Australia for Kids: Living Between the Rainforest and the Reef

Yindali is part of the Kuku Yalanji people, who originate from the rainforest regions of North Queensland. Their ancestors settled in this part of Australia over 50,000 years ago. When they landed in tropical Australia, they discovered some of the oldest rainforests in the world. These rainforests stretch all the way to the sea. The Kuku Yalanji culture is built around a deep respect for nature, the land and knowledge of its cycles. This knowledge has been passed down through the generations — from the ancestors, elders, parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, brothers and sisters.

Yindali and her siblings have traditional Kuku Yalanji Aboriginal language names. These names are also called their totems. Yindali is the language’s word for forest kingfisher bird, Jarlun means ocean, and Jukarwarra means whirlwind. Australian Aboriginal spirituality has totems, which are inherited from members of the family and clan. A totem is a natural object, animal or plant, and connect people through their physical and kin relatedness. Totems are still important today in Aboriginal culture and are used as a way of continuing and maintaining connections with the land, the Dreamtime and their ancestors. 

Aboriginal people often passed on their knowledge through paintings, and the town of Laura–Quinkan Country, where Yindali’s ancestors are from, is famous for Aboriginal rock art galleries. These paintings were made on sandstone using charcoal or ochre.

In the podcast episode, Yindali talks about how to make ochre paint. Watch the video below to see Yindali painting with ochre.

Video: Andrea Gower

The dances tell stories of hunting, gathering and even animals. Here is a video of Yindali doing a gathering dance.

Video: Andrea Gower

Here is a video of Yindali’s younger brother Jukarwarra and the Gooliwana Bana dancers doing the cassowary dance.

Video: Andrea Gower

The didgeridoo is a traditional Aboriginal wind instrument made from wood. You hear it in most traditional Aboriginal songs. The first didgeridoos were made from eucalyptus branches that had been hollowed out by termites.

There are anywhere from 290 to 363 different Aboriginal languages in Australia and its surrounding islands. Yindali knows the Djabugay language of her ancestors. Here are a few important words that you can practice at home or in school.

Not too far from Crater Lakes National Park is Curtain Fig Tree National Park, the home of a 500-year-old strangler fig tree. The tree is nearly 165 feet (50 m) tall, which is about as tall as a 16-story building. The tree started as a seed landing on a branch of another tree and began growing. Over time, the roots started growing down to the forest floor, and the tree underneath died and fell over into another tree. The strangler fig tree continued to grow along that fallen tree. And as the roots stretched and grew, they started to look like a curtain. The curtain fig tree is now so wide that it would probably take 40 kids holding hands to circle the entire tree! Check out this video of the curtain fig tree. 

This part of North Queensland is also home to the oldest rainforest in the world, the Daintree Rainforest. It is estimated to be 180 million years old, which is tens of millions of years older than the Amazon Rainforest!

The Daintree Rainforest is home to thousands of species of birds and wildlife. Yindali and her family have spent a lot of time exploring the rainforest and its animals, including kingfisher birds, bush turkeys, tree frogs, tree kangaroos and cassowaries.

Cassowaries have unique calls, they make very low frequency rumbling sounds to alert others of their presence. Have a look at this video of a female cassowary at Mission Beach Cassowaries.

Yindali and her family recently went to the Great Barrier Reef on a vacation. They took a 2-hour boat ride out to the reef, where they were able to see the coral from the underwater viewing deck of the boat. Once at the reef, they put on their wetsuits and snorkel gear, jumped in to go exploring!