iDIDJ Quiz

1. The Indigenous population of Australia prior to European settlement is generally estimated to be around:
c. 300,000

. Most published estimates are in the vicinity of 300,000. Of course, no-one really knows what the original population was in Australia and estimates have been generated by literature research and extrapolation.

2. At the time of European settlement, there were approximately how many distinct Indigenous languages spoken in Australia?
c. 200

. It is generally accepted that there were about 200 distinct Indigenous languages and 600 dialects spoken in Australia at the time of European settlement. Many are no longer in use and a handful are still widely spoken in Central Australia and the Top End of the Northern Territory. The take home message… there isn’t one Aboriginal language but many.




3. Before European settlement of Australia, the Indigenous people lived in harmony with the land, were peaceful nomadic hunter-gatherers who never warred against each other, and enjoyed a life free of diseases.
False

. Indigenous Australians have long been romanticed by the West and for a time, the notion of the “Noble Savage” prevailed. However, the reality is that Indigenous Australians are not unlike other peoples throughout the world. They exploited the land and its resources, sometimes changing the landscape as a result (there is a current debate as to whether the Australian Megafauna were hunted to extinction by the ancestors of today’s Australian Aborigines). Tribes, clans and family units fought against each other during the early settlement era, and it is not inconceivable that this happened before the arrival of Europeans on the continent we now call Australia. And archaeologists suggests that human populations in Australia suffered from a variety of ailments and diseases, from studies of ancient human skeletal remains.




4. ATSIS, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Services, was established in 1 July 2003 out of a perceived need for separation of powers within ATSIC, the Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander Commission.

5. Generally speaking, compared to the average Australia, the life expectancy of an Indigenous Australian today is (mark all correct answers):

  
d. 20 years lower due to complicating factors including dispossession, lower socio-economic status and living conditions sometimes resembling Third World countries
. Whilst there is evidence of improved health outcomes for Indigenous Australians living in ‘outstations’ where lifestyle is traditionally-oriented, in the main the average Indigenous Australian has a life expectancy 20 years less than the average Australian. Renal failure, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases plague Indigenous communities in many parts of Australia.




6. Which of the following statements about the Aboriginal flag are false (mark all that apply)?
a. It has the colours green and gold
  b. It has the colours black, white, yellow and red

a and b are false (the Aboriginal flag has the colours black, yellow and red), and c, d and e are true.




7. Olympic swimming champion and multiple World record holder, Ian Thorpe (complete sentence and mark all correct answers):
c. visited Katherine, Northern Territory, in April 2003 
  e. has established a charity called Ian Thorpe’s Fountain for Youth, 

c and e are correct.




8. Who was Australian of the Year in 1978?
a. Galarrwuy Yunupingu




9. Vegemite is a commercial food product derived from Aboriginal knowledge of yeast and fermentation processes.


False




10. Who was the Australian Federal Government’s first Minister for Aboriginal Affairs?
Willian Charles (Bill) Wentworth or Gordon Bryant.
Bill Wentworth was appointed in 1968 as the first Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, though there was no department under him. A few years later, with a change in government and under the leadership of Whitlam, a Department of Aboriginal Affairs was established, with Gordon Bryant appointed as its first Minister for that department.

11. David Gulpilil is best known as:
a. an actor

12. The Yolngu cultural bloc is in:
b. north-east Arnhem Land, Northern Territory




13. Northern Territory’s Arnhem Land (mark all correct answers):
b. is private property owned under special freehold title 
  c. is Aboriginal land
  d. is inalienable land 
  f. can be leased to Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal interests

.
b, c, d and f are correct.

Arnhem Land was declared an Aboriginal Reserve in 1931. It is the largest Aboriginal Reserve in Australia. In 1976, with the passing of the Aboriginal Land Rights Act, government “reserves” in the Northern Territory including Arnhem Land automatically became Aboriginal Schedule One land. Because of the Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1976, Arnhem Land is now Aboriginal land and is private property owned under special freehold title. It is inalienable meaning that it cannot be bought, acquired or forfeited. However, the land can be leased. Communal title to the land is formally vested in Aboriginal Land Trusts comprised of Aboriginal people who hold the title for the benefit of all the Aboriginal people with a traditional interest in the land.




