Cliff Humphries was born in Beverley in 1910. He was raised with his first language being Nyoongar. The accounts below were recorded by Tim McCabe. Cliff has given his consent for the circulation of these stories, in the hope that they may contribute to protecting what remains of the original old growth forests of the southwest.

NOONGAR LAND - NOONGAR SPIRIT

Before the coming of the Wadjalla, our forests played an important part in our spiritual well-being, identity and survival. The spirit of our dead were placed inside both dead and living trees . Our capacity to hunt, seek healing and communicate spiritually was dependant upon our practises of putting into and returning to our country, the spirit of our people from where it had come. The Nyoongar forests are sacred to us. These places of old forest, untouched by the Wadjalla, were and continue to remain spiritual reservoirs.

The destruction of these very sacred places will destroy links to our ancestors which in turn will eliminate our capacity to remain spiritually healthy.

Kwodjungut nidja Wadjalla koorl ngalar Nyoongar balaba
Before this whiteman come our people they
kaaree wangkiny. Maarlukal iddiny balaba waangk - ngyne yung
spirit talk. In wild forest walking they talk - give me
yongka daartj ka ngyne yung noonaar walbrinniny. Nguluk kudidjiny
grey kangaroo meat or give me your healing. We understanding
ngalar moorital-kaarny koor-iddiny yukkininy nidja yongka ka
our family's spirit returning (and) driving this grey kangaroo or
ngalar demangar kaarny walbrinniny ngalakut. Yay balaba Wadjalla
our grandparents spirit healing us. Now they (the) whiteman
maarlukal barminy - beean dukaniny ka kalunginy. Windjarl ngalar
(the) wild forest knocks down - destroys - breaks or burns. Where (does) our
kaarny koorl yay ? Kenyak !! Moen Nyoongar kudidjiny nidja waangk
spirit go now ? Finished !! Few people understand this talk
ka kaaree wangkiny. Balaba Wadjalla ngalar koolunga borl barunginy
or spirit talking. They (the) whiteman our children stole (and) grab,
yay balaba borl barunginy ngalar kaarny. Boordoo nidja ngalar
now they steal grab our spirit. Later this our
nookert djinninginy kudidjiny ngalar deman kenyak balaba
sleep seeing - understanding our grannies finished - they
barminy ngalar maarluk ngalar kaarny koorl minditj.
knock down our wild forest our spirit goes sick.

NYOONGAR CREATION -
TALL TREES AND KING PARROT DREAMING.

C. Oh! Up very high. I don't know what they call it might've been a Karri tree, I think it was Karri but I wouldn't know the Noongar name of it - Karri. But, er, they call a …what's a name; Salmon gum Woruk - Woruk. It might've been a Woruk for all I know but it's terrible tall. Well these… all these animals, ...all, they came. All these Nyoongars, they was, they was, they was Noongars but they was all there, you know - turned to animals after. And they try to get this, there was a nest up there. And there was a egg in that nest, dunno, I dunno what sort of egg it was, but all these birds tried to er, er everything, tried to climb this - Lizards and all sorts of things and different birds came along they tried, they got half way up and they fall down. 'Bout half way up like that and another bloke, little lizard would fall down over there, kick around somethin'. So, they was standin', thinkin' now, what we gonna do? And they said nguluk daarnginyung wangkiny. Daarlginy, where daarginy? They lookin' for a daarlgayung and that ís a King parrot. Daarlgayung. They lookin'. Oh yeah see one fella comin'. Kwop nidja baarniny kwop he said. See, there he comes, that's good. And he, they asked him then - noonook dundung they said noonook dundung boorn yiraar - dookeniny. You climb up there and light it. Kiya he said. Yes. He got two fire sticks, like karl moorl - karl moor is fire sticks. Ngunaar... He put 'em under his ngaaly, in his ngaaly... put these two fire sticks under his arm. And he climb, climb, climbed. Got right near the near side and he just lighted and... And soon as they caught alight like that, everything, birds all different birds went back different way and lizards runned off and goannas and things flew away. That's how they... hat's the story he want to hear, see.
L. That's the story ?
C. Yeah that's the story.
T. Kwop.
C. And that's how old King Parrot got red under his wings, both sides. That's the story.

