2 August 2024
Lance Corporal Nathan Carnie got a view of East Arnhem Land few get to experience.
“It was magical,” Lance Corporal Carnie said, as blue and yellow hues danced across the water at sunset.
A group of Yolngu men, their guides through the Gove Peninsula, sparked a camp fire and invited the soldiers to sit.
“We talked about moving forward and following the sun, how we’re a part of their country and they’re a part of ours,” the 1st Combat Engineer Regiment (1CER) weapons technician said.
“They trusted us enough to show us their scared business and I had a great appreciation for that – not everyone gets to go on country like we did.”
For the second year running, 1CER and attachments delivered more than 25 tonnes of firewood for the Garma Festival, Australia’s largest Indigenous gathering in the Northern Territory.
Based out of Nhulunbuy, soldiers collected wood during the first week of Exercise Predator’s Run, held from July 8-28.
As a way of saying thanks, the Indigenous men shared their country and culture with the soldiers.
Crabs, they were told, were most active in the evening, and smart – wary of their prey’s long shadow as the men stalked the water’s edge.
There was no catch, but the fire invited quiet reflection.
“These lands are beautiful, but they’re harsh, and Indigenous knowledge was mastered over tens of thousands of years,” Lance Corporal Carnie said.
“I love listening and learning about their culture, the language of the land – we were sharing history.”
Hunting crabs is men’s business.
For the women in Battle Group Goanna – one of two littoral manoeuvre forces operating in the Top End – NORFORCE Corporal Yalenba Wanambi planned a visit to the Yirrkala community just outside of Nhulunbuy to continue the theme of shared history.
After visiting the Yirrkala Art Centre, home of the renowned Yirrkala Church Panels, which depict local law and tradition, the group stopped at a memorial to Yolngu people who had served in conflict.
Among them was Raiwala, a Miltjingi man and the first North Australia Observer Unit (the NORFORCE predecessor, colloquially called the Nackeroos) soldier.
Those like Corporal Wanambi, a soldier and Elder, follow in Raiwala’s footsteps, according to 1CER Lieutenant Hayden Jones.
“He [Wanambi] said we were working towards the same goal,” Lieutenant Jones said.
“We have the role of protecting our country away from home and he protects it from within.
“He called it ‘clacking’ – meaning working together, connecting, sharing.”