14. The celebrated ethnomusicologist Alice Marshall Moyle was born in which country?
e. South Africa

.
Moyle was born in 1908 in Bloemfontein in South Africa.




15. The Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies (AIAS) was established in which year?
b. 1961

.
1961 and 1964 are both acceptable though 1964 is not one of the multiple choice alternatives. “The Institute commenced in 1961 with an interim Council. An Act of Parliament in 1964 established The Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies (AIAS), with a twenty-two member Council and a foundation membership of one hundred. The Institute’s activities resulted in increasing interaction between scholars in different fields, and the field ‘Aboriginal studies’ began to take shape” – (AIATSIS website).




16. Which of these four is least like the other three?
d. Melaleuca cajuputi.
Melalauca cajuputi is the odd one out as it is not used by Aboriginal people to make into didgeridoos, whereas the other 3 species are.




17. The NLC, an Aboriginal organisation, is an abbreviation of?
d. none of the above

.
The NLC is an abbreviation for the Northern Land Council. a, the Northern Lands Council, is incorrect.




18. The NLC’s jurisdiction includes which of the following areas?


b. Maningrida 
  e. Mulgurram outstation
Papunya is in the zone of the Central Land Council, Bathurst Island is the responsibility of the Tiwi Land Council, and Groote Eylandt is the jurisdiction of the Anindilyakawa Land Council.




19. According to a recent paper by Prof. Jon Altman, the ‘fourth pillar’ for sustainability in Indigenous arts is:
b. governance

. The paper referred to is “Developing an Indigenous Arts Strategy for the Northern Territory: Issues Paper for Consultations with Practitioners, Organisational and Bureaucractic Stakeholders, April-May 2003”.




20. A national conference on Australian Indigenous arts in 2002, held in Adelaide, recommended, amongst other things, stronger protection of Indigenous Intellectual and Cultural Property. With regards to the didgeridoo, the conference report stressed the urgency in protecting the didgeridoo because (mark all correct answers):
a. non-Aboriginal people are making and selling the instrument for profit
  b. Aboriginal people without the didgeridoo as part of their cultural tradition are making and selling the instrument for profit 
  d. commercial demand is having an impact on the didgeridoo’s cultural integrity
  e. commercial demand is having an impact on the environment

. The conference was the Fourth National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Visual Arts Conference.




21. Which of the following four is least like the other three?
b. Niwuda

. Niwuda is the odd one out as the other 3 are names related to the Dhuwa moiety Ancestral Honeybee. Niwuda is Yirritja.

22. A non-Aboriginal person adopted into Aboriginal culture has all the rights and priviledges of an Aboriginal person including ownership of land, ceremony, and sacred designs.
False

. Whilstnon-Aboriginal visitors to Indigenous communities are often ‘adopted’ into Aboriginal families, this does not constitute any rights or priviledges as far as ownership of land, ceremony and sacred designs are concerned.

23. Yolngu didgeridoo makers spend a considerable amount of time and effort in tuning their instruments which accounts for the acoustic superiority of their work.
False

. Yolngu craftsmen do not place much emphasis on tuning an intrument. Instead, much time is spent on seeking an appropriate tree to harvest to make into a didgeridoo… a suitable tree with the correct dimensions and shape will be in tune if cut in the right place and of the right length. Occasionallly, a craftsman will cut short lengths from either end of the finished instrument to raise the note of the fundamental key of the drone.

24. A didgeridoo player not born into Yolngu culture will find it difficult to play in the traditional styles and techniques of the Yolngu because (mark all correct answers):
c. many years of practice are needed to learn traditional techniques

25. The didgeridoo is a male-oriented instrument in Aboriginal society because (mark all correct answers):
d. strong gender divisions mean that men’s and women’s roles are different




26. In a song by George Rrurrambu, of Warumpi Band fame, ‘Djutarra’ is:
b. a barge

27. Which of the following sets consist of individuals who have both played yidaki in one or more tracks in the Yothu Yindi band’s albums (mark all correct answers)?:
a. Milkayngu Mununggurr, Makuma Yunupingu
  b. Gurrumul Yunupingu, Gapanbulu Yunupingu 
  d. Rrawun Maymuru, Yomunu Yunupingu




28. Which of these four is least like the other three?
c. Guyingarr

Guyingarr, meaning “cold” in the Yolngu language, is the odd one out. The other 3 are Yolngu words for water of various states of saltiness.




