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 Ronnie HarriganRonnie descends from the Guugu Yimithirr clan of his father and the Kuku Yalangi clan of his mother. Ronnie was one of eight children.
His father Jack was a stockman who worked around the Cape. Jack was
also a Guugu Yimithirr medicine man, a role passed down through
generations of his family. Ronnie's mother, Queenie was Jack's
second wife who bore four children. Sadly she died when Ronnie was
six. Ronnie was then left in the care of his aunties in Bloomfield,
now known as Wujal Wujal.When he was 13, Ronnie went to live miles away in Starkey station. The couple who ran it, Charlie and Joyce King, were good friends of his dad's and welcomed young Ronnie and cared for him. They had three girls and one boy of their own. Ronnie's older brother was also working there at the time. In Starkey he went to school and worked on the station during school holidays. Ronnie went to school until Grade 7. When Ronnie was 18, he decided he would leave Starkey to go back and be reunited with his family. The Kings were very sad and told him they didn't want him to go. Ronnie was also sad to leave them.  Ronnie then made the long
way to Wujal Wujal which in those days was accessible by ferry
through Rossville. When he got off the boat, he looked for his
father Jack, who was then fetched from the mill where he was
working at the time. When Jack came to meet him, Ronnie could
see that his father was eagerly and curiously trying to find the
son he hadn't seen in eight years amongst the people there. Then
when Ronnie said to his father, "I'm your son", Jack
looked at him for a moment, and with recognition replied,
"You're my son". It was a very emotional event in both
men's lives.Ronnie then spent some time in Wujal Wujal getting reacquainted with his whole family - his dad, grandparents, aunties, uncles, siblings and the rest of his people. He also was able to relearn and speak his language.  Then after having re-established
his roots, it was time for Ronnie to go out for work. He then set
off to various cattle stations around Springvale and Laura. He
worked as a stockman, sometimes with his father, droving the cattle
to Mareeba for weeks on end. In the meantime, he would keep going
back to Wujal Wujal to be with his kin.In 1971, on one of his visits to the Hopevale show (rodeo), Ronnie met Rosie and fell in love. He was 21. After some time of courtship, they married in 19 May 1972. Ronnie then took his bride back to Cooktown to live, where at the time he was working at the meatworks. After this job, Ronnie worked up at the Cape Flattery mines for a couple of years. He would leave his young family in Cooktown for six weeks and come home for a one week break. Then the family moved not far from Cooktown to Rossville where Ronnie drove the school bus for three years. Later on he helped out with the corporation that his father founded, Gungarde. After this, he worked for State Health on its Aboriginal health program for fifteen years. With this job he travelled with the flying doctors all over the countryside to visit remote communities around the Cape. During the holidays, Ronnie would either go camping with his family or play in his band. He says he also spent a lot of time with his dad. Traditional MedicineRonnie is now a medicine man like his father. While he was alive, his father, Jack, passed his knowledge down to Ronnie and his older brother, who is now deceased. Ronnie says, "All my dad's great grandfathers, they were all medicine men".Now Ronnie is the one to practice his family's traditional medicine, a very secretive tradition. About his practice he says, "I can't say lot about it. I can only talk about the basic stuff. A lot of things are really deep and spiritual. One has to be ready for it". About taking on his dad's work he says, "My father used to do a lot of healing. My dad was getting old and I made up my mind that I wanted to learn". Ronnie took it up just before his dad passed away in 1997.  Ronnie's reputation has spread all
over the world. He says, "I've met a lot of people from
different countries". To this he refers to other healers that
have travelled from other places in Australia and around the world
to meet him. He says, "Other medicine men have come to visit
from Africa and overseas and around Australia. They are really
interested".He would get also lot of exchange students from overseas, "They come from Italy, Berlin, they go to Brisbane and go through the Great Barrier Reef Marine Parks people. They ring me up and they'd stay for a month. When they have to go they don't want to go, they want to stay. They come over they enjoy it". Ronnie's MusicWith the traditional medicine as well as the music, Ronnie says, "It's up to my boys. We don't push them into it". About starting out, Ronnie says,
"I taught myself music. I made my own guitar from fishing line
and old timber and just made noise. I used to muck around all the
time with music. I was still small when I got my first acoustic
guitar. My brother bought it from Cairns and he gave it to me. He
used to play music too. I used to observe him play. My father was a
bit of a muso too. He used to play the accordion".About teaching his boys music, he says, "When these fellows realised they wanted to do the same thing I was doing… I used to sit with them in the afternoon when I got home and play the guitar." Ronnie not only taught his own sons, he also taught and influenced many of his own band members. He says they all learned from each other. Ronnie recalls, "Gerhardt (Pearson) didn't know how to play guitar at first. Then I showed him things. And when he went to school in Brisbane, he went to music school down there. He would come back with more things. He was the youngest fellow in the band. Gerhardt would go away for work or study and coming back he'd say "Uncle Ronnie you learned another note." And I'd say, "You learned another note too". We would learn from each other". Throughout Ronnie's life, learning has been the key, whether for music, for medicine or for other things. Ronnie passes on this enjoyment of learning to his sons. |
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