Tiwi Story Turning history downside up

Tiwi people have plenty to be proud of. This little tropical island community has more than its fair share of surprising stories that turn ideas of Australian history upside down. The Tiwi claim the honour of having defeated a global superpower. When the world’ s most powerful navy attempted to settle and invade the Tiwi Islands in 1824, Tiwi guerrilla warriors fought the British and won. The Tiwi remember the fight and oral histories reveal their tactical brilliance. Later, in 1911, Catholic priest Francis Xavier Gsell styled himself as the ‘ Bishop with 150 wives’ . Gsell said he ‘ purchased’ Tiwi women and ‘ freed’ them from traditional Tiwi marriage, and Tiwi girls grew up into devoted Catholics. But Tiwi women had more power in their marriage negotiations than the missionaries realised. They worked out how to be both Tiwi and Catholic. And it was the missionaries who came around to Tiwi thinking, not the other way around.

Mavis Kerinaiua is a Tiwi historian, educator and researcher. She has contributed to historical exhibits at the Northern Territory Library and the Patakijiyali Museum and worked as a researcher for the Australian National University and Flinders University. She has worked in cultural liaison for the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet and in education on Bathurst Island. Creator of the Turtuni Framework for research practice, Kerinaiua is an expert in culturally responsive and appropriate research. Laura Rademaker is a historian of Aboriginal Australia and religion with a PhD from the Australian National University and an interest in oral history. She is the author of Found in Translation, awarded the Australian Historical Association’ s Hancock Prize. She is also co-author with Traditional Owners of Bible in Buffalo Country, winner of the NT Chief Minister’ s Award for History. She has written for ABC Religion and Ethics and The Conversation and appeared on ABC Radio National.

1. History is healing (Mavis Kerinaiua) 2. Turning around (Laura Rademaker) 3. Just like Captain Cook (Barry Puruntatameri) 4. Turning trespassers (LR and MK) 5. Come and meet this fella (Romolo Kantilla) 6. Come and see (LR and MK) 7. She started it (Dulci Kerinaiua) 8. The girl who turned her world around (LR and MK) 9. Purraputumali, nginya amini (Louie, my grandfather) (MK) 10. Unlikely allies (LR and MK) 11. The mission days (Calista Kantilla) 12. Creating a sanctuary (LR and MK) 13. The priest who converted (Pirrawayingi Marius Puruntatameri) 14. Converting the world (LR and MK) 15. On Tiwi knowledge (Teddy Portaminni) Biblio Notes Contributors