​The Tiger Shark (Ngurdungurdu) (2009)

The Tiger Shark (Ngurdungurdu) (2009)

The Tiger Shark (Ngurdungurdu) Dreaming belongs to the Rrumburriya clan. The Tiger Shark leaves his country at Dumbarra in present day Queensland carrying with him a bundle of cycad nuts. After a long weary journey and an argument with the Rock Wallaby (a-Buluwardi) Dreaming he arrives at Manankurra on the Wearyan River.

© The Yanyuwa People Borroloola, Northern Territory, Australia, 2009.

Contents

  1. The Tiger Shark (Ngurdungurdu) Dreaming
    1.1 Meaning and significance for the Yanyuwa people
    1.2 Path of the Dreaming
    1.3 Telling Dreaming stories
  2. Making of the animation
    2.1 Consulting and collaborating
    2.2 Storyboarding
    2.3 Animating
    2.4 Release and reception
  3. The Yanyuwa language
    3.1 Background and geographic distribution
    3.2 Male and female dialects
    3.3 Avoidance, ritual and island speech
    3.4 Current status
  4. Material culture and practices
    4.1 Cycad treating
    4.2 Paperbark bundle
    4.3 Fighting stick
    4.4 Feather head-dress
  5. Natural history
    5.1 Tiger shark and hammerhead shark
    5.2 Rock wallaby
    5.3 Cycad palm and white barked eucalyptus
  6. References
  7. Further reading

1. The Tiger Shark (Ngurdungurdu) Dreaming

1.1 Meaning and significance for the Yanyuwa people

The animation depicts the story of the Tiger Shark Dreaming, showing the journey that the Tiger Shark Spirit Ancestor takes as he travels to Manankurra carrying a bundle of cycad nuts. The Tiger Shark Spirit Ancestor is associated with the Rrumburriya clan of the Yanyuwa people; members of this clan are the descendants and living embodiments of the Tiger Shark.1 Manankurra is located twelve kilometres upstream on the eastern bank of the Wearyan River; for the Yanyuwa people it is wirrimalaru awara or ‘big place’.2 The food of the cycad palm can be described as ma-wurrama, the food of authority, and sometimes but more rarely, ma-wirrimalaru, the food of great spiritual power.3 This Dreaming story is therefore highly significant for the Yanyuwa people because it tells the story of how the Tiger Shark brings the cycad palm food to Manankurra, how he names places in the land and the sea, and how he makes Yanyuwa law, ceremony and song.

The Yanyuwa word for Dreaming is Yijan. Yanyuwa Elder Mussolini Harvey describes the significance of Dreaming stories in this way:

White people ask us all the time, what is Dreaming? This is a hard question because Dreaming is a really big thing for Aboriginal people. In our language, Yanyuwa, we call the Dreaming Yijan. The Dreamings made our Law or narnu-Yuwa. This Law is the way we live, our rules. This Law is our ceremonies, our songs, our stories; all of these things came from the Dreaming. One thing that I can tell you though is that our Law is not like European Law which is always changing – new government, new laws; but our Law cannot change, we did not make it. The Law was made by the Dreamings many, many years ago and given to our ancestors and they gave it to us.

The Dreamings are our ancestors, no matter if they are fish, birds, men, women, animals, wind or rain. It was these Dreamings that made our Law. All things in our country have Law, they have ceremony and song, and they have people who are related to them.

The Dreamings were the first to dance our ceremonies and sing our songs. Some of these ceremonies are dangerous, they are secret and sacred, women and children are not allowed to see them. Others are not secret, everyone can look at them, but they are still sacred.

We call our ceremonies Yarrambawaja. These ceremonies are for dead people, to take their spirits back to their country, to send them home where they come from; we send them back to their Dreaming.

The Dreamings named all of the country and the sea as they travelled, they named everything that they saw. The Dreamings gave us our songs. These songs are sacred and we call them kujika. These songs tell the story of the Dreaming as they travelled over the country, everything the Dreaming did is in the songs, the country is in the songs, the names of people are in the songs. These songs that we sing in the ceremony are very long, they can take many days of all night singing to finish them. These songs are like maps, they tell us about the country, they are maps which we carry in our heads.

