UNCLE BULLA AND UNCLE LARRY
These are my special friends Uncle Bulla and Uncle Larry. They are profoundly beautiful people - gentle and uniquely quiet, kind and deeply spiritual, funny and softly spoken – all of my most favourite things.
It was oddly emotional to meet them. I cried a little when I said hello, and I cried a little when I said goodbye. Deep in Cape York, along with Vili Fifita, we were there to deliver an immersion programme for Red Earth, taking young people to live, and connect, with First Nations Aboriginal communities. Uncle Bulla and Uncle Larry welcomed us on Country at Melsonby Homeland with a traditional smoking ceremony to clear our spirits before entering their lands. My eyes welled with the smoke and the warm welcome.
Bulla and Larry are Balnggarrawarra Traditional Owners and rangers at the Melsonby Gaaraay National Park. The Homeland is located on the ancestral land passed down through their family. Country in Indigenous culture refers to the clan’s land and Homelands are defined by the residents' cultural or traditional relationship to the land. Uncle is a respectful moniker, a term of affection, and it felt so right to call them Uncle.
Uncle Bulla proudly and gently shares his traditional culture and day-to-day work caring for this land. As a Senior Ranger, along with Uncle Larry, Scotty, Aunty Julie, Ginger and his team, he cares for the 22,000 acres of Melsonby Station. The rangers restore wetlands, manage biosecurity, pest control, reduce fire risk through mosaic burns, oversee soil and water management and provide cultural advocacy. The land is home to many rock art sites. The rangers continue to find new rock art, and Uncle Bulla says “when we find a new site, it feels like finding gold, we want to stay all night and not go home”.
Listening to Uncle Bulla tell their story is easy. His slow pace and long pauses draw you in. Most sentences are punctuated with a chuckle, or a humble inflection. Incomplete sentences are seamlessly finished by Uncle Larry. Bulla is like many Aboriginal people, reflective and patient. It is a quality called dadirri: inner deep listening, still awareness and quiet.
Dadirri is taught from early years, as a way to learn. Learn by watching, being quiet and intentionally listening, listening carefully and listening quietly. These people listen more than they talk. This silence has been passed down for more than 40,000 years. The listening is followed by stillness, in which to wait, like the natural flow of the seasons, or to watch their plants and children grow. They wait before they take action. These are my kind of people.
Larry, Uncle Laz, is also a Balnggarrawarra Traditional Owner and ranger at Melsonby Station - Gaaraay National Park. Larry loves sharing this place and his passion for the history and beauty of the land. He describes a spiritual connection to the land, his people’s home. Larry was especially kind to me, taking time to talk and help me to learn about his people’s culture in a way that might help me to see my own clearly. Like both my Māori and farming ancestors, there is a deep spiritual connection to land, place and tupuna (ancestors). They too are kaitiaki (guardians), and for Larry and Bulla, Gaaraay is their Turangawaewae (home place to stand).
I am lucky to have begun my journey to know this Homeland. I will go back. There is more to learn and more time to be comfortably silent with Uncle Laz and Uncle Bulla.