Wirlomin Noongar Language and Stories Project
Wirlomin Noongar Language and Stories Project
The Wirlomin Noongar Language and Stories Project Incorporated Reference Group comprises family members who are descended from the South West of Western Australia and are interested in publishing and promoting some of the stories from that area.
The Group’s main objective is to reclaim Wirlomin stories and dialect, in support of the maintenance of Noongar language, and to share them with Noongar families and communities as part of a process to claim, control and enhance Wirlomin Noongar cultural heritage.
Inspired by creation stories told to the American linguist Gerhardt Laves at Albany, Western Australia, around 1931 and returned to the Noongar people by his family after his death in the 1980s, the stories in this series - Mamang; Noongar Mambara; Bakitj; Dwoort Baal Kaat; Yira Boornak Nyininy; Ngaawily Nop and Noorn - were workshopped through a series of community meetings involving elders – some of whom told stories to Laves in 1931 – artists, and linguists.
