Hati Marege was commissioned by the South Australian Primary Schools’ Festival of Music in 2007, as part of the song cycle ‘Southern Sky’, and was sung by over 12,000 children. The piece tells of a fascinating and often untold Australian history, the ancient trade link between the Yolngu people of Arnhem Land, Macassan sea-traders and China.
A complex and brilliant navigation system guided sea traders to Arnhem Land from Makassar (Indonesia) for many centuries prior to European arrivals. They came to trade the sea cucumber (Bech de mer/trepang) with the Aboriginals of Northern Australia, and the sought after delicacy would be transported all the way to China. Hati Marege is an Indonesian word meaning ‘Heart of Northern Australia’. The Yolngu people of North East Arnhem Land have many stories about the visitors from across the sea, and there is still much visual evidence. Indeed, the whole coastline is lined with tens of thousands of tamarind trees, planted long ago by the Muslim sailors for a valuable source of vitamin C. The Australian government in 1901 outlawed the trade relationship and yet the Yolngu people still talk of this time as the ‘Golden Age’. Many Yolngu words come from the Macassans; for example ‘Balanda’, from ‘Hollander’, which means ‘White person’.
Each wet season, on the North-West monsoons Maccasan trepangers would sail a fleet of Perahu south, and for three months there would be the collecting and drying of the sea worm, music and dance, ritual and ceremony. With the dry South-Easterlies months later, they sailed back to China, via the Philippines and South East Asia, to sell the highly sought Trepang in the markets. The Yolgnu word for the sea cucumber is ‘Dariba’ and the Chinese call it ‘Hai Shun’.
The song cycle consists of Hati Marege, Dreaming in the Sky and Southern Sky.
With thanks to Chester Schultz & Bernadette Walong for pronunciations of Yolngu and Macassarese Words
Paul would also like to acknowledge the Australian Historian Eric Rolls & the website www.manikay.com
