Beryl Philp Carmichael – October 18 2020

Beryl is an Aboriginal heritage consultant, storyteller and writer. An elder of the Ngiyaempaa people, her traditional name is Yungha-dhu. She holds an Honorary Doctorate from Tranby Aboriginal College. Beryl has served on the National Parks and Wildlife Advisory Council, the Western Lands Advisory Council, and the New South Wales Reconciliation Council. Born, and educated until the age of 12, at the Menindee Mission, NSW, Beryl went to work on a series of properties around Menindee, married in 1953, had ten children, and as a result of her children experiencing racism at school, began giving lessons in Aboriginal culture and respect – work which she has continued with for 40 years. In 1975 she travelled to Sydney to register the Ngiyaempaa Housing Company on behalf of her community and for her decades of service, she has received a swathe of awards including the New South Wales Heritage Award, a meritorious award from the Minister of Education, and a Centenary of Federation award for community service. Beryl’s other works include Southern Cross (illustrated by Fern Martins), Fish Dreaming (illustrated by Greer Gamble), Clysteen (illustrated by Greer Gamble), Guwanyi nura ‘telling about country’ co-written with Raymond Davison, Jan Davison, Fay Nelson, Noeline Holten, Jenny Alcock, Cathy Pearsall and Margy Pitt, Robin’s plum duff co-written with Peta Lonsdale, and In the Footsteps of a Ngiyeempaa Elder. A documentary about her life, called Aboriginal Culture in the Murray-Darling Basin: Aunty Beryl’s story, was made in 1996.

Mayagarthi, Poems and Stories (by Yungha-dhu)
Self-published by Yungha-dhu Press, 1986; ISBN 9780958828703
Poetry and prose in English by Ngyampa author; also includes biographical and autobiographical notes and Ngyampa glossary. Even though her people were rounded up and put onto a mission, they never lost contact with their culture, heritage or language. Beryl was taught how to hunt for goannas and echidnas, collect grubs to use on fishing lines, learnt healing ointments and songs from her midwife / interpreter mother and tracking skills from the elders.
See also Readings from Mayigarthi – meaning ‘Black Sister Poems’, stories and memories of Beryl Philp Carmichael – ‘The Wind’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuRw7aY05fQ

Goanna, Rising Out of the Ashes (by Yungha-dhu) – Illustrated by Fern Martins
Indij Readers Limited, 2012; ISBN 9780987247247
Primary school age
Beryl was raised on the Old Menindee Mission Station and as an Elder, successfully facilitated culture camps for adults and children on the lands of her people. This book tells the story of one of those camps. When the boys and their mothers from nearby Wilcannia arrive on the old Menindee Mission on the Darling River to attend one of Aunty Beryl’s camps, they are unaware that their lives will be forever changed by their experiences. They are looking forward to catching fish, sitting around the campfire, and hunting for goanna. What they don’t bargain for is the goanna having some ideas of its own. A hilarious event in the lives of unsuspecting boys, who before their experience with Aunty Beryl, thought they knew everything!