Too Much Mainmait
'Too Much Mainmait’
The Victoria-wide use of ‘manmate’[1] shows a cultural mentality of parochial belonging within narrow borders. Protector George Robinson made a nominal mistake when he drew body patterns of the ‘manemeet’[2] tribe. The name was probably given him to mean ‘them’ or ‘enemy’ as distinct from ‘us’. It is not a name for any particular tribe, but a term for foreigner. This manmate mentality needs more study to understand the cultural frontier. It seems there was no pan-aboriginal Australia[3] here.
Variants of this word exist right across Victoria[4], and further. Parker[5] records a Djadjawurrung ‘Kulin’ man at Mount Franklin deliberately turning his back to snub the visiting non-Kulin Djapwurrung men from beyond Ararat. When Parker remonstrated with him over his inhospitality, he said: “Mainmait talle, mainmait mirripargar, mainmait nalderrun; yurrong.” ~ “They are foreign in speech, they are foreign in countenance, they are foreign altogether; they are no good.” Thomas Farmer[6], a DjaDjaWurrung man, uses the word to speak of how alien to him are Christian concepts that came with some Protectors.
Mainmait is key when considering questions of exclusion and embrace, stranger and other on the frontier. The cultural dimension of meetings with otherness need to include this wrangle.
[1]Note ~ Mainmait variants: manemeet, manmete, manemate, manmate, main-maytch).
[2] Ian Clarke ~ George Augustus Robinson Journals Vol 1. p 166 [Western Volcanic Plains region]
[3] Marie Fels Ibid pp 138 ‘A larger Aboriginal perspective was not recorded, it may not have existed. It has been noted that national Aboriginal consciousness is a historical product, and fairly recent one at that.’
[4] Marie Fels -Ibid~ MAINMAIT pp 103 It was the killing of a stranger to Melbourne country; the reason Billy Hamilton gave was “No good long way blackfella that.’[4] Thomas to Robinson 31 0ct. 1848 VPRS 11, Box11/707 and 708 .This killing is another illustration of the application of the old order of things, the killing of a foreigner who was no good, not belong to us. Protector Parker’s evidence, quoting words of Aborigines at his protectorate which were used to describe a visiting tribe in 1843, makes the same point, that foreigners on one’s own country are no good: Parker’s people said about the Lake Boloke people: “ They are foreign in speech, they are foreign in countenance, they are foreign altogether, the are not good’. Lecture given by E.S.Parker , 10 May 1854, copy in Thomas Papers, set 214, item 28 ML The Baptist teachers at Merri Creek school noted in a report that three pupils left the school ‘ because they belonged to different tribes’. Request for assistance for Merri Creek school, report, etc, VPRS 19, Box 86, 46/1632 Such foreigness extended even beyond death. Thomas quoted the Melbourne people as ‘ anxious to be separated from strangers even in death’, begging him to bury Aborigines foreign to Melbourne outside the walls of the plot allotted to Aborigines on the old Melbourne cemetery. 13 April 1849, Thomas, half a Yearly Report to 30 June. 1849, enc, with LaTRobe to Col.Sec., 49/6892 in AO of NSW, 4/2872
[5] Edward Stone Parker in Edgar Morrison The Loddon Aborigines. Variant translations: They are strange of speech, they are strange to look at, they are strange altogether; they are no good. They talk enemy talk They walk the enemy walk They are enemies altogether; they are no good. [Foreign speech, foreign countenance, foreign altogether: (they are) bad.]Also: [‘Wharr-tin main maytch goo-lee yerrk kee lytch knodee jhuck keetch - Come strange men looking for food.] John Tully ~ The Djadja Wurrung Language of Central Victoria J.D. Tully Maryborough 1997
[6] Mainmait Talle: Knungo warr bille, tarbilk toort kalk, knell mell-loora-pyang dtarkjarrup; warr woorakur, borak dorkt yerar, borak berkagak; mainmait talle. Strange Speech: “Before you came, the country was strewn with bones; we were always at war; but now you say, do not fight, do not kill; it is strange speech.” Translated from the Dja-Dja-Wurrung by Thomas Parker in the 1840s [assistant Protector Edward Stone Parker’s son], Laarnebarramul (Mount Franklin) near Daylesford, Victoria.
