Gawa is a place on

Elcho Island Elcho Island, known to its traditional owners as Galiwin'ku (Galiwinku) is an island off the coast of Arnhem Land, in the Northern Territory of Australia. It is located at the southern end of the Wessel Islands group located in the East Arnhe ...

in the

Arnhem Land Arnhem Land is a historical region of the Northern Territory of Australia, with the term still in use. It is located in the north-eastern corner of the territory and is around from the territory capital, Darwin. In 1623, Dutch East India Compan ...

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. Elcho Island is situated about 90 kilometres west-north-west of the

Gove Peninsula The Gove Peninsula is at the northeastern corner of Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of Australia. The peninsula became strategically important during World War II when a Royal Australian Air Force base was constructed at what is now Gove ...

in the

Arafura Sea The Arafura Sea (or Arafuru Sea) lies west of the Pacific Ocean, overlying the continental shelf between Australia and Western New Guinea (also called Papua), which is the Indonesian part of the Island of New Guinea. Geography The Arafura Sea is ...

. Approximately 60 km long and 6 km wide, it is home for some 1,000

Indigenous Australians Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...

whose homelands are scattered on Elcho, several neighbouring islands and surrounding mainland regions. Elcho Island is one of the most remote communities in Australia.

Early history

Historically, Gäwa, on the northern tip of Elcho Island, was a meeting place for Indigenous groups long before white people came to these shores. The seafaring Macassans from

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

visited Elcho Island to collect trepang, a sea animal that is to be found lying on the sea bed, a Chinese

delicacy A delicacy is usually a rare and expensive food item that is considered highly desirable, sophisticated, or peculiarly distinctive within a given culture. Irrespective of local preferences, such a label is typically pervasive throughout a r ...

. The Macassans visited for a period of over 200 years prior to 1906 when the

Australian Government The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government, is the national government of Australia, a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Like other Westminster-style systems of government, the Australian Government i ...

stopped the practice. During that time, some Gäwa and Elcho people travelled back to Macassar. Since then some have made periodic visits back and forth. Many Macassan words, artefacts and cultural practices were adopted into the local languages and lifestyle. Macassan artefacts have been bartered via Indigenous trading routes as far as the southern and western coasts of Australia.

European settlement

The first Europeans only moved to Elcho Island in 1921 and then permanently in the 1940s. In 1937-1938, Constable John William Stokes of the Northern Territory Police was stationed on Elcho Island at the future site of Galiwinku as part of an effort to eliminate prostitution of Aboriginal women by visiting Japanese luggers. He established a cordial cooperative working relationship with local people (see account in the book 'The Long Arm' and his now-published diary). Later, in the 1940s,

missionaries A missionary is a member of a religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Mi ...

came to live side by side with, and learn from their Indigenous co-workers. Most of these were committed to learning local

languages Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of met ...

, and training those workers with skills to equip them to live within the changing world. Government policies of the 1970s encouraged missionaries to leave, and hand over their work to local people. Government policies tend to have a 4-year currency, after which there is always a better policy. With 2 year tenures, airfares home, and generous entitlements, (compared to mission rates), new government workers who did not have the long term commitment for Indigenous people, stepped into the gap, exposing Yolnu to further disadvantage and confusion caused by the rapid and unrelenting change. Various enterprises were set up on communities everywhere; grazing,

fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment, but may also be caught from stocked bodies of water such as ponds, canals, park wetlands and reservoirs. Fishing techniques inclu ...

, gardens,

sewing Sewing is the craft of fastening or attaching objects using stitches made with a sewing needle and thread. Sewing is one of the oldest of the textile arts, arising in the Paleolithic era. Before the invention of spinning yarn or weaving fabr ...

baking Baking is a method of preparing food that uses dry heat, typically in an oven, but can also be done in hot ashes, or on hot stones. The most common baked item is bread but many other types of foods can be baked. Heat is gradually transferred " ...

; some employing and training Indigenous people, others acting as supply bases.

External links

gawahomeland.com
The Long Arm - Biography of a Northern Territory Policeman 1937-1942, Hugh V. Clarke, Roebuck Book, Canberra 1974, {{ISBN, 0-909434-03-4 http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/17796427?q=John+William+Stokes&c=book. The Diary of Constable John William Stokes of the NT Police Force 1937-1942 and other family history, (Tony Stokes, editor). Manuscript. 61 copies printed privately, 1981. Copies in Australian National and Northern Territory libraries. http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/21814991?q=John+William+Stokes&c=collection. Geography of the Northern Territory