29. Complete the following verb sequence:

bathan, bathul, bathar,
bathana

. Bathan is the Yolngu present tense verb form for “cook” or “set fire to”. Bathul is the future and imperative verb form, bathar is the today past form, and bathana is the distant past form of the verb.




30. Complete the following sentence:

Luku is to dhapathung as liya is to
djonggu or bathapu’. In the Yolngu language, luku is foot and dhapathung is shoe, so djonggu or bathapu’ (hat)is the natural extension of liya (head).




31. ‘Manymak’, in the Yolngu language, can mean (mark all correct answers):
a. good 
  e. thank you

32. What are two of the principles driving Djalu’s Rripangu Yirdaki enterprise?
autonomy, bridging cultures




33. In north-east Arnhem Land, one effect of the moiety division is that (mark all correct answers):
e. none of the above

The moiety division has no effect on the type of tree used to make a didgeridoo. Dhuwa didgeridoo makers may cut both Dhuwa and Yirritja trees on both Dhuwa and Yirritja lands, and the same applies to a Yirritja didgeridoo maker. A didgeridoo made from a Dhuwa tree may be used in either a Dhuwa or Yirritja ceremony, and a didgeridoo made from a Yirritja tree may be used in either a Dhuwa or Yirritja ceremony.

34. With regards to the ‘skin’ or malk system in north-east Arnhem Land, which of the following statements are false (mark all that apply):
a. In theory and in practice, Balang’ can only marry Ngarritjan and Bulanydjan, and not any other ‘skin’
  b. If my biological father is Gamarrang, I must be either Burralang, Galigali, Balang or Bilinydjan 
  d. Gela is a colloquial term for Burralang and Galigali 
  e. The ‘skin’ system has been used by Yolngu peope for centuries if not longer to organise society and to regulate behaviour
a, b, d and e are false. Ngarritjan and Bulanydjan are the preferred marriage partners of Balang’, but Balang’ may also marry women not of these two skins whom he calls “galay” (mother’s brother’s daughter or mother’s mother’s brother’s daughter’s daughter). If my father’s skin is Gamarrang, I am not necessarily Burralang, Galigali, Balang nor Bilinydjan but what I am will depend on my mother’s skin as the skin system is matrilineal. Gela is a colloquial term for Burralang but not for Galigali. The skin system was adopted by the Yolngu of north-east Arnhem Land probably some time in the 19th century. Ronald M. Berndt, the doyen of Australian Aboriginal anthropology suggests that it was introduced from the south and south-west. In Yirrkala in the 1940s, the old people did not use the skin system much.




35. Ngapipi (mother’s brother) can also be called:


gawal , mori’ and ngathi’mirringu.




36. Robert Mirabal, acclaimed Native American musician, performed with which Australian Indigenous group in Santa Fe in 1999?


The White Cockatoo Performing Group.

37. What is the Yolngu term for describing the brother-sister taboo relationship?
Mirriri

38. Learning the didgeridoo ‘mouth sounds’ of traditional rhythms will allow a didgeridoo player to easily play traditional rhythms.
False

“Mouth sounds” are merely sounds used to assist in learning and practising the structure and beat of a rhythm, and are not a true reflection of the actual techniques used to play the rhythms.




39. String figures are made in parts of the Northern Territory, predominantly by women. The following string figure, recorded in Yirrkala, represents what?
Echidna

This string figure was photographed and collected by Frederick D McCarthy in Yirrkala in 1948.




40. An eccentric entrepreneur and keen photographer travelled through Arnhem Land on a bicycle in the early part of the 20th century. What was his name? 
Edward Reichenbach or Ryko as he was more commonly known.