As the Dreamings travelled they put spirit children over the country, we call these spirit children ardirri. It is because of these spirit children that we are born, the spirit children are on the country, and we are born from the country.

In our ceremonies we wear marks on our bodies, they come from the Dreaming too, we carry the design that the Dreamings gave to us. When we wear that Dreaming mark we are carrying the country, we are keeping the Dreaming held up, we are keeping the country and the Dreaming alive.

That is the most important thing, we have to keep up the country, the Dreamings, our Law, our people, it can’t change. Our Law has been handed on from generation to generation and it is our job to keep it going, to keep it safe.4

1.2 Path of the Dreaming

The journey of the Tiger Shark Dreaming starts at Dumbarra, which is on the coast approximately 200 kilometres east of Vanderlin Island.

Figure 1. Map showing distance from Dumbarra to Vanderlin Island (Credit: Google Maps)

Dumbarra is in the lands of the Gangalidda people, in present day Queensland. The Gangalidda people also tell Shark Dreaming stories about the Shark Spirit Ancestor travelling westwards from Dumbarra to Manankurra.5

After fighting with the fish and the sharks at Dumbarra, the Tiger Shark places the cycad palm food in a paperbark parcel, travels down to the sea, and travels westwards, following the coast, looking for his own Rrumburriya country. The following map shows the route taken by the Tiger Shark when he finds his Rrumburriya country, after his long and tiring journey carrying the cycad palm food up the coast.

Figure 2. Map showing route taken by the Tiger Shark (Credit: John Bradley)

The map also shows the twisted coastline on the west coast of Vanderlin Island, that is formed by the Rock Wallaby striking the land with her fighting stick.

1.3 Telling Dreaming stories

The telling of Dreaming stories in communal settings is an extremely important part of Yanyuwa culture and Yanyuwa life. In Singing Saltwater Country, John Bradley describes his experience hearing the Tiger Shark Dreaming story told by senior Yanyuwa woman Ida Ninganga, at Borroloola one morning as cycad nuts were being prepared:

Ninganga finished her story, and the women were quick to make comments that warmly affirmed her telling: ‘Yuwu bardibardi, rra-gnatha marruwarra, marringaya barra wuka, ki-wankalawuwarriya li-luku (Yes, old lady, my cousin, they are wonderful words that come from the old days, from our ancestors who are dear to us).’ Or ‘Yinda a-ngirriki a-bardibardi, kalngi barra jirna-nanji (Oh you are too skilful, old lady—with truth I am telling you this).’ Some of the women added their own comments concerning certain parts of the story, such as the incident with the rock wallaby and the importance of the shark to Manankurra and the cycad palms that grew there. … Ninganga’s telling of the story was an example of how senior people find social situations, within their own space and under their control, where they can maintain heritage by relating Dreaming narratives or important episodes from the human past.

For example, the occasion when Ninganga was present when cycad food was being prepared: that food is intimately associated with the Tiger Shark and she as jungkayi (guardian for the country and the Law of the Tiger Shark) had the authority to speak. She told the narrative of the Tiger Shark with the full art of the orator. At times such as this, when stories are told well, the audience appears to meditate upon the words, occasionally offering one or two statements of agreement or support. It is in this way that speakers gather people together and convey a shared sense of their Law and the kinship that is derived from both human and non-human ancestry.

