A survey by Tiwi health workers, 1977-1979

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A Survey

by

TIWI

Health Workers

Arafura Sea

NGUYU

Timor Sea

1977-1979

HISTORICAL COLLECTION

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A SURVEY BY TIWI HEALTH ~KERS - 1977 1979

Name of Health Workers . . . • . . . page 1 The TIWI people . . . • . . . page 3 Tih'I Beliefs . . . page 5 A picture of TIWI Survey Results . . . page 9 Results of tests and examinations . . . page 11 TIWI TOTEMS • •.•..•••.••.••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• page 14 TIWI bush foods . . . page 15 Results from the computer . . . page 16 Thanks to people who helped . . . page 17

:SUR 1978

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THE HOSPITAL WHERE THE NGUIU PART OF THE SURVEY : Z4S DONE

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AN OLD MAN TEACHING HIS DAUGHTER HOW TO HUNT FOR A POSSUM WITH A MIRROR

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The TIWI people come from Bathurst and Melville Islands. Their language and their culture and their appearance are a~l different from Mainland Tribes. A long time ago they used to live in small groups on their own tribal lands. Some of the old men had many wives. One old man had twenty-three wives. Nowadays some of the old people still live in the bush but most of the younger people live at the main places at

Nguiu

on Bathurst Island and at

Milikapiti

and

Garden Point

on Melville lsland. Most of the families have houses but a lot of the old people like to live in a little camp with fire to sleep beside. In 1979 the Mtmkara families decided to leave Nguiu and go back to their tribal land at

Kukuwuni

on the western side of Bathurst Island near Cape Fourcroy. Other groups of people are also thinking of moving back to their tribal land.

These people do a lot of hunting most of the time and are healthy and happy. They look well out bush and they only come back to Nguiu for special ceremonies and when people die. They also come back if they run out of food. People who need medicine also come back for weekly tablets. The people in the bush have built their own houses.

Another important thing has happened and there is now a new road from Nguiu to

Malawu

on Bathurst Island opposite Garden Point.

Bush food is important to the TIWI. Some of the nice bush foods are listed at the end of this book. In the bush, parents and grandparents. teach young people how to hunt for bush food which is specially

important when people are sick. In 1976 and 1977 our Health Team decided that they wanted to find out how healthy the TIWI people were.

We did a survey. By doing· this we learnt many new skills.

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WALLABY JIPWATIRRINGA

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l POSSUM - WUNINGA and CARPET SNAKE - YILINGA

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T I W I B E L I E F S

p _ regnant mothers

are not allowed to eat:

1. Catfish because the new born baby will be born blind, has a dribbling mouth and have no hair.

2. Dugong tail because their husband will be hit on their back.

3. Stingray because the new born baby will have sores when they grow up.

4. Blind snake because the baby will have a birth mark.

5. Also any other young animals that we eat.

Young

babi es :

When a baby have sores on their eyes or ears the mother of the child has to rinse out her milk and put it in where the child has sores. And also ,;,._1hen a b;1hy has sore mouth the mother cuts her skin and puts the blood un her nipple and the baby then drinks it.

Wido~ death - bot h man and woman:

\.Jhen they Lost their wife or husband, they have to be painted all over Lh ir body. They cut their hair and burn it. This is what they do

during the olden days. They used to wear paper bark around their bodies.

They stay inside the hut. Everything they want to do is to be done inside the hut. They have to do these things because they will have sickness and afLer that they will die. But we are not sure if they still do this kind of believe. Some people do believe and some don't.

Drag on (Ampij i ) :

When women have monthly menstruation - they are not allowed to carry young babies because the baby might get sick. They are not allowed to cross any streams or sea because the spirit of dragon gets inside the woman's body and also they are not allowed to have a bath or do washing in the stream. After a mother have a baby, she is not allowed to walk around especially when it's wet season and after when she come out of hospital because the spirit of dragon gets inside the mother's body and will make • her get sick and get skinny. If she wants to go across any stream or

sea she should take a fire stick with her.

Some people had yaws from dragon. A few people here have leprosy. Some people were saying that the dragon has caused leprosy.

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Beliefs

We believe that the spirit walks around during the night.

