In this interview, Djungui reflects on life in Tennant Creek during the 1970s and early 1980s. He describes a tight‑knit community of cattlemen, miners and contract workers where trust was expressed through a word‑as‑bond ethic and there was little paperwork. He recounts how extensive drilling and water extraction altered the environment and the way Indigenous men behaved, noting a shift he describes as “going left” and following “woman law.” Djungui critiques government welfare, likening it to a form of slavery for the Oombrani people, and laments the loss of Indigenous language and law as English and external control dominate. He speaks about spiritual concepts such as yamuru (spirit travel), the balance between men and women, and the importance of land rights. The conversation ends with a hopeful note about cultural resilience and a call for change.
Chapters
Djungui, tell us a little bit about what it was like as a young man living in Tennant Creek, working the cattle, etc.
Back in the '70s and early '80s, there were tough men here— miners, contract fences, yard builders, ringers, you know. So we had to know one another perfectly well. Like we knew how we connect our storyline, so everybody knew where the next manager was.
What'd they treat you like?
Good. We were all the same.
All the same?
And I raised amongst cattlemen.
Really?
Yeah. No, it was different with cattlemen.
Yeah.
And we knew we all come from that and we work hard in the land. It's like the beginning.
Yeah.
Told men that we would suffer and work in the land because the land Got told us to, so we dig our land.
Yeah.
To live on.
So what, what is, what's it like now in town?
Down the road, drill, drill, drill.
Yeah.
Take water, water, taking away the environment.
Has that affected the way, um, Ambrani men act?
Yes.
In what way?
We've gone backwards. Instead of traveling right, we've gone left. We're following woman law.
Yeah.
White man call them the thing of sea of the ocean.
Yeah.
We call them yamuru, spirit travel.
Yeah.
And they come here, manuweni, from the men.
Yeah.
They come to Marwib.
Yeah.
So when you talk about the change here in the law, has that— do the men act differently? Do you think that coming off the land and the changes affected their behavior?
One, one work property, right? You might have got maybe 10 K's or something. Yeah, you travel to check on water. So we go fix that bore cover, tell that boss water good. He doesn't go back and micromanage us. No, he believe us. They look at character. Proper bore still running good.
Yeah, yeah.
So they could trust you.
Our word was our bond. Every man at war, we are born and shaped.
Yeah.
No paperwork.
Yeah.
Between men, one and one another.
Do you think government benefits, things like unemployment, have helped the Oombrani or hurt them?
Hitting us most. Most of them, they're probably in slavery, where we old men should be free.
Yeah.
The old men coming to death.
So slave to the government, you think?
Yeah. Yeah.
What I look at it now, the society, we've gone back like right back to time of Pablo. Pablo speaking one language.
Yeah.
English.
Yeah.
Losing our language, losing our law.
Keeping us here, not taking us back home.
Ah.
Practice our law.
Yeah.
They control our songs.
Yeah.
When they get land council, we're close with the police.
Yeah.
So policemen Lib-led men like me that got culture and law to recognize them 4 ones.
Yeah, yeah.
Well, let's hope things change. Let's do what we can.
Yeah, well, see, on that talk about the spirit coming to men, yeah, that story continues. We speak about the balance. I speak about the balance.
Yeah.
How we travel together.
Men and women?
Men and women, we travel north. We don't go conquer another mainland, no.
Yeah.
God prepared us from the beginning. Every man shall be free.
Every man shall be free.
Every man got right to get land.
Every man got a right to get land. Yeah. Word is your bond.
Yep.
Simbrani law.
You are? Yeah.
Warumbani men.
Warumbani men. Yeah.
God's way.
Yep.
Yeah.
Same spirit and image of the creation up in Russia. I would find him. Stop looking at him as a black man, isn't that? Black man is a Warumbani man.