Such oratory creates a sense of wellbeing; it brings the past into the present and creates a numinous genealogy of connection. It distils knowledge of country that shows it to be good, holding great powers, and immanent with human presence—past, present and future. For young people such times may be rare, but when they occur they provide that sense of wellbeing critical to the development of strong identity, especially in times of uncertainty. It gives to old and young alike a lived sense of the Dreaming, of powerful ‘old people’ (li-wankala), and a vision of country that is familiar and full of meaning, that desires to be visited and moved through, that is enchanted and powerful.6

2. Making of the animation

2.1 Consulting and collaborating

‘The Tiger Shark (Ngurdungurdu)’ was produced in 2009 as part of the Yanyuwa animation project, a partnership between Yanyuwa elders (li-Yanyuwa li-Wirdiwalangu) and Monash University which produced seven Yanyuwa animations and formed the initial impetus for Wunungu Awara. The Yanyuwa animation project was developed through the kin relationship and friendship for over thirty years between Yanyuwa elders and John Bradley, as a progression of their endeavours to preserve the knowledge contained in their language. Yanyuwa elders were interested in Bradley’s drawings of their stories and songs, but it was when he illustrated the dreaming stories as an atlas that the Yanyuwa declared they needed ‘images that moved’ for their stories to be told properly. This was where animation as a tool for language continuation originated, as a way of preserving what in the West we might call cultural heritage, but what the Yanyuwa called Law.7

The choice of 3D animation format was chosen after the li-Yanyuwa li-Wirdiwalangu viewed every form of animation available and they did not like any of them for various reasons. One day Dr Tom Chandler at Monash University’s SensiLab approached John Bradley and asked if he had anything he would like animated using 3D animation. Chandler had been using 3D animation for archaeological recreations of Angkor Wat. These were shown to the Yanyuwa and they said yes. This was the style of animation they wanted based on the 3D animation’s ability to translate their stories and characters, and rebuild country in a way that was relevant to them; they wanted their stories to ‘look real.’ The Yanyuwa decided the way to test the 3D animation format, and the academic team that was to animate the story.8

In this partnership between Yanyuwa elders and Monash University, the Yanyuwa people retain ownership and copyright over the animation and the cultural knowledge and property contained with it, as well as exercising control over the style of animation and the timeline of the project, and have final approval of the completed animation before it is made available to the public. This form of partnership and collaboration has been used as a model for the individual partnerships that Wunungu Awara has since developed with other communities Australia-wide.

2.2 Storyboarding

The following images show illustrations and storyboards developed by John Bradley in collaboration with the Yanyuwa people over a number of years, which were then used to create ‘The Tiger Shark (Ngurdungurdu)’.

Figure 3. Storyboard illustration of the Tiger Shark fighting the other fish (Credit: John Bradley)

Figure 4. Storyboard illustration of the Tiger Shark leaving cycad palm food at Vanderlin Rocks (Credit: John Bradley)

Figure 5. Storyboard illustration of the Tiger Shark meeting the Rock Wallaby (Credit: John Bradley)

2.3 Animating

‘The Tiger Shark (Ngurdungurdu)’ was animated by Brent D. McKee and Chandara Ung, under the supervision of SensiLab’s Tom Chandler. Using the storyboards developed by John Bradley, as well as 2D photo references and Google maps satellite images, Brent and Chandara recreated the landscapes and seascapes of Dunbarra, Vanderlin Island, Manankurra and the Wearyan River as a virtual 3D world, including the colours, textures and quality of light that are found there. Brent and Chandara also created 3D models for all the animals that appear in the animation, sculpting not only their external appearances but also the internal skeleton so that each animal can be brought to life through animation. Finally, these landscapes and characters were compiled into a finished movie file by Brent, who oversaw the creative process involved in the animation, visual design, rendering and sound recording.9 When completed, the animation was sent to the Yanyuwa community for input and approval.

2.4 Release and reception

When the first Yanyuwa animations were completed and shown to Yanyuwa families, Graham Friday, a senior Yanyuwa elder, reflected on the animations as a body of work, and said:

Those animations are our Law, Yanyuwa Law; it is not Law for any other group of people in Australia, no one else. Our old people are dying, they have died too quick, so we had to think of ways to teach our kids so they can know something about their country. We are really happy for these animations, young people, old people we really like them. Let me tell you, people on the outside looking at them, people on the outside, ‘whitefellas or blackfellas’ they have nothing to say, nothing at all, those animations, well, that’s the choice we make, we have to do what we can, we do not want our kids to sit around with nothing in their heads.10

