanakwithi people of the west coast region). Our lands extend south to the Archer River (to meet the Southern Kaanju), north along the Wenlock River to Schramm Creek, then down to the southern bank of the Olive River (to meet the Wuthathi people). The Kuuku I’yu Northern Kaanju people associated with this area comprise some 30 families from some 30 Kuuku I’yu Northern Kaanju clan estates.
Our Vision
Our vision is to facilitate the reoccupation of our Ngaachi by supporting our people to live on and engage with Ngaachi.
We are guided in our efforts by Our Elders and ancient systems of governance and cosmology, which have endured the upheavals of the colonial enterprise and a changing and uncertain world, and enabled the persistence and adaptation of our culture, custom, governance, Lore and systems of land tenure and land management.
Our Philosophy
The active engagement of Indigenous people with their Ngaachi and the wider recognition and support of the important role of Indigenous people and their knowledge in the sustainable management of Ngaachi and resources, will lead to:
- Improvements in the health, social, cultural, spiritual and economic well-being of Indigenous people, and
- Protection of local, national and global biological and biocultural diversity.
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Our Governance
This image is from an important ceremony held at Lockhart River in the 1970s. At the front left, leading the ceremony, is George Moreton Jnr ‘Brown Snake’, language name Uyangkuthi, eldest son of George Moreton Snr. He was a ceremonial leader for the initiation ceremonies held at Lockhart River. Both men were Lore Men for the Kuuku I’yu Northern Kaanju Ngaachi and apical ancestors for the Pama living at Chuulangun, Coen, Lockhart River and other Cape York communities today. Their ‘reign’ or governance extended across all of the Kuuku I’yu Northern Kaanju Ngaachi.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We acknowledge the sovereignty of the Indigenous people of Australia and pay our respects to Elders both past and present. Sovereignty was never ceded and continues to exist today. Always was, always will be, Indigenous land.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People are advised that this site contains images, words, voices and names of deceased persons and sites of cultural significance in photos, audio, videos and written material.
CONTACT US
E: chuula@kaanjungaachi.com.au
T: +61 7 40603240
PMB 30 | Cairns MC | Queensland | 4870 | Australia
Chuulangun, Lot 16/SP104551 | Portland Roads Road | Lockhart River | Queensland | 4892 | Australia