If a person sees a rainbow across the sky, they are not allowed to look at it because their grandmother will die.

When a man dies in Darwin suddenly we believe that his kidney fat has been taken o ut.

If there is no sun and the clouds get cloudy and also if we see a falling star with a different colours that means that someone is going to die.

If someone cuts somebody's clothes with an axe. That person will become cripple from an axe. And also when a person has

P

secret stone or some

sort

of sawdust in their pocket or holding it in their hands - and another

person who didn't

know about this puts his ann around him and touch it he will become cripple.

If a person

wants this particular person to die, he gets his dirty clothes and puts them inside of the tree cover them with sand hil

ls until

it gets

old a

nd torn out. And they also make a picture of the person on the tree.

When

it

gets

old and the tree falls down, that is when a person will die.

I [ ~ pe

r son put a toilet in the bottle, he put it someway where nobody wil1

see

it, then for a couple of weeks or months later somebody will die.

W

e bel

ieve that our dream dance, e .

g

. buffalo, horses, sharks, jungle fowl, and

p

igs etc. When we go to sleep and dream about these, that means that somethi ng is wrong with our relations or it means that

somebody is going

to

die

.

Tiwi mid -wi fer y at Bush:

Before delivery an elderly woman prepares

:

1. A big fire to keep the mother warm.

2. Places the paper bark beside the fire

.

3. Prepare things what is needed during th e labour.

When the mother is in paln the other ln<ly is to rub her back and another lady is to rub her stomach. She has to put her two hands on the ground and two kn

0:es

on the ground , and make it apart. When the baby is born,

th ey put the baby on the paper bark. They used their little f inger and put it in the baby's mouth to make the airway clear. They also uc;ed a sharp stem from a palm tree t o cut the baby's cord. Afte

r

the delivery they make a little ditch and placed the placenta and then burn it. Then they put the mother and the baby to lie on the hot ashes. The mother and the baby are not to have bath they have to be dried by the hot ashes.

Wh en she need food they bring it to her.

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HO\.,, a Tiwi perso n is HealtQ.Y_

The

Tiwi peopl

e

are happy because they all ,.ent out gathering

some

bush foods such as palm f

ruits,

mi1ngroves worms, ch:i.cky worms, crabs, perry wrinkles, cockles

,

wallaby, musc

les,

possums, bandicoots and other bush

foods.

TIWI Cures for Illness

I ic~1Jache

Chc:-;t pc1rn .:rnJ

head

Scire

1

r.outh

-

bab

i

es

Sores

Chest

lnfectj

on Di:1rrhoe;:i

lJrim

r

Tract i

nfection Sores

Sore

Thro:.i t

C

h

est Infect

ion

Chest Infect

i

on

I I I I I I I l

r J

O.JRE

i Cut each toe and let the blcxx:l. out.

Sna.11 cuts on the forehead to let the bad blcxx:l. run out then put fire on the blcod

Tie the affected part with pandanus string ( Miyarti)

Mother cuts her skin

and

puts the blcxx:l.

on her nipple-the baby then drinks it.

Wash the affected area with breast milk.

Sit the baby

in

:mangrove mud or cover him in it.

Bile £ran the gallbladder of a wallaby or

fXJSsum.

Jimijinga - (a type of

^gum

tree) (a)

Chew

the leaf raw.

(b) Boil the leaves

then

drink

the

juice or wash in it.

Waluwalinga - (Green ants nest.) Boil it then drink it.

Timirrarringa - (W::loly butt tree)

Cut out a piece of the inside bark, snash it up, :toil it until the water goes r ed , then let it C(X)l and drink it and wash in it.

Mijinga - (Tree at the edge of the rrangroves)

Boil the leaves then drink it.

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Chest Jnfection Tuhcrculosis lli:1rrhoe:1

'-ic;tl> i l'S

i:cvcr

Co lJ or

C hest ln f cct jon

D i arrhoea

Infl u enza

I I I

I I I J I

Miparri yi - (Fan

palm)

(a) Chew

the

raw stem.

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(b) Snash

the

stan,

soak

it overnight then toil it

and drink

it.

(c) Mix

the

raw stan with mney and eat it.