These sentiments were echoed by Dinah Norman, the 85-year-old matriarch of the Yanyuwa community and one of the last fluent speakers of Yanyuwa:

I sit here and I look at these young people, all of them, my grandchildren and all these other children, they do not speak Yanyuwa, they do not hear Yanyuwa, they have not seen the ceremonies of the old people, they do not know, they are in ignorance of all these things, some of them know the country because their parents and grandparents take them, but still they do not know the Law, the Law from the old people. I sit with my grandchildren and I look at the stories (animations) on TV, I am so happy that they are there, I teach my children the Law from the country when they are watching, we are talking about the country and family, maybe, maybe they will learn some of the stories, a little bit of the Law.11

Dinah Norman’s son Leonard Norman was present when his mother spoke these words, and he followed up by saying:

You know those animations are really important to us Yanyuwa people, they are helping to keep our country strong, as kardirdi [mother’s brother] Graham said we are making our own choices about how to teach kids. . . . I am telling you, no one, not one European or Aboriginal has anything to say about this, we make choices, if they are right or wrong we make them.12

3. The Yanyuwa language

3.1 Background and geographic distribution

The Yanyuwa language is part of the Pama-Nyungan group of languages. It is the only surviving language in the Warluwaric language sub-group: the Warluwara, Wagaya, and Bularnu languages are all now considered extinct.

Figure 7. Linguistic boundaries of the Yanyuwa language (Credit: John Bradley)

This map shows the approximate linguistic boundaries of the Yanyuwa language in the southwest Gulf of Carpentaria.

3.2 Male and female dialects

A unique feature of the Yanyuwa language is its system of male and female dialects. This is a system whereby men speak one form of the language and women another form. Men listen to the way the women speak but do not speak in the way the women do and vice-a-versa.13 The only time a man may use the women’s speech forms is when he is quoting something a woman has said and likewise the women only use the male forms when quoting a male speaker. The Yanyuwa give no reason for these two dialects, only saying, “It’s just the way it is… no other reason!”14

3.3 Avoidance, ritual and island speech

In the Yanyuwa language, everyday words are replaced with particular synonyms in certain situations:

  • Avoidance speech – These are words which are used when speaking to or in hearing distance of various relatives. For example, a male speaker must use this dialect when speaking to his sisters, female cousins, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, father-in-law, mother-in-law and his nieces and nephews if their father has died. A female speaker uses it her brothers, male cousins, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, father-in-law, mother-in-law and her nieces and nephews if their mother has died.15
  • Ritual speech – During times of ceremony and other ritual occasions certain everyday words are replaced by words which are used only during the period of that ceremony. These words are sometimes the names of ritual objects or ceremony names, as well as names for various activities which occur during the performance of the ritual.16
  • Island speech – There are a certain number of words in Yanyuwa which people refer to as an “island word” or a “mainland word”. When the Yanyuwa people are on the islands there are certain words which are used to replace the mainland terms.17

3.4 Current status

The Yanyuwa language has been identified as ‘severely endangered’ by the Endangered Languages website.18 In the 2010 book Singing Saltwater Country: Journey to the Songlines of Carpentaria, authored in conjunction with Yanyuwa families, John Bradley wrote, “At the time of writing this book I know of only eleven people alive who can still speak Yanyuwa”.19 Today there are only five semi- to full-time speakers.20 Bradley has been working with the Yanyuwa people of Borroloola for over thirty years, and through this kinship and friendship relationship the old people have begun to record their language in the hope that it could be used to re-engage the younger generations in their language.21 The Yanyuwa people and Bradley have developed a number of cross-generational knowledge sharing and cross-cultural communication tools, including illustrated bilingual renderings of kujika, a dictionary and cultural resource, an illustrated atlas, and a sound archive. The 3D animations of Yanyuwa kujika, stories and songs on this website are a continuation of this project to share and preserve the Yanyuwa language and Yanyuwa knowledge for future generations.

