SECOND YINHAWANGKA CLAIM TO GO THROUGH

Children visiting their ancestral country. All photos courtesy Julie Walker.

GEOFF VIVIAN

In the Pilbara, a long-awaited Native Title determination is due to be handed down this week.

The Yinhawangka Gobawarrah determination area takes in part of Ashburton, Meekatharra and Upper Gascoyne Shires.

The Nyimbili Range.

Julie Walker said her family had been waiting 20 years for the news.

“My old dad’s name is Nyimbili Tommy, he was a Mapan man. like a holy man,” she said. “In the Nyimbili Range, he was born there anong with my Grandmother Maggie Bimba. My Grandmother was born at that Spring Hall, Bimba Spring besider the Nyimbili Range. What we’ve been wanting to do for a long time is to have it protected, preserved from mining.”

Julie Walker at the Minner stockyard her father Nyimbily Tommy built.

Ms Walker said the Nyimbili Range on Rocklea Station was of huge significance to her people.

“It has rock art,” she said. “It’s the only place I know where the bush tobacco is, it has a night spring and Aboriginal women had children there. But it’s a culturally significant place and it’s a place where my old dad got his spritual powers from.”

The determination is due to be handed down in Perth on Friday.

Several of Julie Walker’s family members are buried here.