by Ben Foley
Image Source: Karungkarni Art and Culture Centre
Four new Gurindji plant and animal websites have now been released including websites that feature Jurlaka, Bush Tucker, Bush Medicine and Yawu words. The websites began their life as printed posters. The Gurindji plant and animal posters project ran between 2014-2018 as a collaboration between non-Indigenous linguist Felicity Meakins (University of Queensland), Gurindji project facilitator Cassandra Algy (Karungkarni Art and Culture Aboriginal Corporation), Gurindji rangers (Murnkurrumurnkurru Central Land Council ranger group) and Gurindji Elders and Cultural Custodians, in particular Violet Wadrill.
The collection of four original posters won the 2018 Northern Territory Land Resource Management Award. The work and publication costs were funded by the Central Land Council (CLC) and also drew from botanical and animal identification work by Glenn Wightman. The projects were supported by a number of additional organisations including Karungkarni Art, University of Queensland
The poster data has been converted to RO-Crate format and published as static sites using LDaCA’s ro-crate-html-lite tool.
“We are proud to see our Elders Violet Wadrill, Biddy Wavehill and Topsy Dodd Ngarnjal on the main pages. These webpages will be increasingly important as we are losing our Kajijirri and Marlarluka (Old People). It means they can continue speaking to the ngumayijang (next generations).”
— Leah Leaman, Director of Karungkarni Art and granddaughter of Violet Wadrill
About each site
Image Source: Steve Parish
Jurlaka Audio on the Jurlaka site is provided by Violet Wadrill, born in 1942 and a traditional owner of Jutamaliny. It contains entries for around 20 individual birds including walukpin, jikirrij and karrkany. Each entry includes images and short stories.
Image Source: Penny Smith
Bush Tucker Audio on the Bush Tucker site is provided by Biddy Wavehill Yamawurr and Violet Wadrill. It contains entries for around 21 listings of edible plants such as kilipi and mintarraj. Each entry includes images and short stories of how the plants are found and eaten.
Image Source: Penny Smith
Bush Medicine Audio on the Bush Medicine site is provided by Biddy Wavehill Yamawurr, Connie Ngarmeiye, Kitty Mintawurr, Topsy Dodd Ngarnjal and Violet Wadrill. It contains entries for around 16 listings of medicinal plants such as yirrijkaji and tirnung. Each entry includes images and short stories of how the plants are used.
Image Source: David Morgan
Yawu Audio on the Yawu site is provided by Biddy Wavehill Yamawurr, Jimmy Manngayarri, Topsy Dodd Ngarnjal and Violet Wadrill. It contains entries for around 17 listings of fish including kunpulu and mipirri. Each entry includes images and short stories.
All four websites were created by Ben Foley and Abigail Davis. The information on each site remains the intellectual property of the Gurindji People under Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property (ICIP) protocols and cannot be used for commercial purposes without permission.