Dugong Dugong

Clip 2: The hunt

Taken from the documentary Dugong Dugong (1980)

Original title classification not known – this clip chosen to be PG

Please be aware that this clip may contain the names, images and voices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who may now be deceased.

Curator’s clip description

Two brothers take to the water in a small boat. They crash through the ocean in search of the dugong.

Curator’s notes

The imminent killing of the dugong is near as the brothers, who are descended from a respected dugong hunter, have prepared their hunting gear. Depending on how one feels about the dugong, this scene can be either exhilarating or uneasy.

Romaine Moreton, curator

Teachers’ notes

provided by The Le@rning Federation

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This clip shows Lawrence and Nicholas Dugong on a small motor dinghy at sea, hunting for dugong and marine turtles. In voice-over Lawrence explains how the brothers inherited their surname from their father, who was given the name because he was a good dugong hunter. Lawrence prepares a harpoon and explains how important hunting dugong and marine turtle is to the Lardil people’s culture. Towards the end of the clip, the brothers interrupt their dugong hunt to follow turtle tracks along the beach to find eggs.

Educational value points

Hunting dugong (Dugong dugon) and collecting turtle eggs are important activities for the Lardil people of Mornington Island in the Gulf of Carpentaria. Their importance stems from the history of dugong and turtle as major food sources when the people ‘didn’t know anything about bullock meat or any other meat’ and from the sharing of the meat and eggs with community members as part of a network of kinship and social obligation.

In the clip the Dugong brothers continue long cultural traditions when they draw on the resources of their country. While they hunt the dugong in a modern dinghy with an outboard motor, the harpoon that Lawrence is seen preparing follows the traditional design of a two-pronged head connected to a wooden shaft. When collecting turtle eggs, they scrutinise the sand for tracks and dig up the eggs by hand.

Most of the world’s dugong population lives in northern Australian waters, generally in warm shallow waters to 15 m in depth, particularly sheltered inshore and reef areas where they can feed on extensive beds of seagrass. Dugongs live for up to 70 years, are up to 3 m in length and can weigh up to 400 kg. Females produce one calf every three to seven years after a gestation period of one year and nurse their calves for the first year or two of life.

The turtle eggs in the clip are probably those of the green turtle (Chelonia mydas) or the Olive Ridley turtle (Lepidochelys olivacea). Marine turtles have long life expectancies, taking 20 to 50 years to reach maturity. They spend most of their lives at sea, but resurface to breathe and return to their beaches to lay eggs. Marine turtles lay 50 to 130 eggs per clutch depending on the species.

Australian federal and state legislation recognise the importance of hunting and fishing in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander societies and allow for the hunting of dugong and the collection of turtle eggs by local Indigenous people subject to various restrictions. In 1980 the Indigenous exemptions from total hunting and collection bans were known as ‘sea closures’ and, as described in the clip, one such exemption applied to the Mornington Island area.