4. Material culture and practices

4.1 Cycad treating

The animation shows a paperbark bundle of cycad palm kernels soaking in a deep hole at the bottom of the Wearyan River, with froth rising from the bundle, as well as paperbark bundles of cycad kernels lying on the eastern bank of the river. The cycad palm, and the edible kernel harvested from the cycad palm, are both highly significant for the Yanyuwa people. Along with the dugong and sea turtle, it is the only food source to be referred to as wurrama, a word that carries the meaning of great authority, importance and emotion.22 The untreated cycad palm kernel is highly toxic and carcinogenic, and the Yanyuwa people use a number of different methods to make it safe for eating. One of those methods is soaking the kernels in water in order to leach the poison out of them. After four days the kernels are considered safe to eat.23

The large grove of cycad palms at Manankurra were placed there by the Tiger Shark, and are essential to the Tiger Shark Dreaming story. The tessellated patterning of the palm trunks signify wounds the Tiger Shark sustained fighting other sharks. The freshwater well located at Manankurra is his eye; his mouth is the deep hole located deep in the waters of the river.24

In an emotive narrative of Manankurra, Eileen McDinny Manankurrmara, a senior owner for this place, recalls that:

This food of strength, this cycad food or great importance, all of the old people they used to gather together here at Manankurra, they would come from the south and all the islands. They would gather here because of this cycad food, they would gather it and wrap it up in paperback bundles or paperback dishes. We grew up on this food…25

4.2 Paperbark bundle

The animation shows the Tiger Shark carrying the cycad food in a paperbark bundle. Paperbark bundles of re-dried, fully treated cycad slices have been carried long distances by various Indigenous groups in this area. For the Yanyuwa and Garrwa peoples they have constituted an important item of trade. The Yanyuwa have taken them to the islands off the northern coastline in large packages, as they represented an important and readily available food source. A number of older Yanyuwa men and women have spoken of storing packages of these cycad slices in dry caves and rock shelters for future use.26

4.3 Fighting stick

The animation shows the Rock Wallaby Spirit Ancestor threatening the Tiger Shark Spirit Ancestor with a fighting stick. The fighting stick or duelling stick is known in the Yanyuwa language as barrku.27 The Rock Wallaby strikes the land hard with her fighting stick, which is how the twisted coastline on the west coast of Vanderlin Island is created.

The Yanyuwa have a number of words denoting specific defensive manoeuvres that can be utilised with a fighting stick. The Rock Wallaby uses a movement known as bilinjirri, which means bringing the fighting stick straight down from above head height.28 Other movements used with a fighting stick include birrimbirri, which means holding a fighting stick horizontally at waist height using both hands,29 and wayngkawi, which means holding a fighting stick diagonally across the body protecting the area from head to stomach.30

4.4 Feather head-dress

The Rock Wallaby Spirit Ancestor is shown wearing a head-dress made of white feathers. These plumes of white feathers are known in the Yanyuwa language as a-ngirlangirla,31 and they are worn in the headbands (a-barnmarra) of people participating in fun dances and in ceremonies such as a-Kunabibi and a-Marndiwa.32 The white feathers are from the Sulphur Crested Cockatoo or a-barral, which is associated with the Rrumburriya clan.33

Figure 7. Boy wearing a feather head-dress (Credit: Ludo Kuipers)

5. Natural history

5.1 Tiger shark and hammerhead shark

The Yanyuwa classify all sharks, rays and sawfish as anthawu-wurralngu – ‘inhabitants of the sea’. More specifically they are grouped under the general term adumu. There is only one secondary classification before individual species are named, and that is mayiwiji, which literally means, ‘having teeth’ but also relates to the particular nature of shark skin being composed of placoid scales. Mayiwiji refers to those sharks that obviously have sharp, possibly dangerous teeth. The term mayi (teeth) is also used as a personal name derived from the Tiger Shark Spirit Ancestor which members of the Rrumburriya clan can use. The tiger shark and the hammerhead shark are associated with the Rrumburriya clan. They both have a number of names, as both these species are perceived to be important Spirit Ancestors.

