From time immemorial the place where the healing tree is today has been Gija country. Gija have always looked after their Country (or traditional lands) and Country has always looked after them. The coming of European colonists to this Country, many from Queensland where violence towards Aboriginal people was endemic and accepted, brought with it their violent and aggressive attitude for Gija people. Why? For allegedly killing the introduced cattle that destroyed their traditional food and water sources. In reality it was simply to get the Gija away from cattle production on their own Country. Massacres where hundreds of Gija were shot down have been documented as having taken place across the East Kimberley on many stations around Warmun. Artists and historians have called these proven events the ‘Killing Times’. Captured Gija were put in heavy neck chains, forced to walk up to 400 km chained together and often whipped and beaten by local European Police, stockmen and pastoralists before being imprisoned for up to three to five years.
(Reference: Chris Owen Every Mother’s Son is Guilty: Policing the Kimberley Frontier of Western Australia 1882 – 1905. UWA Publishing 2016. pp 269-270, 302-303, 362-365, 372.)
Even those who did not commit any of these alleged crimes were often imprisoned. At time the Gaolers and Magistrates did not even know who was being imprisoned and gave prisoners the wrong name and wrong sentence. Not all Europeans were cruel and unkind but it is a historic fact that this happened.
The Aboriginal Offenders Act 1883 (amended 1892) meant that pastoralists in the Kimberley could take away the freedom of Gija and flog them with a whip (The ‘Cat O’ Nine Tails’) under this law. Local Pastoralists, acting as Justices of the Peace, could act as judge, jury and flogger. Policemen, although it was not an official police duty, would also flog local Aboriginal people and some were even called ‘flagellators’ – or floggers. In some cases Gija were punished for conducting traditional grass fires (that were used to drive local game out as a food source and regenerate the soil ) – looking after their own country. The trees that Gija were tied to or chained to became known as ‘whipping trees’. A number of these trees are well known to Gija and still stand in the country around Warmun. One of these whipping trees stood for a long time at this place but it is important to note that it is not the only whipping tree. There is strong oral history as well as archival history outlining the truth of whipping trees on Gija country.
At this place the grandmother of the Elder, the late Hector Sandaloo was chained and flogged while she was heavily pregnant. Accounts differ as to why she was punished. Some say because she stole flour or bread from a local ration station. Others that she was punished for being ‘wild and uncontrollable’. These accounts state that after being chained to this tree she escaped and later gave birth to a baby in a nearby creek bed. She died shortly after and that baby was Hector Sandaloo’s mother.
When local Gija elders and the Sisters of St Joseph established Ngalangangpum (Mother and Child) School in May of 1979 it was Hector’s wish that the school be established facing the tree. In an act of extraordinary grace and forgiveness he said:
“This is our place
This is the heart, this bloodwood tree.
At this place we remember the story of suffering,
being chained and "belted"
At this place we remember
and we forgive.
Now we walk on together.”
Drawing on his deep faith Hector turned this place of inhumanity and hate into one of forgiveness, healing and love. At this place Gija children were often taught how to forgive and treat each other with kindness and respect.
In March of 2011 the community of Warmun was devasted with a flood that damaged many buildings and displaced a whole community. Ngalanganpum School was damaged by the floodwaters and needed to be rebuilt. As a result of this flooding the Whipping Tree died and over time became a danger to the school community. After extensive community consultation with family, school and community a commemorative plan was made. In October of 2024 the tree was lopped with the sawdust kept to be put on the graves of Hector Sandaloo. Slices of the tree were kept for a memorial artwork to be created.