(d)

Bake the

stan then chew ic.

(e) The leaf is used

to

fOke a certain type of t,ee's wax to get

the

honey out.

(f ) This is the leaf which was used traditionally to cut the umbilical cord at birtr:.

Tarripilima -

(Snall

tree)

Cut a piece of bark, roil it and then wash in it.

Murinyini - (Wattle tree)

Boil the leaves

and

wash in it.

Mulani - (A grass)

Boil the grass and wash in it.

While it is toiling the steam makes a very effective inhalation.

Mowkatinga -

(A

vine) (a) Che,...; the leaf.

(b) Boil

the

leaves and

drink

it and wash in it.

Pukilijipa -

(A

mangrove tree)

Put the bark in a tin with water overnight and wash in it in the rrorning.

If anybody ask

anyone

for anything such as foods and

money, and

if

they didn't give

it

to

this person. This

person

will be

bitten by any

animals

such

as crocodil

es, snakes, scorpions, and centipedes.

And also they might have a car accident or any oth

er accidents.

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100

'10

~

7 0

bO

7P

!p

3o

.lO

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THESE />RE THE NLJ,1BER (PERCENT) OF PEOPLE \·/ITH PROBL8"1S

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FEELING THE ULNAR NERVES FOR LEPROSY (H.D.)

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LISTENING TO CHEST SOUNDS

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RESU LT S OF TESTS AND EXAM I NATI ON S

1304 people were seen at the TlWI survey but some people were on the m.J.inland or out bush. 64 of the people seen were not THH people, but all had lived on the islands most of their lives.

looked for and examined are listed below:

Height Wei

ght

Birth Weight

H

ead

circumference Haemoglobin

Blood

Pressu

re VDRL

Eyes Ea rs N

ose Teeth

Lung

s

Hca r-L

Abdomen

Sk

in

N

erves Le

pros

y

Urine

Sm oking and Drin

k

ing habits

The main things we

We h.:.ivc made very short notes about most of them and we have put the numbers of people on page 16, near the end of this book.

_ti_e_J_g.b_t~_)Je i qJ_1__t and Head Ci rcumf er enc e:

The main things we learnt here were:

1. How to weigh people properly. 2. How t

o

record weights and heights.

3. We found

out

if chi

ldr

en were underweight and did something about it.

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Ha emo g l obi n:

We did 1142 tests and we only found 33 people with anaemia.

very good and is much better than it was about 20 years ago.

The things we learnt here were:

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This is

1. GOOD HYGIENE IS IMPORTANT TO CONTROL HOOKWORM, WHICH CAUSES

ANAEMIA.

2. YOUNG BABIES AND CHILDREN BECOME ANAEMIC IF THEY ARE NOT FED WELL.

Blood Pressure:

We

took the blood pressure of 685 adults. 199 people had high blood pr

e

ssure.

the

heart.

This is not so good. It worries us because it can damage

VD R L :

We did 657 VDRL

t

e

sts.

Only

11 were abnonnal and most of these were

in yutrng people OL:

tween

16 and 3 5

yea rs old.

i Y ~~- :

\.Je loc,ked at 1026

people.

88

had poor sight. This

was mostly hccc1use old

people had cataract.

Lhat some of

th

e

desert trib

e

s get.

We did not find serious trachoma

E ars :

We looked

at 974 people to see if anything

was wrong with their ears.

456

people had one or both ears abnormal. We are worried about the

ears

, specially in the school children and in young babies. We are doing special tests to find out why they are so bad.

health workers on this job all the time.

There are two

Teeth:

Everyone had th

e

ir teeth looked at.

treated at our dental clinic.

People with

bad

teeth are being

Lungs:

We listene d to the chests of 744 people.

people smoke too much.

131 were abnormal. Maybe

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A.bdomen:

We looked at the abdomens of 7~5 people. We mainly looked for a big liver and we found this in 102 cases. Most of the big livers were found amongst the men who drink a lot of alcohol.

of the TIWI people in 1957 NO BIG LIVERS WERE FOUND.

S kin:

In a survey

T:1ere were ⁿ^o big ^problemshere excepc for ^scabiesand ^ringworm^.