Figure 8. Hammerhead shark (Credit: Barry Peters, Creative Commons)

The most common term for the hammerhead shark is warriyangalayawu but when the creature is being spoken of in the context of spiritual matters, it is called yulmunji, while the other term nuwanyngbirri is said to be a term reserved for very large members of this species. They are classed as being true physical embodiments of the Spirit Ancestor.

Figure 9. Tiger shark (Credit: Albert Kok, Creative Commons)

The various terms for the tiger shark carry similar meanings. The term ngurdungurdu is the general term. Bayalmakurra is used for very large specimens and are seen to be a physical embodiment of the Spirit Ancestor. The term wukuwarrba is used for smaller-sized species, and ayababaraku is used as a term to describe juvenile forms of the species.34

5.2 Rock wallaby

The animation shows the Rock Wallaby Spirit Ancestor quarrelling with the Tiger Shark Spirit Ancestor on Vanderlin Island. The Rock Wallaby Spirit Ancestor is a short-eared rock wallaby (Petrogale brachyotis), which is known as a-buluwardi in the Yanyuwa language and is associated with the Rrumburriya clan. In the Yanyuwa classification, the word wunala is used to refer to terrestrial or game mammals, including kangaroos, wallabies, possums, echidnas, bandicoots, native cats, rats and mice, but is also used more specifically as the generic term for kangaroos and wallabies.

Figure 10. Rock wallaby (Credit: Jon Connell, Creative Commons)

The short-eared rock wallaby is also classed as nyanku-nganji ki-waliwaliyangka, or ‘she is kin to the island country’. She is associated with the islands and is seen to have been a fiercely independent and quarrelsome creature who resented any other creatures coming onto the islands. Some older Yanyuwa men and women often used this creature to explain why the Yanyuwa people are like they are, that is, fiercely independent and solitary island dwellers. The twisted western coastline of Vanderlin Island was created by the Rock Wallaby Spirit Ancestor running up and down in anger to stop other Spirit Ancestors (such as the tiger shark with cycad fruit, the hill kangaroo from the southern mainland, and the wild honey bee of South West Island) from entering the islands.35

5.3 Cycad palm and white barked eucalyptus

The animation shows tall cycad palms and white barked eucalyptus standing on the river bank at Manankurra. The cycad palm, ma-arnbaka, is one of the most significant trees in Yanyuwa thought. It is invested with a high degree of emotion that is based upon issues associated with Spirit Ancestors and economic, historical and personal significance. There are large stands of this palm along the lower Wearyan River, with many hundreds of them at Manankurra. They are of the species Cycas angulata. The Yanyuwa language has a vocabulary of 27 different terms to describe this tree and the preparation of the kernel taken from it. These terms describe parts of the tree through to the various stages of preparing the toxic fruit to make it safe to eat. The cycad palm’s special status is marked in several other ways, for example it is the only tree species where the fronds of the palm are not called by the generic term wanjirr, leaf or fronds, but rather nu-warda, meaning ‘its hair’. In Yanyuwa the cycad palm can be described as ma-wurrama, the food of authority, and sometimes but more rarely, ma-wirrimalaru, the food of great spiritual power. Wurrama is a term most commonly in the root of the word for duelling ground where disputes are settled. Although the food is only rarely gathered in contemporary times, amongst the older Yanyuwa people it still remains a tree and food source of singular importance.36

Figure 11. Cycad palm trees at Manankurra (Credit: Ludo Kuipers)

The cycad palm has the generic term of ma-arnbaka, which is further divided into three terms. The three terms do not represent separate species but reflect the detail by which the Yanyuwa categorise this species. The first term, ma-jamurru, reflects those palms where the trunk is short and the palm’s fronds bend down to touch the ground. The second term, ma-ardakantha, reflects those palms where the fruit can be gathered without having to cut notches in the trunk. The third term, ma kaykalkaykal, reflects those palms that have to be climbed to obtain the fruit, and those palms that are very tall and are classed as being spiritually important and usually left alone. There is also a special term kurdakarnbaka for ‘stunted’ cycad palms, associated with the Wurdaliya clan and the Spirit people Ancestral beings.37

