Rediscovering Heritage: Kimberley Aboriginal communities access long-sealed field notes

Thirty-year-old field notes on the cultural practices and sacred knowledge of Kimberley communities from last century have been locked away from descendants at the University of Western Australia. Now the moratorium on the 45,000-page collection by anthropologists Ronald and Catherine Berndt has been lifted and Aboriginal communities are being invited to inspect their ancestors stories at the Berndt Museum. The renowned anthropologists studied more than 70 Indigenous communities in Australia and Papua New Guinea between 1939 and 1985. In the Kimberley and the Pilbara regions the Berndts visited Halls Creek, Wyndham, Roebourne, Depuch Island and Port Hedland between 1962 and 1969. The couple also showed a particular interest in the desert community of Balgo which they visited six times between 1958 and 1985. From their Kimberley and Pilbara trips they compiled 27 field notes as well as recorded interviews and photographs. When Mrs Berndt died in 1994, she bequeathed the notes to UWA on condition they not be opened until May 13, 2024. She never gave any explicit reason for the embargo but it was an accepted anthropological practice at the time. Berndt Museum co-director, Palyku woman Jessyca Hutchens, said the embargo was wrong and it had been moving to help communities regain access to their cultural knowledge that had been locked away for so long. So far they have had 40 enquiries from communities seeking access to their field notes. Ms Hutchens said it could be a really emotional experience for descendants. “We do need to remember that they were kept from people, they were under a 30-year embargo, they were restricted and that should never have happened,” she said. “I think that there was pain and harm caused by that restriction. People shouldn’t be restricted from accessing their family stories and their cultural heritage.” Ms Hutchens said the field notes allowed people to reconnect with ancestors and culture which may have laid dormant for some time. “We’re only at the beginning of the field notes journey at the moment, but we’re experiencing all the time that people have really profound and emotional and meaningful connections to their heritage when they come into the museum,” she said. Ms Hutchens said the opening of the field notes was an “Indigenous-led” process where they helped communities find their information and then decide what they wanted to do with it. “So we’re not personally looking at anything that could be really sensitive material, but we are able to help try and find things within the field notes to help community access their material.” In April, Berndt Museum staff visited the North West to attend the Kimberley Aboriginal Law and Culture Centre (KALACC) Women’s Camp so they could spread the word about the field notes. On the Berndt Museum website there is a list of all the communities the couple visited. Descendant communities are encouraged to contact the museum to discuss accessing their field notes.