The Victoria-wide use of ‘manmate’[1] shows a cultural mentality of parochial belonging within narrow borders. Protector George Robinson made a nominal mistake when he drew body patterns of the ‘manemeet’[2] tribe. The name was probably given him to mean ‘them’ or ‘enemy’ as distinct from ‘us’. It is not a name for any particular tribe, but a term for foreigner. This manmate mentality needs more study to understand the cultural frontier. It seems there was no pan-aboriginal Australia[3] here.
Variants of this word exist right across Victoria[4], and further. Parker[5] records a Djadjawurrung ‘Kulin’ man at Mount Franklin deliberately turning his back to snub the visiting non-Kulin Djapwurrung men from beyond Ararat. When Parker remonstrated with him over his inhospitality, he said: “Mainmait talle, mainmait mirripargar, mainmait nalderrun; yurrong.” ~ “They are foreign in speech, they are foreign in countenance, they are foreign altogether; they are no good.” Thomas Farmer[6], a DjaDjaWurrung man, uses the word to speak of how alien to him are Christian concepts that came with some Protectors.
Mainmait is key when considering questions of exclusion and embrace, stranger and other on the frontier. The cultural dimension of meetings with otherness need to include this wrangle.
[1]Note ~ Mainmait variants: manemeet, manmete, manemate, manmate, main-maytch).
[2] Ian Clarke ~ George Augustus Robinson Journals Vol 1. p 166 [Western Volcanic Plains region]
[3] Marie Fels Ibid pp 138 ‘A larger Aboriginal perspective was not recorded, it may not have existed. It has been noted that national Aboriginal consciousness is a historical product, and fairly recent one at that.’
[4] Marie Fels -Ibid~ MAINMAIT pp 103 It was the killing of a stranger to Melbourne country; the reason Billy Hamilton gave was “No good long way blackfella that.’[4] Thomas to Robinson 31 0ct. 1848 VPRS 11, Box11/707 and 708 .This killing is another illustration of the application of the old order of things, the killing of a foreigner who was no good, not belong to us. Protector Parker’s evidence, quoting words of Aborigines at his protectorate which were used to describe a visiting tribe in 1843, makes the same point, that foreigners on one’s own country are no good: Parker’s people said about the Lake Boloke people: “ They are foreign in speech, they are foreign in countenance, they are foreign altogether, the are not good’. Lecture given by E.S.Parker , 10 May 1854, copy in Thomas Papers, set 214, item 28 ML The Baptist teachers at Merri Creek school noted in a report that three pupils left the school ‘ because they belonged to different tribes’. Request for assistance for Merri Creek school, report, etc, VPRS 19, Box 86, 46/1632 Such foreigness extended even beyond death. Thomas quoted the Melbourne people as ‘ anxious to be separated from strangers even in death’, begging him to bury Aborigines foreign to Melbourne outside the walls of the plot allotted to Aborigines on the old Melbourne cemetery. 13 April 1849, Thomas, half a Yearly Report to 30 June. 1849, enc, with LaTRobe to Col.Sec., 49/6892 in AO of NSW, 4/2872
[5] Edward Stone Parker in Edgar Morrison The Loddon Aborigines. Variant translations: They are strange of speech, they are strange to look at, they are strange altogether; they are no good. They talk enemy talk They walk the enemy walk They are enemies altogether; they are no good. [Foreign speech, foreign countenance, foreign altogether: (they are) bad.]Also: [‘Wharr-tin main maytch goo-lee yerrk kee lytch knodee jhuck keetch - Come strange men looking for food.] John Tully ~ The Djadja Wurrung Language of Central Victoria J.D. Tully Maryborough 1997
[6] Mainmait Talle: Knungo warr bille, tarbilk toort kalk, knell mell-loora-pyang dtarkjarrup; warr woorakur, borak dorkt yerar, borak berkagak; mainmait talle. Strange Speech: “Before you came, the country was strewn with bones; we were always at war; but now you say, do not fight, do not kill; it is strange speech.” Translated from the Dja-Dja-Wurrung by Thomas Parker in the 1840s [assistant Protector Edward Stone Parker’s son], Laarnebarramul (Mount Franklin) near Daylesford, Victoria.
posted by Wayne D Knoll | 4:58 PM
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