The white barked eucalyptus trees or salmon gums (Eucalyptus alba) on the eastern bank of the Wearyan River at Manankurra were erected by the Tiger Shark Dreaming, and are known in the Yanyuwa language as Karrijiji. This word is also a male personal name which can be given to members of the Rrumburriya clan, and which is associated with the white barked eucalyptus.38 In the Yanyuwa taxonomy of living things, the white barked gum trees are placed in the category of wurnda, which includes paperbarks and other tree species. They are also placed in a further sub-category within wurnda, which is called yilirriwiji and literally means ‘being with blood’. This refers to eucalypt trees that have red coloured sap. Another term used with as much regularity as the above term is ngililiji which can mean literally ‘being with tears’ or ‘with sap’.39

© The Yanyuwa People Borroloola, Northern Territory, Australia, 2009.

6. References

  1. John Bradley with Yanyuwa Families, Singing Saltwater Country: Journey to the Songlines of Carpentaria. Crows Nest: Allen & Unwin, 2010, p. 60.
  2. Singing Saltwater Country, p. 59.
  3. John Bradley, and Miles Holmes, Dinah Norman Marrngawi, Annie Isaac Karrakayn, Jemima Miller Wuwarlu and Ida Ninganga, Yumbulyumbulmantha ki-Awarawu: All Kinds of Things from Country: Yanyuwa Ethnobiological Classification. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Unit Research Report Series 6. Brisbane: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Unit, University of Queensland, 2006, p. 104.
  4. The Yanyuwa People of Borroloola and John Bradley, Yanyuwa Country: The Yanyuwa People of Borroloola Tell the History of Their Land. Richmond: Greenhouse Publications, 1988, pp. xi-xii.
  5. Paul Memmott and David Trigger, ‘Marine tenure in the Wellesley Islands region, Gulf of Carpentaria.’ In Customary Marine Tenure in Australia edited by Nicolas Peterson and Bruce Rigsby, 181-200. Sydney: Sydney University Press, 2014, p. 195.
  6. Singing Saltwater Country, pp. 68-70.
  7. Shannon Faulkhead, John Bradley and Brent McKee, ‘Animating Language: Continuing intergenerational Indigenous language knowledge.’ In The Routledge Companion to Cultural Property edited by Jane Anderson and Haidy Geismar, 452-472. London: Routledge, 2017, pp. 452-543.
  8. Faulkhead, Bradley and McKee, p. 453.
  9. https://www.monash.edu/news/articles/3d-animation-helps-preserve-indigenous-history
  10. Personal communication with John Bradley, quoted in Faulkhead, Bradley and McKee, p. 454.
  11. Personal communication with John Bradley, quoted in Faulkhead, Bradley and McKee, pp. 454-455.
  12. Personal communication with John Bradley, quoted in Faulkhead, Bradley and McKee, p. 455.
  13. John Bradley, with Jean Kirton and the Yanyuwa Community, Yanyuwa Wuka: Language from Yanyuwa Country. A Yanyuwa Dictionary and Cultural Resource. Unpublished document held at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, Canberra, 1992, p. 45.
  14. Yanyuwa Dictionary, p. 49.
  15. Yanyuwa Dictionary, p. 44.
  16. Yanyuwa Dictionary, p. 45.
  17. Yanyuwa Dictionary, p. 44.
  18. http://www.endangeredlanguages.com/lang/4317
  19. Singing Saltwater Country, p. xiv.
  20. Faulkhead, Bradley and McKee, p. 456.
  21. Faulkhead, Bradley and McKee, p. 452.
  22. Yanyuwa Ethnobiological Classification, p. 104.
  23. John Bradley, ‘The social, economic and historical construction of cycad palms among the Yanyuwa.’ In The Social Archaeology of Australian Indigenous Societies edited by Bruno David, Bryce Barker and Ian J. McNiven, 161-181. Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press, 2006, p. 171.
  24. Singing Saltwater Country, p. 60.
  25. Eileen McDinny Manankurrmara, quoted in Yanyuwa families, John Bradley and Nona Cameron, Forget about Flinders: A Yanyuwa Atlas of the South West Gulf of Carpentaria. Brisbane: Yanyuwa families, John Bradley and Nona Cameron, 2003, p. 185.
  26. ‘The social, economic and historical construction of cycad palms among the Yanyuwa’, p. 171.
  27. Yanyuwa Dictionary, p. 58.
  28. Yanyuwa Dictionary, p. 139.
  29. Yanyuwa Dictionary, p. 141.
  30. Yanyuwa Dictionary, p. 298.
  31. Yanyuwa Dictionary, p. 118.
  32. Yanyuwa Dictionary, p. 97.
  33. Yanyuwa Dictionary, p. 97.
  34. Yanyuwa Ethnobiological Classification, pp. 47-48.
  35. Yanyuwa Ethnobiological Classification, p. 73.
  36. Yanyuwa Ethnobiological Classification, p. 104.
  37. Yanyuwa Ethnobiological Classification, p. 104.
  38. Yanyuwa Dictionary, p. 164.
  39. Yanyuwa Ethnobiological Classification, p. 105.

