Beginning of a Dream

Almost every place in Australia has a rich Indigenous culture that often goes unnoticed, and Tamborine Mountain is no exception. Abigail Chaloupka is the owner of Tamborine Dreaming, among many other roles that fulfill her passion for our native history and is kind enough to share a little of it with us.

by Kyle Hitchmough

 

How long have you owned this store? How did you get started?

Tamborine Dreaming has been on Gallery Walk almost twenty years now. I come from an Indigenous background, grew up in the northern territory, and my father’s side of the family has been instrumental in indigenous arts and culture there. My mother’s side of the family were the originators of Granny Mac’s. When I came to this mountain, I knew it was a special place and went looking for information to try and understand how to pay respects in the old ways, and could not find it anywhere. I wanted to understand how to respect the area properly, and how to ask other people to respect it. In an attempt to understand the story, Tamborine Dreaming came about. There is a display painted on the concrete here that represents all the different tribal areas associated to this part of the world, with Tamborine Mountain in the middle.

How would you describe what it is you actually sell here?

The best of Australia. Honouring our indigenous arts, cul ture and roots, and also appreciating the things that are quality. Akubra, good quality hats, beautiful leather. Anything that is the essence of our country. Native oils, myrtles, tea trees, eucalypts, they’re anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, anti-viral, in a bottle. It’s ancient medicine. I sell ethical trade product where possible. I wrote and sat for the parliamentary inquiry into the proliferation of false Indigenous art products. I write and attend Indigenous chamber of commerce, all of these things in an attempt to try and understand how we can respect the area and still make a living.

Do you find some things sell more than others?

We have various seasons. School holidays it’s more of the $5 and $10 items, the toy things and bits and pieces. What keeps my doors open is selling a painting once a week. The Akubra hats, they don’t sell every day but when they do it’s a good value sale. The better quality product is not for everybody who walks in the door. If I had to choose just one product and say what we were, we’re a hat shop. But my heart is in the Indigenous art.

How is this part of the mountain significant in terms of indigenous culture?

We have a space of plateau that came from when Mount Wollumbin blew. Here, we are of the Yugambeh speaking tribes. That goes all the way from Logan to Beaudesert West to Binna Burra and Tweed, the Gold Coast and Broadbeach: all of these tribes are Yugambeh-speaking. They all used to travel through here, but nobody actually lived here. This is a place of visiting, of medicine. The water here is sacred, it’s medicine— it flows beautifully and we have it underground. People from all around knew that when it was dry you could come here for water – under the ground. The rainforest is like a medicine cabinet. Lots of women would visit for fertility reasons. From the east way, this place is called Jambreen. This refers to our native finger lime. The western mob call is Dumbirrin meaning ‘yam in the cliff’, because that tribe’s women used to come and dig for yams in the cliffs on the western side. This one area is actually three areas united as one.

You also do art classes here. Can you tell us more about that?

For years we’ve been doing retail, but our customers expected more. People want experiences, to access new parts of themselves, to try to build a spiritual connection. I work with Michelle, she’s a trained art therapist. Since last year we have been holding children’s art classes after school and during school holidays, and adult classes throughout the day. It’s been a really positive, engaging experience.

Do you find you have a more frequent kind of clientele?

I have much respect and interest from our internationals. People who have a little bit of compassion and understand we need to pay a little bit of respect, I have endless patience and time for. I have had international visitors who have come back to visit me four times. They save their purchasing of gifts to come and see me, and I get messages and postcards from all over the world, because they’re so grateful for being introduced to what Australia is about, a melting pot of all different cultures.

Are you a local to the area?

I’ve lived here and brought my kids up here for 21 years now. We are blessed to have such a gorgeous landscape. I would suggest we’re a pretty tight community. We’re a very unique group of people from all walks of life. There’s an arty kind of community here that really does need more supporting. They’re the ones who are a bit more grassroots. We’re very lucky people to live here in this beautiful space.

What do you enjoy most about doing this?

Educating people into understanding that we don’t own this space. We are custodians of it, and this comes with a huge responsibility, we don’t own this planet. There’s care to be taken. That is my absolute joy, when people get it and understand it. Quite often it can change the way they do things forever. The old ways are simple: you ask before you take, you take what you need, you say thank you, and you care so that you can ask to take again. It’s as simple as that, and it makes me happy when people get it.

 

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Or email the writer at kyle.hitchmough@hotmail.com, and follow me on Twitter @realcasualrvws.