~_9pro sv

_(H.D.):

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, examined 885 people £or leprosy. There £re 50 cases on the two

1,,, ::,,h' cc1sc.s t.Jcre found on the survey.

Lr i ne:

\,.' · J-,-,unci 22 pcop le \vith . 11~.:1r in lheir urine. This is new. Maybe r_!1is is hcc2usc of a ch:mgc in diet in recent years.

Re sul ts of ot her tests and details of these tests are shown on page 16.

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Wa ntarr i nguwi Ari ku ta ruwi Yar inapila

Wur a nj

avJi

Puk\.'1ari nyuv1i Par ruliyangipila

\,Ju

rw

i

pi

la

M i

ya

r tu

^\,1i

Tarn

i

kuv1i Murupuv;u la

~\njiluw i

La

r ru wi

1

a Pun ga

1

uv/U

1

a Ar ri n

kuV·JU 1

a Ji y ijiwi Japijapuwi Kuwu rra

vJi

Takaringuvli

Wu

1

i nj u

wu i

1

a Pirrilawila Jilarruwi

TIWI TOTEMS

1Jasp

Y'ed uJooZ.y

butt

flower'

1yd ochr>e paint stingmy

J .r. 1,Y'e

mud .su.n

rand.a.nus fly1:ng fox cockatoo faUing rain

stone

stone

WI'Cn

mar•ch fly blood.wood

· muUet

big

mosqui.to smaller> mosquito

.jabim

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~. -

... 1 ,,•

.' : : '', :::.! t

:-_;ugo"Y'bag

':roccd·i le

Oy.sr.er i-iat.;:yi Sn.ake black B-ird

TIWI BUSH FOOD

Kitirika

Ma.rtuwunyini

Miputi

Kiriw-<lringa

Jukwarr inga Wurripiti

Yi\vllrli

~'-Ja.kij apa Pajipaj uwu Mirr.irnpi

.Minngatinga

Jip.vatirringa

Wuninga

Ma.rinyi Tarniki.J1i Yilinga Yuwirti

Kuntarninni

PiJ1··2:rma

Minta

~·:upwarna .Mur ang2 Pa.rt.arr inga 1-:ar.urli Yah.urnana Eur lama '-liriarri

Yi.ngwati

Yirrihpa.yi Mui-c:1.nsa

Pi liwini Pajinga Wakuwakini Jinaringa

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COMPUTER RESULTS OF THE TIWI SURVEY 1976 1977

1304 people were seen at the TIWI survey. 64 of those seen were not full Ti1,i. There are approximately 1700 TIWI people.

t·X .. 1/.J.TNAT IOt\. Number

of NU!'1ber Percentage

p eople examined

^AbnoY'mal

Haem oglobin 1142 33 2.8%

(less th an 1 OG './, )

Bloo d Pr essu re 685 adults 199 29%

V D

R L 657 11

1.

7%

Eyes

1026 88 8.6%

Ears

( 1976-77) 974 456 47%

( 195 7) 37%

Nose s (Atrophic) 711 68 10%

Lungs 744 131 18%

Heart (1976 - 77) 713 35 5%

( 1957) 0.3%

Abdomen (Li ver) 745 102 14%

Men 74 %

Heavy drin ke rs 70%

More details are available at the Department of Health. A detailed list of each person's examination is also available.

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THANKS

We TIWI Health Workers did the survey ourselves. There were a lot of people who helped. The Council, the mothers, the fathers and the grandparents all helped. Some of the people came·up to the clinic even when it was raining heavily to be seen by us. We found we had so many records that the computer section of the Health Department had to help us here and we are most grateful to Mr. Peter Kretschmer for all the time he spent on the work. We would also like to thank the nurses: Sister Verona, Sister Sally, Sister Thecla, Sister Gay Corcoran, Mr. Mick Marshall. We would also like to thank the visitors -

}Ir. Melville Furness, Sister Joan Fong, Sister Eileen Jones, Dr. John

Hargrave, Dr. Pat Rebgetz, and the Aerial Medical Service. As you can see there were a lot of people doing the survey and we had to work as a team. We hope that we have not forgotten anyone.

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