7. Further reading

Bradley, John. ‘The social, economic and historical construction of cycad palms among the Yanyuwa.’ In The Social Archaeology of Australian Indigenous Societies edited by Bruno David, Bryce Barker and Ian J McNiven, 161-181. Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press, 2006.

Bradley, John. ‘Yanyuwa Bark Canoes: A brief survey of their use by the Yanyuwa people of the south western Gulf of Carpentaria.’ The Great Circle 13.2 (1991): 85-96.

Bradley, John. ‘Yanyuwa: ‘Men speak one way, women speak another’.’ Aboriginal Linguistics 1 (1988): 126-134.

Bradley, John and Amanda Kearney. ‘Manankurra: What’s in a name? Placenames and emotional geographies.’ In Aboriginal Placenames: Naming and Re-naming the Australian Landscape edited by Harold Koch and Luise Hercus, 463-480. Canberra: ANU E Press and Aboriginal History Incorporated, 2009.

Bradley, John and Miles Holmes, Dinah Norman Marrngawi, Annie Isaac Karrakayn, Jemima Miller Wuwarlu and Ida Ninganga. Yumbulyumbulmantha ki-Awarawu: All Kinds of Things from Country: Yanyuwa Ethnobiological Classification. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Unit Research Report Series 6. Brisbane: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Unit, University of Queensland, 2006.

Bradley, John and Elizabeth Mackinlay. ‘Songs from a plastic water rat: An introduction to the musical traditions of the Yanyuwa community of the southwest Gulf of Carpentaria.’ Ngulaig 17 (2000): 1-45.

Bradley, John with Jean Kirton and the Yanyuwa Community. Yanyuwa Wuka: Language from Yanyuwa Country. A Yanyuwa Dictionary and Cultural Resource. Unpublished document held at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, Canberra, 1992.

Bradley, John with Yanyuwa Families. Singing Saltwater Country: Journey to the Songlines of Carpentaria. Crows Nest: Allen & Unwin, 2010.

Faulkhead, Shannon, John Bradley, and Brent McKee. ‘Animating Language: Continuing intergenerational Indigenous language knowledge.’ In The Routledge Companion to Cultural Property edited by Jane Anderson and Haidy Geismar, 452-472. London: Routledge, 2017.

Memmott, Paul and David Trigger, ‘Marine tenure in the Wellesley Islands region, Gulf of Carpentaria.’ In Customary Marine Tenure in Australia edited by Nicolas Peterson and Bruce Rigsby, 181-200. Sydney: Sydney University Press, 2014.

Yanyuwa families, John Bradley and Nona Cameron. Forget about Flinders: A Yanyuwa Atlas of the South West Gulf of Carpentaria. Brisbane: Yanyuwa families, John Bradley and Nona Cameron, 2003.

The Yanyuwa People of Borroloola and John Bradley. Yanyuwa Country: The Yanyuwa People of Borroloola Tell the History of Their Land. Richmond: Greenhouse Publications, 1988.