immediately west of the park. Several of the people I consulted in the Humpty Doo – Howard Springs area referred me to an old Limilngan man, Felix Holmes. Driving around the area, he saw no problem with the firing range proposal. The country was clear, he said, and the army could have it. But before doing that work, he directed me north down the Point Stuart road to a location in his country where half of a large stone circle lay in the grass alongside the road, and the other half had been obliterated by the grader that had widened the road. He gave me names for the place, the ceremony that had been performed there, and the old man who was boss for the ceremony. He said the place was a dreaming site. He had never been in there, indeed he said that the ceremony had not been performed ‘business’ there in his lifetime and the ceremonial boss had died before he was born. He had been working on the cotton crop at Kununurra when the road was made. Later when he and Bill Neidjie came looking for the place, they discovered what had been done. He said that they both worried and became ill. They went to see Clyde Holding, then Minister for Aboriginal Affairs. Felix complained that the road had been put through with no consultation with him or other traditional owners. get nothing’, he said, standing ‘We next to the remaining half of the stone circle, but it’s site!’. He declared to me that ‘our the place was still a dreaming site, never mind that it was up’. ‘buggered
immediately west of the park. Several of the people I consulted in the Humpty Doo – Howard Springs area referred me to an old Limilngan man, Felix Holmes. Driving around the area, he saw no problem with the firing range proposal. The country was clear, he said, and the army could have it. But before doing that work, he directed me north down the Point Stuart road to a location in his country where half of a large stone circle lay in the grass alongside the road, and the other half had been obliterated by the grader that had widened the road. He gave me names for the place, the ceremony that had been performed there, and the old man who was boss for the ceremony. He said the place was a dreaming site. He had never been in ‘business’ there, indeed he said that the ceremony had not been performed there in his lifetime and the ceremonial boss had died before he was born. He had been working on the cotton crop at Kununurra when the road was made. Later when he and Bill Neidjie came looking for the place, they discovered what had been done. He said that they both worried and became ill. They went to see Clyde Holding, then Minister for Aboriginal Affairs. Felix complained that the road had been put through with no consultation with him or other traditional owners. ‘We get nothing’, he said, standing next to the remaining half of the stone circle, but it’s ‘our site!’. He declared to me that the place was still a dreaming site, never mind that it was ‘buggered up’.
ir625.docx