Mary Ann Coomindah


Mary Ann Coomindah or Maghroolara was a Karuwali/Mithaka woman who worked as a gdanja, healer, smoke telegrapher and domestic servant who was also well known for her singing skills. In the Mithaka language her name Maghaoolara means 'the Singer'.
She was the tribal sister of Moses Yoolpee.

Biography

Commindah was born in the Diamantina River region of Channel Country in Queensland where she was a part of the Emu Tribe. Very little is known of her early life before she began working for William and Laura Duncan at Mooraberrie Station in 1899. She was selected for service by Laura Duncan who trained her and she was working there when they had their first of four children who she helped raise and was a second mother to. It is also believed that she acted as a wet nurse to the children. Commindah's role within the family increased the longer she worked for the family and especially after William Duncan died in 1907; she was the head of the domestic staff.
One of the Duncan children was Alice Duncan-Kemp and Commindah recognised her interest in learning Mithaka lore and culture and she taught her much of her traditional knowledge and skills. She did this alongside others living at the station including Moses Yoolpee, Maggie Muttamurrie and her husband Bogie; Bogie was a respected hunter and tracker. It was Commindah who gave Duncan-Kemp her Mithaka name Pinningarra which translated as 'the Leaf Spirit' at a ceremony performed at Kulkia Hill.
Commindah was highly educated in tribal knowledge and, for it, was considered to be a polymath, particularly because of her understanding of smoke telegraphy which took years of training and intergenerational knowledge to master. The codes required to successfully interpret signals were precise, mathematical and cross-lingual.
In one incident with the girls Commindah had taken them on a day trip and, by the afternoon, they were from the homestead and she realised that there was a fire threatening them and their ability to return home. To protect the girls they hid together in a lake and ultimately had to protect the children with her body to prevent them being burned from falling ask and debris. During this incident she received second degree burns to her body and her charges were unharmed.
Commindah worked at Mooraberrie until her death in 1929 and her husband Bogie died soon after.

Legacy