KAAREE WANGKINY - WALBRINNINY
(religious talk - healing)

T. But this kaaree wangkiny, what did they do, why did they kaaree wangkiny?
C. Well you talkin' religious now
T. Yeah.
C. When they kaaree wangkiny that's religious talk. Ngytj, ngytj kaaree wangkiny-nguny demangar, maamgar. My grandfathers and my uncles and my grandmothers and their wives you want to say - ngytj nidja noonagutta wangkiny demangar maamgar ngytj noonagut wangkiny kwop ka warra. Noonagut malap ngoornalunginy. Yay ngyne, wangkiny ngyne. You're tellin' them to say somethin' for you. Ngytj nidja minditj, yay wangkiny wiriny ngal daariginy ngadaar ngyne kwop, kwop iddiny. See ?
T. And those spirits ......
C. You could say... walbrinniny ngyne
T. Mmm
C. You'd say ngyne walbrinniny. That's what the doctor got down in the office, I told him walbrinniny, is mean, doctor me up. You see his doctor. You see ngytj you the doctor you ngytj walbrinniny and ngytj noonaar wangkiny. See you the doctor and I'm talkin' to you to fix me up. But you got to talk to the spirits. They talk to the spirits.

CALLING ON SPIRITS

T. You know how you were telling me that Dombar, when he did that person he got the spear in between his legs and he sat up against a tree and there was like, little white mice coming?
C. Oh yes
T. And he drawed those spirits into the tree .....
C. Yeah
T. Those Noongars, a long time ago, that's what they used to do didn't they? They used to call the spirits in to the tree ?
C. Yeah
T. What would they say when they went out hunting? Why would they do that and what would they say when they went out hunting?
C. Eh ?
T. Why would they ?
C. I went huntin'. I carryin' a shotgun, an' me an' my letty was always hungry for piece of meat, see, kangaroo meat or anythin', whatever it is ....... met from, in the bush I'm gonna shoot. I said "Oh, we might get a kangaroo, alright". We went up in the bush, had a gun and I was walkiní along. And I got sick of walkin', walkin', walkin', couldn't see nothin'. Well, I said I got to get back to the old days, I sayin'. I grabbed some sand, a handful of sand an' I chucked the sand down - shwooy (throwing mabarn) deman-ga maamga windjarl bardlung ..... nookert ngoonlung ka yarn? Daartj ngunaar, yukkininy ngyne. My grandfathers, uncles an' aunties where you is "you sleep all the time, you don't think about gettin' up and helpin' me. Drive a kangaroo towards me". Yukkininy is drivin'. An' I stood there. An' this is true as I'm sittin' here, I walk from here to that building over there, an' I stood like that an' I watched, I looked down the pad, I see two kangaroos comin' towards me. Comin' along, straight for me. I standin' there watchin' 'em comin'. One got in distance just like from your bus up an' bang and I shot the two of 'em. They both fell - one fell this an' one that way. Shot the two in one shot!

RED CAPPED PARROT

[SIMON NEVILLE]

DAARINY - A PLACE OF SPIRIT.

