19/04/2019
Had a very special find on the property during The Way of Nature retreat ♥️
In celebration of Noongar craftswomanship and the strength and resourcefulness of Noongar women, here’s some information about Noongar women’s hold-all carry-bags, known generally as the coot or goot in the south-eastern Noongar nations, and coota, goota, goto, koto or kooda-kooda in the south-west and northern Noongar nations.
From Rev, J. Smithies; January 1841
‘The women have one small bag made of kangaroo skin with a sling to throw over the shoulders, in which they carry their little child. They also have a sort of household bag, made in the same way and of the same material, carried on their back. They use this to carry wilgie and other household goods from place to place so that wherever they are they can make their home.’
George Grey, 1839
‘A child or two sits in bags upon their mothers’ shoulders, and in the deep recesses of these mysterious bags they carry a variety of articles.
The contents of a Noongar woman’s bag are:
1. A flat stone to pound roots with;
2. Earth to mix with the pounded roots; [Note 1]
3. Quartz, for the purpose of making spears and knives;
4. Stones for hatchets;
5. Prepared cakes of gum, to make and mend weapons and implements;
6. Kangaroo sinews to make spears and to sew with;
7. Needles made of the shin-bones of kangaroos, with which they sew their cloaks, bags, etc.;
8. Possum fur to be spun into waist belts;
9. Shavings of kangaroo skins to polish spears etc.;
10. The shell of a species of mussel to cut hair etc.;
11. Noongar knives;
12. A Noongar hatchet (kodj, kodja);
13. Pipe-clay;
14. Red ochre, or burnt clay;
15. Yellow ochre;
16. A piece of paperbark to carry water in;
17. Waistbands and spare ornaments;
18. Pieces of quartz which the Noongar doctors have extracted from their patients, and thus cured them from diseases; these they preserve as carefully as Europeans do relics.
19. Banksia cones (small ones) or pieces of a dry white species of fungus to kindle fire with rapidly and to convey it from place to place;
20. Grease, if they can procure it from a whale, or from any other source;
21. The spare weapons of their husbands, or the pieces of wood from which these are to be manufactured;
22. The roots, etc., which they have collected during the day.
Skins not yet prepared for cloaks are generally carried between the bag and the back, so as to form a sort of cushion for the bag to rest on.’
From Ethel Hassell; published in her book ‘My Dusky Friends’ [note 2]
‘Waymen’s shoulder bag or coot was constructed from a young male kangaroo’s skin doubled up at the hind legs which formed the band around her neck. The head part formed the flap to cover the mouth of the coot and the sides were securely sewn together with kangaroo-tail sinew. In the coot were all Waymen and Wynne’s household goods.’
‘The baby is not put in the bag but is placed between the boork (book, boka, booka – kangaroo-skin cloak) and the bare body of the mother, the arms out over the boork, the stomach on the mother’s back and head resting on the shoulder. When the baby requires nourishment the breast is lifted up to the shoulder. The child rests its head over the shoulder and feeds as the mother travels along. The boork goes over the mother’s head and neck leaving her arms free while the coot is put over the boork with the strap and helps to support the child. The coot contains all the household goods and food though Noongars carry very little in the way of food.’
‘To pass the time I asked Gimbuck to show me the contents of her kangaroo-skin bag (coot, goota, coota, goot) – I had been dying to see what was in it. After demurring a little she took it off and emptied it out onto the grass. As far as I can remember it contained the following:
1. Two needles – these were made from the shin bone of a kangaroo (yonger) which is a solid piece of bone, very hard with no marrow. The needles were about 18 to 20 centimetres long and 2 centimetres wide. One side of the needle was flat, the other was rounded. The rounded end was sharpened on a flat piece of stone and the other end was squared. The needle had no eye.
2. A bundle of dried sinews from kangaroos’ tails. These were rolled into a ring with an end drawn through to keep them in place just as we roll up a piece of thick twine.
3. Her tap (daab, dabba) or knife. This was longer than a man’s tap. It was a round piece of hard, well-seasoned wood with a lump of gum at the end into which was firmly embedded the front tooth from the lower jaw of the yonger. The tooth, a beautiful ivory, was placed sideways so as to get the greatest width and rubbed between two stones to make a very sharp edge. It was used for skinning, scraping and cutting any sinews. I have seen women skin a yonger with one of these knives as rapidly as a man with could do it with a steel knife.
4. Her cobal [Note 3] half-full of fur and her werpul or spinning sticks.
5. Evidently a wonderful treasure, a flattish, water-worn stone about the shape of a broad-bean and about twice as big – a meteorite, I fancy. I turned this over a few times and asked what it was. She explained it was a rain stone she had found the day before near the bed of the river… ‘
Note one:
In an article from https://anthropologyfromtheshed.com/project/geophagy-the-earth-eaters-of-lower-southwestern-australia/ , Ken and Barb McIntyre explain that Noongars were known to mix the roots of the bloodroot (bohn, born, meen, mynd) with pipe clay, or nutrient-rich earth from the insides of white ant nests to prevent diarrhoea resulting from eating the plant. Use of white clay (wilgie) containing kaolin (hydrous aluminosilicate) for its antidiarrheal properties was also noted amongst Aboriginal peoples of the Northern Territory and in certain parts of tropical Queensland.
Note 2:
The original typed manuscript of this book is on-line, though the edition published by the Hassell family in 1975 is not on line and very rare in print. If you would like to read an edited, updated and annotated version called ‘My Noongar Friends’, which describes Ethel Hassell’s interactions with Noongar people of Jerramungup in the 1870s and 1880s, and Noongar culture and knowledge, you can find it at
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ytyb7ytu9gyhp2b/MY%20NOONGAR%20FRIENDS.pdf?dl=0
Feel free to download and share or if you can’t access it and would like a copy, drop me an inbox with your email address and I will send you a copy.
Note 3:
A pouch made from the stomach (cobal, gobble) skin of a possum (coomal)
