The W&J Nagana Yarrbayn Cultural Custodians 

For the W&J First Nation to be strong and grounded in our rights we must continue to live and practice in direct connection to Country, culture and law.

It is the responsibility of the W&J Nagana Yarrbayn Cultural Custodians to sustain our group’s connection to, and presence on Country to maintain ongoing cultural custodianship of the land and waters, especially our sacred Doongmabulla Springs.

We are a self-determined group of Traditional Owners who maintain permanent presence on country to care for our lands and waters. Our role includes monitoring damage and destruction on our Country and holding those who harm our lands and waters to account. 

We will expose and prosecute environmental and cultural heritage breaches under State and Commonwealth laws wherever we find them.

Our role as cultural custodians derives from our laws and customs and our specific relationship to our Ancestor Dreaming. 

The W&J Nagana Yarrbayn Cultural Custodians are leading the way in the protection of Wangan and Jagalingou Country. We are resisting the exploitation of our natural and cultural resources to prevent the destruction of our cultural heritage and the impairment of our identity as a First Nation.

We are Tribal Warriors for the Wangan and Jagalingou people

The Wangan and Jagalingou people are the proud Traditional Owners of a vast area of land in central-western Queensland’.

For thousands of years, we have been custodians of this land and it is our responsibility to protect our land, water, people, history and totems. Our totem is the bee, or Kub-bah in our traditional language.

Our sacred connection starts at our place of birth. There, the child is given a representative animal, bird or reptile totem, either a social totem, or a dreaming totem. They are forbidden to eat such creatures or their eggs.

In our country, spiritual ancestors come up from under the ground and travel in and through the land at sacred sites associated with the Rainbow Serpent known as the Mundunjudra. The Rainbow Serpent has power to control Wangan & Jagalingou sites where our people are born into their bigan (Totem). This has been so since the beginning of the creation period.

The sacred beliefs of our culture, our religion, is based on where the song lines run through our country. These song lines connect us to Mother Earth. Trees, plants, shrubs, medicines, waterholes, animals, habitats, aquifers – all these have a special religious place in our land and culture. Our spirits and the spirits of our ancestors travel above, through, and under the ground of our country.

They dwell there indefinitely.