T. Old forest is a place that Noongar spirit still lives?
C. Oh yes
T. That's right?
C. A place like this, they still live in this stump. The spirits if it was caught here in this ground, in this reserve or whatever it is, if the spirit was caught here it would be in this tree ...
T. Mmm
C. ...... in this old stump.
T. So what happens to Noongar spirit if everything is cleared though? If everything is cut down?
C. There's nothin'.
T. Everything is removed?
C. It's all gone!
T. It's all gone?
C. The spirits gone.
T. It's finished?
C. Once you burn that tree it's gone. You see my uncle said to me, he was my grandfather's uncle, this wasn't a young man, this old fella he sat down and he said to me "yarn noonook - kwoppiny ngoorniny?" Cause we had been there for weeks, workin', cuttin' a post, y'know. Cause we only allowed to cut a post about that big, nothing bigger, only small posts we want. "Oh yeah", I said, "I'm alright". Well he said er "I thought you might be 'sturbed with something", he said to me, you see. "No", I said, "uncle", I said, "I'm alright", 'cause I always call him uncle because he's my grandfather's uncle. That's how Noongars went, relations y'know? There's so many relations, 'cause their grandfather is their uncle an' they drop right back to their grandfather again. That's how they get so many relations. The next mornin' I got up. Hey y'know what I said? I said, every night, since I've been here, I thought of that what you were sayin' to me, but I been 'sturbed ". He said "yes well, every night", I said, "I sleep here", I said, "you see that?" Er, I said, "there's somebody cryin'. Woman cryin' ". "Yok?", he said. I said "yeah. Nartja walliny?" What she cryin' for? "Gubbiny nartja" I said. "I don't know what for", I said to him. "Oh well", he said, "benung", he said, this tomorrow mornin', it's night time I tell him. "Benung" he said, "you see that old naal there yaarkiny?", he said, - "that's a stump he (needs) dookeniny. You light that old stump in the mornin', you see, it'll catch alight and burn him, that'll be the end, finish". An' so I got up early in the mornin', first bloody thing I got up I grabbed it, I grabbed a shovel and got a shovel full of coal and I tip it on the bottom of this big stump. Oh, he went like a candle, burnt up.
C. An' a next night, I lay down there next night, next mornin' - "yarn you kwoppiny ngoornt you had a good sleep there?" "Yeah, I never heard nothing", I said. Last night that was finished. I said "Well there you are", he said, "there was a kaarny in that stump, an' you burnt that stump an' you burnt that spirit, it's gone".

DRYANDRA

T. I remember you telling me about something about Dryandra one time, and you said how there was still kaarny in that place because it hadn't been cut down, a lot of that place there.
C. Yeah.
T. There was still old forest there?
C. It's all old forest. You want to go there you see wiluk an' all there. Red ochre there, but nobody touch it.
T. So if … you reckon if Noongars slept in there they'd be kaarny kudidjiny ka nookert djinningny nidja noonar koraar ngoornt?
C. You wouldn't sleep in there... You wouldn't sleep in there, if you went there you wouldn't sleep. If you're on your own, somethin' would come and pull you out of bed. I walkin' along. I went down to, right down to Williams, and I walkin' back through Dryandra.
T. Yeah.
C. Wilgadjny, they call it, that's where the wiluk is, red ochre. Nobody touch it 'cause it's a wurnitj place. It's a very spirity place. If you go there in the night, you won't get home, you just go away late on your own, you wouldn't get back through the night. You'd finish up somewhere else. My father been in the bush for years, campin', stop anywhere, you know, work? Well he said to my mother, he said " We'll go up here to the whatsaname", he said. "There's a lot of tammars in the bush", he said, "we might get a tammar", he said. Tammars a very nice meat. It's very light, y'know, itís white. Not like kangaroos. And very nice to eat. An' he said to my mother, he said "we'll go up here an' get a tammar alright?". But this was just before sundown, they went. An' you know we was till about 1 o'clock in the mornin' lookin' for 'em, an' they finished up miles away. They finished up nearly in Narrogin. Them two.
An' that's the first time ever my father been lost in his life.

T. You said to me some time ago that if Noongars wanted to regain their spirit, if the spirit - if nidja kaarny nidja kooriddiny - if the spirit was going to come back, they should go to places where the whiteman hadn't touched, country that hadn't been cleared.
C. Yeah.
T. What did you mean by that?
C. Well that what it is. You see. That's where the whole trouble is. The white person they cleared too much dry country an' too much timber, you see, an' that's why the spirit wouldn't stop in that timber country then - it's got no place to live.

The spirit got no place to live. An' that's how these days, an' that's why everythin' change.