Central Land Council

Ngukurr Rangers are ready and waiting

Interview with senior woman and founder of the ranger group, Cherry Daniels

My name is Cherry Wulumirr Daniels

CLC: And you're all from Ngukurr?

Cherry: Yes we're all from Ngukurr.

CLC: Can you tell me a bit about your ranger group?

Cherry: Before we begin, we became rangers, as I said before, I went to a conference and I was introduced to this Ranger Program to help out. I started off the Ranger Program and we worked really hard, without a vehicle. We had to go and do soil erosion, push a wheel barrow, worked on the soil and went around planting trees. Then they gave us this job looking after the old cemetery. We went out there one time walking, carrying our jerry cans with fuel, our chainsaw, our brush-cutters. I tell you, the girls are very strong, they work, not grumbling just keep on working. They liked the job, they are keen on what they are doing. It's a new program to us. We've heard about rangers, but by doing it, now they like it.

The Ngukurr Rangers

CLC: How long have you been going?

Cherry: We have been going for nearly three years now. We have a vehicle that we adore very much and we go out a lot now. We do monitoring - waters and billabongs and creek beds. You know, make sure our country is left the way it was in the past. We make sure that people do the right thing on this land. The girls love it. It's going back to country a lot. We are proud of what we are doing and what we are.

CLC: Can you see a difference in the way your country looks?

Cherry: Yes. It is different in many parts, not only where I come from. There are many differences. Some makes me sick, some makes me happy. Sometimes I frown, sometimes I smile.

CLC: What makes you smile?

Cherry: The bad things makes me sick, you know what I mean by being sick when I see what happens in my community. Not only my community, but other Aboriginal communities in Australia because we are all black, it concerns me. What I am, what I like to see my people carry on what our ancestors have left for us. We have done a lot since we've been rangers. We did studies, and during our studies we did work as well. We go out, we look at plants, the girls they can identify plants you know, which plants are ours and not ours. We look at feral animals, we look at cane toads, they been a pest now for the last few decades now.

CLC: Do you kill a lot of those?

Cherry: Yeah we do, they are around our community. They kill a lot of our animals like our goannas and our snakes. And even the little fish that swims around in the billabongs. They don't know whether that is a real frog or a cane toad. They don't know the difference. So we have been going around looking at what we can do about them. We've heard when we went to that last conference that they've got this special trap where we can trap them. It's very good too, the scientists have found out that we can trap those silly frogs in those traps. It is a good idea. Shouldn't they have started that a long time ago instead of now? True, that's the part that makes me really angry. It wasn't us, Aboriginal people, we didn't bring that thing here, we didn't bring other invaders in, silent invaders and sicknesses that kills our animals, our land, our herds. They only thought of themselves. They didn't think of anybody else.

CLC: Why is it mainly that young girls want to do this? Are the young boys interested?

Cherry: I think they are you know, but they bit shy to come up and talk. They want to be rangers as well. We've got three boys who have been working as rangers for quite some time. They been helping us, they not ranger really, they are the land care people. We are the rangers, the women. They've been here helping us in many ways. We are thankful to them and Greening Australia and AQIS have come out and a lot of people from those many departments that are involved in our culture and our land.

CLC: Who funds you?

Cherry: NRH funds us.

CLC: Do you get proper wages?

Cherry: No we don't, we get that CDEP top up. That's not enough. As rangers, we are recognised as rangers, if we are rangers then we need more money. Salaries like a real ranger. A white person who is a ranger gets more money then what the Aboriginal, Indigenous people get and that's not fair.

CLC: What about the future for your ranger program? Does the future look good?

Cherry: Yes. It is looking good.

CLC: Are you seeing your jobs changing, the sort of jobs you do when your looking after country? Learning new things?

Cherry: Yes, it's like going from the unknown to the known, and from the known to the unknown. Bringing the two cultures, the white and black cultures together, balancing them. It makes us really happy what we can do. Share that knowledge and learn. We share each other's knowledge, vice versa thing.

CLC: Have you got an example of that?

Cherry: Yes, we got this young lady who is our facilitator and these people that come out from those different departments like the NRM, AQIS, Greening Australia, so we share our knowledge to them and they share their knowledge to us. We work together we balance those two cultures together which makes things go even so we don't have fights, arguments.

CLC: What sort of things have you learnt from them?

Cherry: The girls have learnt how to post-mortem animals, propagating seeds, surveying animals, identifying animals, plants, weeds and they've done poisoning. The carry the sacks and poison parkensonia and they can mix chemicals. They are too good them girls.

CLC: And you've taught them about bush tucker?

Cherry: I've taught them about bush tucker and even our culture and ceremony ways. The outside part where women are allowed to speak. We did firearms lesson, we've all got our licence but we've got to practise again to get the full licence. A couple of my girls have passed the coxswain training. This year we are going on the ranger thing and I will be able to look at my mother's country and they got to do their coxswain training there on salt water. They been doing it on the river but now the sea, they got to do that. That's in a couple of week's time. We are looking at the river, at the crocodiles. We've put down traps for the crocodiles. They've found some little crocodiles in the billabong near the river there. It was a dam in the park, not a dam anymore but when the wet comes it fills that part up. So they crocs have laid their eggs there and the girls have found them. They say to me 'Old lady you know what we found some crocodile down there, you better do something about that, come on your girls you know what to do.'

CLC: They get the girls to do it?

Cherry: Yes. I am very proud of them, nobody sees how I feel inside and when I go home and I think about them and what they are, sometimes I have tear in my eye. That's very true, I am very proud of them.

CLC: Last thing, what do you think of this conference, is it a good place?

Cherry: It is a good place. A lot of the girls have said to me that they have heard and learnt about them new things. Sharing them ideas with us, sharing ours it is very good. We share our knowledge and things that we do with other people, which is good, it makes you feel proud inside. And your community and your people are proud of what you are doing. So the girls have learnt something here. Tomorrow there is another talk for me on motivation, I gotta give that speech and you gotta listen.

CLC: So you're happy with the campground?

Cherry: Yes we are. They were a bit frightened yesterday because this is a new place to us, a different scenario from ours.

CLC: Food ok?

Cherry: Yes, food ok, I had two plates yesterday. And the music too, our girls will be joining them in dancing.