Sylvester's story

lomara, Partner

Photo by Peter Morris

“I learned about my country from my grandfather, my father and my aunties.

They taught me and my brothers and sisters about dreaming and hunting and burning the land to keep it healthy. My grandfather Wilfred Goonack was our strictest teacher. He used to give me a jab in the guts with his stick and say, “You wanna listen while I’m telling you this story”.

	Photo: Annette Ruzicka

My people are from Mitchell Plateau, and my brothers and sisters still live up there in the Kalumburu community. When I was young, my family told me the story of the rainbow serpent who burst through the rocks to make Mitchell Falls and the Mitchell River.

“We don’t want any of these things to leave us, because otherwise we’re lost.” 

It’s a special place, it’s got dreaming, but a lot of people try to put things there. We don’t want big roads going through our special places.

We approached Bush Heritage five years ago because we wanted someone to listen to what we wanted, and to make other people realise how much this country means to us.

Sylvester and Bush Heritage CEO Doug Humann. Photo: Annette Ruzicka

We wanted someone to help us to take care of our land, so together we made a ten-year Healthy Country Plan.

We’ve now got native title over more than 26 000-square kilometres and an Indigenous Protected Area of over 34 0000 hectares of beautiful beaches and gumtree country.

Now our special dreaming places are just for conservation. Hopefully once we’re fully set up here, our people will start to come back to their homeland.

These days I show young rangers from the area how to look after their country. I tell them the stories and teach them how to approach the rock art and the burial sites. I got hooked on the stories my grandfather taught me, so I decided this was what I wanted to do.

What we’re doing is taking care of our land and our stories for the next generation, and Bush Heritage is helping us do that. Now we’ve got this protected area, we’re really taking care of our country.”